HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/15/2011, C6 - REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR SURVEYING SERVICES; SPECIFICATION NO. 90900 (2011) council hl,m,°•p
March 15,2011
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CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO
FROM: Jay D. Walter, Director of Public Works ID—W
Prepared By: Michael J. McGuire, Engineer III NW1
SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR SURVEYING SERVICES;
SPECIFICATION NO. 90900 (2011)
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Approve the Request for Qualifications for Surveying Services, Specification No. 90900
(2011) and authorize staff to solicit proposals.
2. Authorize the City Manager to execute agreements with the selected consulting firms.
3. Authorize the Finance Director to execute and amend Purchase Orders for individual projects
to consultants under agreement, in an amount not to exceed the authorized project budget.
DISCUSSION
Staff recommends generating a list of qualified consultants and executing agreements with
several firms to perform surveying services for Council approved and budgeted Capital
Improvement Plan (CIP) projects on an "as needed" basis through a Request for Qualifications
(RFQ) process. This approach of generating "on-call" agreements has been successfully used for
various consultant services over the last twelve years greatly reducing staff time in hiring
consultants by eliminating the repetitive process of preparing Request for Proposals (RFP),
advertising, and soliciting firms for each project.
Staff uses consultants for two main purposes. The first is to complete work for which there is no
internal expertise, or proper facilities and equipment to conduct the work. 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 surveying services over the
next two fiscal years. Currently, City staff does not have a licensed surveyor or the equipment to
conduct surveying services. Hiring consultants with the necessary equipment and expertise will
ensure that the City's CIP projects receive thorough surveying and analysis that are needed for
proper plan development. Currently, the City has a two-year contract for on-call services with
three surveying firms, which is set to expire in May, 2011.
Request for Qualifications
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
City Manager. For any consultant services over $25,000, a formal Council approved RFQ/RFP
is required. When consultants are hired, departments collect insurance and establish general
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Request for Qualifications—Surveying Services Page 2
conditions for the agreement. This can be a time consuming endeavor in a program such as
Engineering, where these types of expenditures are common.
Typical work performed by the surveying consultant will include topographic surveys,
replacement or restoration of bench marks or centerline monuments, and locating and staking of
easements or property lines. Occasionally, the City may wish to have the consultant complete
preliminary design work such as grading plans. '
The purpose of establishing an on-call provider list through the RFQ process for consultant
services 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 the required 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 an acceptable cost proposal is negotiated with the consultant, a
purchase order is approved, and work can begin.
FISCAL IMPACT
The RFQ process itself, does not have any fiscal impacts. Payment for the consultant services
work will come from the individual projects which they perform work in support of. The Project
Manager in conjunction with the Finance Department monitors the availability of funds. If a
project 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.
ALTERNATIVE
Deny RFQ. The City Council could choose to deny the RFQ process resulting in staff returning
to the previous practice of obtaining needed.services for individual projects by hiring a consultant
on a project by project basis in accordance with the purchasing policy guidelines. This
alternative is not recommended by staff 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 FOR REVIEW IN THE COUNCIL OFFICE'
RFQ—Surveying Services
T:\Coundl Agenda Reports\Public Works GAR\2011\QP\90900 Surveying RFQ\CAR Adv RFQ Surveying.doc
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