Cheney councils awards bid based on 'most advantageous' criteria

The Cheney City Council did something a little unusual at its April 18 meeting by awarding a bid for an upgrade to its information technology system to a company that was not the lowest bidder.

The city opened two bids on April 10 for the project estimated at just over $100,000 which includes replacement of existing servers and software, one from Intrinium totaling $107,954.32 and one from JW Affinity IT for the amount of $106,500.70. Finance Director Cindy Niemeier told the council that the bids were evaluated on criteria of cost, availability, best fit and most advantageous for the city.

Originally a resolution awarding the bid to JW Affinity IT was drawn up, but Niemeier said after consulting with Cheney’s legal counsel, a new resolution was presented authorizing award of the contract “to the proposal most advantageous to the City” with the other factors taken into consideration.

As such, Niemeier recommended the city go with Intrinium. The difference between the two companies other than pricing boiled down to location and familiarity – Intrinium is located in Spokane and has performed IT services on the city’s existing system while JW Affinity IT is based out of Smyrna, Georgia and has not worked for Cheney.

“They’re not the lowest, but they are the most advantageous,” Niemeier said of Intrinium.

Also associated with the IT upgrade, the council approved a separate contract with Intrinium in the amount of $30,470 which was needed because the upgrade work is outside the scope of work outlined in the company’s existing contract with the city. Council also approved Ordinance W-63 authorizing an interfund loan of $60,000 to help pay for part of the upgrade. The funding will come from the sewer fund, which has healthy reserves, and will be repaid over five years at 1 percent interest.

Ordinances require three separate readings, which usually occur at different meetings, however the Finance Department requested all three meetings and final passage take place at the April 18. Councilman Doug Nixon made the motion and after a second, council unanimously agreed to the loan.

Council adopted a similar course of action on another ordinance, Ordinance W-64, the city’s first budget amendment of 2015. Most of the $1,515,700 — $995,700 — were “book” entries only accounting for deprecation.

The remaining $478.800 was mostly for capital expenses not covered in the original budget under information technology, water, sewer and capital facilities.

In other business, council:

 Approved disbursement of $17,000 from the Lodging Tax Fund to three applicants.

 Approved a $20,000 resolution for submittal to the Department of Ecology of a hydro geologic study necessary to maintaining the city’s wastewater treatment plant’s discharge permit.

 Approved a $13,327 change order to Specialty Pump enabling the contractor to lower the pump in Well 8 another 50 feet.

The council also approved passage of the city’s Marijuana Overlay Zone.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].