Title
Transportation Department recommending Chairman be authorized to sign Agreement for Services AGMT 08-1639 with David Evans and Associates, Inc. in the amount of $225,000 for the term June 24, 2008 through June 23, 2010 to provide surveying services for erosion control and water quality projects in the Tahoe Basin and adopt recommended findings.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Approve.
FUNDING: California Tahoe Conservancy, United States Forest Service and United States Bureau of Reclamation Grant Funds and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Mitigation Funds.
Body
BUDGET SUMMARY: |
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Total Estimated Cost |
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$225,000 |
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Funding |
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Budgeted |
$ |
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New Funding |
$ |
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Savings |
$ |
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Other* |
$225,000 |
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Total Funding Available |
$225,000 |
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Change To Net County Cost |
$0 |
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* Will be included in the Department's Fiscal Year 08/09 & 09/10 budget.
Fiscal Impact/Change to Net County Cost:
Funding will come from grants from the California Tahoe Conservancy, United States Forest Service, and United States Bureau of Reclamation, and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Mitigation Funds. There is no Net County Cost.
Background:
In 2007, the Procurement and Contracts Division conducted a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to various consulting firms to provide project delivery services for transportation, erosion control and water quality projects in the County. Staff within the Transportation Department (Department), including outside review and participation by the California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC), reviewed and rated the firms' Statement of Qualifications for criteria such as experience, depth of personnel, and expertise. Five (5) firms were chosen to interview with Department personnel. David Evans and Associates, Inc. (DEA) and CBC Surveys, Inc. were selected from this group to provide surveying services. The Department plans to propose to enter into an agreement with CBC Surveys, Inc. under a separate agenda item at a future Board meeting.
Reason for Recommendation:
The Department is proposing to enter into an Agreement with DEA. Under the subject Agreement, DEA will perform surveying services to assist Department staff in the delivery of Environmental Improvement Program (EIP) projects.
Need for staff augmentation
The Department requires these surveying services to facilitate completion of the design and delivery of EIP projects and to augment existing staff due to the short duration of the construction season which does not justify additional full-time employees and also due to fluctuation in the annual allocation of grant funds. The Department has an immediate need to advance many of its projects to meet various grant and regulatory deadlines.
The Department is planning to have eight (8) to nine (9) construction projects under construction in the Tahoe Basin this summer and next and it does not have sufficient staff to perform all of the required surveying services required for all of these projects. Additionally, the geographic locations of each project make it difficult for staff to easily travel back and forth between project sites while performing the required duties for each project. Because of the upcoming heavy construction season workload, the distance between project sites, and time variables of project initiation and completion, the Department believes entering into two (2) separate surveying services contracts is the prudent strategy, so that if one consultant's forces are tied up with work elsewhere, the other consultant can be utilized to meet the Department's needs. The Department does not anticipate expending all of the monies on each of the two (2) contracts, but needs to maintain this flexibility in the event one consultant contract is utilized to a greater extent than the other.
The Department's Environmental Improvement Program in the Tahoe Basin is supported entirely by grants from various local, state and federal agencies. There is a competitive component amongst the California EIP implementers with regard to receiving certain California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC) grant monies, which is one of the Tahoe Engineering Division's (TED) main funding sources. Each year, the TED receives a jurisdictional allocation of grant funding, which allows the TED to set sustainable staffing levels. The TED also has an opportunity to compete for additional grant monies with the other California EIP implementers. This fluctuation in grant funding from year to year makes it extremely difficult to adequately staff the TED. Because we are only able to staff the TED to handle predictable levels of grant funding, the Department anticipates that there will be a continued need for some level of resource augmentation in the form of on-call consultant services contracts.
The ongoing aggregate of work to be performed under this Agreement, coupled with the uncertainties of grant funding levels, make the addition of permanent staff unwarranted. The Agreement will cover spikes in the workload and the need may be temporary and sporadic since the majority of the work involved will need to be done during the spring and summer months.
The Purchasing Agent has reviewed the RFQ, responses received, and the evaluation criteria. The Purchasing Agent concurs that it is appropriate to enter into an Agreement with DEA for the provision of surveying services for erosion control and water quality projects in the Tahoe Basin, and that said Agreement is in compliance with Board of Supervisors Policy C-17, Sections 7.4.1, 7.5 and 7.10.
The Department recommends the Board make findings pursuant to Article II, Section 210 b (6) of the El Dorado County Charter that the ongoing aggregate of the work performed under this Agreement is not sufficient to warrant the addition of permanent staff.
The El Dorado County Employees Association, Local #1, has been informed of this proposed Agreement.
Action to be taken following Board approval:
1. The Chairman will sign the two (2) originals of the subject Agreement.
2. The Board Clerk will forward one (1) original of the fully-executed Agreement to the Department for further processing to DEA.
Contact:
Richard W. Shepard, P.E.
Director of Transportation
Concurrences: Approved by County Counsel and Risk Management.