Supply chain issues is forcing Naperville Park District to waive its competitive bidding process if it wants to replace aging vehicles in its fleet.
Director of Parks Tim Quigley told the park board this week he identified a Ford F-150 pickup and a Ford Police Interceptor SUV, but the board would need to sign off on the sale at the Oct. 13 meeting without going out for a competitive bid.
He said other organizations had canceled their order and the dealership knew the park district was in the market to buy the vehicles.
The pickup would cost $34,023 and the SUV $38,973.
Park Commissioner Marie Todd said the board discussed waiving the bid process at the Sept. 8 meeting.
“Whenever we have the opportunity to get a vehicle at this point in time — there are so few out there — I think we should just do it,” Todd said.
Board President Mary Gibson said she’s comfortable with the strategy amid the challenging supply chain climate.
Quigley said the district recently reached out to a local dealership to see if it would take a down payment or hold a vehicle for a limited time until funding could be secured from the park board. But the dealership was interested in moving its inventory.
The dealership with the F-150 and Interceptor available would hold them for a limited time, he said. “We felt like we might need to jump on this as soon as we could, just to secure them,” Quigley said.
The district would have the Interceptor in October and the F-150 about a month later, he said.
Executive Director Brad Wilson said the supply of vehicles and equipment is limited.
“It’s so difficult to get the vehicles. The cooperative purchasing programs that we’ve typically ordered vehicles from, we’ve not been able to secure vehicles through those programs right now,” he said.
His staff has been trying to find other means to move more quickly with some of these purchases, he said.
Waiving competitive bidding would be a limited, short-term strategy, knowing that once the supply and inventory becomes better, the district would revert to typical purchasing methods, Wilson said.
Quigley said waiting another year is not an option because the two vehicles carried over from orders from 2021.
“We had eight vehicles on our 2022 list that we’re still holding onto, and that list just keeps growing every year we’re not able to complete that replacement cycle,” Quigley said.
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