Anchorage reports $1.75M in September contracts below the Assembly approval line

Anchorage awarded 10 contracts and purchases worth about $1.75 million in September that were below the amounts requiring Assembly approval, according to two reports Mayor Suzanne LaFrance submitted for the Assembly's meeting Tuesday.

City code requires Assembly approval for competitively bid contracts over $500,000 and for sole-source contracts over $50,000. Smaller awards are reported to the Assembly each month instead.

The Assembly set those limits in April 2025, raising the line for competitive contracts from $150,000. August's reports listed 24 contracts, Alaska News reported Sept. 12.

The biggest award was up to $390,000 to Northern Gravel & Trucking for grader services on an as-needed basis through October 2027, with options for two more years. Anchorage Sand & Gravel won two awards: $319,200 for washed sand delivered Sept. 25, and $268,750 for crushed recycled asphalt for the Chugiak-Birchwood-Eagle River road service area.

The city's Information Technology Department spent about $520,000 on two data-protection contracts. It paid World Wide Technology about $326,000 to renew Veeam, software the company says backs up data and helps organizations recover from ransomware. It paid Digital Securus about $194,000 for a year of Darktrace identity and network services. Darktrace describes itself as an AI cybersecurity company whose system learns how an organization normally behaves so it can spot attacks.

Anchorage police are paying Nodak $118,516 for new backstops at the Ted Smith Shooting Range, the department's range in Chugiak, through July 2027. The Public Transportation Department bought a four-post vehicle lift for about $68,000.

The competitive list had seven awards worth about $1.68 million. A separate report listed three sole-source purchases, bought without bidding, worth about $64,000.

The largest, $30,250, buys the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility a year in Isle Utilities' Technology Approval Group, where utilities vote on which new water technologies they want pitched to them. The Port of Alaska paid Udelhoven Oilfield System Services $17,525 for hydro testing of hoses at its Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants Terminal 2. The Finance Department paid Euna $16,400 for a year of grant-management software.