He
urged everyone to have a 'Business Continuity'
plan for disaster recovery, with back-up redundancy
capabilities (out-of-state). He stressed 1) Staff
Preparedness, 2) Procedural Preparedness, and
3) Physical Preparedness. He urged that the program
have an annual test to validate that the agencies
procedures work properly. He recommends electronic
scanning to store and image documents. He noted
that document storage is priced by the box, on
a cubic foot basis. Shredding is priced by the
box and by the number of bins. His company provides
mobile cross-cut shredding on-site in their mobile
truck. On-site shredding provides the customer
with the highest level of security. He suggested
that cities offer its residents a 'Security Paper
Shredding Day' for their convenience.
Felice
Fromm inquired if any agency has been successful
in locating a reliable surplus disposal company
that will pick up and sell old furniture items
on an as-needed basis - at low cost to their agency.
She asked if anyone had used 1800-GOTJUNK. She
expressed concern that our surplus items may be
recycled at a Material Recovery Facility and not
go to a landfill.
Kathleen
Hodge informed us that she is using 'Greenview
Resource Management', in Whittier. They pick up
her district's e-waste, and pay by weight. They
are able to shred everything from refrigerators
to computer hard drives. They do not shred mattresses.
The materials are ground down to small metal fragments
in China and sold back to the world as steel rebar.
She believes this company would be an excellent
guest speaker at a future meeting, perhaps at
our March 2010 meeting.
Marc
Monforte suggested that our RFPs contain
a 'Termination for Convenience' clause, should
our agency need to terminate a contract earlier
for whatever purpose necessary. He informed us
of staff reductions that have taken place in his
division that are making carrying out activities
at their warehouse quite difficult. He also provided
members with a copy of a new LAUSD cooperative
contract for regular unleaded gasoline and ULS
diesel fuel. They utilize Falcon Fuels for regular
unleaded gasoline order/deliveries and SC Fuels
for ULS diesel fuel.
Wilfred
Cochico indicated that he has received
payment from 26 agencies for renewing their membership
in LAMPPAC. He has sent out reminders to former
members who have not yet renewed. Cynthia noted
she may be able to make telephone calls to remind
those agencies who have not yet renewed their
membership about how important LAMPPAC can be
to them.
Tracy
Hamilton inquired into how agencies would
deal with an RFP (issued for a non-professional
architect, engineer service), to be awarded to
the most responsive bidder in which 40% of the
evaluation process was based on price - other
evaluation issues were: service level, references,
and experience. Apparently the bidder the Committee
selected (recommended) was priced in the middle
of the pack; the Committee asked her to negotiate
(reduce) price, and Tracy had a concern regarding
the ethics of this action. Members urged her to
never accept the first price and to negotiate
price with the selected source to the benefit
of your agency. It was also suggested that you
inform potential bidders that the ultimate process
will involved two steps: screening the field down
to the top three bidders, and then negotiating
with the final three bidders before ultimately
making a selection. In most cases of creating
an RFP document, the 'price page' is the last
page in the document.
Bill
Gellman informed members that his agency
had taken advantage of the 'Cash for Clunkers'
Federal program. They utilized a vehicle with
a surplus sale value of approximately $1500 for
a $3500 Federal 'CARS' allowance on the purchase
of a new more efficient vehicle purchase with
no stipulation of city governments being excluded
from program participation in their eligibility
rules.
Bill
provided members with a newsletter article which
noted 'Why Gas is Higher in California." The reasons
noted were
conformance,