Submitted By: Rusella Bowes-Johnson
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Presentation By: Sean Lanier
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Department: Water & Sewer
STAFF RECOMMENDATION (Motion Ready):
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Approve the First Amendment and the additional expenditures under the piggyback agreement with Utility Metering Solutions, LLC, for the installation and integration of a fixed network metering system for the Water Resources Department in the estimated amount of $700,000
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OCALA’S RELEVANT STRATEGIC GOALS:
Operational Excellence
PROOF OF PUBLICATION:
N/A
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BACKGROUND:
This project involves installing and integrating a cellular-based metering system for the Water Resources Department (WRS). On August 20, 2019, City Council approved an agreement with National Meter & Automation to supply the City of Ocala with Badger Meters to replace the failing Elster-Amco system.
On November 5, 2019, City Council approved WRS’s piggyback of the Construction, Procurement, Maintenance and Professional Services Agreement between the City of West Monroe, Louisiana, and XtraLight Manufacturing, Ltd. d/b/a Utility Metering Solutions (UMS) to exchange 5,000 meters, 15,000 endpoint activations, and 10,000 retrofits for existing advance metering infrastructure (AMI) meters.
On April 5, 2022, City Council approved WRS’s piggyback of the Advanced Meter Infrastructure Installation and Implementation Services Agreement (FL20-11-162) between the City of Greeley, Colorado, and UMS to install approximately 10,592 meters.
This company has successfully implemented large-scale water meter replacement projects in other cities. Water Resources staff is manually reading 2,400 of the remaining 2,700 RF water meters per month. For this reason, we must partner with an experienced company that can complete the Water Resources AMI project. UMS will also assist our IT department with the integration into the city's billing system and the new customers' web portal.
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS:
On September 20, 2023, Greeley, Colorado, and UMS entered into Amendment #3 to FL20-11-162 for Phase III meter Installation Services. UMS has agreed to extend pricing and services to the City of Ocala under the same terms and conditions as Amendment #3 to FL20-11-162. The cost of this project is $700,000. The attached price list on page C-73 of the First Amendment has a detailed breakdown of the services UMS will provide.
The City has roughly 28,842 water meter customers. Continued use of the piggyback agreement with UMS will assist WRS with exchanging the remaining failing radio frequency (RF) AMI water meters ranging from 5/8 inch to 8 inches.
For City staff to exchange 2,700 RF meters, it would take ten dedicated employees (if we can quickly obtain them) solely focusing on this task for approximately 60 days at an estimated cost of $311,033.44, not including overhead costs or the loss that would be sustained while the department undertook efforts to hire and qualify temporary and additional staff. The Water Resources Consumptive Division only has three staff members. The in-house staff is not available to perform this work and perform their regular duties of repairing, reading, exchanging, and maintaining meters.
Staff recommends approval.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Water Resources Department has sufficient funding in Fiscal Year 2024-25 in account string 455-030-304-533-53-46010.
PROCUREMENT REVIEW:
These goods and services were procured in compliance with the City’s Procurement Policy.
LEGAL REVIEW:
This Agreement will be reviewed and approved for form and legality by City Attorney, William E. Sexton.
ALTERNATIVE:
• Approve with Changes
• Table
• Deny