The Ohio Department of Public Safety (ODPS) in coordination with the Chancellor of Higher Education's Campus Safety Grant Program provides funding to state institutions of higher education for eligible security improvements that assist the institutions in improving the overall physical security and safety of their buildings on public campuses throughout Ohio. The program awards grants competitively to eligible state institutions of higher education.
Youngstown State University has been awarded funding through this grant and with a signed agreement from the Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor, YSU is moving forward with these safety upgrades and enhancements. In this request for release of funds, YSU will purchase and have installed new video camera systems and associated equipment. This project will greatly improve not only the function and reliability of the video camera system on campus, it will also provide increased safety and security for all that visit and use YSU's campus.
In this request for release of funds, YSU will purchase the video equipment from CDW-G who has provided YSU with cameras and video equipment over several years. CDW-G has entered into the Inter-University Council Purchasing Group Master Price Agreement as of November 1, 2019 (Copy of this document is attached to this request). The Inter-University Council Purchasing Group of Ohio, frequently called IUC-PG, is a purchasing consortium comprised of the purchasing officers of the state institutions of higher education. Founded in 1964, the IUC-PG creates and maintains purchasing agreements for use by its 87 members (the 14 state universities, 15 community colleges, 8 technical colleges and 51 independent educational institutions). The purpose of the IUC-PG is to achieve standardization of requirements, methods of operation, and to buy at optimum quantity discounts. The IUC-PG operates under the requirements of the current appropriation legislation, the Ohio Revised Code, and the by-laws of each institution's board of trustees. This group purchasing agreement makes it possible for the deepest discounts available to YSU and with this IUC-PG agreement.
To install this equipment, YSU obtained a quote from Zenith Systems for $16,021.64, a company that YSU has had great success with on many similar projects across campus. The Zenith Systems quote falls well below the competitive threshold set forth in ORC 153 at $25,000.00.
Youngstown State University respectfully requests Controlling Board approval to purchase replacement Motorola Portable Radio Batteries from Magnum Electronics for Youngstown
State's campus in Youngstown, Mahoning County.