Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: REGULAR AGENDA (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: APPROVAL OF A DESIGN AGREEMENT TO UPDATE THE
CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS AUDIO VISUAL SYSTEMS
Date: March 12, 2024
Written by: Damien O'Bid, City Manager
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a motion authorizing the City Manager to execute a design agreement with the Shalleck Collaborative to design an update to the City Council Chambers audio visual (AV) system.
Background
Due to frequent technical issues with the Council Chambers AV system, particularly the streaming (non-participatory) service, the City Council, at the January 23, 2024 regular meeting of the City Council, directed staff to immediately seek design proposals to update the City’s AV system to make it more reliable and resilient. The City reached out to all of the City Clerks in Sonoma County to solicit recommendations as well as their experiences with their own AV systems. Companies that design AV systems also want to install them. Given public procurement restrictions, it is generally not permitted for the designer to also construct the project.
The Shalleck Cooperative was the only firm that had extensive experience with design of public meeting AV systems, was purely a design firm, and was very well regarded in this field. The proposed scope of work is attached.
Analysis/Discussion
The Shalleck Cooperative has extensive experience designing public meeting AV systems.
According to this firm, they generally have 2-3 public meeting AV systems going at any given time and are currently under construction on the Milpitas and Los Altos Hills council chambers.
As a sample, they have completed the following chambers in the past few years:
• Santa Rosa
• Newark
• Novato
• Los Altos
• Turlock
• Vallejo
• Fremont Unified School Board
• West Berkeley Unified School Board
The proposed approach focuses on the core of the system to be cost efficient but provide a solid, stable system backbone. This project will not include non-critical components to reduce project cost. The design process includes conducting initial interviews with all stakeholders to fully understand expectations and discuss solutions and conduct ongoing review sessions with staff to ensure they’re on track and on budget.
The core elements of the proposed system includes a new High Definition (HD) broadcast system, virtual/hybrid digital meeting integration, wireless microphones to meet new FCC broadcast standards, a speaker timer system, new touch panel controller, cabling infrastructure, and training/warranty/service package. Not included in the design scope of work is the IP-based HDMI video switcher (new equipment), audio systems, dias microphone systems, room speakers, audio Digital Signal Processor (DSP), control system for the touch panel, agenda management platform/streaming, and assistive listening systems.
The Shalleck Collaborative will provide services during the Design phase, including design development and budget estimate, AV systems documentation, review, and meetings.
The Shalleck Collaborative will also provide bid phase services, including bidding support, such as attending the pre-bid meeting, and providing redesign services if necessary.
During the Construction Administration phase, the Shalleck Collaborative will provide services such as responding to RFI's, reviewing shop drawings, conducting site visits, and performing final checkouts.
The project schedule assumes a 4-month Design phase, 2-month Agency Review/Bid phase, and 6-month Construction Administration phase. Once the design is completed, the contract for construction will be bid on in accordance with the City’s normal public works bidding process.
Financial Considerations
This project's design phase is proposed to largely occur in the current Fiscal Year and will be funded from the existing budget within the contracts for special projects account within the City Managers department of the General Fund. Bid and construction services would be anticipated in FY 24/25, if approved by the City Council. The following costs are proposed for the design and design support work:
• Design phase: $13,500
• Agency Review/Bid phase: $1,500
• Construction Administration phase: $4,500
• Total Fee: $19,500
Based on actual costs for other systems, the construction work is expected to be over $100,000, but this will not be known until cost estimates are developed as part of the design process. Once the design is sufficiently developed, the associated cost estimate would be included in the proposed FY 24/25 budget.
Environmental Issues
None.