$3900 Mini Freezer

Another day, and another reason to question the fiscal insanity at the City of Fullerton.  The Police Department paid over $3900 for this freezer which is a mere 3.9 cubic feet in size.  The typical residential refrigerator-freezer holds anywhere from 18 to 25 cubic feet, so this unit is far smaller than it appears.

The police will be quick to say how essential this is to preserve forensic evidence like DNA.  I can’t fault them for buying a unit with temperature alarms, but you know what’s funny?  Medical grade freezers used by pharmacies, similar in size and features, cost anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 the price, maybe even less.

Wasteful spending is nothing new around here, but this serves as a great opportunity to look at the City’s flawed procurement policies.

The freezer was not purchased by the City’s Purchasing Agent.  The Police Department doesn’t think the City’s procurement rules apply to them, so they bypass City Hall in most cases, and order whatever they want themselves.

“Reasonable effort shall be made to obtain three or more competitive bids for procurement of goods or services.”  This sounds like a good policy except that it allows a City employee to solicit bids for their preferred piece of equipment, and preferred manufacturer, no matter how unnecessary or overpriced.

They didn’t get bids for a small freezer sufficient to store forensic evidence.  They got bids for this specific Follett FZR4P-00-00 freezer, which was already leaps and bounds more expensive than comparable options from other manufacturers.  Basically, we acquired the Mercedes-Benz of freezers, but that’s all fine and dandy because the Police Department got three bids as specified in the procurement policy.

There’s no excuse to overpay because somebody is too lazy to research alternatives perfectly acceptable in a similar work environment, and yet, the City of Fullerton does this over and over and over again.

21 Replies to “$3900 Mini Freezer”

  1. Thank you Mr. Curlee! When I first started reading this I thought “$3,900 to preserve evidence and convict the bad guys is not out of line considering the specialty of the equipment.” But bypassing the purchasing controls is a NO NO and the FPD middle management (and up) knew it. That process would have weeded out bad prices and protected the public from more FPD fleecing. Time for some accountability.

  2. Mr. Curlee, I’ve listened to you speak at council meetings and read a few of your posts here. Sorry, but you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about or writing about.
    There is a quote often attributed to Abe Lincoln. Don’t know who really said it but it certainly applies to you: “Better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
    Tony Bushala, please come back!!!

    1. If you know something we should know, don’t just say David doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Make an argument with actual facts. Better yet, get back to your work that taxpayers are paying you to do at the city.

  3. It was paid for with money from the state from Prop 69 you morons. You can purchase items that are related to dna collection. Google is your friend.

  4. David, you should submit a public records request, asking for the number of hours it takes the city staff to gather up all the public records ypu request. The staff time probably equates to more money than the money spent on stuff you whine about. I hear they need one full time person just tp respond to your mountain of requests.

    1. What hours? I hear they just let David in whenever he wants to rifle through your expense reports on his own.

    2. So in other words, staff is so overpaid that the time they spent digging records on a $4000 pirchase is more valuable than said $4000 purchase? I think you just admitted a lot more than you intended to.

      1. Lol staff overpaid? I think the city not paying enough is the reason for the shitty employees. All the good ones leave to other cities where they are able to get paid what they deserve.

          1. In the last 4-6 months the city lost 3 engineers and 2 IT employees. All good employees. The shitty management stays and corrupt cops.

  5. Celebrities…. the “good the bad & the ugly” you decide.. but its always nice seeing Dennis Rodman around the Fullerton bus terminal. https://image.ibb.co/fzv9vm/rodman2.jpg
    … the next celebrity sighting will be here shortly showing at Cal STate Fullerton on Halloween day.. there is supposed to be a large police presence there as many students may be protesting the so called” Republican”? speaker celebrity figure … this will definatly have to be more in the “ugly ” category

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