At its meeting the City Commission approved a slate of routine procurement actions, a franchise agreement, service renewals and one board appointment, all by unanimous voice votes.

Staff said the city frequently uses piggyback contracts — purchasing off other municipal contracts — to obtain materials and services for water, sewer, reclaimed water and public works. The commission approved authorizations to piggyback existing contracts with multiple jurisdictions and vendors, including (but not limited to) Core & Main (via City of Boynton Beach), Census USA (via Clay County) for meters, Willdan Engineering (Lake County/Clermont plan-review contract), DWC Hall Outdoors and Hauling LLC (Lake County) for right-of-way tree work, Odyssey Manufacturing for sodium hypochlorite, and Shelley’s Environmental Systems for biosolids hauling. Staff said piggyback prices compared favorably to separate bids.

The commission also approved a nonexclusive 10-year franchise agreement (with an option for a 10-year extension) allowing Lake Apopka Natural Gas to install and maintain natural gas lines in city rights-of-way; staff described the contract as outlining responsibilities and fees and recommended approval.

Other approved items included a contract addendum authorizing the city manager to extend Aspire Health Partners’ social-services support for the police department (no price increase), a renewal of the SmartCop computer-aided dispatch and records-management system, and routine approvals of special-event permits: the Rotary Club poker tournament with a permit-fee waiver (event under 200 attendees) and the Winter Garden Art Association annual fundraiser at the Winter Garden Pavilion (conditions applied). The commission appointed Lee Douglas to a four-year term on the general employees pension board; that appointment was approved unanimously.

All procurement and contract motions were presented as staff recommendations and carried without recorded roll-call votes on the transcript. Staff noted some piggyback contracts are renewals or extensions whose terms were negotiated previously with other municipalities.