Board of Public Health and Safety Approves Vehicle Purchase, Land Transfer, Housing Hub Contracts (Feb 18, 2026)
February 18, 2026 Board of Public Health and Safety Meeting
The Board of Public Health and Safety convened at 9:31 AM on February 18, 2026, under the chairmanship of Director Andrew Merkley. Quorum was confirmed with members Lee, Williams, Ingram, and Webster present. The board unanimously adopted the minutes from the previous meeting.
Consent Calendar
- Adoption of the minutes from the last meeting: Approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made.
Discussion Items
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Item 021826A – Purchase of 40 Chevy Trax Vehicles for IMPD: Deputy Chief Kevin Wedhington presented a request to purchase 40 administrative vehicles via a cooperative contract with the City of Fort Wayne, awarded to Kelly Automotive Group, at $23,785 per vehicle. The vehicles are for non-pursuit roles (e.g., victim assistants, chaplains) and are nearly half the cost of a pursuit-rated vehicle. The contract was competed and compliant with state law. The board approved the purchase unanimously.
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Item 021826B – Land Transfer to Indigo for Blue Line BRT: Joe Brinkman presented a resolution to transfer two small parcels of land (owned by the dissolved Department of Public Safety) to Indigo for the Washington Street Blue Line rapid bus transit project. One parcel (yellow) is a permanent right-of-way that will eventually be transferred to the Department of Public Works; the other (purple) is a temporary construction easement for rebuilding the fire station driveway. General Counsel Bob Fry clarified the distinction and noted coordination with IFD and MESA to maintain access during construction. The board approved the resolution as amended (correcting language from "permanent easements" to a deed of title and temporary easement).
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Items 021826C and D – Housing Hub Project Amendments: Aaron Schottz and Dustin Jones presented two amendments to the construction management agreement with Shiel Sexton. The second amendment (021826C) credits $69,415.91 back to the city due to early completion of demolition and no unforeseen conditions. The third amendment (021826D) approves the guaranteed maximum price for bid package #2 (site civil work) at $1,056,674, with low bidder GTEC at $721,000 (19% XBE participation). Work is scheduled to start March 2, 2026, with substantial completion by July 31, 2026. The board approved both amendments unanimously.
Key Outcomes
- Item 021826A: Motion to approve passed unanimously.
- Item 021826B: Motion to approve as amended passed unanimously; the resolution will be finalized with corrected language at the next meeting.
- Items 021826C and D: Both motions to approve passed unanimously.
- The meeting adjourned after the vote on Items C and D.
Meeting Transcript
Well, good morning, everybody. Um it is 9 31, so I will hereby call to order the February 18th, 2026 meeting of the Board of Public Health and Safety. Uh I'm Andrew Merkley, the director of the Office of Public Health and Safety. Abby, can you please confirm that we have take attendance and confirm we have quorum? All right, Lee. Present, I could hear that. Williams? Present. All right. Ingram. Present. Webster. Present. Great. Thanks, Abby. Um, has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes from that from our last meeting? Any edits or discussion? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the minutes. So moved. The motion has been moved and seconded. All in favor? All right. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion passes. Okay, we will begin with item number 021826A. I believe we're hearing from Chief Wating. Morning, Chief. Good morning, members of the board. Uh I am Kevin Wedhington. I'm the deputy chief for administration for IMPD here today requesting permission to uh move forward with the purchase of capital items uh to wit 40 uh Chevy tracks uh vehicles. Uh these are uh going to be used for administrative uh positions within the police department, uh civilians and/or uh detectives who don't need a pursuit-rated police car. Um this uh came to fruition at the end of last year when we had some money left over in our budget. Uh we found a purchasing cooperative through uh City of Fort Wayne uh who had competed uh a uh wide-scale vehicle uh contract uh statewide um and it was awarded to Kelly Automotive Group for some of the vehicles, and we we found these vehicles uh would meet our need uh very um aggressive pricing, uh pricing at 23,785 uh per vehicle. Uh so we we are nearly half the cost of a pursuit rated vehicle uh by the time a pursuit rated vehicle is marked up with light bar and emergency equipment. Uh so this allows us to buy roughly two for one vehicles. Uh it's been competed uh per state law and and local ordinance, and uh we would request permission to move forward with the spend. Okay, thank you. Questions? Um I had one question. I think it kind of in informally resolved it. I was just curious in this process, and I I kind of maybe didn't fully understand what you were saying. In this instance, the city of Indianapolis acquires vehicles for like a out like an outlying jurisdiction. Is that what's going on? So we're buying the vehicles for Fort Wayne, or is there an inter meaning of like no? So it's actually the inverse. So a lot of times when City of Indianapolis or other large city municipalities put out requests for proposals or bids, um, the the verbiage in the agreement is that other governmental entities are allowed to buy off of the other entities contract. So we are using Fort Wayne's contract to buy for vehicles from the dealership through the Fort Wayne contract that was competed in compliance with all competition rules. So these vehicles will actually remain in Indianapolis. Yes, these are these are our cars. We're buying them from a Fort Wayne dealership.
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