Jan 27, 2025 Public Utilities Board on 2025-01-27 9:00 AM

All right, green lights on, good morning and welcome to the public utility board's meeting of Monday, January 27th, 2025, it is 9 a.m., so we're going to get started, are there any comments from the public? No, any comments? No, then we'll move right into the regular meeting. Consent agenda, would any board member like to pull any items for their consent agenda? Well, I guess not because there are none, all right, we can go right into items for individual consideration. Item A, PUB 25-013, consider approval of the January 13th, 2025 meeting, 25 minutes. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second, is there any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Any opposed? Any opposed? All right. Item B, PUB 25-010, consider recommending the adoption of an ordinance, the City of Denton, Texas, Home Rule Municipal Corporation authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with the bond equipment company, Inc. through by-board, a cooperative network contract. This is an item worth $18,690,000, and there's Mr. Taylor. Good morning. Yes. Just started. Good morning. I am the Director of Facilities and Fleet Services. I'm here this morning to request a contract with Bond Equipment to supply refuse trucks and equipment for the City of Denton. Fleet Service Department is required to maintain and purchase various types of refuse trucks and other construction equipment and utility vehicles over the next five years and continuing. Additionally, repair services require specialized diagnostics and knowledge that are needed to keep the equipment operational. The proposed contract will allow for the purchase and repair of this equipment, assets purchased on this contract will be used by several departments, including the utilities, to support the city's infrastructure. The contract value has been determined through analysis of historical spending levels and future needs, ensuring the agreement provides adequate funding to support any anticipated fleet expansion and the assets needed to maintain the city. All vehicle equipment acquisitions will be processed through the city's operating and capital budget process. Here we have specifics where the funding will be appropriated through additions, replacements, repair services and some projections on inflation and compounded growth in the city. I have a question. I notice you're going to have four additional units added in 28-29. What does the completion of the new service center have to do with the added equipment? The service center specifically, I don't think there's a correlation there. We operate out of the fleet services shop and then a lot of this equipment is utilized in the field. So, I'm not sure if there's a correlation to the additions in the new service center being built. Well, just based on the note on your slide, that's why I asked the question, estimate four additions FY 28-29 due to anticipated completion of new service centers, no? Just with the expanded growth, there's naturally more space, but this isn't to support the construction of the service center. No, I just was curious what the correlation was between additional equipment. Thank you. Yes, sir. Go back a slide. So on the, it will be used by several departments in support of the city's infrastructure. Are all those departments under your, is this all under the city refuge, garbage trucks and such, or what other departments, what departments are you talking about? For fleet services, the contracts will support all departments throughout the city. That could be parks and recreation, even marketing and communication as vehicles. Any city department that has vehicle assets would be utilizing this contract. It is more focused around utility vehicles and heavy duty vehicles, which aligns underneath the utility department specifically. But the contract has the capacity to support anybody who has vehicles within the city. And so you're going to pay the whole bill, irregardless of the other departments that are using it? So the contract spend is not a guaranteed spend. We can utilize up to that, not necessarily we'll have to use all of it. So if there's not a need, we won't spend. But my point is though, would you be paying it all versus any of the other departments? Is that not right? No. So generally vehicles are either cash funded from operating funds or they're bond funded. And so some departments issue bonds and so that's where they're paid for. They're not paid out of the fleet fund itself. It gets paid out of whatever the respective department that's buying those vehicles. Thank you for that clarification. So you'll manage the purchases, however, each department will fund its own purchase? Correct. Yes, sir. Just a curiosity question. So the refuse or solid waste fleet represents a significant portion of your fleet cost each year? Yes, sir. Could you give us a ballpark percentage? Well, when it comes to refuse trucks, 100% of the refuse trucks purchased are for solid waste. Obviously. Right, right, for this contract as a whole, 70% of this contract will be utilized by the utilities and then the fire department will have the opportunity as well for some heavy duty servicing of this contract, which will be funded by the general fund. That doesn't quite answer my question, I'm sorry. So the solid waste equipment, what percentage of the total fleet does that represent in terms of expenditure? On this contract? No, the overall department, I'm sorry, your entire department. Sure, about 30%. Okay. That's the weighted difference of solid waste versus my total portfolio. Oh, thank you. Yes, sir. Keep moving. Recommendation is to approve a one-year contract with four additional one-year extensions and a total of a five-year not to exceed amount with bond equipment for $18,690,000 to support the city and the assets associated. Any additional questions? It does not appear, oh, Mr. Taylor. Is this the same method that we used five years ago to get our current contracts or is this new, a different method than we've used in the past? Sure, so the contract solicitation or cooperative would be the same. However, there is a precedent set that we use with our light duty fleet is that we're looking at the capacity to buy rather than targeting specific manufacturers. Before we utilized rush equipment for targeted purchases, here we're asking for capacity on these contracts so that we can purchase vehicles that are on the lot or have faster lead times to avoid the delayed acquisition. Before when we were utilizing one manufacturer type of contracts, we would see 18 to 24-month turnaround times. What we've experienced utilizing this method is that we are not turning refuse trucks over for purchases within the quarter of when they're asked for, so a great ability to increase our operational efficiency by utilizing this method. Does that lead to different brands of equipment or is it just buying from a different kind of location around the country? Yeah, great question. It allows us to do both, but really we focus on diversifying the brands within the fleet and we've seen a great return on the ability to not have the same type of vehicle down for the same issues by expanding the diversity within our fleet. Thank you. Of course. All right. Let's see, where are we on this item? So this does just require action. Okay, didn't say it at the bottom. All right. So does the board wish to make a motion to recommend approval of going ahead with this item? I have a motion for Mr. Ryback. Second. Second for Mr. Taylor. I can state the motion. I would like to move that we accept this proposal and move forward. We have a motion to approve in a second. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed sign the same and it passes unanimously. All right. We have a motion to approve item C, PB 25-011, consider recommending adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton, the Texas Home World Municipal Corporation authorizing the city manager to ask to get a contract with Industrial Power LLC through the interlocal purchasing system and such cooperative program contract numbers. Police department providing for the expenditure of funds therefore providing an effective date file 8722 wanted to Industrial Power LLC for one year with the option for four extensions, total of five not to exceed the amount of $19,477,500. Tom Gray, Director of Facilities and Fleet again. Same guy. Yes. Exact same concept. Fleet services department is required to repair, maintain and purchase various types of refuse trucks, construction equipment, and utility vehicles over the next five years and continuing, the repair service is required to specialize diagnostics and knowledge needed to keep the equipment operational. Pros contract will allow for purchasing and repair of the equipment assets purchased on this contract will be used by several departments within the city to support the city's infrastructure. The contract value has been determined by the historical spending levels and future needs ensuring the agreement provides adequate funding to support the anticipated fleet expansions and the associated maintenance services with those vehicles. All the vehicles acquired and serviced will be processed through the city's budgeting process. Similarly, cost structure broken down with the anticipated needs over the years. And then, of course, the SAS recommendation to approve a one-year with four additional or one-year extensions with a total of a five-year not to exceed amount with Industrial Power Policy for $19,477,500. Any questions? >> Of Industrial Power, are they a company that we're currently using for this service? >> Yes, they are, sir. >> And they've given a satisfactory service? >> Very good service, sir. >> Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Mr. Taylor? >> In relation to the last contract, do these overlap where they might be who can deliver it faster delivers it or are they different equipment? >> So there are different manufacturers per contract. That's why you'll see some of the same numbers but the capacity to buy again. And for the items that are similar, it does provide them with the opportunity to still be competitive. >> Okay. So the $630,000 this year for contract one and contract two in additions, those just happen to be like a round number that approximates two new vehicles or whatever number of vehicles? >> That is correct. Right now we have the -- assuming these two contracts are approved and move forward, if we need one refuse truck, we now have two options to purchase that. So either of those opportunities that have one on site, we can make that acquisition and turn it over to the department within a lot of time for make ready. Whereas if we only selected one of these contracts, we would be at the mercy of their availability for providing that truck. >> And do we expect to spend the full spend on each contract or they're competitive and so maybe the money goes here, maybe it goes there? >> Correct. Correct. There's not an anticipation of meeting the NTE on both contracts over the five years. Assuming that there's a lot of overlap in these contracts for the acquisitions of the trash trucks. >> Thank you. >> Of course. >> I have a question that kind of brings me back to both of these, I guess. Are these a combination of mobile and on site repairs on the repair side of it? >> Yes, sir. So these contracts provide field servicing and repair shop servicing and also transportation services, body repairs, essentially everything that we need to support a repair that we cannot do in-house, these vendors can support. >> So it'll be itemized as far as what those pay items, hours per mobile unit, hours per stationary unit, whatever? >> Yes, per the tips and cooperative contract pricing. >> Yeah. Okay. So you said will any of this be done on site in our service center? >> A lot of it. As soon as the solid waste fleet shop new build is complete, we will have a dedicated bay for contractors to come and support on site, which will help us turn over costs quicker and keep the trucks on our facility. >> Okay. All right. That's all I got. Okay. Anybody want to make a motion to approve and recommend going forward? >> I move we recommend adoption to city council of this ordinance. >> Second. >> Motion and second from Mr. Newquist. All those in favor, please say aye. >> Aye. >> Aye. Any opposed? Signed the same. It passes unanimously as well. All right. Moving right along. >> Thank you. >> Going into management reports, I guess that would be Mr. Puente. >> Mr. Chair, members of the board, today we have a follow-up memo on a project. I know Dee's here. If there's a question you have, I think there was a question likely at the last meeting about FM 1515 and some sewer easements. So if you have any questions beyond the memo, Dee's here to respond. >> I have a question, unless there are some others. Just one thing here just stuck out at me, and maybe it just -- maybe it's normal and I didn't notice it until this agenda item came out where they put the question about a council member having a conflict of interest. Is that something we've added normally? >> We include that on all of our ordinances. >> On all these? Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. I have a question. So I didn't really catch this conflict of interest thing, so thank you for pointing it out. So what would be a conflict of interest in the case of property acquisition? >> I don't know if that's really a legal question or not. >> I mean, just generally speaking, the person owns the property or owns property adjacent to it. There may be a family member to someone who owns property or has some other professional relationship with one of the property owners that the city would be needing to acquire. >> Okay. That's fine. I just -- >> You could ask a Board of Ethics member over there. >> I'll follow up later with you on that. >> You're in so much trouble. So how long have we had that clause in the contract? How do you recall? >> In the ordinance I think for about as -- at least as long as I've been here and probably before then. I've been here six years now, so -- >> And so that conflict of interest is only on those people that are voting, whether it be City Council or even here, that could be pursued as swaying a particular purchase on something. Is that a fair question? >> That would be my assumption not being an attorney, but yes. >> This paragraph says Council member, but yes, I think we're aware. >> Well, within the ethics officers, which we are all officers as well. So tell us, Counselor. >> I think it's a little bit off-posting to discuss the ethics ordinance here and conflict of interest rules. I think the question about why is it on the AIS is valid because it's on the AIS, but I don't think I want to get into arguing about the ethics rules. Also it's ultimately up to the Board of Ethics to make determinations in those cases. >> Good. Good. Screen pass there. I just -- I'm sorry, I brought it up because I just hadn't noticed this in the past. >> So Mr. Chair, we don't have any items on our new business action items. I think that may be a first, so you're off to a great start, Mr. Chair. And then for future agenda items, we don't have anything listed. I don't have to talk to one of you. I do plan to talk to Matt and finance to see if we can start populating, and they're still working through the budget calendar, but hopefully for the next meeting we'll populate that so that you kind of can make your plans, only if you have vacation plans or the conflicts where you may not be here. So at least you're aware of those dates. >> We do have something Mr. Rayner brought up I think he wants to address possibly, so. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. In our last meeting, we voted on PUB 24-265 in the affirmation to move forward. Towards the end of the discussion, we were told that the company was a -- from Mexico. With the new administration in Washington that we have, I am concerned in that if we have a tariff that may be placed upon Mexico for a reason, will that affect this particular purchase? Is this -- first of all, is the product that we voted on, is it already in the United States? Is it there? So it is not subject to a tariff. That being said, I'd also like to know for future votes if there is something that is outside the United States that we're purchasing to bring in, I'd like to at least have some kind of study or discussion on what costs that might bring to us that we're not prepared for, such as this one, if there is a 25% tariff before this comes to the United States, I'm assuming that we will eat that. I'd like our budget department to just give us some more clarification as to what potential liabilities we may have. Is that all right? Yes, sir. So we can certainly work with procurement and finance on kind of the wider general potential impacts and how those may impact contracts, but we can also address this specific one as to what that would potentially mean. Generally most contracts have pricing escalation procedures that we're able to review and either accept or not, and in the event that we don't accept them, we can rebid the whole process again. But again, we'll work with procurement and finance to get the wording, we'll get a memo back out to you for the next meeting. And I'd like to add, if it is permissible, such as this company, which was evidently fine with the bidding and such, but I'd like to know if they are in America or not. Once again, because of inventory and such, do we have a longer wait period for getting it into the country versus already here, I'd like for the Public Utility Board to at least have that knowledge as we vote on these other things, other items that come along. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yep. All right. Is that all you got, Tony? Yes, sir. That's it. Anybody else? I move we adjourn. Okay. Don't even need a motion, I don't think we're adjourned.