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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/20/2008, C9 - REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR CITY-WIDE RIGHT-OF-WAY ACQUISITIONS SERVICES i council 5710/20os j acEnba aEpont I=N®6r CITY O F SAN LUIS O B I S P O FROM: Jay D. Walter, Director of Public Works Prepared By: Daniel Van Beveren, Senior Civil Engineer 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 and authorize staff to solicit responses. 2. Authorize the City Administrator to execute an agreement with the top selected consultant or consultants. 3. Authorize the City Administrative Officer to execute purchase orders for individual Right-of- Way service contracts where funding is available in the project account for those services. DISCUSSION Periodically, staff requires the assistance of consultants who specialize in Right-of-Way services. This assistance is needed when projects require the acquisition of additional Right-of-'Way or a modification to an existing easement. Currently, there are no City staff members with the training and experience necessary to cant' out these duties efficiently and effectively; the city does not staff a Right-of-Way specialist. Instead, Right-of-Way issues and other related duties are handled through the use of a consultant who specializes in this type of work. The City benefits from the assistance of Right-of-Way consultants on a variety of project types. Staff has recognized the benefit of pre-selecting consultants who specialize in Right-of-Way so that their services could be more-readily utilized. Most recently in 2005, Council authorized the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Right-of-Way consultant services, and in July of 2005, the CAO executed service agreements with the top-rated two consultants who submitted proposals. Both of these agreements will expire this year, thus prompting the need for the City to re- advertise for these services, again through the same RFQ process. The RFQ will solicit 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 maintained 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 and made available to the City on an on-call basis. Council Agenda Report—Request for Qualifications—Right of Way Services Page 2 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 CIF's such as traffic circulation improvement projects or bike path projects. Many of the projects within the City are funded in part through the use of Federal.grant money, and any consultant used for Right-of-Way acquisition services on such a project must be familiar with the specific procedures and requirements of a Federally funded project. 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. 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, the 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 approval of the Request for Proposals (RFP) or an award of Contract 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 this RFQ for Right-of-Way services is to shorten the purchasing process without compromising its purpose. If the City has an agreement with a group of consultants specializing in these services, 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 firm 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. Performing 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 Division 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 $1,000 to $50,000. Council Agenda Report—Request for Qualifications—Right of Way Services Page 3 ALTERNATIVES As stated earlier in this report, previously administered agreements with the prior list of approved Right-of-Way consultants will expire this year. Staff can revert 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—Right of Way Acquisition Services G:\Staff-Reports-Agendas-Minutes\_CAR\2008\CIP\Right of Way Acquisition Service Contracts\08 CAR ROW Adv.doc C9