TO:
Honorable Mayor Powell and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
David N. Carmany, City Manager
FROM:
Richard Thompson, Director of Community Development
Bruce Moe, Finance Director
Nhung Madrid, Management Analyst
Gwen Eng, Purchasing Manager
SUBJECT:Title
Award of Five -Year Traffic Engineering Services Contract to Willdan Engineering (Estimated Annual Value of $102,960); Appropriation of $10,000 from the Unreserved General Fund Balance.
APPROVE AND APPROPRIATE
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council:
a) Award a five-year traffic engineering services contract to Willdan Engineering with an estimated annual value of $102,960; and
b) Appropriate $10,000 from the unreserved General Fund balance for these services for the remainder of fiscal year 2012-2013.
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FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
For Fiscal Year (FY) 2012-2013, funds totaling $83,000 are budgeted for the traffic engineering services currently provided by the consulting engineering firm Charles Abbott Associates. The budget is based on twelve hours per week at $132 per hour. The annual cost for the new contract with Willdan Engineering (Mr. Erik Zandvliet) is estimated at $102,960 based on an hourly rate of $165 per hour. As a result of the increased hourly rate, additional funds totaling $10,000 will be required for traffic engineering services in FY 2012-2013.
BACKGROUND:
The City currently contracts with Charles Abbott Associates to provide on-site traffic engineering services. These services consist of one licensed Traffic Engineer with office hours of one day per week to be physically available at City Hall in the Community Development Department. The Traffic Engineer is available by telephone and/or email on an as-needed basis outside of regular office hours. The Traffic Engineer also regularly attends monthly Parking and Public Improvements Commission (PPIC) meetings, and City Council meetings on an as-needed basis. The Traffic Engineer provides technical analysis for traffic safety and parking issues, assists in reviewing requests and concerns from residents and property/business owners, conducts traffic and parking studies, coordinates the City's Traffic Committee, and implements traffic control measures. This position requires someone who can balance the technical aspects and customer service, with clear and effective verbal and written communication and presentation skills. The demand for traffic engineering services is, and continues to be great, and requires a substantial amount of the Traffic Engineer's time to address the numerous concerns received by the community, in addition to current City projects and City Council priorities.
The Community Development Management Analyst oversees the position and manages the time and projects of the Traffic Engineer to most effectively and efficiently utilize the limited resources that the City has for this position. The Management Analyst handles all of the day-to-day operations of the Division such as following up on traffic requests, gathering research, preparing staff reports, and responding to citizen inquires, which are tasks that do not require the time or expertise of a Traffic Engineer. A licensed Traffic Engineer ensures that safety and liability concerns are thoroughly analyzed. The Traffic Engineer's time is carefully used for more technical engineering matters and issues. Staff feels that contracting for a City Traffic Engineer is the most cost effective method for obtaining traffic engineering services to meet the needs of the City.
DISCUSSION:
As directed by City Council, staff issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new contract City Traffic Engineer. The City received five responses. Because this is a professional services contract, selection is based upon many factors including the proposed Traffic Engineer assigned to the contract, the Traffic Engineer's relevant experience, the firm's understanding of the scope of services, the Traffic Engineer's ability to perform the requirements including composing written reports and PowerPoint presentations, hourly rate, references, availability to attend various Council and PPIC meetings, as well as maintaining required office hours. The comparison in Attachment "1" shows the valuation of services.
Of the responses, staff selected two firms to be interviewed: Infrastructure Engineers and Willdan Engineering. A committee consisting of staff from Community Development, Public Works, Police, and Finance interviewed these firms. Both firms were technically qualified to provide traffic engineering services. However, after review, the committee recommends the new contract be awarded to Willdan Engineering. Willdan's prior sustained experience with the City, as well as other public agencies with similar traffic issues, and the proposed traffic engineer's knowledge and skills, and frequent presentations to appointed and elected officials, resulted in Willdan Engineering to be ranked highest.
Willdan Engineering has a solid reputation for providing engineering staffing to local agencies and is proposing that Mr. Erik Zandvliet serve as Manhattan Beach's City Traffic Engineer. Mr. Zandvliet is a registered Civil Engineer (P.E.) and Registered Traffic Engineer (T.E.) with more than 20 years of experience providing public agencies with traffic engineering expertise based upon a combination of solid engineering knowledge with creative situation-specific solutions to meet the needs of individual communities and issues. Mr. Zandvliet currently serves as the on-site consulting City Traffic Engineer for the cities of La Canada-Flintridge and Rolling Hills Estates, and provides on-call services for the City of San Marino. Considering his current and future workload, it is anticipated that Mr. Zandvliet will be able to provide an average of twelve hours per week of on-site traffic engineering services to the City of Manhattan Beach, and also attend City Council and Parking and Public Improvement Commission meetings as requested.
CONCLUSION:
Staff recommends that the City Council award a five-year contract to Willdan Engineering for traffic engineering services with an estimated annual value of $102,960. Further, staff recommends that the City Council appropriate $10,000 from the unreserved General Fund balance.
The City may cancel the contract at any time without cause upon a 30-day notice.
Attachment:
1. Traffic Engineering Services Comparison
2. Agreement with Willdan Engineering