Date: September 9, 2024
To: Members of the City Council and City Staff
From: Paul Meschino, President, on behalf of Interwest Consulting Group, Inc. tw
INTERWEST
A SAFEbuilt COMPANY
Re: Protest Letter Regarding Staff Report 13-A — Award Agreement 163.15 to Willdan Engineering Dated September 9, 2024
Members of the City Council and City Staff,
The purpose of this letter is to clarify misleading statements contained in the above referenced Staff Report, all of which seem intended to direct you towards a contract award that will cost the City more than an extra $2.3 Million over a three-year period and also result in disruption to the Building Department and staff turnover.
First and foremost, the pricing comparison contained on page 5 of the report is inaccurate. Interwest's price proposal from the Sample Worksheet, attached, as well as our proposal, stated that Interwest would charge the City $864,000/year, not the cited $1,510,860/year, for the level of effort specified in the worksheet, some $783,360/year less than Willdan would charge for that same service level, saving the City $2,350,000 over a three year period.
Staff states that the Worksheet was intended to "better normalize the actual costs for services needed." At that if failed miserably. The Worksheet was intended to generate costs based on services provided on an hourly basis. What it failed to address was that Interwest's bid did not contemplate charging for all hours on an hourly basis. Rather, our bid proposed to charge a flat fee of $864,000/year for the staffing level specified in our proposal. The hourly rate we cited would apply only with respect to staffing requirements above the levels we agreed to provide for a flat fee in our proposal. The Worksheet submitted by Interwest, attached, makes clear that our proposed charge to the City for the level of service stated in the Worksheet would be $864,000/year, yet the Staff Report inaccurately states that we would charge more than $1.5million/year.
During the period from January 2021 through December 2023, the City of Bellflower paid Interwest the following amounts for services:
City of Bellflower
January 2021- December 2023
2021
2022*
2023
Total
Fixed Fee - $60k/month
660,000.00
716,822.50
719,625.00
2,096,447.50
Additional Hourly Work
92,435.50
176,941.00
28,000.00
297,376.50
Additional% of permit fee revenue
-
-
-
-
Total
752,435.50
893,763.50
747,625.00
2,393,824.00
Under our proposal in response to the RFP, we would charge the City $864,000/year for these exact same services. Indeed, had our proposed pricing been in effect in 2022, the City would have paid INTERWEST 1500
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aaAvenue, Ontario, CA 91761
626.224.2055
Protest Letter Regarding Staff Report 13-A - Award Agreement 163.15 to Willdan Engineering Dated September 9, 2024
that option to over a thousand jurisdictions nationwide at no additional cost. In fact, Interwest has repeatedly over the years, encouraged the City to move towards electronic plan submission and plan review, which City staff has repeatedly told us "they are not ready" to do. City Staff is well aware of this fact and our proposal expressly stated that "we are prepared to provide electronic plan checks for the City."
Again, relying on a comparison between the current contract and Willdan's proposal, the report states:
"The current plan check timeline is 10 business days for residential projects and 14 business days for commercial/industrial projects. Willdan has committed to meeting the expected turnaround times and committed to expedite subsequent reviews which are expected to be 5 business days for residential projects and 7 business days for commercial/Industrial projects."
The quoted portion of the report misstates Willdan's proposal (see page 30 of Staff Report). Willdan's actual commitment is to meet the turnaround times in the current contract, 10 business days for residential projects and 14 business days for commercial and industrial projects. The 5 -business day for residential and 7 business day turnaround times are not for expedited service, they are for recheck of previously submitted and rejected plans.
Again, the comparison that Staff should have made is between the Willdan proposal and the Interwest proposal. In fact, that comparison cuts in favor of Interwest which committed to maintain the current 10 day turnaround time for residential projects and to reduce the turnaround time for commercial/Industrial projects from 14 days to 10 days. Additionally, Interwest committed to performing both residential and commercial/industrial project rechecks within 5 business days. For some reason, these facts did not make the Staff report.
Most importantly, these committed turnaround times are not just promises on a piece of paper to Interwest, we back it up with real historical data servicing the City of Bellflower and have a nearly 99% success rate at meeting all contractual turnaround times since we implemented regular meetings with staff.
The staff report makes much of the fact that Willdan has multi -disciplinary capabilities. Initially, we note that no mention of these additional services was included in the RFP and the RFP evaluation criteria do not give any weight to those capabilities. Accordingly, Staff erred in considered this capability in evaluating the proposals. Even if that were not the case, Interwest provides and has provided for years, these same capabilities and more to municipalities throughout California.
Even the background section of the staff report is flawed. On page 4 of the report, it states:
"In recent years following the replacement of the City's long-time Building Official, and with high staff turnover, the City began to receive complaints from developers, residents and design professionals regarding the timing and comments received through the plan check process. In early 2024, City staff requested a series of regular meetings with the current Service provider. . . . Following the loss of the City's replacement Building Official in 2024, City staff and the Service Provider identified a backlog of more than 37 plan checks and reviews."
1 N T E R W E S T THOUGHTFUL SOLUTIONS. THRIVING COMMUNITIES.
Protest Letter Regarding Staff Report 13-A - Award Agreement 163.15 to Willdan Engineering Dated September 9, 2024
nearly $30,000 less that year than it actually paid. Overall, the total amount that the City would save by selecting Interwest, rather than Willdan moving forward is nearly equal to the total amount paid by the City for these same services over the past three years. Selecting Willdan would effectively double the City's operating costs, requiring the City to use General Fund dollars to subsidize the building department.
Furthermore, when comparing the hourly rates proposed, it is clear that Interwest is a much better value to the taxpayers of the City of Bellflower, averaging 21.05% lower rates than the proposed solution by Willdan. Willdan also proposed charging hourly for 19 different positions, charging 15% if they use paper or ink on any City permit and charging a 15% markup on subcontractors, almost double the markup on subs allowed by most municipalities.
Interwest Willdan
Building Official
$ 133.26
$155.00
Senior Combo Building Inspector
$ 102.17
$ 135.00
Permit Tech
r$ 62.19
$ 75.00
Building Plan Check
$ 102.17
$135.00
Fire Plan checker
$ 111.05
$135.00
Fire inspector
$ 111.05
$115.00
Discount
11%
0%
Delta
Delta%
$ 21.74
16.31%
$ 32.83
32.13%
$ 12.81
20.60%
$ 32.83
32.13%
$ 23.95
21.56%
$ 3.95
3.55%
Average $ 21.35
21.05%
The staff report is also misleading with respect to staffing levels. The report compares the level of staffing under the current agreement with Interwest to the level of staffing proposed by Willdan. This comparison is meaningless for purposes of evaluating the RFP proposals. The proper comparison is to the level of effort proposed by Interwest and by Willdan in their respective responses to the RFP.
Even if that were not the case, the staff report is deliberately misleading as to the current staffing provided by Interwest. As staff is aware, Interwest has, for at least the past six (6) years provided more staffing than required by its contract with the City. As an example, while the contract calls for Interwest to provide a part-time Building Official, it has for six (6) years provided a full-time Building Official. Overall, the existing contract calls for Interwest to provide 206 hours per week of staffing.
In reality, Interwest has been providing some 240 hours/week of staffing, 17.5% more than contractually required, all at our expense and at no cost to the City. If selected, Interwest has committed to provide the City with this same level of staffing going forward. Significantly, the staff Interwest would provide are the same individuals currently providing services to the City. Those staff members are familiar with the City's staff, process, procedures and rules, so there will be no startup related loss of productivity. We note that Willdan proposes to provide only 220 hours/week of staffing, so approving the staff recommendation will actually result in a loss of service, as well as a substantial increase in cost.
The report states that Willdan has the ability to perform electronic plan review. We have previously informed City Staff in person and again reiterated in our RFP response that Interwest has had an electronic plan intake and review system far superior to that proposed by Willdan for years and offer INTERWEST THOUGHTFUL SOLUTIONS. THRIVING COMMUNITIES.
Protest Letter Regarding Staff Report 13-A - Award Agreement 163.15 to Willdan Engineering Dated September 9, 2024
This statement is inaccurate. As Staff is well aware, the complaints referred to arose well prior to the replacement of the City's long-time Building Official, who now works for Willdan. Upon learning of the complaints, Interwest promptly took actions to address them and cleared the plan check backlog within 10 days.
As for the regular meetings between Interwest and City staff, those meetings were requested by Interwest, not by City staff. Since the departure of the long-time Building Official, Interwest has met with City staff some 25 times. Over that period, Staff has complimented our team on the improvement in performance over that period and has advised that service complaints have ceased.
Again, points not mentioned in the Staff Report.
Interestingly, the staff report completely ignores the scoring as outlined in the City's RFP document, shown below. The staff report remains completely void of any mention of the scores, the spread in these scores, the evaluators, etc. This lack of transparency mixed with increased costs should make residents question the process. Even with the staff reports flawed information, Interwest is clearly the more cost-effective solution, and is entitled to the full 20 points for cost. Moreover, it would be difficult to not award Interwest full points on factors 1-4 as Interwest has both been performing this same scope of work in Bellflower for nearly two decades and will assign the same staff now serving the City to this contract, and has more experience, in more municipalities in the United States and California than any of the other responding firms.
Evaluation Factor POINTS
1. Contractor's understanding of scope of work .15
2. Contractor's approach to performing the tasks defined in the scope of work ..15
3. Capability of firm and key project personnel to handle the project in terms of workload, experience, and efficient staff utilization 25
4. Meaningful experience providing professional building staffing, plan check, and inspection services and fire plan check and inspection services including demonstrating successful completion of similar services 25
5. Cost 20
Total 100
In summary, should the City adopt Staff Report 13-A and contract with Willdan, it will subject the residents of Bellflower to a cost increase for services of more than $2 million over the next three years and worse plan review response times than the residents would enjoy should the City select Interwest to provide these same services. We strongly urge the Council to consider the financial and operational impacts of following the Staff recommendation and to both reject that recommendation and award the contract to Interwest, the clearly stronger bidder.
Respectfully yours,
Paul Meschino, President
I N T E R W E ST THOUGHTFUL SOLUTIONS. THRIVING COMMUNITIES.
Sample Worksheet
Personnel
Position
Hourly Rate
Hours
Full -Time or Part -
Time
Total Weekly
Total Yearly
Building Official
$ 150.00
27 Part -Time
$ 4,050.00
$ 210,600.00
Sr. Plans Examiner
$ 115.00
27 Part -Time
$ 3,105.00
$ 161,460.00
Plan Examiner
$ 115.00
40 Full -Time
$ 4,600.00
$ 239,200.00
Sr. Permit Technician
$ 70.00
40 Full -Time
$ 2,800.00
$ 145,600.00
Permit Technician
$ 70.00
40 Full -Time
$ 2,800.00
$ 145,600.00
Sr. Building Inspector
$ 115.00
40 Full -Time
$ 4,600.00
$ 239,200.00
Inspector
$ 115.00
40 Full -Time
$ 4,600.00
$ 239,200.00
Fire Plan Checker
$ 125.00
10 Part-Time/On-Call
$ 1,250.00
$ 65,000.00
Fire Inspector
$ 125.00
10 Part-Time/On-Call
$ 1,250.00
$ 65,000.00
Fire Marshal (if different from
PC/Inspector)
10 Part-Time/On-Call
$ -
$ -
Total
$ 29,055.00
$ 1,510,860.00
Plan Check % Fees
Plan Check Fees
Collected
Percentage of Plan Check Fees
(X%)*
Weekly
Yearly
10 New Plan Checks Submitted
$15,000
$0.00
$0.00
*If proposed
Other fees
Other Fees
Weekly
Yearly
Other fees
$0.00
$0.00
Total
Total Yearly -
Personnel
Total Yearly Plan Check %
Other
Total Yearly
Total
$ 1,510,860.00
$0.00
$0.00
$ 1,510,860.00
This is for comparison ONLY. Interwest bid price is $864,000 plus 42% of plan check for Offsite Plan Review services, which include Commercial, Large, Complex or Multi Family projects that require specialty staff from other company offices.