Finance Committee - 10/07/2020 Page 3
Mayor Donchess
Alright and there’s an explanation we have to give here. So for many years, the Department of Public Works
did not come to either the Board of Public Works or to the Finance Committee regarding the purchase of
asphalt because two Purchasing Managers ago who left | don’t know, 10 years ago or so, maybe not that
much but quite a few years had the opinion that it was a Commodity Contract which didn’t need approval. Then
that practice was followed by the previous Purchasing Manager who you all met earlier. Then in recent
months, Kelly Parkinson has joined the City as Purchasing Manager and she has raised the point that she
thought that this should be approved by the Board of Public Works and the Finance Committee; fine, no
problem, we will do that from now on.
The only issue is that pursuant to previous custom, pursuant to previous practice, the Department of Public
Works has already bought $25,000.00 of asphalt this Fiscal Year against this $144,000.00 Budget amount.
Now | am just repeating that this is what has been done for years pursuant to a practice that was established
about 10 years ago. Apparently, that was not, at least the current thinking is that is not the way it should have
been done, so we are correcting the situation now. And from here on in, we will bring this contract to the
Finance Committee at the beginning of the Fiscal Year. Questions or comments? Let’s let Mr. Ibarra speak
about the asphalt and what it is all about and then you can ask questions or comments on any of this. So Mr.
Ibarra could you tell us about the asphalt?
Jon lbarra, Superintendent of Streets
| would be happy to Mr. Mayor, thank you. So this motion is for funding the asphalt and aggregates for our
street operations. We use the asphalt for mill and fill, shims and overlays on roads that may not be part of the
existing paving program that we do annually. So this more or less gives us the ability to get some more time
out of the roads when they are deteriorated but not yet on the paving list. We also run the hot box out of this
and do berm mix. And on the aggregate end of things we would buy stone and sand through the same
companies that we would use for project-based stuff or sewer repairs, or drainage repairs, whether we need
stone or sand or fill. So this is really something we use daily in our operations.
Mayor Donchess
Ok questions or comments? Alderwoman Lu?
Alderwoman Lu
Thank you, just wondering is this pretty much a year’s worth? | am just trying to get a sense of how much of
this we buy a year or use?
Mr. Ibarra
Glad you asked, so | had a similar question out of the Commissioners at our BPW and this past year, last
season, we used approximately $99,000.00 worth of material. But to put in perspective the prior year to that,
Fiscal 19, we used $126,000.00. So it does vary based on the Departmental needs and projects that are
coming around every year.
Mayor Donchess
But as | understand it you do not necessary — you only spend for the product that is delivered. So if you end up
using $99,000.00 you pay $99,000.00 not $144,000.00.
Mr. Ibarra
That’s correct.
