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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPurchasing Ordinance Acquisition of Equipment, Supplies and y Council/AgencyMeeting Held: a-a�-16 9 Deferred/Continued to: )�(Tproved ❑ Conditionally Approved ❑ Denied City Clerk's SignahWe Council Meeting Date: 2/5/96 Department ID Number: AS96-002 CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION SUBMITTED TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCI MBERS SUBMITTED BY: MICHAEL T. UBERUAGA, City Administra PREPARED BY: Robert J. Franz, Deputy City Administrat SUBJECT: Amend the Purchasing Ordinance regarding the acq siton of Affir sy46 7--o equipment. Di-�C 33Z2 " =statement Issue,Funding Source,Recommended Action,Alternative Action(s),Analysis,Environmental Status,Attachment( Statement of Issue: The current procedures result in a -duplication of effort/approval regarding the acquisition of equipment through lease-purchase. Recommended Action: Approve Ordinance 3 3 a.Z ammending Huntington Beach Municipal Code (HBMC) Section 3.02.050 and 3.02.060 to authorize the Chief of Administrative Services to enter.into lease-purchase agreements. Analysis: In the past, the question has arisen as to whether Section 3.02.050 of the (HBMC), which specifically authorizes the issuance ,of purchase orders, also authorizes lease-purchase agreements for the acquisition of equipment. Section 3.02.050 is ambiguous in this regard. It only refers to purchase orders, and does not explicitly state that the Chief of Administrative Services may issue them. Consequently, while the City Charter authorization permitting the "acquisition" of property is sufficiently broad to include lease- purchase agreements, the Purchasing Ordinance is not. Therefore, it is recommended that the HBMC be amended to expressly grant this authorization. Under the proposed ordinance, the annual budget must include the following information in order for staff to be authorized to enter into a lease purchase agreement: - (i) The equipment must be identified as a lease pruchase item of equipment; (ii) The useful life of the equipment must be stated; (iii) The lease term must be stated; (iv) The annual lease payment (approx); and (v) The interest rate (approx) PROOF OF PUBLICATION STATE OF CALIFORNIA) SS. County of Orange ) I am a Citizen of the United States and a resident of the County aforesaid; I am over the age of eighteen years, and not a party to or interested in the below - entitled matter. I am a principal clerk of PUBLIC NOTICE LEGAL NOTICE ORDINACE NO.3322 the HUNTINGTON BEACH INDEPENDENT, a "AN ORDINANCE "AN ORDINANCE OF J THE CITY OF newspaper of general circulation, printed I HUNTINGTON BEACH AMENDING SECTIONS and published in the City of Huntington t 3/02.050AND 3.02.060 OF THE Beach, County of Orange, State of HUNTINGTON BEACH California, and that attached Notice Is a MUNICIPAL CODE I•I REGARDING THE ACQUISITION OF . true and complete copy as was printed SUPPLIES,SERVICES and published in the Huntington Beach AND EQUIPMENT � SYNOPSIS and Fountain Valley Issues of said Ordinance Hu 3.3on amends the Huntington f Beach'Municipal Code by newspaper to wit the issue(s) of: amending Sections 3.02.050 and 3.02.060 to I authorize the Chief of Ad. ministrative Services to enter.Into contracts and' issue purchase orders for the purchase of supplies,'l services and equipment March 7, 1996 under certain circum-, stances; and upon ap-; proval of the City Attorney,; to enter into contracts to lease equipment under cer- tain circumstances. ) This Ordinance shall take effect thirty days .after its I declare; under penalty of perjury, that pass FULL TEXT_OF THE the foregoing is true and correct. ORDINANCE IS AVAIL- ABLE IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE ADOPTED by:the City- Council of the City of Hun- Executed on tington Beach at.a regular 1 March 7 ' � 996 meeting held Monday,Feb-' ruaat Costa Mesa, California. lowng oil call to the fol- Iowln roll call vote: AYES: Councilmen- bars: Harman, Bauer; Sullivan, Leipzig, Det- 11off,Green,Garofalo NOES: .Councllmem- bars:None ABSENT: Council..y members:None CITY OF HUN• I TINGTON BEACH, CONNIE BROCKWAY, Signature CITY CLERK Published Huntington Beach-Fountain Valley in- dependent March 7,1996: 031-131 i Fr. B. INDEPENDENT PUBLISH DATE: 3-7-96 LEGAL NOTICE ORDINANCE NO 3322 "AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH AMENDING SECTIONS 3/02.050 AND 3.02.060 OF THE HUNTINGTON BEACH MUNICIPAL CODE REGARDING THE ACQUISITION OF SUPPLIES, SERVICES AND EQUIPMENT" SYNOPSIS Ordinance No. 3322 amends the Huntington Beach Municipal Code by amending Sections 3.02.050 and 3.02.060 to authorize the Chief of Administrative Services to enter into contracts and issue purchase orders for the purchase of supplies, services and equipment under certain circumstances; and upon approval of the City Attorney, to enter into contracts to lease equipment under certain circumstances. This Ordinance shall take effect thirty days after its passage. THE FULL TEXT OF THE ORDINANCE IS AVAILABLE IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE ADOPTED by the City Council of the City of Huntington Beach at a regular meeting held Monday, February 26, 1996, by the following roll call vote: AYES: Councilmembers: Harman, Bauer, Sullivan, Leipzig, Dettloff, Green Garofalo NOES: Councilmembers: None ABSENT: Councilmembers: None CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH CONNIE BROCKWAY CITY CLERK G/synopsis 2/2'7/96 REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTI(M MEETING DATE: 2/5/96 DEPARTMENT ID NUMBER: AS96-002 Attachment(s): City Clerk's Page Number ................................................... ................................................... ................................................... _. ................................................... ................................................... Legal Opinion Ordinance No. 33 a � Legislative Draft 0016457.01 -2- 01/09/96 11:07 AM yr ORDINANCE NO. 3322 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH AMENDING SECTIONS 3.02.050 AND 3.02.060 OF THE HUNTINGTON BEACH MUNICIPAL CODE REGARDING THE ACQUISITION OF SUPPLIES, SERVICES AND EQUIPMENT The City Council of the City of Huntington Beach does ordain as follows: Section 1. Section 3.02.050 and 3.02.060 of the Huntington Beach Municipal Code are hereby amended to read as follows: "3.02.050 Purchase of Supplies Equipment and Services. The Chief of Administrative Services may enter into contracts and issue purchase order for the purchase of supplies, services and equipment in the following circumstances: (a) Budgeted Purchases. There exists an unencumbered appropriation in the fund account against which the purchase is to be charged; or (b) Petty Cash. The purchase, reimbursement or allowance does not exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), in which case the purchase may be directed to the finance division for payment or reimbursement by petty cash. "3.02.060 Equipment Leases. Upon approval of the City Attorney, the Chief of Administrative Services may enter into contracts to lease equipment in the following circumstances: (a) Budgeted Leases. There exists an unencumbered appropriation in the fund account for the amount of the lease payments for the current fiscal year. 1 SFG:Ord:Amd3.02 (b) The annual budget for the fiscal year in which the lease is or was entered into provides that: (i) The equipment may be leased; (ii) The useful life of the equipment; (iii) The lease term; (iv) The annual lease payment; and (v) The interest rate." Section 2. The ordinance shall take effect thirty days after its passage. PASSED AND ADOPTED by the City Council of the City of Huntington Beach at a regular meeting thereof held on the 26th- day ofFeb.ruary, 199 6 Mayor ATTEST: APPROVED AS TO FORM: Gida�Ktl �_ City Clerk City Attorne Cry- /2, REVIEWED AND APPROVED: INITIATED AND APPROVED: City Administrator Deputy City Administrator Administrative Services 2 SFG:Ord:Amd3.02 Ord. No. 3322 STATE OF CALIFORNIA ) COUNTY OF ORANGE ) ss: CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH ) I, CONNIE BROCKWAY, the duly elected, qualified City Clerk of the City of Huntington Beach, and ex-offtcio Clerk of the City Council of said City, do hereby certify that the whole number of members of the City Council of the City of Huntington Beach is seven; that the foregoing ordinance was read to said City Council at a regular meeting thereof held on the 5th of February. 1996, and was again read to said City Council at a regular meeting thereof held on the 26th of February, 1996, and was passed and adopted by the affirmative vote of at least a majority of all the members of said City Council. AYES: Councilmembers: Harman, Leipzig, Bauer, Sullivan, Dettloff, Green, Garofalo NOES: None ABSENT: None I,Connie Brockway CITY CLERK of the City of Huntington Beach and ex-officio Clerk of the City Council, do hereby certify that a synopsis of this ordinance has been published in the Independent on Ci ,19 In accordance with the City Charter of said City City Clerk and ex-officio Clerk Connie Brockway City Clerk of the City Council of the City Deputy City Clerk of Huntington Beach, California G/ordinanc/ordbkpg 3/5/96 LEGISLATIVE DRAFT 3.02.050 Purchase Ofdefs of Supplies, Equipment and Services. D�•�e-e supplies, sefviees and equipment shall be fnade epAy by pur-ehase er-der, exeept�hat the Chief e + o ee fift., a„llars iecm may be a:.-eete 7 to the Tina ee division for-p ent LV VAVVVLI fifty uVIICLIJ `WJVJZfIn feinibuf:sement by petty eash. The Chief of Administrative Services may enter into contracts and issue purchase order for the purchase of supplies, services. and equipment in the following circumstances: (a) Budgeted Purchases. There exists an unencumbered appropriation in the fund account against which the purchase is to be charged; or (b) Petty Cash. The purchase, reimbursement or allowance does not exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), in which case the purchase may be directed to the finance division for payment or reimbursement by petty cash. 3.02.060 Equipment Leases. The Chief e f ^aministr- tive Ser-viees shail net issue any pur-ehase order-fbr- supplies, ser-vie ent unless there exists Upon approval of the City Attorney, the Chief of Administrative Services may enter into contracts to lease equipment in the following circumstances: (a) Budgeted Leases. There exists an unencumbered appropriation in the fund account for the amount of the lease payments for the current fiscal year. (b) The annual budget for the fiscal year in which the lease is or was entered into provides that: (i) The equipment may be leased; (ii) The useful life of the equipment; (iii) The lease term; (iv) The annual lease payment; and (v) The interest rate." 1 G:Legdraft:Amd3.02\l 2/29/9 5 CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH INTER-DEPARTMENT COMMUNICATION HUNTINGTON BEACH TO: Robert Franz, Director of Administrative Services Richard Amadril, Purchasing/Central Services Manager FROM: Gail Hutton, City Attorney DATE: December 28, 1995 SUBJECT: Acquisition of equipment through lease-purchase RLS 95-747 You have requested that we prepare an ordinance and/or a resolution authorizing the Director of Administrative Services to enter into lease-purchase agreements for acquisition of equipment, based upon City Council approval of the funding for the lease in the annual budget. Attached is an ordinance amending the Municipal Code to authorize the Director to enter into such lease-purchases. The legal basis for this amendment is as follows: I. Legal Authority for Lease-Purchases, and the Debt Limitation of the California Constitution. Article XVI, Section 18 of the California Constitution prohibits any city from incurring indebtedness exceeding the income and revenue for that year, without the consent of two-thirds of the voters. However, although lease-purchases are an obligation exceeding one year, the courts generally do not treat them as debt. Rather, the legal authority for entering into lease-purchases is that the city is exercising its authority to acquire or dispose of property, rather than its authority to incur debt. Under a long line of cases, known as the Offner-Dean Rule', equipment leases may be entered into under the following circumstances: 1. Lease payments may only be paid in those periods in which the beneficial use of the leased property is available to the city. 2. Acceleration of rental payments is not permitted. 'City of Los Angeles v. Offner, 19 CAM 483 (1942);Dean v. Kuchel, 35 Ca1.2d 444 (1950). 1 G:SF:Leases 3. The obligation to pay rent may be from any lawfully available funds of the City; the City may be obligated to place in its annual budget the rent that is due and payable during the fiscal year. 4. The terms and conditions of the lease must be similar to the terms contained in comparable commercial equipment leases. 5. The lease terms should not extend beyond the anticipated useful life of the equipment. 6. Some commentators suggest that the lease payments should approximate the fair market rental value of the equipment, although there is case law supporting lease payments in excess of fair market value. (Lagiss v. County of Contra Costa, 223 Cal.App. 2d 77 (1963); Ruane v. City of San Diego, 267 Cal.App.2d 548 (1968). II. Charter Authority for Acquisition of Supplies, Services and Equipment. Section 613(a) of the City Charter authorizes the City Council to adopt an ordinance or resolution providing that the City Administrator or other City officers may bind the City for the "acquisition" of equipment, materials, supplies, labor, services, or other items included within the budget approved by the City Council, and may impose a monetary limit upon such authority. Pursuant to that authority, the Council adopted the Purchasing Ordinance, found at Section 3.02 et seq. of the Municipal Code, which authorizes the Chief of Administrative Services to issue purchase orders for supplies, services and equipment. In the past, the question has arisen as to whether Section 3.02.050, which specifically authorizes the issuance of purchase orders, also authorizes lease-purchase agreements for the acquisition of equipment. Section 3.02.050 is ambiguous in this regard. It only refers to purchase orders, and does not even explicitly state that the Chief of Administrative Services may issue them. Consequently, while the Charter authorization permitting the"acquisition" of property is sufficiently broad to include lease-purchase agreements, the Purchasing Ordinance is not. Therefore, it is recommended that the Code be amended to expressly grant this authorization. z The dictionary definition of"acquisition" means merely to "gain possession of." Black's Law Dictionary states that"acquisition" does not require that title pass. Consequently a lease is a form of acquisition. 2 G:SF:L.eases b III. Summary of Proposed Ordinance. The attached Ordinance would amend two sections of the Municipal Code, Sections 3.02.050 and 3.02.060, to expressly grant purchasing and leasing authority. Section 3.02.050 would be amended to expressly state that the Chief of Administrative Services may enter into contracts and issue purchase orders for the purchase of supplies, services and equipment, subject to the requirement that the unencumbered appropriation in the current fiscal year budget exceed the amount of the proposed purchase. The section also retains the existing provision that purchases and reimbursements of less than $500.00 may be made from petty cash. Section 3.02.060 would now provide that equipment leases may be entered into by the Chief of Administrative Services. However, in order to implement this authority, the City Council must specifically authorize the terms and conditions of the lease as part of the annual budget. Currently, the typical budget only refers to the amount of the lease payment in the current fiscal year. However, in order to execute a lease-purchase based upon the approved budget, the budget must authorize expressly that: (i) equipment may be leased, (ii)the useful life of the equipment to be leased, (iii)the proposed lease term, (iv)the annual lease payments, and (v) the interest rate. It is important that the City Council understand that there are consequences in subsequent years when they authorize a lease-purchase in year one,. For example, if the lease-purchase is for a $250,000.00 fire truck, it is inadequate if the budget merely identifies a $50,000.00 annual payment for the fire truck. This does not disclose the fact that there will be an additional six years of future payments for the fire truck, and if an appropriation is not made in any one year, the city will lose its collateral (i.e., the fire truck)to the leasing company. Consequently, the ordinance amendment requires a complete disclosure of the term of the lease-purchase. Once that disclosure is made in the budget and approved by the City Council, the Chief of Administrative Services may enter into the lease-purchase agreement. IV. City Attorney Approval. Please note that the Ordinance provides expressly that the City Attorney must approve the form of the lease-purchase agreement. For example, leasing companies will frequently include language in their proposed agreements that the City warrants that the lease-purchase is a tax exempt obligation. We are unwilling to make this type of warranty, as it puts the City at risk that if the IRS investigates the transaction and disallows the tax exemption, the City would be liable for the amount of the taxes. There may be other provisions in any particular leasing company's form lease that also may be objectionable. Consequently, each lease must be approved by the City Attorney's office. Gail Hutton City Attorney 3 G:SF:L.eases