Equipment Review Committee

CITY OF MARSHALL EQUIPMENT REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES Tuesday, February 28, 2023 MEMBERS PRESENT: Craig Schafer, Jim Lozinski, & John Alcorn STAFF PRESENT: Sharon Hanson, City Administrator; Jim Marshall, Director of Public Safety; E.J. Moberg, Director of Administrative Services; Jason Anderson, Director of Public Works/City Engineer; Ryan Hoffman, Police Captain; Dean Coudron, Public Ways Supervisor; Preston Stensrud, Parks & Rec Superintendent; and Steven Anderson, City Clerk. Chairman Lozinski called the meeting to order at 1:30 PM. Chairman Lozinski asked for approval of the minutes for the September 22, 2022, meeting. Motion by Schafer, seconded by Alcorn to approve the minutes. All voted in favor. Body-Worn Camera Program Replacement Jim Marshall began by showing video footage taken from body cameras. Marshall explained the value and necessity of the cameras to protect not only officers but to protect citizens as well. One example was a video taken before the Body- Worn Camera (BWC) Program was in place and video was only through squad vehicles. Marshall went on to explain how the BWC program began its implementation process. In October of 2019, the City of Marshall implemented the BWC Program for the Marshall Police Department. Many aspects of a BWC program were discussed at that time which included the costs involved, data storage costs, release of data and future expenses. The recommendation at that time was to proceed with a proposal from the Watchguard Company to supply all the required equipment. In October of 2022, the Motorola Company informed Marshall PD they had purchased the Watchguard Company and would be transitioning all current Watchguard users into Motorola equipment or their leasing program. Current warranty work for our Watchguard equipment would be honored but that our cameras would be discontinued, and service would not be provided for equipment outside of warranty coverage. New Motorola cameras would not integrate with current cameras and server software in use by Marshall PD. Nearly all our current equipment will be off warranty by the summer of 2023. Police department staff began exploring options and seeking proposals from Motorola and the other leading body camera company AXON. Several meetings with the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office (Watchguard customer) and IT staff occurred to see what would serve our current and future needs. IT staff believe that the transition to the cloud-based system is the desired way to store and share data. When data requests from internal and external users come in, video must be burned to a DVD to take them off the server. A cloud-based server will help with not having to use manpower to physically copy media. Captain Hoffman indicated that 12 cameras had to be replaced in 2022. Moberg suggested it was possible to pay for the cameras out of the liquor store funds and have everything paid up in one go so it doesn’t affect the levy in 2024. Members discussed the pros and cons of using liquor store funds. Motion made by Schafer, seconded by Alcorn to approve the recommendation to bring the body-worn camera replacements to council at the discretion of Finance/Marshall PD whether to pay upfront or pay over 5 years. All voted in favor. Review Items on the Equipment CIP Chairman Lozinski asked for discussion on the CIP for Equipment. Staff and members talked about various items on the list and possibly moving some items further down the line that don’t need immediate resolution. The Helena Chemical Building land was also talked about possibly pushing further down the road. Bonding 10 years vs 15 years was also discussed at length. Members preferred 10 years but could see the advantage for some projects to possibly be 15 years.  Equipment Review Committee September 22, 2022 Minutes Page 2 of 2 The 3rd/Lyon Street project was mentioned as a legacy project that might fit the 15 year bonding criteria. Landowners for that project wouldn’t be directly assessed for the full 15 years and would be looking at the 8-10 years that normally go towards owner assessed projects. Stensrud talked about a few items on the parks department equipment list for 2023. Smithco is the main (possibly only manufacturer for the area) manufacturer of ball drags and offered a good trade-in value on the existing drag compared to selling it. Members discussed the mower trade-in program with Kibble Equipment and how well it works and if there is the possibility of something similar that could be done for the ball drags. Members were okay with the items on the 2023 list and requested that when specs become available to email the Equipment Review Committee so they can look at them, but a meeting for review was not required. It was mentioned items over $25,000 would still need full council approval, and if bids received were within 5% of each other the preference was to award the bid to the local bid if applicable. Motion made by Schafer, seconded by Alcorn to approve the items currently listed on the 2023 Equipment CIP and for staff to email the Equipment Review Committee specs on items as they become available. All voted in favor. Enterprise Vehicle Update Moberg began the conversion by showing an example of a lease schedule of a recently acquired truck. Based on the schedule Moberg used a lease calculator and determined that the city was effectively paying 10 percent interest to Enterprise. The city has 50 vehicles in its fleet and only 5 have been switched out so far through Enterprise due to availability and narrow order windows. The 12 oldest vehicles in the fleet average 20 years old, majority belonging to Public Ways and Airport departments. Discussion pivoted to developing an internal policy for vehicle replacement on a 10 year cycle and to bring the Enterprise topic to a future work session for the full council to discuss. Motion made by Schafer, seconded by Alcorn to have Enterprise be brought to a future work session. All voted in favor. Respectfully submitted, Steven Anderson City Clerk