Sheriff asks Commission to award gun‑violence grant procurement for VR training equipment; item to appear on consent agenda

Chilton County's sheriff told commissioners the county received a grant intended to address gun‑violence prevention and asked the Commission to approve a resolution awarding procurement for training equipment, including virtual reality goggles.

The sheriff said the grant (described in the meeting as a gun‑violence type grant administered through Adeaca) will provide items such as VR goggles for training and that staff solicited proposals. "We were awarded, for, like, VR goggles... we sent out bids on that. And I guess now we're asking to award the bid," the sheriff said. He told the Commission that the procurement used a request‑for‑proposal (RFP) process, that multiple firms submitted proposals and that scoring and ranking had been completed by staff.

Commissioners discussed whether the item should be placed on the consent agenda; the sheriff said it would be on the consent agenda at the regular meeting. No vote was taken at the work session.

Background: The sheriff said three proposals were scored and ranked and that the chosen vendor was recommended based on the RFP scoring. Commissioners praised staff for following procurement procedures and anticipated the award to be placed on the consent agenda for the regular meeting.

Next steps: The sheriff asked that the Commission adopt a resolution at the regular meeting to award the grant procurement and authorize any contract documents required by the grant.