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AUTHORIZE THE EXECUTION OF A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MASTER AGREEMENT TO ESTABLISH A POOL OF QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRMS FOR ON-CALL CONTRACT SUPPORT FOR BUILDING PLAN REVIEW AND INSPECTION, ENGINEERING PLAN REVIEW, AND FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT SERVICES
recommended action
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a resolution to authorize the City Manager to:
1. Execute a Professional Services Master Agreement with the following professional firms for on-call contract support for Building Plan Review and Inspection, Engineering Plan Review, and Floodplain Management Services:
a. 4LEAF, Inc. Fair Oaks, CA;
b. Bureua Veritas North America, Inc. Sacramento, CA;
c. CSG Consultants, Inc. Sacramento, CA;
d. West Coast Code Consultants, Inc. San Ramon, CA
2. Execute amendments to the Professional Services Master Agreement for individual projects in an amount not to exceed $480,000 across the entire vendor pool; and
3. Authorize the City Manager to take all necessary and appropriate actions to carry out the purpose and intent of the resolution.
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Summary
There is a continued need to maintain an on-call list of building inspectors, plan examiners, and engineers to meet the demand for service during peak periods. Development is cyclical, and during an improving economy, the demand for building plan review and inspection services can outpace staffing levels. Because of this cycle, adding permanent staff to meet the increased demand is not always prudent and can lead to overstaffing when the economy is in decline. The Community Development Department (CDD) is completing multi-year forecasts and staffing to the lowest estimated need in the upcoming years. The availability of multiple professional firms provides flexible resources to meet peak service demand as well as specialized staff availability for unique or very complicated projects.
Therefore, staff recommends Council adopt a resolution to authorize the City Manager to execute a Professional Services Master Agreement with four professional firms as detailed above for an initial three-year term with an option to extend the agreement for up to two additional one-year periods. Costs associated with the Professional Services Master Agreement are covered by fees collected from each project applicant before plan reviews or inspections are conducted. Compensation under the proposed agreement is limited to a cumulative amount of $480,000 for all vendors.
DISCUSSION
Background
As part of the current fiscal year budget development and adoption, a combination of modest staffing increases and use of consulting services was determined to be the most responsible way to address increasing development activity and increased demand for Building Division activities such as plan check (building, engineering, and backup fire plan check), inspection, counter staffing and flood plain management. This approach avoids over-hiring of permanent staff in response to cyclical development activity by using consultants to augment staffing and procure specialized planning services that would not be economical to provide by hiring permanent specialist staff.
There has been a rapid increase in development project valuation in the City of Stockton over the last several years as the market continued an upward trend that resulted in increased planning and building permit activity and economic growth. Below, by fiscal year, are building permit valuations for recent fiscal years:
• FY 2012-13: $121 million
• FY 2013-14: $141 million
• FY 2014-15: $215 million
• FY 2015-16: $315 million
• FY 2016-17: $275 million (Projected)
Permit valuation has largely increased due to the volume, type, and complexity of projects as the economy improves. Although projected valuation for FY 2016-17 is expected to dip from that of FY 2015-16, valuations remain robust. Therefore, the CDD plans to continue to utilize consultants to provide the necessary flexibility to respond to cyclical demand, assist when full-time staff shortages occur, and provide specialized knowledge or training when required.
This affords the department the ability to quickly change the scale and scope of staffing support levels to correspond to workload needs at any time while maintaining high levels of customer service. Fees are collected from the applicant before any plan review, or inspection services are performed. Maintaining a pool of multiple firms provides the department the flexibility to select the appropriate consultant based on the specific project-related work and the availability of staff.
The CDD currently maintains two contracts for on-call services (building inspectors and plan checkers, permit technicians, licensed engineers, and certified building officials). Under the existing contracts, 4LEAF invoices to date are $281,688.23, and CSG invoices to date are $260,858.13. Each firm was used based on ability to provide qualified, experienced staff at the time of the City’s request. These contracts were originally approved in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015-16 for two years and expire on June 30, 2017. Due to an improving economy and the tightening of the labor pool in specialized building services, having a Professional Services Master Agreement with four consultants will allow the City to provide a better spectrum of services and enable the department to respond to short-term increases in building activity, staff vacancies, and adhere to established timelines, policies, and legal requirements.
Present Situation
On March 29, 2017, a Request For Qualifications (RFQ) was posted to the City’s Bid Flash web page. Five RFQ submittals were received on April 20, 2017, from the following vendors:
• 4Leaf, Inc., Fair Oaks, CA
• Bureau Veritas North America, Inc., Sacramento, CA
• CSG Conultants, Inc., Sacramento, CA
• EsGil Corporation, a SAFEbuilt Company, Loveland, CO
• West Coast Code Consultants, Inc., San Ramon, CA
An evaluation panel reviewed the submissions and recommended four out of the five The selection was based on the strength of the proposals, experience with the work required, understanding of Stockton Municipal Code and State Code, ability to provide quality control checks, qualified staff, customer service, and the total hourly rate cost to the City. The pool of consultants will provide additional coverage for City service demands, and to allow a larger pool of selected consultants the opportunity to complete City work.
Each selected firm’s statement of qualifications, proposed staffing, and standard rate schedule for services, are included in Exhibit 1 to the Resolution. The Professional Services Master Agreement (Exhibit 2 to the Resolution) will apply to all four firms for services over a three (3) year period, on an as-needed basis, with the total aggregate compensation paid to all four firms not to exceed $480,000.
Once the Master Agreement is in place, firms can be selected from the pool to perform work specific to each project. Project specific scope of work and fees for professional services will be submitted from the selected firms. Final scope of work and fees will be adopted via an amendment to the Professional Services Master Agreement on a project-by-project basis.
This level of contract capacity will allow the department to adjust resources as necessary to provide high quality, timely work. The CDD continues to implement process improvements while monitoring workload and demand to ensure that full-time and contract staffing levels are appropriately balanced, re-evaluating these needs annually. Authorizing the City Manager to execute the Professional Services Master Agreement, and establish the pool will allow the CDD to continue to meet service delivery goals in an efficient, timely, and professional manner.
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
Funding for the Professional Services Master Agreement is included in the proposed FY 2017-18 budget for $320,000. The remaining portion of $160,000 is expected to be appropriated in the FY 2018-19 fiscal year budget and funded from the same account.
FY 2017-18: 048-1830-530.20-66 $320,000
FY 2018-19: 048-1830-530.20-66 $160,000
TOTAL $480,000