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Regular Council Meeting <br />November 13, 2017 <br />Page 4 <br />16. Receive bids and award a contract for furnishing and delivery of unleaded gasoline and <br />diesel fuel for use by various departments of the City of Paris. <br />Finance Director Gene Anderson explained that the City periodically took proposals for <br />the purchase of fuel to be used by City departments and proposals were received from three <br />vendors proposing a total of six different options. He further explained that staff reviewed the <br />bids, considered controllable vendor prices, administrative software, equipment, vendor <br />reputation, alternate fueling locations, and likely total cost over the contract period plus any <br />optional extensions of the contract. Mr. Anderson said the staff believed that McCraw Oil Bid B <br />offered the best combination of these factors. He said there had been complaints from <br />department heads about employees not being able to get receipts when they get gasoline. Bryan <br />Rainey said he agreed with nearly everything Mr. Anderson said. Mr. Rainey said they weren't <br />perfect and they had an issue with the receipt printer. He said he wasn't familiar with the system <br />the City was looking at and then referenced the cost between the bids. He said Blankenship was <br />local and they were lower. Mr. Rainey also said he knew they had some issues, but he would not <br />be complaining if the other company was lower. He asked Council to consider Blankenship Oil. <br />Council Member Knox made note that Blankenship had been working with the City for <br />ten years and asked about the issues. Mr. Anderson said there were a number of complaints from <br />employees with regard to several issues, one being they were not able to get printed receipts after <br />getting fuel. Mr. Anderson said this made it difficult to reconcile and some employees were <br />taking pictures of the pump to send to the finance department. Mr. Anderson said he could ask <br />department heads to come up and speak about the matter if Council wanted them to do so. Mr. <br />Anderson explained the City had been complaining for years, and Blankenship had time to fix <br />the issues but had not. Mr. Anderson said the City staff felt going out for bids and putting in <br />pumps was the best solution. He said with the pumps would be software that would <br />electronically read the information instead of the City having to print reports. He said right now <br />employees had to take a picture of their fuel purchases with a cell phone and turn that in for <br />reconciliation purposes. <br />Council Member Portugal said she wanted to go with the local vendor when possible, but <br />the City needed to get the best service. Mr. Anderson said McGraw had two local stations and <br />an office in Paris. Council Member Portugal said they had to trust staff because they were the <br />ones using this service. Mayor Clifford agreed with Council Member Portugal. Council <br />Member Trenado asked if they could sit down with the Mr. Raney and work this out, because <br />they gave a lot to the community. City Manager John Godwin said these complaints had been <br />ongoing for the last 5 `/2 years and that the City had been and was receiving a poor quality of <br />service. He said there were a lot of details that he preferred not to go into in a public meeting. <br />He said the Raneys were good people but that was not the issue. <br />A Motion to approve Bid 1 B from McGraw Oil Company was made by Mayor Clifford <br />and seconded by Council Member Portugal. Motion failed, 2 ayes — 4 nays, with Council <br />Members Drake, Lancaster, Trenado and Knox casting the dissenting votes. A Motion to <br />approve a contract with Blankenship Oil was made by Council Member Trenado and seconded <br />by Council Member Knox. Motion carried, 4 ayes — 2 ayes, with Mayor Clifford and Council <br />Member Portugal casting the dissenting votes. <br />