Staff Report
City Council
Stem No. {{section.number}}.M
Meeting Date: June 25, 2025
From: Kevin Biersack, Financial Services Director
Title: Award Agreement for Landscape Maintenance and Support services RECOMMENDATION:
To approve the maintenance services agreement for landscape maintenance and support services; and authorize the City Manager to execute the maintenance agreement with PS Tree Service.
BACKGROUND:
Facilities and Public Works Maintenance oversee a variety of maintenance projects, including landscape upkeep and litter abatement. To ensure cost-effective and efficient service delivery, the city supplements its workforce by utilizing contractors. The City of Cathedral City issued a request for proposals (RFP) seeking an experienced and qualified landscape maintenance contractor for the maintenance of the following City owned properties:
•Cathedral City Civic Center
•Cathedral City Parking Structure
•Town Square Park
•Festival Lawn, including the land in front of CVRep
•Cathedral City Amphitheatre
•Bell Tower
•Fire Station 411, 410/412 and 413
The scope of services consists of furnishing all labor, materials, equipment, tools, machinery, supervision and all utility and transportation services required to provide the following services:
•Plant Litter and Trash Control
•Pest Control
•Weed Control
•Plant Maintenance
•Tree Maintenance
•Turf Maintenance – General
•Turf Maintenance – Overseeding
•Hardscape, and Decomposed Granite (DG) Planter Areas
•Irrigation System Maintenance
The scope of service also included a request to provide additional support services for projects such as but not limited to removal of blow sand, spreading compost/mulch, large vegetation removal from homeless encampments, as needed maintenance services for areas such as medians, parkways, spillways and retention basins.
DISCUSSION:
On March 27, 2025, the City issued an RFP for Landscape Maintenance & Support Services.
The RFP was posted on the city’s website as well as sent to seven (7) potential vendors from our internal vendor list.
Contractors were provided until May 15, 2025, to submit proposals. All interested contractors were required to attend a mandatory pre-proposal meeting. Contractors were asked to provide a technical proposal that included information on the contractor’s experience/technical competence, firm staffing/key personnel and proposed methods to accomplish the work. Contractors were asked to provide the cost proposals in a separate, sealed envelope.
All proposals were reviewed by a panel consisting of three members of the Facilities and Public Works Maintenance staff. Each proposal was evaluated based on the following criteria outlined in the RFP:
1. Experience, references, and past performance under a similar scope of services.
2. Cost to perform the required services stated in the scope of services, Exhibit “A” and identified in the contractor fee schedule.
3. Contractor capabilities as related to the requirements in the scope of services.
The evaluation committee scored each proposal on a scale of 1 - 100. The average scores were as follows:
Contractor / Business Location Score
PS Tree Service / Cathedral City 86.79
Urban Habitat / Palm Desert 79.21
Kirkpatrick / Indio 74.84
Mariposa / Irwindale & Bermuda Dunes 74.33
Universal Green / Desert Hot Springs 72.12
Orozco / Pomona 63.05
PS Tree Service & Maintenance (PS Tree) received the highest average evaluation score of
86.79. The review committee determined PS Tree’s proposed approach to fulfilling the scope of services, combined with its cost proposal, offered the best overall value.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Landscape maintenance is currently budgeted under the Facilities division’s maintenance and operation account (100-400-480-481-8300-8301) and is included in the City’s FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27 Biennial Budget. PS Tree Service’s proposed budget for monthly services does not exceed the current budgeted amounts.
Support services have been included in the City’s FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27 Biennial Budgets for the various locations. City staff will negotiate task orders for each required support service based on the hourly rate outlined in the agreements. The total costs and funding sources for each task order will be identified as they are issued. If a task order exceeds the Facilities or Public Works Maintenance purchasing guidelines, City Management authorization and/or City Council approval will be obtained prior to the issuance of a notice to proceed.
FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN:
Goal C: Fiscal Stability and Sustainability
Action C-2: Develop an inventory of contract services that are due for bid and request for proposals.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Proposal Evaluation Summary
2. PS Tree Service Maintenance Agreement