Minutes 06-03-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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VOTE: UNANIMOUS • Discussion and Approval of the Items Removed from the Consent Agenda j. Bid Award — Hook Lift Truck for Solid Waste The Board considered awarding a bid to Freightliner of Austin, 1701 Smith Road, Austin, TX for a Hook Lift Truck at a delivered cost of$193,225 for the Sanitation Division of the Solid Waste Management Department. Commissioner Gordon asked for clarification on why this truck should be purchased at this time and how the purchase will affect the general fund. The following email from Commissioner Gordon regarding questions/concerns on this item is included for the record: Item 6-j - Bid Award - Hook-Lift Truck for Solid Waste According to the agenda abstract, this truck was originally scheduled for replacement in 2014- 15 but the Solid Waste Fund has available funds in the current fiscal year operating budget. Please explain why this truck purchase should be made this fiscal year. STAFF RESPONSE: The Hook-Lift Truck has been scheduled to be purchased in FY 2014/15. Staff has a desire to minimize the General Fund contribution to the Solid Waste/Sanitation budget. Staff also attempts to maintain ongoing judicious oversight of expenditures, which has resulted in a Department FY 13/14 under-expenditure sufficient to fund the $193,225 truck purchase. Based upon discussion by the Finance Director, County Manager and Solid Waste Director of the projected under-expenditure sufficient enough to purchase the truck, and at the recommendation of the Director(with the objective of limiting general fund contributions to the solid waste budget by not adding the $193,225 to the already requested $1,856,543), a general consensus was reached that advancing the purchase of the truck presented a financial opportunity and was a prudent financial decision, given that the advance purchase period was only about 2-3 months prior to the FY 2014/15 scheduled purchase. Sanitation's Hook-Lift trucks are seeing significantly increased mileage hauling to the Durham Transfer Station and prompt replacement is necessary to maintain reliable collection and disposal schedules. Gayle Wilson said the hook lift truck was scheduled to be purchased in the 2014-2015 budget; however it is a sanitation truck. He said that was included in the general fund contribution. He said if this had been continued and purchased, it would have been bid on in July and approved in September. He said at the end of the year it was projected that there would be sufficient unspent funds in the sanitation budget to purchase the truck. He said the decision was made to purchase it out of unspent funds instead of adding this to the general fund. He said this would reduce the recommended general fund contribution to sanitation and allow purchase of the truck 3 months earlier than otherwise planned.