A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, ACCEPTING THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE CITY MANAGER AND WAIVING, BY 5/7TH VOTE, THE FORMAL COMPETITIVE BIDDING REQUIREMENT, FINDING SUCH WAIVER TO BE IN THE CITY’S BEST INTEREST, AND AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE AN AGREEMENT FOR THE PURCHASE OF TRACKSTAR INTERNATIONAL, INC. AUTOMATIC VEHICLE LOCATION (AVL) SYSTEM’S HARDWARE, RELATED SOFTWARE, AND SERVICES, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $368,000 FOR FISCAL YEAR 2019, AND $140,000 ANNUALLY THEREAFTER, FOR A PERIOD OF TWO (2) YEARS, SUBJECT TO AND CONTINGENT UPON AN APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS FOR THE SECOND AND THIRD YEAR. 

ADMINISTRATION RECOMMENDATION

Approve the Resolution.

CITY MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION

After review of the staff recommendation, the City Manager recommends that the Mayor and City Commission adopt this resolution to waive, by a 5/7ths vote, the formal competitive bidding requirements, finding such a waiver to be in the City’s best interest, and authorize the City Manager to execute an agreement for the purchase of Trackstar International, Inc. Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system’s hardware, related software,  and services, in an amount not to exceed $368,000 for Fiscal Year 19, and $140,000 annually thereafter, for a period of two (2) years. 

On December 8, 2010 and pursuant to RFQ No. 39-09/10, Resolution 2010-27561 approved and authorized the Mayor and City Clerk to execute a contract with Radio Satellite Integrators, Inc. (“RSI”) for the acquisition of an Automated Vehicle Locator (AVL) system for the purpose of tracking vehicle location, automatic vehicle alert monitoring and customizable reporting with real time data. Initially, the fleet included 110 vehicles. By 2016, RSI was monitoring and maintaining approximately 850 vehicles. However, due to inherent deficiencies in RSI’s system and in anticipation of an expiring contract the City sought to identify an alternate AVL system. The Fleet Department conducted market research and identified an alternate AVL system from Trackstar International, Inc. (“Trackstar”).

On October 29, 2013, Trackstar was awarded a competitively bid contract with the City of Fort Lauderdale. On February 9, 2016, the Fleet Department initiated a pilot program to test the Trackstar system. After the testing period, Trackstar’s AVL system was recommended by the Fleet Department staff based on its ability to maximize hardware capabilities, high configurable software functionalities and ease of use, enhanced geo-fencing, administrative and reporting features, backward compatibility with existing hardware, and faster browser response time. Therefore, on May 19, 2016, the City Manager approved for the City to access the awarded contract from the City of Fort Lauderdale and has been utilizing it for the purchase of devices, maintenance, and support of all AVL devices Citywide. Said contract is set to expire on October 28, 2018.

In an effort to continue the support and maintenance of the AVL system, the Procurement Department conducted research and determined that there were no contracts available to continue piggybacking of the existing system from Trackstar.  At this time, the Fleet Department conducted further market research and determined that it was in our best interest to continue with the Trackstar system based on the following:

While other vendors offer cloud base services only, Trackstar’s software and data reside behind the City’s firewall and the City remains in possession of the data; thus, protecting the information from potential hackers. Also, Trackstar offers Retro Geo Fence, which allows end users to go back in time to see which vehicles were in a certain area at a given time, rather than running reports for all City vehicles at a given date and time. Additionally, Trackstar works with a wide range of AVL hardware vendors, including: Sierra Wireless, Cradle Point, Airlink, Telenav, and CalAmp (our current devices).

Many vendors offer ‘plug & play devices’.  Testing has revealed that ‘plug & play’ devices do not offer tracking reliability, are not as easily customizable and can only report when the vehicle is turned on. These ‘plug & play’ devices use the vehicle diagnostic port [there is only one] which is currently used by the fuel management system in the City’s case.  This would require the purchase and installation of a specialized cable to allow two devices to use the one diagnostic port which could result in interference and potential signal loss with the vehicle computer communication capabilities.  This also offers easy access for operators to tamper with the equipment, unplugging the device, thus rendering it inoperable, and unable to report.                ****************************************************************************                                                                                                                                                     

As all AVL devices are programmed to be vendor specific, changing to a new AVL system would require the removal of all devices from each City vehicle, resetting the device to factory specifications, then downloading new vendor programming/software into the device and re-installing it into each vehicle. This is not easily accomplished and requires a great deal of labor, expense and loss of time for every City Department. Case in point, the changeover in mid-February of 2016 from RSI devices to Trackstar took over five (5) weeks for the City’s then fleet of 850 vehicles; causing disruption to all City departments. The current fleet is 1,085 vehicles.

The expected cost to increase because the City’s fleet is expected to rise from 850 to 1,200 vehicles and the need to make the AVL devices 4G compatible is $228,000. In addition, the annual estimated costs for the maintenance and technical support of all AVL devices is $140,000. Totaling FY 19 costs to $368,000 and $140,000 annually thereafter.

Therefore, the benefits the current system stated herein and to avoid the cost of replacing the current system, the Administration seeks authority to continue to utilize Trackstar’s AVL system.

The cost associated with the purchase, maintenance and software for FY19 is estimated at $368,000 which was already appropriated through the budgeting process, and not to exceed $140,000 annually thereafter, subject to annual budgeting process.