Discussion and possible action on any and all matters regarding the purchase of a new Emergency Incident Command Vehicle. (Angel Ramirez, Fire Chief)

The City of San Luis is growing at a fast rate. The City Fire Department also is growing with the needs of the city. The need for a new emergency incident command/battalion vehicle is an urgent necessity for our fire station.  This vehicle will be used by incident command personnel.  This vehicle will have the capacity to carry heavy machinery tools and extra equipment that is highly needed on a fire and/or EMS scene.

Today, we do not have the capability to carry these types of equipment due to the lack of heavy rescue vehicles.  We have to shuttle vehicles from the scene to the fire station in order to get the necessary equipment such as hazmat and rehabilitation equipment to the incident commander on the scene, which in most cases is the Fire Chief.  By operating like this, we lose time and efficiency, which may lead to unfortunate circumstances due to not having our fully loaded emergency vehicle.  

 

EVG (Emergency Vehicle Group) has been the maker/builder for all our ambulances that we currently have in our fleet.  We have been very fortunate to be able to work with them and have given the City of San Luis Fire Department excellent deals with our emergency response vehicles in the past; therefore, we decided to contact them once more for the opportunity to quote us on a 2019 Chevy Tahoe, fully equipped command/battalion emergency vehicle in the amount of $69,508.00 plus sales tax.  EVG is like a sole source vendor due to their expertise in equipping/building emergency response vehicles.  We have not only recognized them as an expert vendor but also their willingness to provide excellent customer services as well as their inclination to help our fire station with the best deals.   A budget in the amount of $71,000.00 was approved in the capital outlay impact fees fund.  This is enough to cover the cost of the vehicle, but the quote does not include sales tax.  The City of San Luis Finance Department advised that the sales tax be calculated at 5.4% due to the city having to pay the sales tax to the state.  This gives us a total of $73,262.00; therefore, there is a shortage of $2,262.00 which is needed.  A release of more funding from fire impact fees will be needed in order to cover the full cost of the vehicle.

 
Due to the necessity of such equipment and in order to meet the demands of our city, it is recommended that this purchase be approved by waiving the procurement code as allowed in our procurement code section 36.01 (H) since the fully equipped emergency response command/battalion vehicle is over $35,000.00 and won’t be going out to formal bid and to approve the release of fire impact fees in the amount not to exceed $74,000.00.