TRANSMITTAL LETTER FOR BOARD MEETING OF OCTOBER 15, 2009
COMMITTEE ON PROCUREMENT
Mr. Richard Lanyon, Executive Director
Title
Issue purchase order and enter into an agreement with Geneva Scientific, LLC, to furnish, deliver and install three Prometco BMT Steam Sterilizers, in an amount not to exceed $148,380.00, Account 101-16000-634970, Requisition 1285042
Body
Dear Sir:
Authorization is requested to issue a purchase order (PO) and enter into an agreement with Geneva Scientific, LLC, to furnish, deliver and install three Prometco BMT Steam Sterilizers (Model SP-559-1) at the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) for the Virology, Parasitology, Biomonitoring and Microbiology Laboratories of the Environmental Monitoring and Research Division. The PO will expire September 11, 2010.
These steam sterilizers will be used to sterilize equipment, media, glassware, and other materials for use in the laboratories’ analyses for bacteria, virus, phages, toxicity, and ascaris ova. The equipment is also used to sterilize contaminated laboratory materials post analyses and prior to disposal.
These steam sterilizers will replace the three Steris steam sterilizers currently used by the Virology, Parasitology, Biomonitoring, and Microbiology groups at the Stickney WRP laboratory facility. Two of the old Steris units will be removed and discarded by the vendor after installation of the new units. The third old unit will be kept and utilized by the Microbiology group as a backup sterilizing unit.
The steam sterilizers currently in use are ageing and prone to breakdown. Breakdowns have caused waste and delay. The unit used in the Analytical Microbiology Laboratory has difficulty meeting the Illinois Department of Public Health’s maximum media heat exposure time. Over the 2007 and 2008 years parts, repairs, and required upgrades, not covered in the existing service contract, cost the District $11,000.00. Delivery of required needed parts is often slow, high priced, and available from only a single provider nationwide. The replacement sterilizers, being all the same model with industrial grade nonproprietary valves, will minimize operating costs by minimizing the cost of parts kept on site and reduce the downtime due to breakdowns and repairs. Common expendables (i.e. printer paper, fuses, thermocouples and valves) will be universally acceptable, allowing for a single PO for bulk quantities of expendables ordered annually, at perhaps a discounted price.
Furthermore, the Prometco steam sterilizers are equipped with a water purification system that will lengthen the life of the steam generator. Clean steam produced by the stainless-steel fitted-clean steam generator of the Prometco unit may improve the culture water prepared and used in the toxicity analyses performed in the Biomonitoring Laboratory. Geneva Scientific, LLC is the only company that provides this type of sterilizer with double-microprocessors, a two-stage water ring vacuum pump, and a 316Ti stainless-steel electric-clean generator. Therefore, for all of the aforementioned reasons, this equipment is being purchased on a sole-source basis.
Geneva Scientific, LLC, the sole-service provider to furnish, deliver and install a Prometco BMT Steam Sterilizer has submitted pricing for the services and equipment required. Inasmuch as Geneva Scientific, LLC, is the only source of supply for the services and equipment required, nothing would be gained by advertising for bids (Section 11.4 of the Purchasing Act). In addition, the equipment and accessories provided under the PO/agreement are economically procurable from a single source.
Geneva Scientific, LLC is not registered to transact business in Illinois, but has submitted a certificate of good standing from the State of Wisconsin. The Department of Procurement and Materials Management has received approval from the Executive Director to move forward with the recommendation to award.
The Multi-Project Labor Agreement is not applicable due to the specialized nature of the services required.
In view of the foregoing, it is recommended that the Director of Procurement and Materials Management be authorized to issue a PO and enter into an agreement with Geneva Scientific, LLC, in an amount not to exceed $148,380.00.
Funds for the 2009 expenditure in the amount of $98,920.00 are available in Account 101-16000-634970. The estimated expenditure for 2010 is $49,460.00. Funds for the 2010 expenditure are contingent on the Board of Commissioners’ approval of the District’s budget for that year.
Requested, Louis Kollias, Director of Monitoring and Research, LK:RR:MPC:KB:op
Recommended, Darlene A. LoCascio, Director of Procurement and Materials Management
Respectfully Submitted, Barbara J. McGowan, Chairman Committee on Procurement
Disposition of this agenda item will be documented in the official Regular Board Meeting Minutes of the Board of Commissioners for October 15, 2009