| | | | | | | | | City Council Agenda Request April 19, 2022
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AGENDA REQUEST NO: VI.D.
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| AGENDA OF: City Council Meeting |
| INITIATED BY: Summer O'Brien, Treasury Manager |
| PRESENTED BY: Alpa Patel, Treasury Analyst |
| RESPONSIBLE DEPARTMENT: Finance |
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| | | | | | | | AGENDA CAPTION: | Consideration of and action on authorization of a Contract with Olameter Corporation, in the amount of $437,000.00, for meter reading services. This contract will automatically renew for two additional one-year terms, for a total contract amount of $1,311,000. |
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| | | | | | | | RECOMMENDED ACTION: | Consideration and approval of a contract with Olameter, Inc in amount not to exceed $437,000 for meter reading services. This contract will automatically renew for two additional one-year terms, for a total contract amount of $1,311,000. |
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| | | | | | | | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: | The City of Sugar Land provides water utility service to approximately 38,950 accounts as of February 2022. Of this total, approximately 35,220 are residential; 1,370 are commercial/multi-family/wells; 2,360 are irrigation/fire lines.
Every water meter in the City of Sugar Land is read monthly. Read dates vary for each customer depending on the cycle and route the customer’s account is in, which is based on defined geographic regions of the City. Depending on size and geography, some cycles are read together on the same day. The City currently has 21 billing cycles. Field technicians obtain numerical reads at the meter box and enter them into an iPhone. These iPhones are then brought back to the Treasury Division, where staff uploads the meter read information into the billing system. The following workday, the billing staff reviews the readings for reasonableness and issues work orders for reads that appear unusually high or low compared to those for prior months. These re-reads are known as the “Read Exceptions.”. Re-reads issued are offered as a courtesy to the customer to ensure accurate billing information is obtained. Once re-reads have been completed, the cycle information is updated into the billing system, and customer bills go out the following workday via e-mail or through the 3rd party print vendor.
Invitation to Bid (ITB) No. 2022-11 was advertised with sealed bids due Thursday, March 24, 2022. The ITB stated that the number of meters to be read would decrease over the contract period (with renewals) due to implementing Automated Meter Integration (AMI) technology. The maximum expense will be in FY23 and will decrease as AMI is implemented across the City, and fewer meters need to be read manually.
Five bids were received by the deadline. The bids were opened and read at that time. Bid results are as follows:
Bidder
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Cost per Meter
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Inframark
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$1.60
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Puttbros LLC
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$1.25
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Bermex
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$1.25
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Core & Main LP
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$1.20
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Olameter, Inc
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$0.928
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The apparent low bidder is Olameter, Inc. Staff recommends approval of a one-year contract with Olameter, Inc for meter reading services in an amount not to exceed $437,000.00. The contract renews automatically under the same terms and conditions for two (2) additional one-year terms. The contract to be awarded is effective beginning June 5, 2022, which will require an increase to projections in the FY22 budget for the first 4 months of the contract and an increase in FY23.
This recommendation was reviewed with the Council Finance/Audit Committee at their April 7th meeting.
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BUDGET |
| EXPENDITURE REQUIRED: $437,000.00 |
| CURRENT BUDGET: $410,000.00 |
| ADDITIONAL FUNDING: $27,000.00 |
| FUNDING SOURCE:Utility Operating Fund FY23 budget |
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