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A report regarding a resolution approving the purchase of one basic life support (BLS) ambulance in the amount of $185,702 with added equipment and technology in the amount $77,163 for a total not to exceed amount of $262,865; authorizing the City Manager to enter into a purchase agreement with Red Sky Emergency Vehicles in the amount of $245,565; and approve budget amendment 22.055 to appropriate $202,406 from General Fund Reserves and $60,459 from the Public Safety Impact Fee Fund into the Vehicle Replacement Fund for purchase. (Richard Walls, Emergency Management Services Battalion Chief)
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
It is recommended that City Council adopt a resolution approving the purchase of one basic life support (BLS) ambulance in the amount of $185,702 with added equipment and technology in the amount $77,163 for a total not to exceed amount of $262,865; authorizing the City Manager to enter into a purchase agreement with Red Sky Emergency Vehicles in the amount of $245,565; and approve budget amendment 22.055 to appropriate $202,406 from Genera; Fund Reserves and $60,459 from the Public Safety Impact Fee Fund into the Vehicle Replacement Fund for purchase.
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BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
The South San Francisco Fire Department has five ambulances. Three of these ambulances are considered front-line, staffed and available for response, and two are in reserve. The front-line vehicles consist of two Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances operating 24 hours a day, and one Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance operating 12 hours per day. The two reserves consist of one ALS and one BLS and serve as back-ups when ambulances need to be serviced or we need to increase staffing to meet demand.
The department strives to maintain an ambulance replacement schedule where the three ALS ambulances are replaced every nine years on a staggered three-year cycle and the BLS ambulances every 10 years on a five-year staggered cycle. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the replacement schedule and staff has been working with public works to extend the ambulance service lives. Recently, during our current ambulance build process we have been made aware of new disruptions that will affect our replacement cycle. Ambulance manufacturers are informing customers of build times extending from the usual one year, to two and half years. With this new timeline an ambulance purchased today would not arrive until the summer of 2024. This would push our next ALS ambulance replacement from nine years to 13 years.
Additionally, since August of 2021 until the last week of February 2022 our BLS ambulance (vehicle 507) has been out of service, awaiting an emissions part that has failed. This has forced the department to rely on a reserve BLS ambulance (vehicle 526) that was built in 2003. The reserve BLS ambulance was added to the fleet in 2014. This was done by keeping vehicle 526 and not allowing it to be decommissioned when it was replaced in 2013. This additional reserve was important because in 2014 there was an Ebola outbreak in Africa. With our proximity to San Francisco International airport, there was a concern an infected patient would fly in, and we would have to transport them. This created the need for the department to have a specialty vehicle to deal with the potential transport of Ebola patients and the associated contamination that would create. Ultimately, the Ebola outbreak did not hit us as we had expected, but we did realize the need to keep a fifth ambulance. Both as a reserve BLS vehicle and to help offset impacts from frequent service needs in the entire ambulance fleet.
With the prolonged out of service times and extended ambulance production times, staff contacted our current ambulance builder, Red Sky Emergency Vehicles to learn if there were any options to purchase ambulances sooner. We were informed that a sale of a demonstration model had just been cancelled and the ambulance was available for immediate purchase. Demonstration models are built by the vendor to present at trade shows for the purpose of sales and marketing. They are not built to a particular specification but usually contain features that are most requested or would serve the needs of the largest portion of the market. Often, ambulance vendors will sell these demonstration models at a significant discount when they have a newer model or updated features they want to highlight.
This demonstration model was brought to Station 61 and fire department staff and corporation yard mechanics evaluated the vehicle to see if it would work with our operations. The vehicle is a 2021 Crestline Ford F350 Type 1 ambulance. This means it is a truck chassis with a rear patient compartment box. Fire department staff felt it was an appropriate replacement for vehicle 526. Though it was a bit larger than the current BLS vehicles, a Sprinter and modified Ford E350 Econoline van, it was not so large as to be unnecessary or wasteful and could function as an appropriate short term, back-up reserve for the larger ALS ambulances if needed. Corporation yard staff explained that there are many City vehicles using the Ford F350 chassis, and they are familiar with servicing this vehicle type and have not had issues obtaining parts when needed, even with current supply chain issues.
SSFFD plans on purchasing this ambulance through the HGAC-Buy (HGAC), which is the Houston-Galveston Area Council. HGAC is a Cooperative Purchasing Program which assists local governments in reducing costs through government-to-government procurement services. It is a program that is available to local government entities and qualifying non-profit corporations. As a unit of local government, it assists other local governments with procurement processes by establishing competitively priced contracts for goods and services. HGAC follows bid and purchasing guidelines that align with the City of South San Francisco Municipal Code §4.04.080, Open market procedures for purchases and sales exclusive of public projects, and all its contracts have been awarded by public competitive procurement processes compliant with state statutes.
The South San Francisco Municipal Code §4.04.040, Agreements with other governmental agencies, authorizes any other governmental agency to purchase or contract for specified supplies, services, or equipment as long as their procedures are in conformance with state law. The City of South San Francisco has had a contract with HGAC since 2013 to make purchases for all types of large equipment (Attachment 1). Red Sky has a contract with HGAC guaranteeing to honor the awarded bid price of the Braun Super Chief Medium-Duty, International MV607 ambulance to anyone who purchases through HGAC (Attachment 2). HGAC has reviewed Red Sky’s bid proposal and completed a price verification of the contracted bid pricing.
RedSky Emergency Vehicles is quoting a pre-tax price of $169,000 for the vehicle. Fire department staff would need to have additional technology, equipment, paint, and graphics added to this price for the ambulance to be fully functional for patient transport in our County. $17,300 of equipment will be purchased and provided to RedSky for installation. The contract price including installation and taxes would be $245,565. Bringing the total price for the purchase of the vehicle, equipment and installation to $262,865. This is a significant discount over a new build ambulance. Since this vehicle was built in 2021 chassis prices have increased by nearly 15% over purchasing the same chassis today. Additionally, there is around a 10% savings in buying the demonstration model over having the ambulance custom built to our specifications. It is fair to say we are getting more than a 25% savings buying the demonstration vehicle now versus creating the same vehicle today. It is rare to have a demonstration model available, yet alone one that will work with our operations.
Fire department staff sought out bids from HGAC vendors including RedSky and other ambulance builders. Besides RedSky only one other ambulance builder was responsive, Emergency Vehicle Group who provided a quote for a 2020 model year vehicle with a base price of $229,668. This vehicle would still need the same upgrades as the Crestline, making the Crestline $60,000 less expensive and one model year newer.
Because of the age of our current ambulance fleet, the corporation yard mechanics familiarity with the chassis, the flexibility of the Type 1 ambulance to function as a BLS ambulance and short-term back-up for the ALS ambulance. Fire department staff is recommending the purchase of this Crestline ambulance to maintain operational readiness.
FISCAL IMPACT
Purchase of this ambulance with added technology and equipment is $262,865. Budget Amendment 22.055 in the amount of $262,865 consists of $202,406 coming from General Fund Reserves and $60,459 from eligible Public Safety Impact Fees, amending the Vehicle Replacement fund for purchase of the ambulance.
RELATIONSHIP TO STRATEGIC PLAN
This request is in alignment with Priority 4.2.11, Public Safety, Support reliability of fire fleet through scheduled apparatus replacement.
CONCLUSION
It is recommended that City Council adopt a resolution approving the purchase of one basic life support (BLS) ambulance in the amount of $185,702 with added equipment and technology in the amount $77,163 for a total not to exceed amount of $262,865; authorizing the City Manager to enter into a purchase agreement with Red Sky Emergency Vehicles in the amount of $245,565; and approve budget amendment 22.055 to appropriate $202,406 from General Fund Reserves and $60,459 from the Public Safety Impact Fee Fund into the Vehicle Replacement Fund.
Attachments:
1. HGAC contract
2. RedSky contract with HGAC