. >> john hailey, director of transit. >> good afternoon, thank you for being here. this is a contract which, i think that in terms of the need to buy new trollies, i don't think that anyone questions that and we want to move expeditiously to do that, but the reason that i wanted to ask you to just provide a bit more information is that, as you know, the contract before us for $95 million involves the same company that was involved in a prior contract and in fact, i'd called a hearing on that contract and that's new fire of america. i'm wondering if you can just talk a bit about the differences between the two contracts and how is this different from what we had done with respect to the other contract. >> thank you for the opportunity to respond to that. as you know from, and with your help and support, we've undertaken a program to replace the entire rubber tire fleet, which is among the oldest in the nation. and part of what we've done -- we've done it through a combination of federal and local money and we've looked for ways to replace the fleet in the most expedi

. >> i'm john hailey, the director of transit. i have with me the technical team or program leader in the project manager for this and let me start by first confessing to bad timing to ask you to approve a contract with king county metro in seattle during the week of the nfc championship game. i assure you the endorsement will not be contingent on the outcome of the game, although most of us believe who will win. the action before you today ask your approval to procure 60 electro trolley buses 60 feet long which are one of the main stays of our system in terms of carrying so 300 trips a day. the cost of this, the 60 coaches our total cost of $94.5 million. the method of procurement, again the timing maybe bad but the method is solid and is an arrangement between the city and king county metro in seattle with new flyer industries. it was a competitive procurement. on december 6, 2013, we signed a bus options agreement between the three parties. and moved it forward for review. the option includes in addition to the 60 would be aski