Poughkeepsie board reviews low-dollar service contracts, recommends standardizing alarms and controls

Poughkeepsie City’s Board of Contracts and Supply on Jan. 8 reviewed routine service contracts covering building systems — including sprinklers, generators, HVAC and water treatment — and discussed updating procurement thresholds and a capital project to standardize alarms and controls across city properties.

Board members opened by noting the current annual maintenance agreements are low-dollar contracts that the board renews yearly. The agreements named in discussion included Johnson Controls (dry sprinkler system maintenance, $3,300), Stark Tech (generator maintenance, $488 per generator), Davis Technologies (HVAC maintenance, $4,300) and Chem Aqua (chiller water treatment; amount not specified in transcript). American Heating and Cooling was also named with an approximate annual figure of $4,000.

The discussion centered on procurement thresholds and administrative practice. A board member said the current threshold for not requiring any quotes is $2,500 and that the threshold is under review; the member added the threshold “probably should be twice that.” The same speaker said the purpose of getting quotes is to “invite competition, which is, you know, best practice and also law.”

Commissioner of Public Works (title used in the meeting) described the maintenance agreements as generally inexpensive, with most cost coming only when repairs are required. The commissioner noted the city’s generators are old and that the main generator at City Hall is included in the capital plan; other generators—identified in the discussion as located at College Hill and the Clover Avenue firehouse—would be addressed as part of separate capital projects (for example, a tower project that will trigger work on the College Hill generator).

Board members and staff discussed whether to broaden service contracts so routine repairs up to a higher threshold (participants mentioned possible thresholds of $10,000 to $20,000 during the exchange) could proceed without separate competitive bids. One member described the administrative benefit of broader service contracts: when a vendor performing preventive maintenance finds a repair need, the city could authorize the repair more quickly if the scope and maximums were pre‑contracted.

Participants agreed there is a capital project to modernize and standardize alarm and building controls across city properties; standardization would allow the city to “single up” brands and monitoring systems and to issue an RFP to consolidate fire alarm and sprinkler control systems. The board noted this would improve monitoring, safety and cybersecurity.

The board reviewed contract expiration timing and paperwork: some contracts overlap, a few companies are small and slow to turn in documentation, and one contract (Davis Technologies) appeared to be expired on paper though records showed coverage until November. Staff confirmed contract dates are tracked on the calendar.

No formal action or vote was taken on these items during the meeting. The board’s recommendation, as recorded in the discussion, was to renew the current low-dollar service contracts while prioritizing the controls-and-alarms capital project and moving toward an RFP that would standardize systems across buildings.

The board concluded the item with no immediate votes or contract awards.