Twenty-Four City Vehicles in the car and light truck class are scheduled for replacement in the City’s Equipment Replacement Program and were approved by City Council during the FY 19-20 budget process. Staff advertised for sealed bids for city vehicles in the Yellowstone County News and City's website on October 4 and October 11, 2019, with a bid opening on October 15, 2019.

The bids are for the following types of vehicles:

• One-¾ ton, extended cab 4-wheel drive pickup (Animal Shelter)
• One-4500, 2-wheel drive truck with flatbed (Parks)
• One-½ ton, 4x4 regular cab pickup with snow plow (Parks)
• Six-½ ton, 4x4 extended cab pickups (Planning, Code Enforcement, PW Belknap and Fleet)
• One-5500, 4x4 regular cab truck with dump body (Parks)
• Five-mid-size sedans (Police and PW Belknap)
• Two-1-ton, 4x4 extended cab pickups with service bodies (PW Belknap)
• One-1-ton, 2-wheel drive regular cab pickup with service body (PW Belknap)
• One-5500, 4x4 regular cab pickup with flatbed and snow plow (PW Belknap)
• One-5500, 4x4 regular cab truck with dump body, snow plow (PW Belknap)
• One-4500, 4x4 regular cab truck with flatbed (Solid Waste)
• One-¾ ton, 4x4 crew cab pickup (Solid Waste)
• One-3500, 2 wheel drive regular cab truck with dump body (Streets)
• One-1-ton, 4x4 regular cab pickup with snow plow (Streets)

• Approve the purchases of vehicles from the lowest qualified bidders or;
• Disapprove the purchases and reject all bids. If the bids are rejected, the units will not be replaced in a timely manner and the existing units will be used beyond the Equipment Replacement Plan recommendations. Vehicle reliability will decrease and maintenance costs will increase.

The City Departments’ FY20 budgets include adequate funds to replace the vehicles described. The City received bids from four vendors on the vehicles. The total low bid amount for the vehicles is $789,938.33 as outlined on the attached “Vehicle Bid Results.”
 

Staff recommends retaining twelve of the eighteen vehicles offered for trade and selling them at auction because the dealer trade allowance for these twelve vehicles was only $13,250 while the trade-in book value is $26,019 for the twelve vehicles. Staff recommends trading six of the trade vehicles because the dealer trade allowance was $26,100 while the trade-in book value is $21,800 for the six vehicles. Staff recommends awarding all Bid Schedules to the lowest bidder, as follows. Bid Schedule 1 with trade and bid schedule 7 without trade to Denny Menholt Chevrolet, in Billings, MT for the bid amount of $114,453.81; Bid Schedules 2, 3, 5, 10 and 13 with trades and bid schedules 6, 8, 11, 12 and 14 without trades to Billion Auto Group, in Bozeman, MT for the bid amount of $467,536.00; Bid Schedule 4 without trades to Yellowstone Country Motors, in Livingston, MT for the bid amount $150,432.00; and Bid Schedule 9 without trade to Bison Motor Co. in Great Falls, MT for the bid amount of $57,516.52.