Committee delays $547,824 chiller replacement after contractor says it cannot meet responsible-bidder rules

The Administration and Public Works Committee voted to advance a neutral recommendation to the full City Council after tabling consideration of a $547,824 turnkey contract with Carrier Corporation to replace chillers at the Police–Fire Headquarters.

Committee members tabled the item after staff reported Carrier told the city it "will be unable to meet the requirements of that responsible bidders ordinance," and members raised questions about local-hire and subcontracting requirements.

Why it matters: staff said the chillers have a roughly 20-week lead time for fabrication and that replacement before next cooling season is time-sensitive. Committee members balanced the city's procurement standards against the operational need to keep police and fire headquarters cooled through summer.

City staff described the procurement route and timeline. Chris Sousse, assistant city engineer, said Carrier notified staff that it could not meet the responsible bidder ordinance criteria. Alex Ruggie, corporation counsel, told the committee a waiver to the city's responsible bidder ordinance "is not something that we would be able to bring," and warned that waivers could invite bid objections because other firms could claim they did not apply when a waiver was offered.

Sean Cholik, facilities and fleet manager, stressed the timing: "there's a 20 week lead time. So the expectation is that we would like for these units to be up and running at the police fire headquarters well within the 2026 season of when the air condition would need to be used." Cholik said the city had experienced chiller failures in previous summers and that staff feared losing cooling early next year without replacement.

Contract alternatives and constraints were summarized to the committee. Architect Shane Carey said consultants from Grumman Butkus presented five options: rent temporary chillers, a full in-kind replacement (staff recommendation), an air-cooled single-piece chiller (too heavy for the roof), a split system requiring structural work, or an additional ground-mounted air-cooled unit. Carey said the recommended path was full replacement because rental units can be scarce in peak seasons and the other alternatives introduced operational or structural challenges.

Staff also described procurement constraints tied to the cooperative purchasing agreement used for the purchase. Sousse said the city used the OMNIA cooperative purchasing contract, under which the Carrier offering is a turnkey package that includes purchase, removal and installation. He told the committee that Carrier is the local manufacturer/vendor in the region that both supplies units and self-performs installation work, and that other cooperative-contract vendors either could not supply the same equipment or would require structural changes.

Council members pressed staff on alternatives and timing. Council member Kelly asked whether staff had explored subcontracting arrangements so that portions of the work would meet the responsible-bidder and local-hiring standards; staff said they had asked Carrier and that Carrier's legal department had indicated it could not comply with some ordinance language. Kelly said she preferred to exhaust subcontracting options before approving the contract.

On the motion before the committee to table the item until the next meeting, the roll call produced a split result that the chair described as a "neutral recommendation" to the full council. The committee then voted on the underlying item and forwarded it to the council with that neutral recommendation.

What happens next: staff said one path that would follow the RBO and local-hire standards would require a design RFP, roughly two months of design work and a subsequent bid period that could total about eight months before a contract award; adding the 20-week lead time for equipment could push replacement into next summer. Committee members asked staff to continue discussions with Carrier and to return with more information on subcontracting, timeline risk, and procurement options at the next meeting.

The committee record includes discussion of potential parking impacts for ground-mounted options (staff estimated about four to five spaces lost) and that the Police'Fire Headquarters may remain in operation for several years while a long-term facilities plan is developed. No final procurement decision was made at the meeting.