Title
To authorize and direct the Finance and Management Director to issue a purchase order to Vance Outdoors in the amount of $269,548.00 for the purchase of body armor vests for the Fire Division; to authorize the expenditure of $269,548.00 from the General Permanent Improvement Fund; and to declare an emergency. ($269,548.00)
Explanation
BACKGROUND The Fire Division needs to purchase body armor for Firefighters. This ordinance authorizes and directs the Finance and Management Director to issue a purchase order to Vance Outdoors in the amount of $269,548.00 from the General Permanent Improvement fund for this purchase in accordance with Solicitation SA003471.
Bid Information/Contract Compliance: Bids were solicited via the Purchasing Division via Solicitation SA003471, with the specifications requiring an exact vest and no alternates being accepted; bids were as follows:
Standard Law $690.00/vest ~ non-responsive; bid an alternate vest
Vance Outdoors $853.00/vest ~ bid exact vest as per specs
Roy Tailor $909.00/vest ~ non- responsive; bid an alternate vest
The above solicitation specified an exact vest, with bids for alternates not being accepted. The vests bid by Standard Law, the low bidder, were alternate vests, and thus the bid was deemed non-responsive. The Division of Fire specified a product called the PACA vest. The Fire Division recommends the vest bid by Vance Outdoors, as the lowest, responsive, and responsible bidder as they bid the PACA vest.
The PACA vest specified in the bid specification was chosen by a committee for its superior comfortable fit and wearability. This vest was compared with the other vests offered and was unanimously chosen as the best for comfort, wearability, ease of use, and protection. The PACA vest was found to be the easiest to wear, put on, and take off. Also, it was the opinion of the committee that the PACA vest offered the best placement of ballistic plates which adde...
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