Fiscal Note
The 2017 Adopted Operating Budget includes $40,000 in the Water Utility budget for professional services expenditures. This appropriation supports a contract for software and database maintenance along with emergency assistance associated with the SCADA system. This system is utilized by the Water Utility to centrally monitor and record pump station operations including water pressure levels and machinery performance. The system also enables remote command of a station's operations during an emergency such as a fire.
Title
Authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to enter into a 5 year sole source agreement with L.W. Allen to provide professional services in updating, maintaining, and providing emergency services for Madison Water Utility’s Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.
Body
PREAMBLE:
Madison Water Utility uses a complex computer and motor control system that is monitored and controlled remotely in order to meet its mission of providing safe, reliable drinking water 24/7. Maintaining, updating, and resolving issues with this system in a timely manner is critical. This resolution allows Madison Water Utility to enter into a sole source agreement with L.W. Allen (including their subsidiary Altronex Control Systems), the only local provider who can provide all of the services needed, including emergency service, and has a high familiarity with all of Madison Water Utility’s sites.
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WHEREAS, Madison Water Utility has 36 remote sites that house groundwater supply wells, booster stations, reservoirs and elevated storage tanks and all of these sites are constantly monitored and controlled remotely utilizing a complex computer and motor control system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition or SCADA); and
WHEREAS, the system operates over fiber optic lines and radios and allows a Waterworks Operator to monitor and control all of our sites 24 hours a day/seven days a week; and
WHEREAS, Madison Water Utility requires professional services necessary in updating and maintaining the SCADA system in the following areas:
• Motor Control (MC) and cabinetry
• Fiber optic lines and switches
• Human Machine Interface (HMI) processes
• Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and relays
• SCADA software and hardware
• Historian database and reporting software
• Remote site hardware and software
• Variable speed drives
• Soft start drives
• Radio and antenna systems; and
WHEREAS, L.W. Allen ((including their subsidiary Altronex Control Systems) is the only local provider for all of these services; and
WHEREAS, L.W. Allen is extremely familiar with Madison Water Utility’s sites and equipment systems as they have built, rebuilt and/or worked on all of the sites; and
WHEREAS, L.W. Allen is able to provide emergency services including site visits with an approximate 30 minute response time (24 hours a day / 7 days a week); and
WHEREAS, L.W. Allen is the only local entity with experience with the type of radio systems employed at 25 of Madison Water Utility’s sites, since they installed and setup all of the systems; and
WHEREAS, Madison Water Utility requires consistency in the way these systems are designed and built which is attainable by using the same provider; and
WHEREAS, under MGO 4.26(4)(b), if a service contract exceeds $25,000 and the contract was not subject to a competitive selection process, the contract shall meet one of the requirements of sec. 4.26(4)(a) and be approved by the Common Council, and signed by the Mayor and Clerk; and
WHEREAS, for the reasons explained above, L.W. Allen is the only firm in the area that can provide the specific needs of the Madison Water Utility, thereby meeting the exception of 4.26(a)(2) which provides that a sole source contract may be approved if the services are available from only one person or firm; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED; that the Common Council hereby authorizes the Mayor and City Clerk to enter into a sole source agreement with L.W. Allen (including their subsidiary Altronex Control Systems) for updating, maintaining, and providing emergency services for Madison Water Utility’s Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system on an as-needed basis for the next five years.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that amendments that do not exceed the Madison Water Utility's approved budget or the scope of the agreement as authorized by the Common Council in this resolution may be executed by the Water Utility General Manager and City Finance Director and/or designee, and counter executed by L.W. Allen, Inc.