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Council approves $150,000 spending authority for fire‑apparatus repairs after debate over bid transparency
Summary
Council approved awarding fire‑apparatus repairs to the lone bidder despite objections about missing list prices in the bid. Council members pressed Public Works to include clearer pricing on future contracts and to avoid open‑ended spending without line‑item figures.
The Warwick City Council approved spending authority of up to $150,000 to award a one‑year contract (June 8, 2025–June 7, 2026) for fire apparatus repairs, after multiple council members criticized the solicitation for lacking line‑item pricing.
Christie Moretti of Public Works told the Finance Committee that Public Works received one bid for on‑site and vendor repairs from On Scene LLC and requested consolidated spending authority covering two parts of the solicitation. “This is a new bid award that we are requesting… It is a hundred and $50,000 collectively between a and b for spending authority,” Moretti said, adding department figures for prior years’ outside repair costs.
Several council members objected to the lack of specific prices in the bid. “I’m surprised this bid even came to us because we have no prices in this,” Councilman Matthew Lattice said at committee. Lattice and other members repeatedly pressed staff for concrete net prices rather than a percentage‑off‑list approach; he warned that taking vendors at a declared “20% off” without seeing list prices would let bidders “write their own price.”
Public Works explained that many fire‑apparatus repairs are performed in‑house and that only specialized work (ladders, pumps, transmissions) must be sent to outside vendors. Moretti said the department typically performs about 95% of fire‑apparatus repairs in‑house and sends about 5% out for specialized work. She also gave recent spending figures: fiscal year 2023 outside repairs $115,570.45; FY2024 $55,181.83; FY2025 to date $37,159.48.
Council members who opposed the motion said awarding a contract with no line‑item pricing was poor practice and encouraged companies to skip bidding if they expected to be added to an incumbency list anyway. Councilman Lattice said adding non‑bidders to the list “encourages companies to say, the heck with it — I’m not gonna bid.” The administration countered that part B of the solicitation adds vendors who work on specialized makes and models; Public Works said it needed the flexibility to send certain trucks to specific vendors because not every vendor works on every apparatus brand.
After committee debate, the full council approved the spending authority. Clerk roll call shows the motion passed, 6‑2, with Lattice and Ricks voting no and the remaining members voting yes.
The council asked Public Works to provide more detail about the most commonly used parts and to tighten procurement documentation for future awards. The department said it would supply lists of typical parts and consider separating high‑volume items into distinct PCRs (purchase contract requests) so the council can review pricing with more specificity.
