The Finance Committee Met 09/09/2024. They took up two items, one regarding the purchase of two additional workstations for the Police Department and one for a sole source engineering services contract related to the Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant Hauled Waste Station Tank Upgrades project.
The committee voted to hold the Police Station workstation item until the next committee meeting and then voted unanimously to approve the Wastewater Treatment Plant project contract.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The item that was held was a request to award the Police Station Additional Workstations contract to Nordon Business Environments for a total of $48,100.37. This would cover the cost of two new workstations including partition walls and furniture. The cost will be covered by American Recovery Plan Act funds. It did not seem controversial to me nor did I get the impression that it was controversial to the members of the committee; however, Director of Parks and Recreation Dean Gazza, as the person who also manages facilities, was the one overseeing the project and he had not been able to attend the meeting and so was unavailable to answer to questions about it. The committee voted unanimously to hold the item so that they could take it up again at a time when Director Gazza was available to answer questions.
The second item was a request to approve a $50,270 sole source engineering services contract to McMahon as part of the Wastewater Treatment Plant Hauled Waste Station Tank Upgrades project. Staff wanted to sole source the project to McMahon because a particular employee at McMahon has institutional knowledge of the system dating back to 1998 and has performed subsequent work at the plant in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2018.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) has general concerns about sole sourcing projects, but she said she did not have an issue approving this specific sole source request. She did, however, inquire what the city’s plan was in the event the particular individual with institutional knowledge no longer worked with McMahon.
Director of Utilities Chris Stempa likened the loss of that individual to the loss of a good home builder or plumber that you know and trust. “There’s a trust factor, and there’s value, I believe in that.”
He said that if that individual were to leave, the city would have no reservations about opening a competitive RFP process. “We’ve got three quality firms that I’ve worked with for almost 20 years now, and I trust that they would step up to the plate, even in the absence if this individual were to leave at some point.”
He noted that this project came up because they identified some of these needs as part of dealing with the Polymer Incident. After the Polymer Incident, staff had been cleaning these tanks and noticed some deterioration and other issues. He acknowledged that there could have been more planning done up front, but the Polymer Incident happened when it happened and this project tied in with an existing HVAC project so they wanted to take advantage of that.
The committee voted unanimously to approve the sole source contract.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1214268&GUID=590FB81C-9F4A-43C0-853B-C34E3EFFF413
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