Title
Consulting Services for Battery Electric Bus Procurement and Deployment Project (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 Commision approval on June 5, 2017. 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 other applicants obtain grant awards. As the RTS fleet are all Gillig buses, RTS chose to partner with Gillig as the manufacturer of the electric bus. On September 16, 2017, the project selections were announced by the FTA and RTS was awarded $1,000,000 to purchase a Gillig 40' battery electric bus and depot.
Both CTE and Gillig were named in the grant application, as required by FTA. The Federal Register announcement, April 27, 2017, page 19448, second column, 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. 5324(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 $265,000 have been provided by the federal grant for this project and are 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 the Center for Transportation and the Environment, Inc. (CTE) for the Battery Electric Bus Procurement and Deployment Project.