Title
Transportation Department recommending Chairman be authorized to sign Agreement for Services AGMT 08-1662 with Fehr & Peers in an amount not to exceed $500,000 for a term of two years to provide "as needed" traffic engineering and transportation planning services, and approve recommended Charter findings.
FUNDING: Developer time and material billings, traffic impact fees and the Road Fund.
Body
BUDGET SUMMARY: |
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Total Estimated Cost |
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$500,000.00 |
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Funding |
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Budgeted FY 08-09 |
$250,000.00 |
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New Funding |
$ |
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Savings |
$ |
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Other FY 09-10 |
$250,000.00 |
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Total Funding Available |
$500,000.00 |
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Change To Net County Cost |
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$-0- |
Fiscal Impact/Change to Net County Cost:
This two-year agreement is for the NTE amount of $500,000. The current FY 2008-09 budget includes $250,000 and the remaining $250,000 will be included in the FY 2009-10 budget. Funding will be specific to project tasks performed. There is no net cost to the County General Fund.
Background:
Consultant Selection: In late 2007, the County's Procurement and Contracts Office released a RFQ for the Department for a variety of transportation related disciplines. Fehr & Peers is among the best firms in multiple specialty categories of Traffic Engineering.
The Department notified the County Procurement and Contracts Office of this proposed professional services agreement in early March, 2008. On March 19, 2008, that Office responded, affirming that a competitive selection process was conducted in accordance with Board of Supervisor's Policy C-16, Section 7.5, that the time period for that process has not expired, and that it verified with the outside reviewer that the consultant is qualified and able to perform the services in accordance with Section 7.10 of the same Policy.
Reason for Recommendation:
This as-needed professional services agreement will be used to augment Department staff by providing traffic impact modeling, traffic analysis for Capital Improvement Program (CIP) project design, traffic signal design, development review support services and various transportation planning and engineering services. While the Department has engineers with traffic engineering skills, that staff is currently fully committed to delivering CIP projects or working on General Plan Implementation and Traffic Impact Mitigation (TIM) Fee Program tasks. Reassigning these individuals to handle the duties contemplated under this agreement would delay the delivery of the CIP and the implementation of the General Plan and TIM Fee Program adjustments and coordination.
Even if these staff members were to be reassigned to these tasks, the volume of the demand for these traffic engineering support services would far outstrip their ability to provide the service. The Department has been attempting to recruit additional staff with the necessary traffic engineering backgrounds and skills, but has been unsuccessful in bringing any such individuals into the Department. As such, this agreement is also necessary to supply those additional resources to meet the required demand.
The traffic impact modeling services that Fehr and Peers will be providing may include updating the Travel Demand Model (TDM) developed by Fehr and Peers under a previous agreement during the 1990's. The current TDM is in need of an overhaul and revalidation to ensure that the forecasts the County relies on for the General Plan, the TIM Fee Program, and for development project review, provides the quality necessary to meet those requirements. While the Department has one individual with the necessary specialty skills to perform this work, that individual is currently assigned a management role in charge of the Department's General Plan Implementation Program and TIM Fee Program. As noted above, to move him to this modeling effort would take him away from those tasks. Also as noted above, the work effort on this task would far exceed his availability and would still require outside consultant support to supplement his efforts.
The Department has recommended to the Board of Supervisors that a Traffic Engineering Unit be formed in the Department. Even with the initiation of this new Traffic Engineering Unit, services such as those described under this proposed contract will still be required.
The Department is recommending that the Board finds pursuant to Article II, Section 210 b (6) of the El Dorado County Charter that there are specialty skills required for the work performed under this agreement that are not expressly identified in County job classifications. Although some of the skills required to accomplish these tasks are found in County classifications, a substantial amount of the work to be performed under this Agreement requires specialty skills not identified in County classifications. This portion of the work requires expertise in traffic modeling.
The El Dorado County Employees Association, Local #1 has been informed of this proposed Agreement. To date we have not received a response from Local #1.
Action to be taken following Board approval:
1. The Board Chairman will sign Agreement for Services AGMT 08-1662 with Fehr & Peers in the not-to-exceed total amount of $500,000.00.
2. The Department will forward one fully-executed original agreement to the Consultant.
Contact:
Richard W. Shepard, P.E.
Director of Transportation
Concurrences: County Counsel & Risk Management