City of Corona
Staff Report
400 S. Vicentia Ave.
Corona, CA 92882
File #: 22-0423
REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
DATE: 05/11/2022
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Community Services Department
SUBJECT:
Contractual Agreement with West Coast Arborist to provide Urban Forest Maintenance.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The City of Corona has utilized the services of West Coast Arborists, Inc. for more than 15 years to both plant and maintain Corona’s Urban Forest. The City’s current contract with West Coast Arborists, Inc. is set to expire on June 30, 2022, and staff recommends entering into a new agreement with West Coast Arborist, Inc. utilizing a competitive purchasing process completed by the City of Murrieta in 2021This will ensure the City is able to stay on track with our outlined plan for maintaining our Urban Forest within our budgetary allotments.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
That the City Council
a. Approve a Maintenance/General Services Agreement with West Coast Arborists, Inc. for Citywide Tree Trimming and Maintenance Services in the amount of $3,500,000 per fiscal year for an initial four-year term through June 30, 2026 with the option to renew for an additional five-year term through June 30, 2031.
b. Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to execute the Maintenance/General Services Agreement with West Coast Arborist, Inc. in the amount of $3,500,000 per fiscal year for an initial four-year term through June 30, 2026 with the option to renew for an additional fiveyear term through June 30, 2031. c. Make a determination under Corona Municipal Code Section 3.08.140(C) that competitive bidding has been satisfied based upon the reasons provided in the agenda report.
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File #: 22-0423
BACKGROUND & HISTORY:
In May of 2021, the City Council adopted the Urban Forest Management Plan outlining best practices to maintain its Urban Forest. The plan identified 72,000 tree sites throughout the City, of which 14,000 are vacant tree wells. In an effort to ensure the health and well-being of the Urban Forest, the City Council, directed staff to replant all the vacant tree wells over the next five years, which means the City will be planting approximately 3,000 trees per year. The City Council also requested regular maintenance of the Urban Forest with a five-year grid pruning cycle to evaluate, prune, and maintain all City trees except the palm trees. The City’s palm trees will be pruned every year to promote good health and to limit debris.
The City has utilized the professional services of West Coast Arborists, Inc. (WCA) for more than 15 years to both plant and maintain Corona’s Urban Forest. WCA offers a great deal of expertise, equipment, safety training, and multiple highly trained crews with the services they provide. In 2015, the City inventoried its entire Urban Forest and collected the data and work history for each tree in Corona using WCA’s inventory data system Arbor Access. Each time a tree or tree site is trimmed, planted or inspected by a WCA staff member, the inventory in Arbor Access is updated with any work history such as trimming, watering, or inspection. This enables City staff to review and document all work performed on the trees within the Urban Forest and ensure best practices. This software also allows staff to communicate expectations effectively and efficiently for work to be done with WCA.
The City is proud to have regained its, Tree City USA, status because of our work with WCA and the investment in our Urban Forest by the City Council. City staff is committed to continue working to ensure that the Urban Forest is being managed using best practices, which provide fair and equitable services throughout Corona.
ANALYSIS:
As of June 30, 2022, the current contract with WCA, and all options to extend the contract, will be exhausted. In order to ensure the City’s ongoing investment and best practices in maintaining our Urban Forest continue, staff recommends utilizing cooperative purchasing with the City of Murrieta’s contract with WCA at the negotiated prices Murrieta received through their competitive bidding process. The ability to “piggyback” on the City of Murrieta’s contract will enable staff to continue implementing the City Council’s directives and maintain the continuity and standard of services that the community expects. The City’s contract with WCA would have an initial term of four years with an option to renew for up to five more years. The City of Corona will be joining the City of Murrieta, one year into their contract.
BASIS FOR DETERMINATION OF COMPETITIVE BIDDING
This method of procurement is permitted per the Corona Municipal Code (CMC) section 3.08.140(C), which states as follows:
“Completive Biding already completed. When the Purchasing Manager and the authorized contracting party, with the approval of the City Manager, determines that:
1.) A competitive bid procedure has been conducted by another public agency including, but not limited to, another local agency, the state through the California Multiple Award Schedule City of Corona Page 2 of 4 Printed on 5/12/2022
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limited to, another local agency, the state through the California Multiple Award Schedule (CMAS), the federal government through the General Services Administration (GSA), the U.S.
Communities Government Purchasing Alliance, or the Western States Contracting Alliance (WSCA); and
2.) The price to the City is equal to or better than the price to that public agency.” On April 21, 2021, a Request for Proposal (“RFP”) was published on the City of Murrieta’s website inviting interested parties to submit proposals for citywide tree trimming and maintenance services.
The deadline to submit proposals was May 12, 2021. The City of Murrieta received proposals from four different vendors.
The proposals were evaluated based on understanding of the scope, experience and qualifications, the ability to provide the needed services in a timely manner, and on competitive pricing. Scoring was applied to several categories and a cost analysis was performed. The cost analysis consisted of applying the same quantities of various tasks, derived from actual invoices for the past year, and applying them to the pricing provided by each proposer to arrive at an annual cost:
On June 15, 2021, the City of Murrieta approved a contract award with West Coast Arborists, Inc for tree trimming and maintenance services.
The Purchasing Division seeks out cooperative purchasing agreements because they allow the City to save time, cut administrate costs, improve agency efficiency, and maximize city budgets by securing pricing. By utilizing cooperative purchasing, the City will be leveraging a previous purchasing solicitation that was performed by the City of Murrieta for similar Urban Forest Maintenance Services.
The City of Murrieta has the same standard scope of work (SOW) line items for pruning, block pruning, removals and planting that the City of Corona utilizes. Lastly, by securing this bid it would ensure that Corona would be able to stay on track with its outlined plan for pruning and planting and remain within its budgetary allotments.
Based on WCA’s contract award with the City of Murrieta, the Community Services Department recommends approving the agreement with West Coast Arborists, Inc. to allow the City of Corona to perform its essential Urban Forest maintenance.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The financial impact of the contract with WCA for Citywide tree trimming and maintenance services is $3,500,000 per year for a five-year term, for a total amount of $17,500,000 over the life of the contract. Funding for this agreement will come from multiple sources in the Community Services operating budget. These sources include the General Fund, Landscape Maintenance District funds City of Corona Page 3 of 4 Printed on 5/12/2022
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and Community Facilities District funds.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS:
This action is exempt pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the Guidelines for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which states that a project is exempt from CEQA if the activity is covered is covered by the commonsense exemption that CEQA applies only to projects that have a potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that activity in question may have significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA. This action merely approves an agreement for the services of Urban Forest Tree Services and there is no environmental impacts. Therefore, no environmental analysis is required.
PREPARED BY: MOSES CORTEZ, FACILITIES, PARKS & TRAILS MANAGER REVIEWED BY: ANNE K. TURNER, COMMUNITY SERVICES DIRECTOR Attachments:
Exhibit 1 - WCA Agreement with the City of Corona
Exhibit 2 - City of Murrieta Tree Trimming Procurement Solicitation Document Exhibit 3 - City of Murrieta Tree Trimming Procurement Solicitation Document Addendum 1 Exhibit 4 - City of Murrieta Tree Trimming Procurement Public Notice Posting Exhibit 5 - West Coast Arborists proposal submitted to City of Murrieta Exhibit 6 - City of Murrieta signed agreement with West Coast Arborists Exhibit 7 - City of Murrieta Meeting Agenda Report dated June 15, 2021 City of Corona Page 4 of 4 Printed on 5/12/2022
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