REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
SUBMITTED TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
SUBMITTED BY: Al Zelinka, City Manager
VIA: Sean Crumby, Director of Public Works
PREPARED BY: Chris Davis, Senior Administrative Analyst
Subject:
title
Approve Sole Source Procurement Request for Aclara for service and maintenance on Automated Meter Infrastructure (AMI) equipment.
body
Statement of Issue:
Submitted for City Council approval is a Sole Source Procurement request for Aclara for service and maintenance on Automated Meter Infrastructure (AMI) equipment, in the amount of $250,000 per year.
Financial Impact:
No additional funding is requested. Sufficient funds for this service is included in the FY 2022-23 Budget in Water Enterprise Fund Business Unit 50685805.84300.
Recommended Action:
recommendation
Approve the Sole Source Procurement Request with Aclara for service and maintenance on AMI equipment.
end
Alternative Action(s):
Do not approve Sole Source Procurement Request and direct staff accordingly. Denial of the Sole Source Procurement Request would result in delay of maintaining the City’s stock of approximately 55,000 meters. This could result in lost revenue from faulty meter reads and inability to detect leaks in customers’ water service. Additionally, should the project be re-bid and a competitor succeed, this would require the City to maintain two sets of meters and require training of staff for both types.
Analysis:
The Public Works Utilities Division water meter section recently completed the transition of the city’s meter system to an Automated Meter Infrastructure (AMI) system. The City began a pilot program to implement an AMI system in 2006. AMI provides a continuous read of water usage from each customer's meter that is wirelessly transmitted to staff. This provides better accuracy of water usage amounts and also eliminates the need for the City to hire staff must access customers’ properties to manually read their meters. Aclara was chosen as the vendor for the pilot program. In 2020, the City completed a fifteen-year program to convert all meters to AMI. However, the Aclara software does require an annual maintenance charge. Additionally, components do need to be replaced or repaired due to attrition.
Aclara Automated Infrastructure software system and communication components are installed at each of the approximately 55,000 water service connection meters in the City. No other AMI system is compatible with Aclara.
This sole source procurement is requested in accordance with Chapter 3.02 of the City of Huntington Beach Municipal Code, as there is no alternative vendor. Parts from other vendors would not be compatible with the City's AMI system, nor would a different vendor be able to service Aclara parts and software. Likewise, it would be economically prohibitive to have different systems for different parts of the City due to the need to hire additional staff for each system and store parts for each system.
Environmental Status:
Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15378(b)(5), administrative activities of governments that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment do not constitute a project.
Strategic Plan Goal:
Non Applicable - Administrative Item
Attachment(s):
1. Sole Source Procurement Request
2. Power Point