WAUPUN — The Waupun City Council has revisited the purchasing policy after it being on the backburner since April.
The Council discussed this, and a list of other issues at the meeting held Monday night of this week.
Just prior to the Common Council meeting the Board of Public Works had unanimously voted to recommend the bid from Homan Auto. Mayor Rohn Bishop had strongly recommended the purchase due to Homan Auto being within the City of Waupun.
The Waupun Department of Public Works was purchasing a new flatbed work truck to replace one that had been totaled in an accident earlier this summer. While the truck was an older model made in 2006, it was a well maintained truck until being hit by another driver on N Madison St.
Despite finding the City not-at-fault for the accident, insurance did not cover the full replacement of the vehicle, requiring the City Council to sign off on the purchase of a new vehicle from the City budget. The insurance company only reimbursed the City $12,674.75 for the truck.
The DPW had looked at several different options, but had been unable to secure a used vehicle for a reasonable price as most that entered the market were quickly purchased by others before the DPW could look at time. This led the DPW to consider purchasing a new vehicle, taking bids from Homan Auto in Waupun and from Holiday in Fond du Lac.
The two bids for the truck chassis were Homan Auto at $46,162.44 and Holiday at $46,011.00. The total difference between the two quotes was $151.44, a difference of less than 1% of the lowest bid—within the current purchasing policy.
Both vehicles required the additional purchase of a $7,966 flatbed attachment. The price for the bed comes from Madison Truck, with no other quotes.
After a brief discussion, the Common Council unanimously voted to purchase the truck chassis from Homan Auto, along with the flatbed attachment.
As is tradition for the last few years, the purchase of the new truck brought up a discussion on the local purchasing policy. A new draft was presented to the Council, changing two major aspects of the previous policy: the 1% leeway granted to local vendors and the definition for “local” itself.
“The new policy focuses on the best value for the City and local taxpayer, which may or may not be the lowest bid,” said City Administrator Kathy Schlieve. “As outlined, this really encourages staff to try to gather facts that would help determine the greatest value for the taxpayer, such as lead time, access to warranty services, et cetera. It reserves the right for the City to consider bids other than the lowest bid based on a best value equation.”
The new policy will apply to all departments, as opposed to the previous policy only applying to the DPW for large purchases.
“It also streamlines the workflow process,” said Alderman Dan Siebers. “So the goal is to empower those committees to make that best value judgement without having us to grind all of that out.”
Alderwoman Kambria Ledesma made the motion to accept the new policy, seconded by Alderman Siebers.
Alderman Pete Kaczmarski disagreed with the new policy, saying, “Tonight at the DPW meeting we okay’d the purchase of the truck, and we were within the existing policy. I feel the 1% should be maintained, if not to another percent. But it also takes away the definition of local, so it really guts two important aspects of the policy. It makes me wonder, if we do this, why even have a policy?”
Alderman Jason Westphal pointed out that Holiday in Fond du Lac is considered “local” by the current policy, which was defined as within both Fond du Lac and Dodge County. When the Council had originally adopted the policy, there was discussion on the definition on whether it should be within the City itself, the zip code, or the neighboring counties. Using Homan Auto in Ripon as an example, they ended up defining local as within the two counties.
Alderman Westphal also pointed out that any time that a local bid is just above that 1% the Council would end up overruling it, and that any specific percent would have the same problem. This has already happened several times since adopting the policy, each relating to vehicle purchases from Homan Auto.
The Council discussed the best way to buy local, which concluded with another statement from Kaczmarski: “This new policy will not end this conversation. I’m assuming it’ll pass without my vote, but it will come back again in the future.”
Alderwoman Ledesma stated that any policy is up for revision at any time, and that policies serve the governing bodies that write them.
The adjusted policy was passed 5-1, Kaczmarski dissenting.
“I’m glad we finally updated our city’s purchase policy,” said Mayor Bishop in a statement after the meeting. “It took longer than it should have and was harder than it should have been. But we finally got somewhere where everyone’s comfortable. It allows local business a better shot. I think it’s important that the city give back to the businesses that give back to the community, because people helping people is what makes Waupun a great little city.”
The DPW also discussed a number of other upcoming projects, including ash tree removal in town, repairs to the DPW garage, and repairs to City Hall.
The emerald ash borer, a species of invasive beetle that burrows into ash trees underneath the bark, killed a large number of trees in the area over the last few years. Two particular properties had dead trees that were out of code that the City will be taking down, both of which were notified last year and again thirty days before the trees will be taken down. Alderman Kaczmarski requested that the aldermen be notified when work is being done in their district in case of residents having questions about the tree removal.
As for the garage roof hailstorm damage, they were able to confirm through several adjusters that the leaks were caused by hail damage and that water has saturated the insulation, causing further damage. Alderman Kaczmarski noted that this is the older DPW building, and that the others were inspected but did not have major issues. It’s hoped that the roof can be replaced before it gets too cold in the winter as the freeze/thaw cycle could cause even more significant damage to the insulation.
The Council also passed a rebid for the roof replacement at the City Hall and Auditorium building. After waiting on the previous bid, they were able to reduce the cost by about $10,000, and may save more if they do not have to replace the insulation. The bid was quoted at $103,860 from M.W. Tighe Roofing Inc. out of Fond du Lac.
All of these were passed unanimously by the DPW board and the City Council.
