TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Mark Danaj, City Manager
FROM:
Sanford Taylor, Information Technology Director
SUBJECT:Title
Award of a Three-Year Contract to Frontier Communications for Budgeted Redundant Internet Access Services with an Estimated Value of $161,460; and Award a Contract to VectorUSA for Budgeted Wide Area and Wireless Network Equipment and Installation for an Amount Not-to-Exceed $250,812.61 (Information Technology Director Taylor).
APPROVE
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_________________________________________________________
Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council:
a) Award RFP #1074-16 to Frontier Communications for redundant Internet access services with an estimated three-year value of $161,460; and
b) Approve option for the City Manager to extend the term for up to two additional one-year periods; if both extensions are exercised, the approximate 5-year total contract amount will be $269,100; and
c) Award RFP #1077-17 to VectorUSA for wide area (WAN) and wireless (WiFi) network equipment installation in an amount not-to-exceed $250,812.61.
Body
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Internet Access
Sufficient funds are included in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016-2017 Information Technology budget and will be provided in future fiscal years for this service. The attached contract indicates a monthly cost of $3,900 or an annual cost of $46,800; an additional $7,020 (15%) has been included for estimated regulatory telecommunication taxes and fees, totaling the projected yearly cost to $53,820. Total three-year contract estimated value is $161,460.
Under the current contract, the City pays $94,417.92 annually for two Internet access circuits. With the proposed Frontier contract, the City will receive three Internet circuits, gain 60 times the capacity and realize an estimated yearly savings of $40,000.
Wide Area Network (WAN) and Wireless Equipment (WiFi)
Current FY 2016-2017 Information Technology budget includes $273,000 supplemental funding for WAN and WiFi expansion which are adequate to finance this project.
BACKGROUND:
At the April 19, 2016 City Council meeting, City Council directed staff to pursue a Wide Area Network (WAN) expansion project, in order to increase availability of free public WiFi at City facilities and parks, as well as improve staff accessibility to internal City applications in the field. This development will result in increased demand on the City’s current system. Staff issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to increase the City Internet access speeds and accommodate the needs of both current and future users. Because the cost for high speed Internet access has decreased considerably over the last few years, staff anticipated a cost savings for this service through the RFP process.
It is important to note that there was a service disruption in late August that was experienced by many Manhattan Beach residents and businesses who use Frontier Communications, an organization that submitted a response to this RFP. The City held a meeting with senior officials from Frontier in response to this, and it was determined that the source of the problem had been fixed. While many Frontier customers in Manhattan Beach continue to report service issues, there have been no major outages reported since.
Staff recognizes the concerns about the City entering into an agreement with this company. However, those affected by that incident received services through a residential service plan. The City would receive commercial services, which have proven to be reliable, have predictable performance and effective routing.
In addition to this process, staff released another RFP for wide area and wireless network access equipment installation required at various locations to support access expansion to City applications and free public WiFi.
DISCUSSION:
Internet Access
An RFP was released for installation of 1-Gigabit circuits at three strategic locations on the City network (City Hall, City Yard and Fire Station 2). The sites were chosen in order to provide the most comprehensive and stable network possible for both community members accessing public WiFi and City employees using cloud-based resources.
Six responses were received. A summary of monthly pricing offered by each vendor is shown below (Attachment 1):
• Frontier Communications - $3,900
• Sunesys - $7,350
• CenturyLink - $7,516
• Global IT Communications - $11,144
• Windstream - $11,165
• Cogent - $15,134 (missing key personnel and references)
After evaluating all the proposals, it was determined that Frontier Communications (formerly Verizon) was best positioned to deliver the needed Internet services with a cost-effective solution within the project timeline. The Internet access proposed by Frontier will be 20 times faster and provide more paths to route Internet traffic.
Currently, the City pays $94,417.92 annually for Internet access that cannot support the updates City Council has asked staff to pursue. The proposed Frontier contract would provide increased capacity for network growth and Internet accessibility, as well as an estimated yearly savings of $40,000. Over the course of the three-year contract, this would result in a total potential savings of $120,000.
Frontier commercial service provides robust connectivity to its subscribers, as well as rigorous service level expectations and appropriate methods of reparation should the service fail to meet those agreed terms. Staff will have a single point of contact for all services and, if City Council approves this contract, hopes to leverage that relationship in the continued pursuit of providing better services to the broader Manhattan Beach community. Additionally, because the City has pre-existing infrastructure that supports Frontier, the migration to a new service will be a significantly more stable and uninterrupted process.
As a result of the proposals’ review and interviews, staff recommends that the City Council award RFP #1074-16 to Frontier Communications for redundant Internet access services with an estimated annual value of $53,820. The attached professional services agreement is for three years with a projected cost of $161,460. The contract contains an option for the City Manager to extend the term for up to two additional one-year periods. If both extensions are exercised, then the total 5-year contract amount will be $269,100. The service is scheduled to be operational within four months of the executed contract.
POLICY ALTERNATIVES:
City continues to use the current Internet Service Provider;
PROS:
Established connectivity;
CONS:
Continue to pay $94,417.92 annual cost for two circuits, 50 mbps each; unable to grow current network accessibility.
Wide Area Network (WAN) and Wireless Equipment (WiFi)
Staff issued an RFP for WAN and WiFi equipment and installation in an effort to improve network performance at several parks and remote locations, including:
• Begg Pool
• Live Oak Tennis Office
• Marine Avenue Park
• Polliwog Park
• Sand Dune Park
• Mira Costa High School Pool and Tennis Courts.
These WAN extension sites are currently without access to the City’s network and have difficulty providing needed support to Parks and Recreation activities, such as class registration, tennis court reservations, aquatics membership and afterschool programs. The WAN expansion offers a significant increase in capacity that will provide free public WiFi access and allow City staff to reach resources crucial to providing responsive services to the community at those locations.
Four RFP responses were received for the acquisition and installation of WAN and WiFi equipment project (Attachment 2). They are:
• VectorUSA - $137,304.27
• Am-Tec Total Security - $168,953
• CelPlan Technologies - $188,189.08
• TTS - $208,863.97 (no references provided)
After extensive review, it was determined that VectorUSA offered the most cost-effective solution, as well as met the three-month implementation window. The IT Department has worked with the vendor on several infrastructure projects at various City facilities and has always been satisfied with the results. Taking advantage of the RFP process, the City further discussed with the lowest bidder the option of adding equipment and/or services that encompass the City’s needs to facilitate and/or extend WAN/WiFi in the present and the future. Through this, it was identified that additional hardware was necessary to support the original design, and the scope of the services needed to be expanded. The project cost was updated to include additional equipment and services of $71,706.24, which changed the total to $209,010.51. A project contingency of 20% ($41,802.10) has been included to address unforeseen costs relative to the project, bringing the total to $250,812.61.
As a result of the proposals review, evaluation and discussion, staff recommends the City Council award a contract to VectorUSA for wide area (WAN) and wireless (WiFi) network equipment installation in an amount not-to-exceed $250,812.61.
POLICY ALTERNATIVES:
Information Systems will have to look at other options to expand wide area network and improve wireless connectivity at City parks and remote locations
PROS:
Funding will remain available contingent upon City Council budget approval.
CONS:
Some parks and remote locations will continue to be excluded from the network; staff will need to use alternative methods to connect to the City network and its applications.
PUBLIC OUTREACH/INTEREST:
Both of the Requests for Proposals have been publicized on the City website.
Signs are posted promoting the free public WiFi at appropriate City facilities. The Information Technology Department will continue to promote free public WiFi access offered at City locations through the following methods:
• Free WiFi signage strategically placed at City facilities (continued)
• City Website - homepage slide and information page on free WiFi (pending)
• City social media outlets (pending)
• Information Memo (pending)
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The City has reviewed the proposed activity for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and has determined that there is no possibility that the activity, as the approval of a contact only, may have a significant effect on the environment; therefore, pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the State CEQA Guidelines the activity is not subject to CEQA. Thus, no environmental review is necessary at this time. Installation of the equipment and improvements will require further review under CEQA at the time that further information and concept plans are developed.
LEGAL REVIEW
Both contracts have been signed by the contractor and approved as to form by the City Attorney.
Attachment/Attachments:
1. RFP #1074-16 Internet Access Services Vendor Quotation Record
2. RFP #1077-17 WAN and WiFi Project Vendor Quotation Record
3. Frontier Communications Contract
4. Vector USA Contract