Consideration and Approval of Cooperative Contract: Purchase of new self-contained breathing equipment from Municipal Emergency Services, Inc. with the Assistance to Firefighters grant funds along with other City funding in the total amount of $680,981.73.

1. Approve the purchase of new Self Contained Breathing Apparatuses (SCBAs) for the Flagstaff Fire Department from Municipal Emergency Services, Inc. (MES) through a Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Contract (#032620) for a total dollar amount of $680,981.73. 
   • Funded $469,090.91 by federal grant EMW-2019-FG-02915
   • Required matching funds of $46,909.09 from the City
   • $164,981.73 covered by other City funds
2. Authorize the City Manager to execute the necessary documents.

The purchase of Fire Department's current SCBAs equipment was bond-funded in 2006 and are 15 years old. The SCBAs are in dire need of replacement. The Fire Department is constantly paying for repairs and breakdowns of this equipment and their life expectancy and service opportunities have been surpassed. An Assistance to Firefighters Grant program application was submitted and an award was received for a large portion of the cost of replacement for this equipment. The Budget Team agreed to supplement the additional funding with other city monies to allow for a full replacement of all needed equipment. 

The Assistance to Firefighters Grant award is in the amount of $469,090.91. There is a 10% required city match in the amount of $46,909.09. Additionally, there was an $164,981.73 cost for the purchase covered by other City funds. This grant is budgeted in the General Fund, Fire Grant Section for $735,000 (account number 001-03-052-6152-2-4354). The Budget Team approved up to $175,000 in additional one-time funds to purchase the remaining unfunded equipment needs not covered by the grant using personnel benefit savings. 

• Provide public safety with the resources, staff, and training to respond to community needs
• Deliver outstanding services to residents through a healthy, well maintained infrastructure system
• Utilize existing long-range plan(s) that identify the community's future infrastructure needs and all associated costs

Yes, the Flagstaff City Council approved and accepted the Assistance to Firefighters grant award on September 15, 2020.

1. The City Council approves this cooperative purchase contract with Municipal Emergency Services, Inc. for the purchase of new Self Contained Breathing Equipment with support of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant;
2. The City Council declines to enter into this cooperative purchase contract and directs staff to conduct a formal competitive solicitation.

The Fire Department uses SCBAs as a part of the personal protective equipment (PPE) for Firefighting and HAZMAT incidents to enter areas where the atmosphere is threatening to life and health to those being exposed. There are many reasons for this to happen, but the most common is a structure fire. These devices protect fire personnel by providing breathing air while in these areas. The current equipment was purchased in 2006 and are near their end of life cycle. By approving the cooperative purchase contract, the new SCBAs can be purchased and placed in service in a relatively short amount of time. The approval of these funds are specifically for items that protect the health and safety of firefighters.

Procurement on this purchase was conducted through the use of a cooperative purchasing contract from Sourcewell (#032620 ) with Municipal Emergency Services Inc. Use of this cooperative purchasing contract allows the Fire Department to obtain formally solicited competitive pricing for the SCBA equipment. 

The Fire Department has been considering a capital replacement of the SCBAs for several years with the cost hovering around $750,000-1,000,000. Without replacement, the current equipment would no longer be serviceable because it is out of the safe life use. The grant award paid a substantial amount of the cost of the SCBAs, but it is necessary to supplement the purchase with additional funds in order to replace enough equipment to make sure that firefighters are able to safely operate together on working incidents. Due to some of the COVID-19 strains felt by the distributors, the Fire Department is getting excellent pricing and are able to replace all the critical safety equipment and the majority of our ancillary equipment with less dollars.  

The cooperative purchase contract would provide 68 SCBAs and 10 Rapid entry packs used to rescue firefighters in dangerous situations. The City portion is $46,909.09 and Federal portion is $469,090.91 and an additional $164,981.73. These costs were approved by the Budget Team to replace all the necessary masks, regulators and other equipment needed to equip all line personnel (84) plus spares for replacement.  The Fire Department was also able to add several other pieces of equipment to update our Hazardous Materials teams to the new equipment as well. Piecemealing different safety equipment that is not interchangeable is a true safety issue, and these funds keep that from occurring. 

The benefit to the community is their firefighters have the best and latest protective equipment to provide the highest level of service to them while protecting the firefighters' health a safety.

Brings the City's firefighters up to the Greater Flagstaff Regional Standards for SCBAs and PPE.

None