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MARQUETTE -- The Marquette County Board of Commissioners voted to approve a one-year plan services agreement with Johnson Controls at Tuesday night's meeting.
The agreement, at a cost of $15,690 for 2018, covers services for six county buildings, including the Courthouse Complex and the Detention Center. The amount will be paid through the Facilities Operating Service Contracts.
"This agreement is really important in a facilities managers role, it allows us to identify things proactively, it allows us to make sure that we're getting the proper lifespan from our equipment, it keeps our life safety components in a commercial building effective," Aaron Karlstrom, facilities manager said. "And one of the biggest, most important pieces is our controls. This day and age, everything is electronic, controlled by a computer, that is a resource that I need assistance from, where Johnson's is highly qualified and it's their software. They come in on a monthly basis, they'll address problems that we have with various different equipment and they will also do system backups, so if we have issues, they'll have all of that stuff on file."
The county has had a contractual plan services agreement with Johnson Controls for 12 years, since 2006, with the contract being renewed annually.
Before voting on the approval of the agreement, Chairman Gerald Corkin asked how costs of the services have changed over time.
"I'm sure the cost is more that it was 12 years ago, but have the increases, any increases been in line, let's say with cost of living, etcetera?" Corkin asked Karlstrom.
Karlstrom said the increase of $182 since 2017 is "way less" than the 3 percent annual increase typically seen with this type of service agreement.
Commissioner Karen Alholm asked: "Since we've been contracting with them for 12 years for this service, is there any advantage to for us to look at a multiple-year contact rather than do it every year?"
Karlstrom said he will be looking into extended contract terms in the future.
Under the agreement, technicians from Johnson Controls work with facilities staff on equipment and operational repair. The control work performed is proprietary to Johnson Controls, according to documents provided to the board.
As a client, the county will also receive a 5 percent discount on parts, an 18 percent discount on labor, as well as "enhanced response times to building issues"
The plan service agreement includes "scheduled services and preventative maintenance for essential equipment," according to documents provided to the board. The services are scheduled via an automated system that is programmable by the owner.
The control systems also collect important data about the buildings, Karlstorm explained.
"I can't state enough about the data that is collected by these systems and just recently, we increased the amount of data that we can store," Karlstrom said. "This data, these sensory datas about airflow, about temperatures, about discharge and mixed-air stuff, is really important, especially when we're looking at changing things up, maybe upgrading, because now, the engineers that are doing these evaluations to make sure that things are done right. They actually know how the heartbeat of the building and how it operates."