Council approves sole-source purchase of mobile LED trailer and adopts $180,000 budget amendment

Romulus City Council approved a sole-source purchase of a battery-powered mobile LED trailer from Insane Impact LLC and adopted a budget amendment to fund the purchase at its Aug. 11 meeting.

Council records show the purchase price for the trailer was $160,614.50 and that the administration requested a budget amendment in the amount of $180,000 (capital outlay/fund balance) to cover the cost as a not-to-exceed amount. Staff said the trailer will replace the existing screen used for the city’s Movies in the Park program, allow earlier start times due to LED visibility, and reduce staff overtime by lowering deployment resources.

The motion to approve the sole-source purchase invoked a purchasing policy exception cited on the record (meeting text references Romulus purchasing section 39-11 d). The council approved the purchase and the related budget amendment by roll call; council members asked staff to clarify that the $180,000 figure in the budget amendment was a not-to-exceed number and were told procurement would not exceed available funds.

Why it matters: The purchase represents a one-time capital expense to support a city cultural program (Movies in the Park). The administration described operational savings (reduced overtime) and programmatic benefits (better visibility and mobility).

Follow-up: Finance staff will complete the budget amendment and procurement steps under the sole-source exception; administration said the item had been introduced at the prior meeting and the amendment was being finalized now.

(Quoted from the meeting record: “This is gonna be the replacement. It's a new 1 for our movies in the park... it's gonna let them start earlier because it's LED.” — recreation staff.)