REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
SUBMITTED TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
SUBMITTED BY: Eric G. Parra, Interim City Manager
VIA: Chau Vu, Director of Public Works
PREPARED BY: Keegan Olds, Capital Projects Administrator
Subject:
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Approve and authorize execution of three (3) Professional Services Contracts for On-Call Environmental Engineering Consulting Services with CWE, Inc., Environmental Engineering & Contracting, Inc., and GHD, Inc.
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Statement of Issue:
The Public Works Department requires professional environmental engineering consulting services on an on-call or as-needed basis to support staff in the planning, design, and construction of local, state, and federally-funded capital improvement projects, which are identified in the annual Capital Improvement Program (CIP). As such, Public Works advertised a Request for Proposals (RFP), based on federal procurement requirements, for these services and recommends awarding three on-call environmental engineering consulting services contracts.
Financial Impact:
No additional funding is required by this action.
The City’s adopted Fiscal Year (FY) 2023/24 CIP Budget totals $41.1 million for approved projects citywide. Each approved CIP project has a budget containing sufficient funding for design, environmental, engineering, construction, project management, and other required costs.
The three (3) recommended environmental engineering consulting contracts, totaling $1.8 million, will be funded within each project or program’s individual CIP budget, on an as-needed basis. Additionally, environmental engineering consulting services provided under these contracts may be reimbursable through State and Federal funding.
Recommended Action:
recommendation
A) Approve and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to execute a $600,000 “Professional Services Contract Between the City of Huntington Beach and CWE, Inc. for On-Call Environmental Engineering Consulting;” and,
B) Approve and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to execute a $600,000 “Professional Services Contract Between the City of Huntington Beach and Environmental Engineering & Consulting, Inc. for On-Call Environmental Engineering Consulting;” and,
C) Approve and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to execute a $600,000 “Professional Services Contract Between the City of Huntington Beach and GHD, Inc. for On-Call Environmental Engineering Consulting.”
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Alternative Action(s):
Do not approve the professional services contracts. However, staffing levels and specific expertise are limited and necessitate additional outside support to complete budgeted CIPs. The impacts of not having approved and active on-call contacts that are readily available include:
• Each project or program would be required to advertise individual Requests for Proposals to procure support, which would require additional time and staff hours to complete.
• When projects have funding that originate from specialized sources (most commonly Federal and State sources), there may be additional procurement requirements placed onto the City tied to those specialized sources.
Procuring individual contracts for each capital project or program and complying with federal/state requirements for every individual project will add staff hours, cost, and time to deliver projects.
Analysis:
In order to have the ability to obtain reimbursement on federally funded projects, consultants must be procured using the federal process, which differs from the City’s normal procurement process and involves Caltrans approval. Therefore, on February 7th, 2022 the City advertised a federalized Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for On-Call Engineering Services featuring 5 sub-categories: Construction Management and Inspection, Material Testing and Inspection, Architectural Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Environmental Engineering. Proposals were requested and submitted in compliance with Chapter 3.03 of the Huntington Beach Municipal Code.
Six (6) proposals were received for the Environmental Engineering Consulting sub-category. In accordance with qualifications-based selected procurement, per the Federal “Brooks Act,” State SB 419, and the City of Huntington Beach Municipal Code Section 3.03 “Professional Services,” the Public Works Department established a review board. Proposals were then evaluated and ranked by the review board. The top three (3) firms, CWE Inc., Environmental Engineering & Consulting, Inc, and GHD, Inc., were selected in the Environmental Engineering category to facilitate competitive proposals for future projects from qualified on-call consultants.
The three (3) contracts recommended in this Request for Council Action (RCA) are to staff in the planning, design, and construction of a wide variety of Local, State, and Federally-funded capital improvement projects. Environmental engineering services can include, but are not limited to, preparing Preliminary Environmental Studies, recommending and evaluating Low Impact Development BMPs for storm water systems, grant applications, water quality monitoring, inspections, reporting, and oversight in compliance with federal and state regulatory requirements. These services have historically been utilized to supplement City staff to meet annual CIP goals, as an extension of staff and/or to provide required expertise for unique projects. It is anticipated that these services will be required based on past years. Each project or program is evaluated on a case by case basis to determine if these as-needed contract services are necessary.
The City’s FY 2023/24 CIP totals $41.1 million in new projects. Typical design and construction support cost from the use of consultants on a CIP project can vary between ten to twenty percent (10 to 20%) of total costs for a CIP project. Therefore, it is practical to conservatively assume minimum annual design and construction consultant costs would be around $7.5 million to the City for total CIP projects or approximately $22.5 million over the next three (3) years.
Professional environmental engineering services are typically required for most CIP projects, including streets and transportation, water, sewer, stormwater, parks and beaches, and facility improvement projects. Therefore, these consultants were selected to meet projected local, State, and Federally-funded project and program workload over the next three years with a total contract limit of $600,000. The proposed contract amounts are a not-to-exceed amount for a three-year term, with no guarantee of work. Funding for any and all of these contract services is only through City Council authorization in the budget approval process.
Environmental Status:
This action is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly.
Strategic Plan Goal:
Non Applicable - Administrative Item
For details, visit www.huntingtonbeachca.gov/strategicplan <http://www.huntingtonbeachca.gov/strategicplan>.
Attachment(s):
1. Professional Services Contract between the City of Huntington beach and CWE, Inc. for On-Call Environmental Engineering Consulting
2. Professional Services Contract between the City of Huntington beach and Environmental Engineering & Consulting, Inc. for On-Call Environmental Engineering Consulting
3. Professional Services Contract between the City of Huntington beach and GHD, Inc. for On-Call Environmental Engineering Consulting
4. Professional Services Award Analysis
5. Professional Services Contract Presentation