Title
Purchase of One (1) Zero-Emission Battery Electric Bus (B)
Explanation
Regional Transit System (RTS) submitted a grant application to the Federal Transit Administration’s Low or No Emission Vehicle Grant Program after obtaining City Commission approval on June 7, 2018. In submitting for various grants, applicants are permitted to form public-private partnerships. RTS chose to partner with the Center for Transportation and the Environment, Inc. (CTE) because they have been successful in helping applicants obtain grant awards. As the RTS fleet solely consist of Gillig buses, RTS elected to partner with Gillig as the manufacturer of the electric bus to maintain fleet uniformity. In late August 2018, the project selections were announced by the FTA and RTS was awarded $1,000,000 to purchase a Gillig 40' battery electric bus.
Both CTE and Gillig were named in the grant application, as required by FTA. The Federal Register announcement, April 25, 2018, page 18121, second paragraph under C.1. states that “If an application that involves such a partnership is selected for funding, the competitive selection process will be deemed to satisfy the requirement for a competitive procurement under 49 U.S.C. 5325(a) for the named entities.” There are no proposed changes to the partnership. Therefore, the use of CTE and Gillig are done as a specified source due to the aforementioned grant application and award.
Fiscal Note
Funds in the amount of $1,000,000 have been provided by the federal grant for this project. The total project cost of $1,032,163 is available in the RTS budget.
Recommendation
The City Commission authorize the City Manager or his authorized designee to execute a contract and any necessary associated documents with Gillig LLC for the purchase of one (1) Zero-Emission Battery Electric Bus, subject to approval by the City Attorney as to form and legality.