DATE: 11/6/2024
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Community Services Department
REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
SUBJECT:
AWARD OF CONTRACT TO TROPICAL PLAZA NURSERY, INC. FOR ON-CALL
EMERGENCY LANDSCAPE SERVICES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This staff report asks the City Council to approve a contract with Tropical Plaza Nursery Inc. for on-call landscaping services in an amount not to exceed $175,000 through June 30, 2025. On-call landscape services are used as-needed for work performed outside the scope of work of the regular landscape contracted services.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
That the City Council:
a. Award Notice Inviting Bids 23-005RH to Tropical Plaza Nursery, Inc. for on-call emergency landscape services, for an amount not to exceed $175,000 through June 30, 2025, and waive all minor irregularities in the bidding documents as submitted by said bidder.
b. Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to execute the contract with Tropical Plaza Nursery, Inc., in an amount not to exceed $175,000 per fiscal year, including any non-substantive extensions, purchase orders, change orders, and amendments up to ten percent of the contract amount of $17,500 as authorized by Corona Municipal Code Section 3.08.050(H).
BACKGROUND & HISTORY:
The City of Corona utilizes on-call landscaping services, as needed, for work outside of the regular landscape contracted services. These non-routine maintenance items include homeless encampment clean-ups, complex irrigation repairs and installation, plantings in parks and landscape areas, parkway and median improvements, ballfield maintenance, weed abatement, and winter season rain preparations. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, the Council awarded a single-year contract for these services with the request that staff return with an improved process to attract more bidders. In the meantime, the City utilized Planned Purchase Orders to continue to provide these services while a vendor was secured through the bidding process.
The Community Services Department worked with Purchasing to revise the bid process and determined that a Notice Inviting Bid (NIB) would attract more interest from contractors than a Request for Proposal (RFP). A NIB was issued by the Purchasing Division on November 9, 2022, for on-call emergency landscape services. NIB 23-005RH was posted on Planet Bids and emailed to the construction trade journals as well as advertised in the Corona local newspaper, Sentinel Weekly. A total of 127 vendors were notified about the bid, and five vendors downloaded the bid.
ANALYSIS:
The Purchasing Division received two bids for this project. Because the bid was issued for on-call services, with no guarantee of usage, the Bid Pricing Schedule required bidders to submit pricing based on single unit costing for 38 separate line items including, but not limited to, wire tracing (irrigation), 1-gallon plant and installation, 5-gallon plant and installation, installation of irrigation heads, turf removal, and hydro seed. The low bidder was determined based on the summation of the single-unit cost bid for each line item.
The contract was awarded to L.R. Landscaping, Inc. as they were the lowest responsive, responsible bidder. However, they have since dissolved their business and are no longer available for services.
Staff recommends awarding the contract to Tropical Plaza Nursery, Inc. as the second lowest responsive, responsible bidder. The requested award amount is $175,000 through June 30, 2025, with the option to extend the contract for $175,000 yearly thereafter. The amount requested is based on historical annual expenditures for on-call landscaping services.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Funding for the recommended actions is available in the Community Services Department’s General Fund, Landscape Maintenance Districts and Community Facilities Districts operating budgets. Future funding requests will be recommended through the annual budget process.
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 by the commonsense exemption that CEQA applies only to projects that have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA. This action is a financial transaction between Tropical Plaza Nursery Inc. and the City of Corona, and there is no possibility that adopting this resolution will have a significant effect on the environment. Therefore, no environmental analysis is required.
PREPARED BY: SARAH ARCE, MANAGEMENT ANALYST I & MOSES CORTEZ,
FACILITIES, PARKS, AND TRAILS MANAGER
REVIEWED BY: DONNA FINCH, COMMUNITY SERVICES DIRECTOR
ATTACHMENT:
1.) Exhibit 1 – Contract with Tropical Plaza