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Council authorizes bench contracts for vehicle outfitting after delays at regional vendor
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Summary
Council approved five-year contract authority for a bench of upfitting vendors to reduce months-long delays at the region’s sole longtime outfitter; council asked staff to pursue remedies with the regional communications contractor (RCC) before operational use and to monitor duplication of costs.
Hermosa Beach council members voted April 28 to authorize contract authority to establish a bench of vendors to provide vehicle outfitting (lights, sirens and interior equipment) for police and other city vehicles, citing months-long delays at the city’s current regional outfitting provider.
Staff said the regional contractor (RCC) bundles outfitting in its dispatch and technical services allocation, which makes pricing opaque and has resulted in substantial service delays. “If we wanted to have a vehicle upfitted now, there’s been multiple month delays,” staff said, describing vehicles that have sat at the city yard while waiting for outfitting.
To avoid long backlogs, staff proposed awarding five-year contract authority to three qualified vendors with a $1,000,000 ceiling per vendor (across five years) so the city could request quotes from the bench and award work without repeating lengthy procurement each time a single vehicle requires outfitting. Staff emphasized the authorization would not appropriate funds; each outfitting would be funded through future budget allocations and would require competitive quotes among bench vendors.
Several council members said they were troubled that the city might already be paying RCC for related services and urged staff to use the new contracts as leverage to press RCC for performance before using the bench operationally. “Perhaps we hold off on any operational utilization of the bench while we get resolution from RCC,” one council member suggested; staff agreed they could withhold operational use while pursuing contract remedies.
Despite concerns, the motion to authorize the contract authority passed after discussion. Staff said the contract will include termination provisions and periodic performance review and that the city will aim to avoid duplicative costs by seeking reimbursement or offsets from RCC where appropriate.
