Consideration and Approval of Contract:  Award a service contract with Firetrucks Unlimited, LLC in the amount not to exceed $96,460.00 for the refurbishment of a Quint Fire Truck.

City Staff are requesting the approval of a service contract for the partial refurbishment of a 20-year-old Quint Fire Truck (Quint).  A Quint is a large fire apparatus that has five primary tools: (1) an aerial device; (2) a fire pump; (3) a booster tank; (4) a hose; and (5) ground ladders of various sizes.  This requested refurbishment is in step with the already Council approved eight-year Fire Department Apparatus re-boot program.  The process has also been vetted and approved by the FLEET committee and is fully funded for $100,000.00 in this year’s budget. 

A solicitation for a request for proposal was sent to fire truck refurbishing companies around the nation.  The City received only two proposals due to the complexity of the scope of work being requested.  There were no local vendors who submitted a proposal on the project.  The City has worked with Firetrucks Unlimited on several projects already and has had excellent success and customer service with the company. 

The service agreement has significant benefits to the City's Insurance Service Office (ISO) rating, and provides a stop gap in maintaining a valuable piece of equipment (at 10% of the cost of replacement of a new apparatus) in the City. This is especially important as the City's larger housing projects continue to become more elevated.  By performing the proposed refurbishment, Staff project it will allow the City five or more additional years of service and better plan for replacement options through standards of coverage needs and ISO analysis.

The $96,460.00 cost of this bid is currently budgeted for and has up to $100,000.00 in the FY2018 FFD budget to cover any small change order requests.  It is in account #001-03-051-0203-2-4401 - Rolling Stock (Fleet).  Due to the timing of being able to get on the Firetrucks Unlimited schedule (May), and it being a six month project, the City will need to roll (carry forward) approximately $55,000.00 of these approved funds into FY2019 to make the final payment upon completion.

Strategic Plan Priority: Work in partnership to enhance a safe and livable community

Council approved a proposed Flagstaff Fire Department eight-year Apparatus reboot plan in October of 2016.  In this plan, the Quint was shown as a proposed expense in FY18 of $100,000.00.  This project is tracking right on time with the approved proposed plan.

1. Approve the award of the service contract to Firetrucks Unlimited in the amount not to exceed $96,460.00 for the partial refurbishment of a Quint Fire Truck; or
2. Disapprove the award of service contract and continue to use the existing 20-year old Quint.

The Flagstaff Fire Department has created a planned replacement schedule in order to work with other City divisions for limited FLEET funding.  This process of performing refurbishments v. replacement with new is a good stop gap measure and allows some safe extension on the life of a higher cost fire apparatus.  The City currently has one front line refurbished Engine in service that came at 50% of the cost of purchasing a new unit.  This equipment was purchased through Firetrucks Unlimited and has proved very cost effective in the first year.  This proposed project will also bring the older Quint up to new NFPA standards for response and scene management lighting standards.  If approved, and once completed, the City intends to place both Quints in service as co-staffed units in an East / West configuration.  This will only bring these larger specialty units to the scene when there is a working fire, specific need, or if all front-line Engines are out of service.  The Quints will no longer be responding as front line to EMS or other minor incidents.  This will also increase the life of the unit in conjunction with the partial refurbishment. 

As the landscape of the City elevates with multi-story facilities, so does the risk profile for elevated rescue and larger defensive fire operations.  By allowing the Quint to be refurbished, we hope to gain an additional five plus years of service to a twenty-year old unit, while determining the best way to fund and replace with a new Quint/Aerial (approximately $1 million).  This replacement strategy would be done by performing a community risk-analysis, and a review of standards of coverage and ISO requirements.  The City intends to have all larger front-line All-Risk refurbished between 10-15 years in hopes to gain an additional 5-10 years of service (depending on the extent of refurbishment).  The national average service time for front-line All-Risk fire apparatus is between 10-20 years.  The City is working to get 25-years of service out of the front-line units.  The apparatus re-boot plan also calls for purchasing new units so there is not just a "kicking of the can" approach to extending the life of older units. With the significant capital investment needed to safely maintain our fire fleet, the development and commitment to a strategic replacement plan is vital in order to spread out these costs.

On January 16, 2018, Purchasing posted a Request for Proposals solicitation on the City of Flagstaff's PlanetBids website, and published an advertisement for the solicitation in the Arizona Daily Sun. On January 30, 2018, the City received a total of two proposals, and both were determined to be responsive and responsible. A four-member evaluation selection committee reviewed and evaluated the proposals. Based on the numerical scoring of both proposals, Firetrucks Unlimited, LLC was the highest scoring vendor. Below is a summary of their overall scores.

Firetrucks Unlimited, LLC   390
Brindlee Mountain              349

If there is a decision to not support this bid award of service contract, the existing Quint will continue to have higher repair costs, have larger mechanical failures, and be outdated with some preferred safety equipment.  The Quint will be available in the City as part of the Co-staffed strategy, but the City must plan for a catastrophic failure that will likely cause a premature need for replacement.  By being proactive in our replacement and refurbishment plan, we are providing the community and Council a higher level of service in strategic planning and use of limited funds.  The specific project to get this Quint a partial refurbishment allows for a longer apparatus life and is supported through policy change that provides better East/West coverage for the increase we are seeing in elevated housing projects.  This also allows for these units to be only utilized should a large fire incident or specific need arises v. running one Quint on every All-Risk responses (including EMS).

This is a critical stop gap project that will assist in strategic planning for replacement with a new Quint/aerial unit in the next five plus years.  Without support for this project, the equipment will continue to fail at a higher rate which is not a risk the City should accept given the increased risk profile due in part to elevated, higher density facilities in the community. The City's last ISO rating scored 3/4 of a point for aerial apparatus coverage out of 4 total points available.  By having two Quint/Aerial units available for initial response, the City can increase the ISO rating in this category.  This in turn keeps insurance premium rates lower for the community and provides better coverage for our known risk profile.

By not awarding this service contract, Staff anticipates significant increased annual costs for repair and maintenance to this Quint that is not funded ongoing.

While the Quints are being left in service longer, the City is having them refurbished to ensure that they are safe and reliable units for the community. By having the Quints co-staffed on the East and West side of town with elevated response capabilities we will increase the reliability to provide this critical life safety resource.