But our before we go to that motion, let me ask if there are any items that the count a council member would like to um have for a separate vote or would like to take it off of our list of votes.

So um and I know that I saw a report from um Marie to say that there are some things that needed to be followed up.

So is there for comment or for a separate vote?

Any council member would like to have comment?

Miss Mayfield.

Yes, madam mayor.

For number 19, I want to see if we could defer that vote for this cooperative purchasing contracts between the seven vendors that are listed on here.

There is one vendor that is a minority-owned vendor, but the our DBE processes we go out for collective bargaining.

Marie was able to get some additional language for me earlier on that.

Marie, can you share that?

Yes, ma'am.

And I would have to, you said something about deferring the vote altogether.

I would like to so that we can get because I know that yeah, get your thing.

Um the only there's one, it's several different businesses that are listed.

We have this cooperative purchasing agreement.

I am not sure, and since this was just presented to us on Friday for us to vote on it tonight, there was no time for me to ask questions prior to this evening, what our actual process looks like to ensure that we have diversity within the pool that we reach out to for RFPs.

Like there is a company that is actually they have a contract with the city of Louisiana, the Calvin Braxton Ford that is out there that was not aware and did not know that we had an opportunity in order to contract with the city.

So I'm trying to get better information on how what that looks like when who's at the table in these cooperative agreements.

So in the cooperative agreement, the one that you recognize or have information about is not in there.

It is Louisiana.

Is it a state contract or a city contract?

It is both they just signed, they just threw their they just signed a purchasing agreement with the city of Louisiana that was done through their cooperative.

I'm just saying this is a minority-owned business that was not aware.

So since this was brought was in our packet on Friday for us to vote on tonight, I am trying to get a better understanding of who is actually at the table when these cooperative agreement requests go out.

I just I was just saying that is it a city cooperative or a statewide cooperative would be Louisiana.

So I was just wondering which city it is.

Um I could tell you which city and I think the contract was with the city of Lockport in Louisiana, but it was done through the same process that we'd done this, except for this vendor is not in the system.

So I'm trying to get a better understanding of how do we miss Harry and yes, Miss Mayfield, just given the schedule and the next opportunity for this to come before you wouldn't be till late August, and we may miss some of the some of them we have like six months windows, and once we miss a production schedule on a particular piece of equipment or vehicle, we miss it.

This is 10 weeks.

I don't I would hope that we don't have anything out there considering this particular agreement is for the purchase of light duty trucks and some other things that we don't have anything that's getting ready to break down in 10 weeks.

I'm just sorry, I meant not just the 10 weeks, then there's also a production schedule by the vendor, and if you don't get in on that window, you gotta wait till that production cycle rolls again.

So I I'm not sure about this.

I'd really prefer, I mean, it's definitely it's up to you.

I mean, it's gonna take six votes to do it, but I would like for us to take into consideration to not put us in a position where, and this isn't for you, Marie, but for staff, to present us with a decision that information on Friday for a decision that has to be made on Monday, and then if there's questions about it, to say, well, we need to go ahead and vote on it, then we'll figure it out later.

I understand.

So um I would like to suggest that because we do have these requirements for a number of things and a lot of the items on our agenda this day is all about getting our infrastructure started out with these kinds of vehicles and equipment.

So I I guess the question I would say is that we could guarantee that this vendor would be included next after we find the information.

But I see Phil Reger here, so help us understand the impact of not doing this, and if there is a pathway for another vendor to join at some point in this process.

Right.

So there's a question about the cooperatives in general.

The cooperatives are two cooperatives.

Specifically, who is at the table so that they know so that we have diversity in our selection process because on the actual application for the DBE, it does give you the opportunity to say that if you have any specific certification, whether it's minority, female, veteran, then please share it.

Share that.

Yes.

So two cooperatives here.

One's a national cooperative, that's the source well cooperative, and one is a state cooperative, which is the sheriff's the state sheriff's cooperative.

And so as a matter of practice, so what happens is these entities will uh go out and put out bids for specific pieces of equipment, and then vendors will come and bid and they will get selected based on low bid.

Um and these cooperatives are available to entities across the country, and so that's how they get buying power, right?

Um traditionally, when the city of Charlotte has tried to put out uh RFPs or uh in this case invitation to bid for equipment, uh our buying power actually isn't big enough to get uh a lot of response, and so it's uh why we traditionally use cooperatives because the cooperatives uh represent more buying power, and with more buying power, we get better pricing.

Um the second thing is is that in general, before we um use a cooperative, we look at our MWSB certified firms to see if there are any certified.

Um, and in this case, there are not any certified firms in our database that would have yielded uh, or in other words, we wouldn't have lost an opportunity because we chose to go to a cooperative.

Uh Maria's right, these this these series of contracts will be some of the contracts we use to uh purchase equipment uh to sort of realize the replacement list that you all adopted through the FY25 budget.

So we will be purchasing equipment throughout the year.

There are windows of opportunity to put your orders in because there are certain manufacturing runs, and if we miss that window of opportunity, we may miss out on the ability to purchase that piece of equipment this year uh potentially.

So that's sort of how that works.

Uh Miss Mayfield, did I did I capture your question?

And if not to a certain extent, I think the for me, the bigger opportunity is to not give us a 24-hour to 48-hour notice of making having to make a decision because again, receiving this and seeing it for the first time on Friday to go into it and research it, and then to come Monday and say, well, if we don't move forward with this today, then we lose the window.

But if I have clear questions because I take the time to go in and look up each one of these vendors, yes, there is one vendor in this group of multiple excuse me that is a minority owned business, but there are other opportunities out there.

So being put in a position where you need to immediately make a decision on something, or oh, we lose the opportunity if we don't do it today, it's not a good position, is not a fair position to be placed in.

I apologize that I'm not familiar with the vendor that that you are familiar with exactly.