TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Talyn Mirzakhanian, Acting City Manager
FROM:
Ryan Heise, Acting Community Development Director
Nhung Huynh, Senior Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Consideration of Resolutions Awarding Four Three-Year Professional Service Agreements to: 4LEAF, Inc.; M6 Consulting; Jason Addison Smith Consulting Services, Inc., DBA JAS Pacific; and Bureau Veritas, for Building, Fire, and Public Works Services (Amount Expended Determined by Services Provided) (Acting Community Development Director Heise).
A) ADOPT RESOLUTION NOS. 24-0106, 24-0107, 24-0108, AND 24-0109
B) APPROVE AUTHORIZATION
Body
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RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1) Adopt Resolution Nos. 24-0106, 24-0107, 24-0108, and 24-0109; and
2) Approve Authorization for the City Manager to execute two one-year extensions for each vendor, should it be determined to be in the City’s best interest.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Through the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, the City has selected four vendors for Building, Fire, and Public Works services. If approved, each vendor will execute a Professional Services Agreement (PSA) with a corresponding fee schedule. The City anticipates using the vendors for three main types of services: plan check review, in-house staffing to temporarily fill vacant positions, and on-call inspection services. For plan check review, the City pays the vendor a certain percentage of the plan check fee based on the City’s Resolution of Fees. The revenue received from the plan check fees covers the direct and indirect costs associated with these plan check services or in-house staffing vacancies. The cost for any contract staff is covered within the Department’s salary savings. For on-call inspection services, the cost of the service is based on an hourly rate, as defined in each PSA’s fee schedule. On-call inspection services are utilized to ensure construction inspections are performed the next business day. The established rates in the PSA ensure that invoicing is consistent throughout the life of each agreement.
Sufficient funding has been budgeted in the Community Development, Fire and Public Works Departments’ contract services budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. Staff will monitor each agreement to ensure expenditures are within the budgeted amount in each Department’s respective budgets. It is important to note that because services are provided on an as-needed basis, expenditures are incurred only when services are required and provided. Therefore, each agreement amount fluctuates based on construction activity and the Building Division’s staffing levels and vacancies.
BACKGROUND:
The City provides plan check and inspection services and oversees the administration and enforcement of various building and fire codes regulating construction, use and occupancy of all buildings and structures within the City. To ensure conformance with City and State specifications and safety standards, the City reviews construction plans and calculation for conformance with code requirements. Historically, the City has contracted for professional services to perform most of the plan check review for the Building Division, all of the plan check review for the Fire Department, and Low Impact Development (LID) review for Public Works. This arrangement helps the City provide consistent development services to the building community in a timely manner.
The ongoing construction activity necessitates the requirement for outside professional plan check review and inspection expertise. This allows the City to maintain plan check review turnaround time of two to eight weeks depending on the type of project, and maintain next business day building inspection services. Additionally, contracting out for services allows the flexibility to quickly respond to fluctuating demand of plan checks services without compromising turnaround times. Conversely, if there is a lull in submittals, a reduction in plan check services can be accommodated by the contractor without the need for reduction in City staff. All of these customer service requirements are necessary to ensure that building activities continue at a steady rate for the City’s customers. Not having the ability to provide this level of service may cause undue financial strain on applicants, delays and circumvention of building and safety codes for contractors, residents and businesses. The fees for outside services are entirely funded by plan check, inspection and permit fees.
DISCUSSION:
Through the RFP process, in September 2022, the City Council awarded four professional services agreements to Melad and Associates, VCA, JAS Pacific and Transtech Engineers to provide plan check services on an as-needed basis. Staff determined that it was very common for cities to have a pool of vendors to provide building and fire review services. Therefore, these agreements were awarded with a three-year term with the option of two, one-year extensions. To date, all four agreements are in effect. However, due to an industry-wide labor shortage for plan check engineers and staff with similar technical skills, the City’s current vendors are also having difficulty hiring staff and/or providing contract staff to meet the City’s plan review needs. As a result, the City released a new RFP in April 2024 to solicit bids from qualified vendors to supplement the City’s current pool of vendors.
Through the RFP process, the City received nine responsive proposals. Vendor selection is based upon several factors including cost, experience, staffing, turnaround time, ability to meet locally with design professionals, contractors and homeowners, ability to provide next-day inspection staff, familiarity with the City’s permitting software (Energov), providing expedited plan check services and the vendor’s references. The vendor’s experience on construction types includes complicated residential projects containing double basements on small lots located close together as well as complex low-rise commercial projects fully utilizing all available area on site. Staff reviewed and ranked all written RFP responses based on the above criteria.
Following a thorough review and evaluation process, staff short-listed six vendors for in-person interviews to select the best fit for the City and to determine each vendor’s ability to provide the required services. Staff determined that four vendors possessed a combination of the qualifications and customer service qualities that would best provide consistent development services to the City’s building community in a timely manner.
Attachment 9 provides a summary of each vendor’s score. Bureau Veritas, M6 Consulting and 4LEAF, and JAS Pacific ranked amongst the top vendors based on evaluation criteria. Due to the high demand for these services, lack of qualified employees in the workforce, the demand for prompt turnaround timeframe of plans check reviews, and overall customer service-oriented nature of this type of service, staff recommends multiple vendors to supplement the City’s existing pool of vendors as follows:
• 4LEAF has staffing to augment several City vacancies.
• Bureau Veritas is a large firm that can provide the bandwidth in staffing and plan review services to accommodate the City’s needs.
• M6 Consulting employs multiple specialists with technical expertise that will be able to review upcoming large and complex projects that exceed the capacity of the City’s current staff.
• JAS Pacific is one of the City’s current Plan Check vendors, and they are familiar with the City’s code, processes and permitting software Energov. JAS Pacific also employs multiple specialists with technical expertise that will be able to review upcoming large and complex projects that exceed the capacity of the City’s current staff. Staff is requesting to enter into a new agreement with this vendor because their RFP response quoted a lower fee schedule than what the City is currently paying. Therefore, entering into a new agreement with JAS will result in a cost savings to the City.
Staff recommends to contract with the above listed four vendors for building, fire and public works services. The City can select from the vendor pool at any given time to meet the fluctuating demand and services required. In addition to plan check review and inspection services, all recommended vendors provide in-house staff (when available) to augment City staff during times of staff vacancies. Increasing the City’s building and fire services resources from four to seven vendors provides more in-depth technical expertise for anticipated upcoming complex projects, as well as additional staffing options to fill various disciplines.
CONCLUSION:
Staff recommends that the City Council enter into three-year Professional Services Agreements with Bureau Veritas, M6 Consulting, 4LEAF, and JAS Pacific. As specified in the Professional Services Agreements, the City Manager would have the authority to exercise the two one-year extensions should it be determined to be in the City’s best interest. The City may cancel the agreements at any time without cause upon a 30-day notice.
PUBLIC OUTREACH:
The Request for Proposal was advertised on the City’s website as well as OpenGov, a public bid notification board.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
The City has reviewed the proposed activity for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and has determined that the activity is not a “Project” as defined under Section 15378 of the State CEQA guidelines; therefore, pursuant to Section 15060(c)(3) of the State CEQA Guidelines the activity is not subject to CEQA. Thus, no environmental review is necessary.
LEGAL REVIEW:
Each Professional Services Agreement has been reviewed by the City Attorney and each is approved as to form.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Resolution No. 24-0106
2. Agreement - 4LEAF, Inc.
3. Resolution No. 24-0107
4. Agreement - Bureau Veritas
5. Resolution No. 24-0108
6. Agreement - M6 Consulting
7. Resolution No. 24-0109
8. Agreement - Jason Addison Smith Consulting Services, Inc., DBA JAS Pacific
9. RFP Summary of Vendors