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RESOLUTION NO. 2017-001 OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA AUTHORIZING THE FIRE DEPARTMENT TO USE THE COOPERATIVE PURCHASING PROCEDURES ON A MASTER PURCHASE AGREEMENT TO PURCHASE SELF-CONTAINED BREATHING APPARATUS (SCBA) EQUIPMENT FROM MUNICIPAL EMERGENCY SERVICES INC. (MES)
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RECOMMENDED ACTION
Recommended Action
Council adopt the resolution.
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SUMMARY
After extensive research and careful analysis, the Fire Department wishes to purchase self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) from Municipal Emergency SERVICES Inc. (MES), by executing the use of cooperative purchasing procedures on the competitively bid master purchase agreement via the National Purchasing Partners, LLC FireRescue Group Purchasing Organization (GPO). The Fire Department has negotiated a discounted price per unit beyond what the GPO master purchase agreement accounts for. SCBA provide breathing air to firefighters and are considered the single most critical piece of safety equipment used on a daily basis. Per industry standards, the current fleet of SCBA equipment is well beyond their useful life and is evident by their extremely high maintenance cost. This replacement will be largely funded through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) award of $669,355 that was accepted by Council in November 2016.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Environmental Notice
Environmental Notice
The activity is not a “Project” as defined under Section 15378 of the California Environmental Quality Act State Guidelines; therefore, pursuant to State Guidelines Section 15060(c)(3) no environmental review is required.
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Environmental Determination
N/A
BOARD/COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION
Not Applicable
DISCUSSION
Self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) are one of the single most critical pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) for firefighters while performing their daily duties. An SCBA contains breathing air under high pressure which is stored in a cylinder that is worn by firefighters. Air is breathed through a face piece that is connected to a backpack style harness and air pressure regulators. SCBA allow firefighters to conduct lifesaving tasks while in an immediately dangerous to life and health environment (IDLH). IDLH environments are those places that the human body cannot survive due to a lack of oxygen or the presence of toxic chemicals or gases. These environments are most commonly encountered during structural firefighting and vehicle fires, confined space rescues, and hazardous materials incidents. The Fire Department responds to more than 675 calls for service per year requiring the use of SCBA.
Purpose
The Fire Department uses SCBA in order to comply with:
• Federal OSHA Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) 29, Section 1910.134
• Cal OSHA, California Code or Regulation (CCR) Title 8, Section 5144
• National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 1500 FD Occupational Safety and Health Program
• National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 1981 SCBA for Emergency Services
Current SCBA Fleet
The Fire Department’s current fleet of SCBA consists of 114 units and face pieces with 268 air cylinders. All units, face pieces, and cylinders were purchased between 1999 and 2003. To maintain serviceability, the Fire Department has over spent the SCBA maintenance budget by 300% for several years. In 2015, the Fire Department spent $38,000 dollars to replace face pieces that were beyond repair or replacement parts were no longer available. Currently 10 SCBA units have been removed from service and are being utilized strictly for parts to maintain the balance of the fleet in service.
Related Equipment
In addition to the SCBA fleet, the Fire Department uses 18 Supplied Air Respirators (SAR) to fulfill the duties of designated confined space rescuers for the City’s Public Works Waste Water Personnel. This designation is required by law under CFR and CCR. These SAR units are compact units that allow for small confined space rescue calls for service where due to their size, typical SCBA units inhibit firefighters to perform a rescue. The SAR units are of the same era as the SCBA units and are beyond their serviceable life.
Evaluation Process
In terms of PPE, the SCBA is perhaps the most important piece of equipment worn by firefighters. Thusly, evaluation of different equipment is critical in terms of selecting the most suitable equipment to match the needs of the Department.
To gather the input of the end user, the Fire Department solicited personnel from all ranks to form an ad hoc working group. The group was comprised of two Battalion Chiefs, four Fire Captains, four Fire Engineers, and one Firefighter. This working group was tasked with:
• Establishing criteria to determine which SCBA manufactures to evaluate
• Establishing the evaluation process
• Soliciting presentations from SCBA manufactures under consideration
• Determining and executing a comprehensive performance evaluation under live fire scenarios
• Providing a final recommendation/selection
The Fire Department SCBA working group determined that Mine Safety Appliance (MSA) and Scott Safety (SCOTT) SCBA should be evaluated based on the following:
• MSA is the current SCBA for the Chula Vista Fire Department
• SCOTT is the current SCBA used by the surrounding agencies who share an automatic aid response agreement with the City of Chula Vista
• Both are the leading manufactures in the USA
The work group engaged in presentations from both MSA and SCOTT. Both manufacturers also provided the group with demonstration SCBA equipment for performance and wear testing. These demonstration units were deployed on frontline engines and trucks and used on calls for service as well as live fire training. Each SCBA was then evaluated by each Fire Department working group member individually in an isolated environment where they provided confidential written documentation of their rating for each SCBA.
Interoperability of SCBA is an important hurdle that not only impacts the ability of firefighters to operate at extremely large incidents with resources from a variety of organizations, but has the potential to improve safety on smaller incidents on a daily basis. In 2010 a regional boundary drop occurred Countywide but most importantly between Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, National City and San Diego Fire Departments. This action was a major move to combine the collective resources of each city to provide the most efficient service possible to any 911 caller in need of help by responding the closest available resource from any agency. This enhanced every agencies capacity to provide service, increased performance, while maintaining cost. Approximately 2,100 calls for service annually are shared between agencies via the boundary drop; which equates to more than five calls per day firefighters from each agency are working side by side, performing similar tasks and sharing equipment.
Generally, the fire service responds to emergencies of the public. In the efforts to mitigate these emergencies, firefighters are exposed to dangerous environments and a great deal of effort goes into preparing plans to rescue firefighters while performing emergency response. A transition to SCOTT SCBA equipment by the Fire Department would be the first opportunity to make an equipment standardization move with our regional partner the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. SCBA equipment standardization is a critical link in the dangerous, life endangering situation of rendering aid to lost, trapped, or downed firefighters from either agency.
The evaluation included 12 separate performance factors to be applied to each SCBA manufacturer as well as a final overall performance rating. At the conclusion of the evaluation, the confidential ratings by each work group member were tallied to determine which SCBA manufacturer was selected. This tally process determined which SCBA manufacturer achieved the highest score for selection. Fire Department working group members scored SCOTT with 256 points and MSA was scored with 168 points.
Cumulatively, the two major areas influencing selection of end user input and interoperability have guided the Fire Department to select SCOTT SCBA. Additionally, SCOTT SCBA has the lowest unit cost.
Cooperative Agreements
Prior to the completion of the evaluation process, the Fire Department researched purchasing options for both MSA and SCOTT. In order to minimize the associated administrative burden and cost it was determined and recommended that piggybacking on an existing competitively bid contact would be the most efficient method of procurement.
The recommended contract for this procurement is the FireRescue GPO and is a program of the National Purchasing Partners, LLC. (NPP); a national cooperative purchasing organization. FireRescue GPO provides fire departments access to aggressively priced contracts with vendors who supply goods and services to the fire service. This contract was established through a competitively bid public RFP process that allows members to “piggy-back” on the contract, this eliminates the need for member cities to complete an RFP process. In this case, we are not piggybacking on this contract because the Fire Department was able to negotiate with the contract vendor to beat the GPO discount by 13%. The use of these cooperative agreements offers both savings in staff time and cost to the city. The City of Chula Vista Municipal Code Section 2.56.270 and Council Resolution No. 6132 authorize the Purchasing Agent to participate in cooperative bids with other government agencies for the purchase of materials of common usage. This allows the city an opportunity to participate in a competitively bid master purchase agreement conducted by the National Purchasing Partners, LLC (NPP) on behalf of other government agencies. Guiding factors that influenced this selection were that the Fire Department is currently and has been using the FireRescue GPO since 2014. To date, this contract has been used to buy firefighter turnout gear and firefighting equipment. As part of the GPO master purchasing agreement, SCOTT SCBA is listed for acquisition. With the GPO contract already in use and authorized by Council allowing the Fire Department to purchase beyond the $100,000 threshold for vendors and equipment that are within the GPO. The Fire Department would like to move forward with this SCBA purchase using the FireRescue GPO.
Another factor contributing to the Fire Department pursuing the FireRescue GPO is that nearly $669,355 of the total purchase will be Federal Grant funding from the DHS, FEMA AFG. It is important that this procurement meet the AFG purchasing guidance along with city purchasing policy. The Seattle, Costa Mesa, and Escondido Fire Departments have used their AFG awards to purchase SCOTT SCBA through the FireRescue GPO within the last two years.
DECISION-MAKER CONFLICT
Staff has reviewed the decision contemplated by this action and has determined that it is not site-specific and consequently, the 500-foot rule found in California Code of Regulations Title 2, section 18702.2(a)(11), is not applicable to this decision for purposes of determining a disqualifying real property-related financial conflict of interest under the Political Reform Act (Cal. Gov't Code § 87100, et seq.).
Staff is not independently aware, and has not been informed by any City Council member, of any other fact that may constitute a basis for a decision maker conflict of interest in this matter.
LINK TO STRATEGIC GOALS
The City’s Strategic Plan has five major goals: Operational Excellence, Economic Vitality, Healthy Community, Strong and Secure Neighborhoods and a Connected Community.
Goal 1: Operational Excellence
Replacement of the Fire Department’s aging fleet of SCBA equipment, allows firefighters to use the most current, efficient, and reliable safety equipment available. This further allows firefighters to enhance the current service delivery to the citizens of Chula Vista.
Goal 2: Economic Vitality
Replacement of the Fire Department’s aging fleet of SCBA equipment allows high maintenance funding and staff time of current SCBA towards other important service delivery aspects within the core mission of the Fire Department.
Goal 3: Healthy Community
Replacement of the Fire Department’s aging fleet of SCBA, provides a safer and thus healthier work place for firefighters. Better equipped firefighters allow for performance at the highest levels possible. With the most current, efficient, and reliable safety equipment available for firefighters this allows an enhanced service delivery capability. This in turn provides a healthier community for the citizens of Chula Vista.
Goal 4: Strong and Secure Neighborhoods
The ability to purchase current, efficient, and reliable safety equipment for the Fire Department strengthens and secures neighborhoods by having first responders equipped for all risk, all hazard, and all service incident types. SCBA equipment allows first responders to respond to and mitigate emergencies involving fires and hazardous materials including weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Goal 5: Connected Community
Replacement of the Fire Department’s aging fleet of SCBA equipment, allows for reliable and equal service delivery to all neighborhoods within the community. This provides a strong and consistent network of service delivery provided by the Fire Department to the citizens of Chula Vista. Chula Vista is further connected to neighboring communities via the interoperability of SCBA equipment with automatic aid agencies.
CURRENT YEAR FISCAL IMPACT
The total cost to replace the Fire Department SCBA fleet (including equipment and supplies) is $998,632.80. Funding for this purchase is already included in the Federal Funds via the Assistance to Firefighters grant accepted by Council on November 1, 2016 on resolution 2016-216 ($669,355); non-federal cash match funds ($66,935) and in the City’s TUT funds ($333,065). There is no net impact to the general fund as a result of this resolution. The table below summarizes the projected fiscal impact:
ONGOING FISCAL IMPACT
There is no ongoing fiscal impact as a result of this resolution. Future equipment maintenance costs are included in the Fire Department’s operating budget and are considered by the City Council as part of the normal budget process.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment #1: Resolution
Attachment #2: GPO Contract
Attachment #3: Vendor Quote#1
Attachment#4: Vendor Quote#2
Staff Contact:
Harry Muns
Madeline Smith