Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I'm calling to order the Management and Internal Services Committee uh to order for May 12th, 2026. Please bow your heads. Dear heavenly father, we are so thankful for this day and we are so thankful for all the many blessings you bestow upon Columbia County. We ask that you protect our county citizens, our county staff, elected officials, and those who serve so well in our community. Please provide a hedge of protection around our sheriff's deputies and our firemen and EMS workers. Please help us work through these agenda items and do all things in your will. In your most holy and precious name, I pray. Amen.

Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have a quorum this morning with three members present. Have you had the opportunity to review the minutes from the April 14th meeting? Motion to accept as presented. Second. So moved. Do we have any changes to the agenda today? We have one item for your consideration, Madam Chair. I believe this is this one. Is it on this one? I believe it is. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm sorry. Thank you. Uh I1 C9. This is the contract removal with coastal waste. We're going to ask to remove that. We're still in negotiations with coastal waste. Okay. We will uh remove that item and move forward with the other items as presented. Seeing that we have no presentation or consent agenda items this morning, we will move into the debate agenda. And looks like we are starting with Mr. Kennedy today. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Granado will brief that. Thank you. Good morning.

Good morning, everyone. Um, I have uh three items for your consideration today. The first of which is the disaster debris management services contract. As you know, every 5 years we you know uh procure for new contracts for everything and um we uh went through everything with um procurement had seven people or I'm sorry seven companies that uh submitted proposals and then we put the technical scores and costs together and series came out uh on top. So staff recommends awarding the de disaster debris management services to seriesir environmental. That's impressive. So they cleaned up our storm and they on top of seven companies. Yes sir.

Move to consent. Second. So moved. Next. Um the second I have is uh the same. Uh we for disaster debris monitoring services. Uh last time we had debris and we went through the the process with the proposals cost points and technical scores and debris uh is our recommended company again this time. So staff recommends awarding um disaster monitoring services to debris. Move to consent. Second. So moved. Next.

And this one is new. Uh if you recall, uh public assistance was under debris monitoring last time and we decided as huge as it got last time uh and hopefully never again, but we decided to put out a public assistant consulting service contract for bid this time. and um Synergy came back with the highest score and we are very familiar with Synergy because Synergy worked under debris and uh the proposal one because they were able to be more specific when it came to what they're going to provide should we have to go through that again. So um staff recommends approval for um Synergy Public Assistance Consulting.

So that all these are contracts should we need them. should we need them. And and and uh and the just because you asked with public assistance, we're we can we don't have to wait for a disaster declaration to talk to them. You know, they're going to consult us if we have similar events that don't reach that threshold. So move to consent. Second with a question. So last time they worked directly for series debris and um so but if something else happens they'll work directly for us an hourly charge

there is and and if you recall if if there's still Helen related stuff that I brought last month um it's still under the debris tech umbrella but for anything new July 1st moving forward it's directly with synergy. Gotcha. Thank you. That's all. So moved. Thank you. Thank you all. Thanks. I just have one other question, Sean. Yes, sir. Did you call each other? You and Matt and Glenn, or is this like did your wives coordinate? I'm just trying to figure out what's up on that. It is impressive. I didn't get that. I didn't get the memo. Actually, sir, we've been doing this for like the past four committees.

Are you calling me out for not paying attention? All right. Next item. Uh the next item will be briefed by Dr. Ukarnney.

Serious. We'll keep it going. Good morning. Good morning.

It's time to redo our temporary workers contract. It's the end of the 5-year period. Uh we had 19 vendors apply. Last time there were only four or five. So, it was fun to go through all that, but uh the committee did a great job. We had six people vet everybody. Um and we're recommending going with Augusta staffing. We had been going with a different company. We're pleased that they're located in Columbia County right at near Westtown and they came in very aggressive on their pricing, three percentage points cheaper, which will shave off about $30,000 per year. Uh Robert Kelly and his brother Isaac are here uh from Augusta Staffing. I just want to introduce them. So, we're recommending entering into contract with them beginning July 1, 2026, terminating June 30th, 2028 with three one-year rollovers.

Who has the contract right now? Is this a

If I could just add if I could add to that just real quick, we we have worked with Express Employment Solutions for many, many years, and that company has done an outstanding job for Columbia County. I just really want to give them props and a shout out for providing good service for us. That's the thing about the competitive bid process and competitive proposal process is that we're constantly going out looking to see who can give us the best price and Augusta staffing was was more aggressive on their pricing. The technical approach was pretty much pretty close to the same. I think Express may have even edged them out just a bit on on that piece because they they're the incumbent. They they know how we work. Uh but we feel certain that Augusta staff can do a great job. But I didn't want to didn't want to let the meeting pass without giving our thanks to Express Employment Solutions and the many many years they provide services for Columbia County. It really boils down to us being in a competitive market and saving the taxpayers as much money as possible while getting the best service.

Thank you. Thank you. Move to consent. Second. So moved. On to Mr. Blanchard. Okay. Good morning. Good morning. Um the for the record I don't have any Sears sucker clothing on. Appreciate that.

All right. Uh the first item I have for your consideration is uh building C network equipment life cycle purchase from DSI. Um you've heard me come before you before and talk about life cycling of computer equipment or network equipment. Um that's what this is for is for the uh replacement of our network infrastructure in building C. And although I did not orchestrate it, ironically, the network outage that we've experienced this morning is related to a piece of equipment in building C. So um that's the universe at work. I guess um we are working with um uh DISUS solutions also known as DSI for this. The cost will be $278,340.76. Likewise, we will be replacing uh some fiber between the data closets in the building and that will be performed by structured media solutions or SMS for 16,200. So total cost is going to be $294,540.76 which will be funding through Splast. Staff recommends approval.

Move to consent. Second. So moved. Next.

The next item have your considerations is a professional services addendum with clarity cloud for the implementation of the clarity permitting and licensing solution. All right. This one's a bit more complex. Um the commission approved a project in 2023 for us to move forward with the implementation of the clarity software, but it was going to be implemented by a company called Unicus. Um after uh a little over two years now of work on this project, Unicus has not moved us towards completion. Uh therefore uh we've worked with uh internally with staff and then with uh Clarity, the actual manufacturer of the software in order to come up with a plan to uh to terminate Unicus and then move forward with Clarity themselves. They do have implementation teams. Uh Unicus was formerly a partner of theirs uh and we're moving back to Clarity. Clary is going to pick up this project and take it through to completion. Um the good news with that is that um uh the the original cost of that project was almost a million dollars. Um we have spent a significant portion of that and we've worked with clarity so that we don't have any further expenditure of county funds beyond what we originally envisioned in order to complete this project. So I'm not coming to you to ask for more money.

Net neutral. Net neutral. Um uh for full disclosure though it is $313 more which I will pay from some uh funds that are available as part of the record show. Take it out of respect. Thank you. So consent. We're almost Thank you, sir. So moved. Thank you. All right. Good work. Yes, Mr. Pra.

Good morning.

Good morning. I have a few items this morning, so please be patient as I go through these. Uh the first is the award of the construction contract to Summers Construction LLC. This is for the Evanstown Center Park restroom and the Racket Center restroom project. Um we finished the Racket Center a few years ago, the pickle ball courts there, and uh funding was limited. So uh this project was developed and and planned with community services to construct a bathroom in that location. Um the pickle ball courts are accessible. Um and our bathroom that's currently there is not because of grade. So this bathroom will take care of that. It'll be located the lower portion by the pickle ball courts and the construction of the Evanstown Center Park restroom will be in the back corner away from the stage in the rock area. Um this work also helps us put in provisions for the ice skating rink. So the ice skating rink comes in about October or November and as you know it sits in the middle of the park. There's a lot of construction. Uh it takes us a while to get the grass back. So this moves this into that gravel parking lot uh to the south of of Annabellum uh way.

Um so we've we've been working on this for a while. Uh we uh submitted bids and open bids. Um Summer's Construction was low and staff recommends approval of this contract in the amount of $853,165. Have we used them before? Yes, we have. Yes, sir. Move the consent. Was this a splass project? Yes, it is a splass project 1722 out of park upgrade money. Second. So moved. Next.

The second uh item I have for your consideration is the award of RFP for professional services with Craig Gen Davis Architecture and PPK. Um this is for fire station 13 replacement. We have been working internally on site plans and floor plans with uh fire rescue staff on this project for a few months. We issued an RFP. We had three responses and one no response. Um after meeting with staff and fire rescue, we decided on Craig Golden Davis and PBK architecture. Uh staff recommends approval of this contract for the amount of $260,650.

What's the ETA on the design? So, since we've done a lot of in-house design on this, uh it's kind of a bridging document that we handed to them. We'll do concept uh validation and we hope to be uh bidding this by the first of the year. Oh, good. Great. Move to consent. Second. So, moved. Next.

Third item I have for your consideration is a contract renewal number three with Northwest Exterminating Company. They do all of our pest control. Uh they do it on a regular basis. They also are pretty uh pretty easy to access if we need an immediate service, usually the same day within a few hours. Um so we've been happy with their with their service. Um this is the third and final renewal term. We'll come back to you next year for uh bidding this this back out. Um this is at a budgeted item in the amount of $35,52, but as I mentioned, sometimes we do them as a as a one-off um like SRP. We have a lot of bugs down there. So, we're constantly going down to the visitor center or Savannah Rapids when it was open to spray. So, staff recommends approval.

This covers all the county buildings on all all the campuses. Yes. Move to consent. Second. So, moved. Next. The next item I have for your consideration is uh contract renewal number one with Camo. Uh this was bid out last year. Um this is for all of our janitorial janitorial supplies, cleaning supplies. We also sometimes will buy vacuum cleaners or mops or cleaning machines from them. So, they have a host of different products that we use um that we buy. We budget this about around $70,000 a year um out of the maintenance budget and staff recommends approval to consent.

This is for the whole county, not just this all our buildings. So, um I want to take that and say that like PAC and some of these other uh uh revenue producing departments also have some cleaning staff and some cleaning machines. So, we will help them as needed. But yes, it's for the the entire county. Places like the jail. No. Right. Move to consent. Second. So moved. Next.

The next item for your consideration is contract renewal number three with Otis Elevator Company. Uh this is the third and final term and we uh will bring this back to you next year. We have been discussing this with other elevator companies on maintenance. We feel this is a a really good price right now. So uh we've budgeted this amount for 64,000 in our budget. Um we have 35 elevators and we're continuing to grow that number. So we will be bringing you back other elevators as they come online out of warranty from the contractor's warranty. Um, but we're continuing to grow our elevator uh our ele elevator inventory. Um, so staff recommends approval. Move to consent. Second. So moved. Next.

The next item I have is contract renewal number one with ADSI moving systems. Uh we uh did an RFP last year for move management. Uh the reason for that was we knew that we were going to be having building A and the justice center um as well as some other renovations. And this company basically comes in and helps us uh move, provides us with moving materials, uh temporary workers, etc. So this is the contract number 101. We have been using ADSI. We we have been pleased with their services. Uh staff recommends approval. Move to consent. Second. So moved. Next.

The next item I have for your consideration is contract renewal number four with ACOM security. ACOM is the provider of our Berg fire callout system. So, uh, in the middle of the night, if I get a phone call, it's usually from that that company. They vet the call to see who what what's going on before sending services. I usually get a phone call and other department managers may get phone calls from them. Um, we are working internally to try to eliminate this. Uh, we're not there yet. Um we we really want to use uh some services with 911 and their capabilities to to hopefully come to a piece of uh a time where we can get rid of the this service. But for right now, we do need this service. Okay. Uh so staff recommends approval.

Move to consent. And how how are they? Well, bear with me. I'm sorry. Never mind. I'm just reading. I'm just confirming something. Uh second.

So moved. Next. The next item for your consideration is another move management contract. Uh the RFP, we selected two uh vendors to provide this service. Uh we are continuing to this to uh renew this contract even though we've not worked with them yet. We still want their that availability to use them. Um one thing I forgot to mention with ADSI and Elogic is that any department in the county can use them. We just use them because of construction and facility management. A lot of times we'll use our own staff, but if the move is is a much bigger scale, we will call them and and help. Uh they will help us. So staff recommends recommends approval of this contract.

It's so moved.

And the last Oh, that that was removed. Yep. Last item I have for your consideration is a contract with Booker Vic Architects for the design of the Columbia County Vice and Narcotics Unit office building. Um we have been working for a few months on this and trying to figure out the best uh avenue. They are currently in a building that's over 50 years old. It is in need of a lot of repairs, a lot of expensive repairs. Uh we worked with administration and the sheriff uh and this was the uh the best outcome for us is is to provide them a new facility. So staff recommends a uh approval of this contract uh based on a percentage basis of 8.5% of our budget. Uh again, you're going to ask, but designs hopefully be complete by the end of this year. We'll bid it first of next year.

Move to consent. Second. So moved. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any legal matters today? No matter. On to staff reports. Good morning, Miss Reese. Good morning. The first item I have for you is the year-to- date budget report. This is for the month ended April 30th. We should be operating around 83% of the budget at this time and all of the funds are operating as they should be. No questions. All right. Next,

the next item is the sales tax report. This is for the month of March. We received just over $3.2 million. Right now, our annualized collections are basically flat. Um this check this this funding was 15% greater than last month but we are down slightly from the same month last year. Is there a reason for that? Was there something going on last year? We don't really know. I don't know if maybe it's just starting to normalize since Helen and we had some high months after Helen. No other question. Any other questions? All right. Next,

the final item is the investment summary. This is for the month of March. Uh just for your information.

I don't have any questions. No questions. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any commissioners or public comments this morning? Seeing that we have no executive session items, we will adjourn at 850.