- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Supervisors direct expedited bid process for generator purchases
Staff had recommended generator purchases and installations totaling $470,000 for six departments: Animal Care and Control shelter, $75,000; Lake County Behavioral Health Services, $85,000; Child Support Services, $85,000; Department of Social Services, $175,000; Sheriff/Central Dispatch, Hunter repeater site, $15,000; and Victim-Witness: $35,000.
The board decided to put all of them out to a two-week bid process, with the exception of the generator and installation for the sheriff’s office’s Hunter repeater site, which was approved to go forward.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said that, when county department heads sat down to discuss backup power for county facilities in the event Pacific Gas and Electric goes through with the power shutoffs, they didn’t immediately start with generators because of the “incredible expense.”
However, she said that during a roundtable discussion with all department heads contributing, it became apparent that the loss of business operations during a shutoff – including the lack of services provided to the public, employees not being able to work and those combined costs and losses in the county’s communities – would quickly outweigh the cost of generator power.
“To my surprise, quite honestly, we moved in the direction of scoping our generator needs and pricing what that would cost,” she said.
Deputy County Administrative Officer Susan Parker gave the report to the board for Public Services Director Lars Ewing, who was out of town on Tuesday.
She said the county’s Space Committee, which deals with facilities questions, convened on June 27, with Supervisor Rob Brown and Supervisor Moke Simon participating, and the committee recommended backup power for the six listed departments.
Brown said that on Monday he and Supervisor Bruno Sabatier had discussed the generators and why they weren’t put out to bid. Parker said it was a matter of timing and turnaround, because the noticing requirements for the bid process would lengthen the time.
Brown said the county has known about the power shutoffs for a year, but now it’s become an emergency.
“This is a big hoax by PG&E to begin with. I’m not saying they’re not going to shut the power off, I’m saying I don’t think they need to. I think it’s all a crock that we have to live with,” Brown said, comparing it to Y2K, the swine flu and measles scares. “It’s really BS. But we have to deal with it. That’s our job, to have to face it.”
Brown said the board has an obligation to the taxpaying public to make sure the matter is handled properly. “There’s a process in place for a reason and I think we really need to honor that.”
County Counsel Anita Grant said the board can do an expedited bid process. Brown asked if it could be two weeks long. Grant said he would have to ask it that would be practically possible
“But legally, would that be OK?” Brown asked.
Grant said the board could determine a two-week expedited bid process, just like it could decide to have no process at all. But staff would have to tell them if it’s workable.
Simon said he thought Ewing did a good job at the Space Committee meeting of explaining why he though the generator purchases – without the bid process – was the best path forward. “I thought that he had a good plan rolled out.”
Simon said that most of the cost won’t be paid for by the general fund, with the departments having available money for the generator purchases.
He added that Ewing’s plan was part of making the county self-sufficient.
Sabatier said that the board had $470,000 of potential generators to consider, after having approved a $200,000 purchase for the courthouse – done at a special meeting last month – and $40,000 for the sheriff’s office, for a total of $730,000. None of that, he pointed out, has gone through a bidding process.
“I can’t move forward, personally, without doing a formal bidding process. That is too much money. Yes, some of that comes from the state, but who pays the state? We all do. It’s all tax dollars, it’s all coming from us at one point or another,” Sabatier said.
Sabatier also was concerned about piecemealing the purchases, which he said prevents the county from getting a reduced overall cost.
If the board had moved forward with voting on the separate generator purchases, Sabatier said he planned to vote no on them “because I don’t think that is the right process to do, for that kind of money.”
Deputy Public Services Director Kati Galvani, who was asked to come in and speak to the board, said she was confident that, in Ewing’s absence, she and other staff could get the bid information together.
During the discussion, Brown also said that, in response to concerns about cooling centers in case of shutoffs, “It is being worked on” by PG&E.
Huchingson said County Librarian Christopher Veach intends to operate the libraries without power if he can do so safely.
“So it would be like a trip back in time, where people use books,” Huchingson said, adding there won’t be wifi.
Simon moved for an expedited bidding process for the generator purchases, which the board approved.
The board gave the go ahead for the $15,000 purchase and installation of the Hunter repeater site backup generator, which was presented by Undersheriff Chris Macedo.
Macedo said the site, which was damaged in last year’s Mendocino Complex, has had power outages before, which have necessitated the use of small, 1,000-watt generators to keep it running for emergency communications.
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