By Brett Callwood
The members of the city council approved a number of contracts and funding items at the council meeting on the evening of Tuesday, September 12.
$23,491 was approved in Departmental Item 15 – Police, under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG).
“This program furthers the DOJ’s mission by assisting local and tribal law criminal justice efforts to prevent or reduce crime and violence, and to improve the administration of the criminal justice system,” reads the JAG Grant Announcement.
Departmental Item 12 authorized “the City Manager to Execute All Agreements and to Accept Grant Funds for the Gardena Community Aquatic & Senior Center from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.”
Departmental Item 16B (Public Works) saw $88,888.40 awarded to Western Audio Visual & Security for the Council Chambers Visual Audio Upgrade Design/Build Project.
“The Audio Visual (AV) system within the City’s Council Chamber has experienced multiple failures over the past year,” reads the staff note. “On April 13, 2023, staff contacted an AV firm and received a proposal from Vector USA to renovate the AV system for $423,703. On May 9, 2023, the Council reviewed the proposal and directed staff to reduce the scope to exclude the “hybrid” component. Subsequently, the Request for Proposal was prepared for the replacement of the outdated existing audio and visual system such as cameras, speakers, microphones, and other supporting components.”
$268,884.75 was awarded to Noodoe Inc for the purchase and installation of 71 electric vehicle chargers and five years of operations and maintenance, for the Arthur Johnson Park, Rowley Park and Police Department Parking Lot Charge Ready Project.
“In July 2023, the City Council approved the Charge Ready contracts for Southern California (SCE) to build the infrastructure for the electric vehicle (EV) chargers for Arthur Johnson Park, Rowley Park and the Police Department parking lot at no cost to the City,” reads the staff note. “Staff requested proposals for the 71 EV chargers from the six vendors in SCE’s pre-approved ‘Charge Ready Light Duty’ vendor list.”
Finally, a contract was approved with Arellano Associates for Microtransit Service Community Outreach and Education in the amount of $127,020 and a Project Total of $146,073.
“In Spring 2024, GTrans will launch its Microtransit service, a flexible, demand-responsive transportation service that integrates software for on-demand trip planning on smaller vehicles, similar to Uber and Lyft,” reads the staff note. “The service will combine GTrans’ existing Special Transit customers and new, on-demand general public customers. In April 2023, City Council approved a contract with Pulsar to develop the branding design of the service (including logos and livery) and in June 2023, approved the purchase of software from RideCo. In subsequent meetings, Council approved the purchase of microtransit vehicles and bus mobile validators that will allow TAP payment onboard. Since that time, GTrans Staff has been working on designing the service, hiring staff, branding the vehicles and putting it all together to prepare for a launch in Spring 2024.”
All items passed unanimously and without drama.
