For City Council Meeting [October 12, 2021]
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
APPROVAL: Marcus Fuller, City Manager
FROM: Mark P. Kling, Chief of Police
Title
Request City Council to Adopt Budget Resolution No. 7779 Accepting Additional Funds for the Fiscal Year 2019 Homeland Security Grant Program in the Amount of $15,621.00, Increasing Estimated Revenue and Appropriating Expenditures, and Approve the Purchase of a Can-Am Maverick ATV from Chaparral Motorsports in the Amount of $40,325.64.
Body
BACKGROUND
The Rialto Police Department originally received funding in the amount of $24,705.00 from the Fiscal Year 2019 Homeland Security Grant Program to purchase a Specialized Emergency Management Vehicle for responses in areas not conducive to standard police vehicles. Rialto City Council accepted this grant funding on June 23, 2020. The Rialto Police Department applied for additional funding through the Homeland Security Grant Program to cover the cost of the Can-Am Maverick ATV. The department was awarded $15,621.00 of additional funding on August 17, 2021.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION
The city's topography varies from common cityscape features to long stretches of unpaved surfaces with overgrown brush, hilly and rocky areas, and numerous wash areas. The introduction of a specialized “all-terrain” vehicle will prove to be an excellent tool for accessing these varying areas of topography and will aid in emergency management operations or disaster response in order to transport equipment and personnel to an incident site in the City of Rialto with limited or restricted accessibility.
The non-cityscape areas in the City of Rialto have required police responses for a varying number of issues such as homeless encampments, wildfire threats, and criminal activity. Because of the topography, the customary police vehicle is limited in its accessibility capabilities and currently the Rialto Police Department is not equipped with a vehicle that will allow for access in these areas. Past responses in these areas would require police officers to exit their police vehicle and walk or run to an area that required eliminating a criminal threat or making notifications of an impending disaster, limiting their expediency.
The incidents in the wash and rural landscapes often require a multi-agency or multi-departmental response. Recently, a number of these responses by police personnel would have benefited from the use of an “all-terrain” vehicle. Wildfires that burned a significant portion of the north end of our city required both fire and police response. The introduction of an “all-terrain” vehicle would have aided in our response in order to provide evacuation warnings to our citizens which includes a significant number of homeless encampments. An “all-terrain” vehicle will be allowed for critical transportation of equipment and/or ability to monitor emergency response in rural areas. Additionally, past heavy rains caused flooding in wash areas in the city and required both fire and police response. An “all-terrain” vehicle would have proved beneficial in warning persons that frequent the wash such as our growing homeless population of the mounting danger of these heavy rains. Both responses to these natural disasters would greatly mitigate the potential for officer injuries as it would not be necessary to respond in a common fashion, on foot or attempting an ingress/egress by way of a customary police vehicle.
Instances, where officers need to search an area inaccessible by a customary police vehicle, have been identified by our department in the following ways: body recovery, evidence collection, search/apprehension of suspects, identification of hazards, missing persons searches, contacting the mentally ill, mitigation of wildfire dangers by checking homeless encampments, and conducting pre-disaster enforcement by contacting persons in wildfire danger zones or wash areas primed for flooding in order to warn of impending dangers. Additionally, an “all-terrain” vehicle will allow for critical transportation of equipment and personnel in order to address these issues (e.g. medical aid devices, coroner personnel, behavioral health personnel, evidence collection teams) in areas with limited accessibility. Lastly, information obtained by police personnel on scene will be critical in coordinating resources from allied agencies. The practice currently to address the aforementioned is for Rialto Police officers to park their police vehicle(s) and access these areas by way of foot, increasing their potential for injury.
In 2019, the Rialto Police Department was awarded $24,705.00 through the Homeland Security Grant Program to purchase the Specialized Emergency Management Vehicle described above. The Rialto City Council accepted the grant award on June 23, 2020.
On March 9, 2021, the bid process for the Specialized Emergency Management Vehicle was opened under RFB 21-033. The bid process closed on April 6, 2021, and no bids were received. After doing our due diligence, staff worked with Chaparral Motorsports, located in the City of San Bernardino, the nearest authorized “all-terrain” vehicle retailer. Chaparral Motorsports provided a quote for the Can-Am Maverick ATV on May 7, 2021, in the amount of $40,325.64.
The quote received from Chaparral Motorsports exceeded the original grant award by $15,620.64. The Rialto Police Department applied for and was awarded additional funding through the Fiscal Year 2019 Homeland Security Grant Program in the amount of $15,621.00, to complete the Specialized Emergency Management Vehicle purchase. The additional funding was awarded on August 17, 2021.
Pursuant to Section 2.48.110, subsections B, C and E of the Rialto Municipal Code, Staff recommends approval of the quote from Chaparral Motorsports. Chaparral Motorsports is able to provide the Can-Am Maverick ATV that meets our required specifications, and the City will not take delivery of any equipment prior to final inspection and acceptance.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The proposed action does not meet the definition of a project as defined by Section 15378 California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A “Project” means the whole of an action, which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, and excludes the following:
1) Continuing administrative or maintenance activities, such as purchases for supplies, personnel-related actions, general policy and procedure making.
1) Organizational or administrative activities of governments that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment.
GENERAL PLAN CONSISTENCY
The City of Rialto has outlined key goals and objects relating to public safety. The approval of this purchase is consistent with meeting these objectives.
Goal 5-8: Provide effective and comprehensive policing services that meet the safety needs of Rialto.
LEGAL REVIEW
The City Attorney has reviewed and supports this staff report.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Operating Budget Impact
This purchase does not impact the city’s operating budget.
Capital Improvement Budget Impact
The Rialto Police Department is estimated to receive $40,326 in funding from the grant program. Staff recommends increasing revenues in the amount of $15,621 to the Fiscal Year 2019 Homeland Security Grant Account No. 247-400-6982-7560 and appropriating $15,621 in Account No. 247-500-6982-3050.
Staff will process a budget adjustment in the amount of $24,962 from Fiscal Year 2019 Homeland Security Grant Account No. 247-500-6982-3030 to 247-500-6982-3050. Upon the close of the City of Rialto’s Fiscal Year 2021, $24,962 will be carried forward to the City’s Fiscal Year 2022 Budget. The total funding of $40,326 will then be available for the purchase of the Can-Am Maverick ATV from Chaparral Motorsports the amount of $40,325.64.
Per Rialto Municipal Code Section: 2.48.145, a vendor disclosure form is attached.
Licensing
This action does not trigger a requirement for a business license.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council:
• Accept the Fiscal Year 2019 Homeland Security Grant additional award of $15,621.
• Approve the Budget Resolution.
• Approve the purchase of a Can-Am Maverick ATV from Chaparral Motorsports in the amount of $40,325.64.