TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Mark Danaj, City Manager
FROM:
Tony Olmos, Public Works Director
Joe Parco, City Engineer
SUBJECT:Title
Award of Professional Service Agreements for On-Call Professional Design Services (RFP1027-15) to Harris and Associates; Penco Engineering; and Transtech Engineers in the Amount of $300,000 for a Three-Year Term for Each Firm (Public Works Director Olmos).
APPROVE
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_________________________________________________________
Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the City Council:
1. Award Professional Service Agreements for On-Call Professional Design Services to Harris and Associates, Penco Engineering; and Transtech Engineers in the amount of $300,000 for a three-year term for each firm.
2. Authorize City Manager to execute agreements.
Body
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Payment for work associated with all three agreements would be funded by previously approved projects in the Capital Improvement Program (CIP).
BACKGROUND:
From fiscal years 2006-07 to 2011-12, City Council approved an average of
$6 Million per year in CIP funding. From fiscal years 2012-13 to 2014-15, City Council approved a total of $59 million in new CIP funding, averaging approximately $19.7 million per year. The major reason for this increase was the addition of significant water, wastewater, and street projects including Sepulveda Widening at $19 million. Without including Sepulveda Widening, the City currently has a carryover amount of approximately $22 million with approximately $10 million in proposed funding for FY15-16.
The Public Works Engineering Division does not currently have sufficient in-house resources to design and inspect the carryover and proposed CIP projects. In assessing workload and available resources, staff has determined that in order to make significant progress towards completion of the carryover and proposed CIP projects, it is necessary to move into a full Project Management Model whereby staff is charged with managing and directing a team of design consultants, who would be on-call and ready to provide design and inspection services. The City's current Public Works Director and City Engineer have both extensively used these types of contracts at their prior places of employment, including County of Orange, Huntington Beach, Brea, Santa Ana, Carlsbad, and Rancho Santa Margarita and recommend their use in Manhattan Beach.
DISCUSSION:
Throughout the years, Public Works Engineering would typically design a number of projects in-house and utilize project-specific consultants for the balance of the work. This model worked fine when the workload was not as large, but this has put a strain on project delivery as the project workload has grown. Within the past couple of years, staff has cut back on the number of projects that are designed in-house and has increased the use of project-specific consultants.
To procure a project-specific consultant, the entire process from issuance of the initial RFP to Council approval and execution of the contract typically takes between 12 to 16 weeks (Attachment 4). Aside from the time it takes to develop an RFP, execution of all the contract agreement requirements including insurance also takes considerable time. To streamline the process, many local agencies have turned to the use of on-call consultants.
On-call consultants are essentially contracts with qualified engineering firms that provide engineering services within a defined general scope of services. Once staff is ready to initiate a CIP project, one or more of the on-call firms would be provided a project-specific scope of work and will be asked to submit a fee proposal for the task(s). The firm that demonstrates that they can immediately meet the project needs and has all of the necessary resources available will be assigned the project. Prior to approval of each task order, staff would ensure that the project fee schedule is within project budget and meets the industry's best practices. Although the cumulative amount of all three contracts seems high, it should be noted that the City already spends significant funds on project-specific design and inspection services as a matter of regular practice. Having on-call consultants simply expedites initiation of the projects.
The scope of work for this agreement will consist of civil engineering design services resulting in contract documents for various projects on an as-needed basis. Some specific work items for each project would include, AutoCAD design drafting, preparation of technical specifications and cost estimates, environmental assessment and documentation, project constructability review and construction support services during the bidding and construction phases. Staff has identified the potential CIP projects that the selected consultants could be assigned should City Council approve the agreements along with an estimated design fees (Attachment 5).
With the approval of the design consultant agreements, staff can expeditiously execute a scope of work task order and concurrently execute a large number of projects with the aid of the selected consultants. Engineering staff, serving as overall Project Managers, will oversee the consultant's entire design process for each project, and ensure that all projects meet the required schedule and all applicable Engineering and City standards. In addition, City Engineering staff will continue their professional development by staying abreast of the latest project management best practices.
All on-call consultants will be held to high project delivery standards. Aside from demanding competitive fee proposals for the individual task orders, staff will discontinue utilizing services from any firm that has not performed to City staff expectations on prior assignments. The on-call consultant agreements do not require the City to utilize the full amount of the contracts, so subsequent project assignments will be tied to past performance.
RFP #1027-15 for On-Call Professional Designs services was issued on February 11, 2015. Fourteen firms submitted responses to the RFP. It is anticipated that the firms selected as a result of this RFP will be used on the street, facilities and parking projects identified in the CIP.
A committee of four staff members reviewed each of the proposals submitted. The proposals were reviewed and rated based on the following criteria:
· Understanding of the work to be done |
· Experience with similar kinds of work |
· Quality of staff for work to be done |
· Capability of developing innovative or advanced techniques |
· Familiarity with state and federal procedures |
· Financial responsibility |
· Demonstrated technical ability |
The top four firms were interviewed by the committee, since the top four firms were all closely rated after the review of the proposals. The interviews of the top four rated consultants consisted of questions that elicited discussion on the following issues: employee retention, stability of firm, firm's capacity to perform proposed projects, conflict resolution, project cost controls and change orders. Based on the results of the final interviews, the top three rated consultants are being recommended for contract award (Complete ratings can be seen in Attachment 4).
ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED:
ALTERNATIVE #1:
Staff augmentation through a temporary services agency could be used to augment and assist staff with the delivery of CIP Projects.
PROS:
Staff augmentation could help eliminate or reduce tasks previously performed by engineering staff, freeing up staff time to devote to the delivery of CIP Projects
CONS:
Staff augmentation would require a search and interview of possible candidates, and turnover of temporary staff is a possibility further delaying the delivery of CIP projects until a replacement can be found.
CONCLUSION:
Staff recommends that the City Council award Professional Service Agreements for On-Call Professional Design Services to Harris and Associates; Penco Engineering; and Transtech Engineers, in the amount of $300,000 for a three-year term for each firm.
Attachments:
1. Professional Services Agreement - Harris and Associates, Inc.
2. Professional Services Agreement - Penco Engineering, Inc.
3. Professional Services Agreement - Transtech Engineers, Inc.
4. Typical Design Consultant RFP Process and RFP #1027-15 Consultant Ratings
5. List of Potential Design Projects