Discussion and possible action on any and all matters regarding the authorization to expend Capital Project funds to purchase Assistance to Firefighter Grant items.  (Hank Green, Fire Chief)

The City of San Luis Fire Department was the recipient of an Assistance to Firefighter Grant (AFG) EMW-2013-FO-02924 .  Through prudent purchasing processes, the cost for ALL of the requested equipment was much less than projected; leaving an excess of $38,063.00 of authorized grant funds.

The City of San Luis Fire Department submitted an amendment to AFG requesting authority to spend authorized funds for additional equipment, related to the original grant request.  Attached is an e-mail from AFG/FEMA which grants our request to purchase additional equipment, using the funds unused from our original request.

SLFD has requested to purchase two Rapid Intervention Team Bags, 22 radio interface cables for our portable radios, 34 flashlights with helmet mounts and additional batteries and Apparatus IDs for our PASSPORT system for all of our employees, for all of our apparatus (bids attached).

As was the original requirement of this grant, we are responsible for 10% of the price of items purchased .  Bid prices for all of the items mentioned is $24,500.00 making our obligation about $2,450.00.  SLFD had obtained budget authority in FY15 to cover our obligation, but we are in a new budget.  It is possible to find our matching funds within our present budget (FY16) but we would have to defer identified projects or purchases to accomplish this.

I am requesting authority to utilize the funds identified in FY16 budget identified in the Capital Project Budget FY16 account 250-182-90000, Fire SRF, Grant YRCS MOU, Match Grant-Portable and mobile radios.  This money was originally requested to meet our obligation of an AFG grant submitted by the City of Yuma Fire Department (on behalf of the City of San Luis Fire Department, the Somerton-Cocopah Fire Department, the City of Yuma Fire Department and the Wellton Fire Department) for replacement of YRCS radios.  YFD received a turn down letter last month (attached).  SLFD will not be spending these funds, as requested.
 
SLFD is prepared to re-allocate from one grant fund to another as match and take advantage of the FEMA funded opportunity of a 90% award for this purchase.  Your authorization to utilize these Capital Project funds will eliminate any modification to our projects or purchases.

SLFD is also informing Council that the rapid Intervention team (RIT) bags and the radio interface cables come from a sole source vendor.  These two items must be compatible with our recently purchased SCBA equipment.  The recommended vendor is the vendor for our SCBA equipment.  Therefore, we were unable to obtain comparable quotes for these items.  The RIT bags cost $6,839.76 and the radio interface cables cost $7,436.78.  Section 36.02 of the San Luis Purchasing Code applies in this situation where there is only one vendor without council approval.