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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/02/2002, C6 - REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR CITY-WIDE RIGHT OF WAY ACQUISITION SERVICES counctt TON2 acjcnaa REpont 'mmn.mn,. C CITY OF SAN LUISOBISPO FROM: Michael D. McCluskey, Director of Public Works.&` Prepared By: Daniel Van Beveren, Associate Engineer Dq6 SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR CITY-WIDE RIGHT OF WAY ACQUISITION SERVICES CAO RECOMMENDATION 1. Approve the Requests for Qualifications for Right of Way Acquisition Services. 2. Authorize the City Administrator to execute an agreement with the top selected consultant or consultants. 3. Authorize the City Administrator to execute purchase orders up to $50,000 for individual right-of-way service contracts where funding is available in the project account for those services. DISCUSSION Staff is working on a number of projects that will require the acquisition of additional right of way or modification to an existing easement. Currently, there are no City staff members with the training and experience necessary to carry out these duties efficiently and effectively; the city does not staff a Right-of-Way specialist. The City would benefit from the assistance of a Right- of-Way consultant who specializes in this type of work. The Request for Qualifications (RFQ) solicits information packets from Right-of-Way consultants. After evaluating the submittal packages received, staff will select the top one, two, or three consultants based on their demonstrated ability to provide these services. Once these consultant(s) have been selected, and entered into an agreement with the City, staff would be able to use their services for individual projects as needed. The City has existing agreements with various other types of consultants, each with a specific area of provided service. Surveying, materials testing, construction management, and environmental testing/monitoring are types of work that frequently require the use of these consultants. Right of Way acquisition is simply another type of service that can be provided by a consultant, available to the City on an on-call basis. The work required of the right-of-way consultants includes the required steps involved in the process of obtaining needed right-of-way and/or easements for various CIP's such as road widening projects or bike path projects. It is anticipated that a significant amount of assistance will be needed on the Mid-Higuera Street Widening project. Property appraisals, acquisition, and occupant relocation assistance are all necessary steps that need to be completed before construction can begin on this project. The consultant used on this project must be familiar with the specific procedures and requirements of a Federally funded project, as the Mid-Higuera Widening project is funded in part through Federal grant money. Furthermore, with the City's plans for additional bike paths, right-of-way acquisition, typically one of the more difficult components of project development, could be handled by one of the selected consultants. / tD— Council Agenda Report—Request for Qualifications—Right of Way Services Page 2 The City's Financial Management Manual allows consultants to be hired without any special requirements for services totaling less than $5,000. Each department is responsible to prepare vouchers, or a purchase order, for payment to the consultant. Between $5,000 and $15,000, a department solicits proposals in an informal manner, and a Purchase Order is authorized by the CAO. For any consultant services over $15,000, a formal Council-approved Requests for Proposals (RFP) is required. When consultants are hired, departments collect insurance and establish general conditions for the agreement. This is a time consuming endeavor in a division such as Engineering, where project management is a significant portion of the workload. The purpose of issuing RFQ's is to shorten the purchasing process without compromising its purpose. If the City has an agreement with a group of consultants for a variety of specialties, then their insurance is on file with the City and an agreement has been executed outlining the conditions under which the consultant must work, such as indemnification, non-discrimination and conditions for termination. When a need for services is identified, staff needs only to review the list and specialties of the consultants, find a match to the project requirements and contact the firms to determine if they have staff available for the work and what the cost and time frame for completion will be. Once a written cost proposal is received from the consultant, a purchase order can be approved, and work can begin. The RFQ process and the execution of an advance agreement allows staff to obtain needed services in a greatly reduced time frame, basically under the guidelines for services less than $5,000, but in compliance with the City's purchasing policy. Additionally, the RFQ process invites new companies to be recognized by the City as interested and available to do work for us. This improves competition and brings us new ideas and expertise. FISCAL IMPACT The RFQ process itself, does not have any fiscal impacts. When projects are identified which need the services of a consultant retained through the RFQ process, project funds will be impacted. The Project Manager in conjunction with the Finance Department monitors the availability of funds. If an account is not adequately funded at the time the work is needed, staff will return to the City Council to request a supplement to the budget prior to issuing any purchase order for the work. Individual work orders for right-of-way services are expected to range anywhere from $2,000 to $50,000. ALTERNATIVES Staff can continue under the current practice of either attempting to perform this work themselves, or obtaining needed services for individual projects by hiring a consultant in accordance with the purchasing policy guidelines. This alternative is not recommended because of the additional time it takes to hire a single consultant for each needed service, and the fact that no benefits are obtained over the RFQ process proposed. Available in the Council Reading File for Review: RFQ—Right of Way Acquisition Services l:\Council Agenda Reports\CAR Right of Way Acquisition Services 04 02 02.doc