News: DHS SCBA FUBAR = SCAPPEC

California Judge Voids $30 Million Fire Equipment Contract

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by an Arcadia company, a judge has voided a $30 million contract the county awarded to a fire equipment distributor.

The order by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant potentially leaves local fire departments on the hook for millions of dollars of equipment they've already purchased.

County officials awarded the contract to L.N. Curtis and sons to provide breathing apparatus - masks and air tanks for breathing in smoky conditions - for county and municipal firefighters.

The goal was to outfit every fire department in the county with the same type of breathing apparatus. The actual funding for the contract came from the federal Department of Homeland Security.

However, rival equipment maker Allstar Fire Equipment Inc. sued the city and county of Los Angeles, claiming the selection process used to award the contract was improperly handled.

The judge agreed.

"Curtis was neither the lowest bidder nor the highest rated in the performance evaluation," Chalfant wrote in his ruling. "The award to Curtis was defective, and the bidding process was compromised."

The judge's order requires the county to either restart the bidding process or re-evaluate all the bids properly.

But many fire departments, including Pasadena's and Monrovia's, have already purchased the equipment from L.N. Curtis, expecting to be reimbursed by grant funds. L.N. Curtis distributes equipment manufactured by Santa Ana-based Sperian Protection.

The city and county of Los Angeles contended that payment was already underway - nearly $7 million worth of Sperian equipment has already been shipped to local fire agencies. Federal grant money could be put at risk if the contract was voided, the two entities argued.

Chalfant, however, was not swayed.

"Respondents and Curtis all knew the contract was being challenged, and proceeded at their own risk," he wrote. "Respondents cannot rely on their own failures, and their efforts to perform a contract that they knew was being challenged, simply because their grant money was at risk."

Elizabeth Friedman, an attorney with the County Counsel's office, said L.A. County is "reviewing judge Chalfant's decision and considering its options."

She declined to comment further.

Officials from the Los Angeles Firefighter Unions, in an Oct. 13 letter to Jim Hone, president of the Los Angeles-Area Fire Chief's Association, also criticized the decision to move forward with the purchase of Sperian equipment. The association helped secure funding for the contract.

Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune - Link

Update: 1200hrs - The following news release was sent in by Sperian
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS:
Bill Sokol, Vice President, Global Strategic Marketing, Sperian Protection Americas, 401 757 2108, bsokol@sperianprotection.com
Paul Streicker, Streicker & Company Inc. (agency), 401 435 0200, advertise@streicker.com

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AREA FIRE DEPARTMENTS MAY LOSE FEDERAL GRANTS FOR SCBAs

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 23 —A California Superior Court judge has set aside a contract for 4,200 self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) units and related equipment, potentially endangering $9.5 million in federal grants for needed firefighting equipment in southern California.

Ruling on a petition filed by Allstar Fire Equipment, a distributor for Scott Health and Safety Equipment, and by Mine Safety Appliances (MSA), the court set a hearing date to discuss the terms of the judgment for November 17, just days before a November 28 deadline requiring area fire departments to take delivery of the SCBAs or risk losing their grant funding. Smaller departments with older equipment that rely heavily on federal funding will be particularly hard hit.

The suit was filed against Los Angeles County, the city of Los Angeles, and L.N. Curtis & Sons, a distributor for Sperian Fire SCBAs. Both Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles are members of SCAPPEC, the Southern California Area Personal Protective Equipment Consortium, a consortium formed by 32 area fire departments to jointly purchase state-of-the-art, interchangeable equipment.

A number of manufacturers and distributors competed for the SCAPPEC award, which is believed to be the largest municipal fire service SCBA bid in US history. Allstar and SCBA manufacturer MSA lost the SCAPPEC contract competition in July to competing distributor L.N. Curtis & Sons, whose Sperian Warrior® SCBA and other related SCBA items were judged by the evaluation committee to be superior to the Scott and MSA equipment.

“Over 7,000 of some 9,000 SCAPPEC firefighters use Sperian SCBAs every day with an outstanding safety and performance record,” said Bill Sokol, a Sperian vice president. “In fact, Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles have used our SCBAs for more than three decades. This suit is about SCAPPEC’s bid process, not about the product or our distributor.”

“In raising technicalities about the bid process,” he added, “Allstar and MSA have put profits ahead of protection, and the result may well be that some firefighters won’t get the critical lifesaving equipment they want and need.”

Sperian is not a party to the suit, which was filed against Los Angeles County, the City of Los Angeles, and Sperian distributor L.N. Curtis & Sons. These parties are considering an appeal of the court decision.