TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Bruce Moe, City Manager
FROM:
Stephanie Katsouleas, Public Works Director
Sanford Taylor, IT Director
Prem Kumar, City Engineer
Tim Birthisel, Senior Civil Engineer
SUBJECT:Title
Resolution No. 18-0158 Awarding a Professional Design Services Agreement for $263,272 to B&J HBK, Inc. for the Fiber-to-the-Premises Pilot Network Project and Appropriate $290,000 from the General Fund for the Project (Public Works Director Katsouleas).
a) ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 18-0158
b) APPROPRIATE FUNDS
_________________________________________________________
Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:ody
Staff recommends that City Council adopt Resolution No. 18-0158 (Attachment):
• Awarding a Professional Design Services Agreement for $263,272 to B&J HBK, Inc. for the Fiber-to-the-Premises Pilot Network Project and authorizing the City Manager to execute the Agreement (Attachment);
• Authorizing an additional contingency of $26,728 for unforeseen expenses; and
• Appropriating $290,000 from the General Fund for the Project.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Funding for this project, totaling $290,000, is available through an appropriation from the General Fund. These funds will be drawn from the Unreserved Fund Balance.
BACKGROUND:
The concept of Manhattan Beach undertaking a broadband initiative was originally discussed on March 1, 2016, when City Council directed staff to return with a presentation on the benefits of constructing a municipal fiber network. A subsequent presentation was made on April 19, 2016 about municipal broadband concepts and corresponding smart city initiatives that could be implemented. On June 6, 2017, City Council awarded a contract to Magellan Advisors to develop a Fiber Master Plan for the City that would evaluate the feasibility of becoming a municipal broadband provider city wide, often referred to as Fiber-to-the Premises (FTTP). That Master Plan was presented to City Council on October 9, 2018.
The Fiber Master Plan evaluated a variety of municipal broadband scenarios and financial models, and ultimately recommended a full retail model using a combination of internal and external staff resources. The complete Fiber Master Plan is included as a link to this staff report (Attachment). The plan also estimated the cost of installing a complete system using conventional open trench construction methods, resulting in a large price tag of $50.5 million for construction and another $22.6 million for connections, maintenance, operations and outreach for 40% of the properties in Manhattan Beach. Noticeably, construction represents the lion share of costs to build and operate a municipal broadband network. However, based on nationwide research and emerging construction technologies, Public Works believes that construction and connection costs can be noticeably reduced by utilizing micro-trenching in addition to open trenching. This assumption was the basis for staff recommending that City Council approve funding for FTTP design services as a pilot project for a fiber network in a small neighborhood area between City Hall and the Public Works Maintenance Facility. City Council unanimously approved moving forward with the pilot design to validate construction pricing. Shortly thereafter staff released a Request for Proposal (RFP) seeking fiber design services for a completely turn-key infrastructure.
DISCUSSION:
On October 23, 2018, staff invited 17 firms nationwide with extensive experience to submit a proposal in response to RFP 1189-19, Professional Design Services for FTTP Pilot Network Project. The City received two proposals by the November 12, 2018 deadline. Those proposals were evaluated in-house by the Public Works and Information Technology (IT) Departments and ranked according to best overall understanding of the project; relevant experience in designing similar municipal FTTP networks; the firm’s approach to the design parameters; the firm’s ability to provide sufficient resources to meet the City’s established deadlines; and overall best value. Based on these criteria, the review committee unanimously agreed that B&J HBK, Inc. will provide the best design services for the value, and is fully capable of meeting the City’s deadlines and design network needs.
Once design plans are completed, the City will release a bid for construction, which is estimated to occur near the end of February, 2019. Once construction bids are received in March, 2019 staff will evaluate whether construction costs are indeed lower than what was estimated in the Fiber Master Plan, and will present those results to City Council. The Fiber Master Plan pro forma will also be updated with actual construction cost information. Based on the new pro forma estimates, staff will request that City Council provide direction on whether to proceed with construction of the pilot network, and possibly design and construction of a citywide network, as well as begin the process of securing other required services (outreach, customer connections, field techs, operations, maintenance, etc.).
CONCLUSION:
Staff recommends that City Council approve an award of $263,272 to B&J HBK, Inc. for the Professional Design Services for FTTP Pilot Network Project, authorize an additional contingency of $26,728 for unforeseen expenses, and appropriate $290,000 from the General Fund for this project.
PUBLIC OUTREACH/INTEREST:
No public outreach was conducted regarding this designs services award, but extensive outreach was conducted throughout late 2017 and early 2018 in development of the Fiber Master Plan.
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
The City Attorney has reviewed this report and determined that no additional legal analysis is necessary.
Attachments:
1. Resolution No. 18-0158
2. Agreement - B&J HBK, Inc.