SUBMITTAL TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE, STATE OF CALIFORNIA
ITEM: 3.38
(ID # 21645)
MEETING DATE:
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
FROM : SHERIFF-CORONER-PA:
SUBJECT: SHERIFF-CORONER-PA: Approval of the Single Source Purchase of (1)
Helicopter from Airbus Helicopters, and (1) PC12 NGX from Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd. [All
Districts]; [Total Cost $18,469,548; Up to $554,087 in additional compensation; 100% Sheriff’s
Budget] (4/5 Vote Required)
RECOMMENDED MOTION: That the Board of Supervisors:
1. Approve the purchase of one H125/AS350B3e helicopter from Airbus Helicopters for a
cost not to exceed $7,724,489 without securing competitive bids, in accordance with
Ordinance 459.4.
2. Approve the purchase of one PC-12 NGX aircraft from Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd. At
cost not to exceed $10,745,059 without securing competitive bids, in accordance with
Ordinance 459.4.
3. Approve the Purchase Agreements with Airbus Helicopters, Inc and Pilatus Business
Aircraft Ltd. in the amount of $7,724,489 and $10,745,059, and authorize the Chairman
of the Board to sign the Agreement on behalf of the County; and,
4. Authorize the Purchasing Agent, in accordance with Ordinance 459, based on the
availability of fiscal funding and as approved by County Counsel to sign amendments
that exercise the options of the agreements including modifications of the statement of
work that stay within the intent of the Agreement and sign amendments to the
compensation provisions that do not exceed the sum total of three percent (3%) of the
total purchase amounts; and,
5. Authorize the Purchasing Agent to take all steps necessary to implement the purchasing
of one (1) Airbus H125 Helicopter and (1) Pilatus PC-12 NGX airplane including, but not
limited to, signing subsequent essential and relevant documents, and executing any
non-substantive amendments, subject to approval by County Counsel.
6. Approve and Direct the Auditor-Controller to make budget adjustment according to
Schedule A.
ACTION:4/5 Vote Required, Policy
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SUBMITTAL TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE,
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
____________________________________________________________________________
MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
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SUBMITTAL TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE,
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
FINANCIAL DATA Current Fiscal Year: Next Fiscal Year: Total Cost: Ongoing Cost
COST $ 18,469,548 $ 0 $ 18,469,548 $ 0
NET COUNTY COST $ 18,469,548 $ 0 $ 18,469,548 $ 0
Budget Adjustment: Yes
SOURCE OF FUNDS: 100% Sheriff’s Budget
For Fiscal Year: 22/23
C.E.O. RECOMMENDATION: Approve
BR 23-083
BACKGROUND:
Summary
The Sheriff's Aviation Unit has a fleet of 7 aircraft. These consist of a 2000, 2005, 2007 Airbus
AS350 B3, two 2014 Airbus H125/AS350 B3e helicopters, a 2020 Airbus H145 search and
rescue helicopter and one 1974 Cessna 182P fixed wing airplane. They operate a hangar at the
Hemet-Ryan airport and the Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport in Thermal.
Riverside County has exceeded 2.4 million residents, making it the fourth most populous county
in California and the tenth most populous county in the United States. The County is roughly
180 miles east to west and 45 miles north to south; covering 7,208 square miles. Riverside
County expects the county's population to exceed more than 2.6 million by 2025 and more than
2.8 million by 2030. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, through partnership with surrounding
counties and the California Office of Emergency Services is designated in mutual aid region 6,
which can provide or request resources within the State of California during a disaster or
catastrophe. Aviation assets support the department in routine, emergency, and catastrophic
events by transporting personnel, resources, providing overwatch and numerous other uses to
meet Riverside County’s public safety’s responsibilities.
As discussed by Sheriff Chad Bianco in the 22/2023 fiscal year budget presentation on June 13,
2022, the Sheriff’s Aviation Unit is unable to provide sufficient aviation coverage to both the
west and east ends of the county with the current fleet and lacks a purpose build and capable
fixed wing aircraft. The Executive Office made a commitment to work with the Sheriff’s
Department to identify a funding solution for the helicopter request. The Sheriff’s Department
has identified budget savings in current year to purchase the additional helicopter.
Justification of Single Source Purchase
As a result of our market research, the Department selected the Airbus H125 as their choice for
adding to the existing fleet of helicopters. The decision was based on operational needs and
cost saving initiatives. The department’s current fleet of helicopters is comprised exclusively of
the Airbus helicopters, and our pilots are familiar with the control panel, equipment, and
performance of the aircraft. Maintaining the same type of fleet is advantageous especially when
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SUBMITTAL TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE,
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
the pilot needs to make a quick decision during an emergency. For instance, since the pilots fly
Airbus aircraft, transitioning to a different aircraft for short periods could be problematic if they
found themselves in an emergency and relied on “muscle memory” to maneuver the helicopter
from crashing. The ability to make critical decisions and input control information at a moment’s
notice is vital and can be lifesaving.
The H125/AS350 B3e’s have upgraded avionics, navigation equipment and traffic alert systems
which require less workload and greater safety for the aircrew. The aircraft has dual full
authority digital engine control systems (FADEC) which provides redundancy in fuel
management, engine control and monitoring. It has a dual hydraulic flight control system for
redundancy and safety. These options are currently not found on three of the Sheriff’s Office’s
older aircraft built in 2000, 2005 and 2007. A new helicopter will allow for lightened workload on
the aging fleet.
With routine or unexpected, light or major maintenance, is necessary to have six single engine
patrol helicopters to assure there is always aircraft available to support seven day a week, night
and day operations in the west and east end of the county.
The Sheriff’s Office operates a 1974 Cessna 182P single engine, fixed wing aircraft with four
seats. This aircraft is typically found privately owned and in general aviation applications. This is
due to its limited ability to carry weight, limited three passenger and one pilot configuration,
highly condensed seating configuration and lack of significant cargo area. The aircraft is also
limited to a 161 miles per hour cruise speed with a maximum range of 800 miles. There are no
cameras, infrared sensors, auto pilot or ground mapping equipment in this aircraft. This aircraft
is not certified for poor weather instrument meteorological conditions.
The Pilatus PC-12 NGX (government only edition) is a purpose built single-engine turbo prop,
fixed-wing aircraft with a 2,071 mile range and top speed of 330 miles per hour. It has a
pressurized cabin and has a service ceiling of 30,000 feet. The interior configurations can be
changed in minutes to meet the requirements of the mission; including but not limited to; nine
persons with equipment console, two passengers with two medical gurneys, several four or five
passenger configurations with specially equipped staff, and several passenger configurations to
expand the cargo area. This flexibility in configuration will allow the Department immediate
changes in configuration to meet the assigned mission. This will allow the aircraft to be utilized
in a wide variety of use cases.
The Pilatus is equipped with high-resolution thermal imaging camera equipment, which will
allow the Sheriff’s Office to conduct intense and complicated search and rescue and mapping
missions. The aircraft’s 52” x 53” oversized cargo door is not found on any other similar aircraft.
This cargo door allows for easily changing interior configurations such as removing seats,
reconfiguring seats, loading medical gurneys and patients, and quickly loading personnel and
special equipment to respond to critical events or natural disasters. The cargo door will
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STATE OF CALIFORNIA
accommodate a full-size pallet to be secured into the aircraft by a forklift. This specific model is
the only single-engine aircraft manufactured in the world with the above listed capabilities.
The Pilatus’ capability, performance and technology is comparable to similar dual engine turbo-
prop aircraft, but with significant savings in fuel consumption, maintenance costs and pilot
training costs. The Pilatus operating costs are 30% to 60% lower as compared to twin engine
turboprop aircraft. It is certified to be flown by a single pilot, reducing flight crew costs. Single
engine aircraft training and certification is less expensive than training pilots to fly dual engine
aircraft. The Pilatus aircraft’s accident rate is 0.60 for 100,000 hours flown, less than ½ of the
average accident rate of single engine turboprop aircraft.
With the ability to take off and land on paved, gravel, dirt or grass runways, the Pilatus only
requires a 2,485’ of runway. This allows the aircraft to utilize smaller airfields potentially closer
to the mission’s destination to reduce time and increase efficiency.
Impact on Residents and Businesses
The Sheriff’s Aviation Unit provides helicopter support for patrol operations and search and
rescue incidents by responding quickly to emergencies while ensuring the safety of responding
officers and the public. With the addition of one H125/AS350 B3e, the Sheriff’s Office will be
able to provide uninterrupted patrol support for the east and west ends of the county day and
night, seven days a week.
The Pilatus PC-12 NGX will be available to fly investigators with time sensitive tasks in the most
critical types of criminal investigations, be utilized in Department extraditions, shuttle staff
annually to complete jail inspections, aid transporting executive staff to required meetings in and
out of county, map natural disasters for critical assessments, provide high altitude and high tech
search and rescue, provide specially trained and geared staff to respond quickly to critical
incidents or mutual aid requests, and be a resource to other county departments with reduced
travel time, reduced lodging, reduced per diem and allowing executive staff to be more available
within the county.
Locating the suspect and allowing the most knowledgeable case investigator to interview them
as soon as possible, greatly increases the likelihood the suspect speaks to investigators, gives
admissions or actionable information and/or a confession. Often scheduling commercial airfare,
rental cars, hotels and dealing with the extensive processes to allow investigators to fly armed in
commercial aircraft causes significant delays to this critical timetable.
There is significant process to transporting a handcuffed prisoner on a commercial airline, and
commercial pilots have refused to allow prisoners onboard. Due to long waits at airports, often
long drives to commercial airports and restrictions on how law enforcement is allowed to
handcuff prisoners, some prisoners in transport have refused to board or faked a medical
condition to delay extradition, causing deputies multi-day delays in a foreign jurisdiction until a
medical release could be given. Utilizing the Pilatus aircraft, two-day extraditions could be
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completed in a single day, utilizing smaller airports closer to the desired jail and without firearm
restrictions or restraint restrictions. Although costs associated with extraditions are state
reimbursable, using department aircraft would save taxpayers money in deputies overtime,
commercial airfare, vehicle rental and hotel expenses. Also, the State of California would
reimburse the Department’s costs associated with the aircraft when utilized in extraditions.
A fixed wing aircraft with state-of-the-art video, picture and sensor equipment can be used to
map large geographical areas after fires, floods, earthquakes, or other disasters. It can quickly
photograph real time condition of Riverside County’s infrastructure and waterways. A high-
altitude, fixed wing aircraft with precision cameras and Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) can
search larger geographical areas during search and rescue missions than their rotary aircraft
counterparts. Locating a missing person quickly and forwarding that information to the Sheriff’s
rescue helicopter will save lives.
A fixed wing aircraft with seating for nine people could be utilized to deploy Sheriff’s Office
teams with specialty training and equipment throughout the county or even the state during
mutual aid. The Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Bureau could be flown to Blythe to provide
resources during an emergency or the Sheriff’s Dive Team could be flown anywhere in the state
with their gear during a CAL-OES mutual aid request, quickly and effectively.
A fixed wing aircraft can be a resource to other county departments with reduced travel time,
reduced lodging, reduced per diem and allowing executive staff to be more available within the
county. Regardless of availability, a cost benefit analysis will be performed to assure the overall
benefit of utilizing the aircraft outweighs the monetary cost.
Contract History and Price Reasonableness
The total purchase cost of the Airbus AS350 B3e, including tax is $7,724,489 (helicopter before
tax $7,168,899; tax is $555,590). This pricing includes the negotiated pricing in which the
vendor provided a discount of $83,473. The Sheriff’s Office is requesting for a 3% contingency
to account for all cost contingencies related to the helicopter procurement.
The total purchase cost of the Pilatus PC-12 NGX, including tax is 10,745,059 (Plane before tax
$9,972,212; tax is $772,847) The Sheriff’s Office is requesting for a 3% contingency to account
for all cost contingencies related to the fixed-wing procurement.
Additional Fiscal Information
The purchase agreement with Airbus Helicopters, Inc. does not include sales tax, as the county
will be remitting use tax in the amount of $555,590, which is equal to 7.75%, directly to the State
of California. Coordination of payment will be handled with the Auditor-Controller’s office.
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SUBMITTAL TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE,
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
The purchase agreement with Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd. does not include sales tax, as the
county will be remitting use tax in the amount of $772,847, which is equal to 7.75%, directly to
the State of California. Coordination of payment will be handled with the Auditor-Controller’s
office.
Attachments
3 - Airbus Helicopters Purchase Agreement One H125/AS350B3e Helicopter
3 - Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd. Purchase Agreement One PC-12 NGX aircraft
SCHEDULE A. BUDGET ADJUSTMENT
FY 22/23
Decrease Appropriations:
10000-2500400000-510040 Regular Salaries $ 18,469,458
Anticipated Use of Unassigned Fund Balance:
10000-2500400000-370100 Unassigned Fund Balance $ 18,469,458
Increase Appropriations:
10000-2500300000-546040 Equipment – Aircraft $ 18,469,458
Anticipated Increase of Unassigned Fund Balance:
10000-2500300000-370100 Unassigned Fund Balance $ 18,469,458
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SUBMITTAL TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE,
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
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