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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/12/2008, C7 - REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES; SPECIFICATION NO. 90358 (2008) _ t i counClt bruary 12,2008 j acEnba Report CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO FROM: Jay D. Walter Public Works Director,aj Prepared By: Bridget Fraser, Engineer III SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES; SPECIFICATION NO. 90358 (2008) CAO RECOMMENDATION 1. Approve the Request for Qualifications for Environmental Services, Specification No. 90358 (2008) and authorize staff to solicit responses. 2. Authorize the City Administrative Officer to execute an agreement with the top selected consultants. 3. Authorize the City Administrative Officer to execute purchase orders up to $50,000 for individual environmental service contracts where funding is available in the project account for those services. DISCUSSION Staff recommends generating a list of qualified consultants and executing agreements with 2-3 firms to perform environmentally related services for Council-approved and budgeted CIP projects on an "as-needed' basis. This approach of generating "on-call" agreements has been successfully used for various consultant services over the last 10 years greatly reducing staff time in hiring consultants by eliminating the repetitive process of preparing RFPs, advertising and soliciting firms for each and every project. Staff uses consultants for two main purposes. The first is to complete work for which there is no internal expertise. The second is to allow project work to continue or be expedited when staff is unavailable due to other project workload. The current CIP workload has a number of projects that may require a variety of environmental services over the next two fiscal years. Currently, there is not adequate City staff with the training and experience necessary to carry out these duties efficiently and effectively. Hiring consultants with the proper expertise will ensure that the City CIP projects get the thorough environmental analysis that the Council and the public expect, leading us to project solutions that enhance the environment as well as mitigating for impacts. Over the last ten years the Public Works Department has generated lists of prequalified consultants to provide services on an"on-call"basis for various areas of specialized work such as surveying, materials testing, construction management, right-of-way acquisition services and hazardous materials testing/monitoring and environmental services. This process has proven to be less time-consuming, less expensive and less redundant for both the City and the consultants. L �-/ Request for Qualifications—Environmental Services Page 2 The Request for Qualifications (RFQ) solicits information packets from interested Environmental consultants. After evaluating the submittal packages received, staff will select the top one to three consultants based on their demonstrated ability to provide these services in a timely manner. Once the selected consultant(s) have entered into an agreement with the City, staff would be able to use their services for individual projects as needed. Typical work performed by the environmental consultant will include biological studies and surveys, archaeological assessments and subsurface investigations, regulatory permitting services, construction surveys and monitoring and other such environmental services deemed necessary for the successful completion of the City's Capital Improvement Plan projects. The City's Financial Management Manual allows consultants to be hired without any special requirements for services totaling less than $7,500. Each department is responsible to prepare vouchers, or a purchase order, for payment to the consultant. Between $7,500 and $25,000, a department solicits proposals in an informal manner, and a Purchase Order is authorized by the CAO. For any consultant services over $25,000, a formal Council-approved Request 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 for previously approved and budgeted CIP projects in a greatly reduced time frame, basically under the guidelines for services less than $7,500, but in compliance with the City's purchasing policy. Perform this process every 2-3 three years allows new and interested companies to be recognized by the City. This improves competition and brings us new ideas and expertise. FISCAL IMPACT The RFQ process itself, does not have any fiscal impacts. Payment for the consultant services will come from the individual project funds to which they apply. 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 environmental services are expected to range anywhere from $4,000 to$50,000. Request for Qualifications—Environmental Services Page 3 ALTERNATIVES Staff can go back to the previous practice of 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—Environmental Services G:\Staff-Reports-Agendas-Minutes\_CAR\2008\CIP\90358-2008 Environmental Services RFQ\90358-08advrfgenviroscrvices.Doc C7-3