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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-06-18 Finance Committee Minutes FINANCE COMMITTEE June 18, 2007 Minutes Councilors: Stone, D’Errico, Hawes, Farrington, Gratwick Staff: Cyr, Barrett, Gastia, Cammack, Higgins, Perry 1. Consent Agenda a. Quitclaim Deed – Lewis/Philbrick – 81 Parkview Street A motion was made and seconded to approve the Consent Agenda. 2. Bids/Purchasing a. Renewal of Airport Liability Insurance – Global Aerospace - $155,122 This is required for Bangor International Airport. Global Aerospace is the current provider and the only responder to the bid. The coverage remains the same but the premium will be 5% lower than last year. Gratwick asked about major catastrophe coverage. Cyr said it is $100M. Responding to D’Errico, Cyr was not certain if the amount is FAA required. Stone asked specific questions regarding the coverage. Cyr and Barrett will obtain the information requested by Stone from the Airport Director and report back. A motion was made and seconded to recommend approval to full Council. b. Mobile Data Terminals – Police/Fire – TransCOR - $237,081 Cyr said that there have been items previously before the Finance Committee in anticipation of purchasing the actual laptops. The contract has been awarded for the engineering, the set up and the actual implementation of the network itself and to place the fiber optics to the specific locations throughout the City. This specific item is for the purchase of 45 mobile data terminals for police, fire vehicles and rescue trucks. The purchase will be made under a competitive contract issued by the State of Maine for its public safety vehicles. The purchase will be 100% funded from the 2005 Homeland Security grant funds previously accepted by the City. Gratwick questioned the high price of the equipment. Higgins indicated the units are armored and are standard emergency service equipment. Higgins said the equipment is industry standard and used by all emergency services. The equipment should last 6-8 years and has a three year 100% warranty. The Police Department has some similar equipment which is very old but still in use. Responding to Stone, Cyr said there are two different styles of notebooks. 36 will be configured one way and 9 in another way. The difference is in the physical layout of the piece. The rescue units have a tablet style notebook. Stone and Barrett discussed the merit of the updated equipment for the police and fire departments. Barrett agreed with Stone that once going this avenue there will be periodic replacement needs in the future. Going down this road, will allow the police officers to do paperwork and reporting from their vehicle. They will be able to run their own license plate checks, etc. from the vehicle. While doing this work from their vehicles, it also provide visibility of the police department on the street. Barrett continued by indicating that on the fire department side it will allow firefighters to have more information on the scene (hydrant locations, hazardous situations in a structure) and will allow the rescue workers to file their reports from the ambulance. Stone asked if an equipment reserve would be required. With a purchase of this size, Barrett said the equipment would be replaced in smaller groups in the future as needed. Responding to Gratwick regarding future maintenance of automated equipment, Barrett said that at some point in the near future there would be a need for an additional staff member in Information Services because of the explosion of automation throughout the City. In some instances, automation has helped keep staff levels at a minimum but it is difficult to quantify the time saved. For example, the Treasury Department has been greatly assisted through the Rapid Renewal Program. Hawes said society is becoming more automated. She also stated that the 100% funding for the equipment is available now but she questioned what costs would be down the road if the City did not take advantage of the 100% funding. She feels the City would be missing the boat. Hawes made a motion to recommend approval to full Council. The motion was seconded. Gastia pointed out that in many environments one does hope to decrease the number of personnel with the updated computers. The Police Department is not looking at this avenue but looking to use the current personnel more efficiently. c. Sole Source –WWTP–Tank Repairs–G&G Concrete Waterproofing - $40,000 Cyr indicated that staff has been working to obtain information from this vendor. Approximately $2M bonds were issued this spring for the WWTP for the CSO programs. One of the projects identified was to repair tank leaks on the Kenduskeag East CSO structure, which consists of five concrete tanks that go together. At times of high water flow, the tanks can hold 1.15 million gallons when the Treatment Plant is extremely busy and then release it over time. This cuts down on the number of overflows. Some of the tank joints are leaking, G&G Concrete Waterproofing specializes in this type of work and has done work for the City in the past. G&G will repair the active leaks and have proposed not to exceed $40,000. Cyr indicated that patching these areas could also cause leaks in other areas. The tanks will be inspected 9 days after the initial repairs have been made. Responding to Gratwick, Mike Perry said that Kenduskeag Stream is leaking into the tanks. Perry said over a period of time hundreds of thousands of gallons are leaking into the tank and has to be pumped out into the system. Perry spoke about the energy costs involved with pumping. It is pumped out when a storm event is anticipated. In responding to Gratwick’s question, Perry indicated it cannot be emptied at low tide as it is a pump sewer containment tank. Gratwick spoke about the leaking seals and asked about the longer-term projection of the seals and their maintenance. Perry said three tanks have been installed in the City to date and this is the only one with significant leaking. This one is the most difficult due to its proximity to the Kenduskeag Stream. A motion was made and seconded to approval staff’s recommendation. 3. Executive Session – Hardship Abatements (A), (B), (C), (D) – 36 MRSA Section 841 (2) A motion was made and seconded to move into executive session. 4. Open Session – Hardship Abatement Decisions (A), (B), (C), (D) A motion was made and seconded to approve staff’s recommendation.