A process begun over a month ago continues for several City of Plymouth departments as the Water, Wastewater and Police Departments continue to look at quotes for new vehicles in their budgets.
Donnie Davidson came before the board once again Monday night to give a recommendation on quotes for trucks for the Wastewater and Water Departments that were opened at the board’s previous meeting in February.
For the Water Department vehicles, Davidson had a quote of $40,736 from Oliver Ford and a quote for $40,125 from Auto Park, but the Auto Park quote did not include the strobe lights that were part of the bid requirements.
For the Wastewater Department Auto Park had a quote of $40,125.
Davidson told the board that his recommendation was to reject all of the bids and re-bid the vehicles. He said that none of the bids used the cab that was specified in the bid request and that he would like to have a true “comparison quote” before awarding a bid.
The board voted to accept that recommendation and Davidson will once again seek bids for the trucks.
Police Chief John Weir once again came before the board seeking to order police vehicles that are in his budget.
At the board’s previous meeting in February, Weir had opened bids from Kelly Chevrolet, Oliver Ford, and the Auto Park quoting for hybrid vehicles, gas vehicles, and Chevy Tahoes. The intention of the department was to purchase two of each.
In this round, Oliver Ford had a bid of $44,694 each for two gas-powered Explorers with an additional $2,900 each for “ballistic” or bulletproof doors. Lochmandy Chevy bid $55,910 each for Tahoes with ballistic doors, and $49,500 for gas-powered Ford Explorers. Auto Park bid $43,450 for the Explorers, $46,279 for ballistic doors.
Weir asked to take the bids under advisement.
Discussion and confusion began as the process of the bidding was discussed. None of the dealers were asked to bid on hybrid vehicles. Weir was under the impression that since Kelly was the low bid in the previous round, the bid was still good for the Tahoes, that the previous bids for the hybrids was also good, and that only gas vehicles were under consideration.
City Attorney Jeff Houin told the board that since the decision was to rebid that none of the previous bids could be accepted since they all had to be received and opened at the same time.
The board voted to take the new bids under advisement to ensure they were allowable and get a recommendation at the next meeting.
