Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: CONSENT CALENDAR (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: ADOPT A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY
MANAGER TO TRANSFER FUNDS FOR THE EMERGENCY
WATER AND SEWER REPAIRS CONTRACTS FOR WORK
LOCATED AT E. COTATI AVENUE AT LANCASTER DRIVE
AND ON CHARLES STREET
Date: December 9, 2025
Written by: Craig Scott, Director of Public Works/City Engineer Recommendation
It is recommended the City of Cotati City Council adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to transfer funds from the unappropriated Water and Sewer Enterprise fund to the respective operating accounts for the water service line replacement at 766 E. Cotati Avenue and the sewer line repairs midway along Charles Street.
Background
The City owns, operates and maintains a public water system and uses a combination of City staff and contract services to perform the duties needed to keep the system operating reliably.
Contract services used include such tasks as water quality testing, maintaining the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA), Advanced Meter Instrumentation support services, water main cleaning, servicing process units including chlorine generators and granular activated carbon water filtration system, and replacement of major equipment. Periodically, City staff is augmented by contract services for other tasks, including emergency or urgent repairs which include challenges exceeding the capabilities of City Public Works staff. These repairs generally have an added level of complexity, require specialized equipment or require extensive traffic control on busy streets. Other contributing factors requiring the use of contract services include staff shortage and/or a spike in the workload.
Analysis/Discussion
Section IV, J, Emergency Exemption, of the City’s Procurement Policy provides the City Manager with the authority to approve construction agreements if certain emergency conditions are met. The City Manager, under this Section of the Procurement Policy, approved agreements with Argonaut Constructors and Piazza Construction to replace the water service line serving 766 E. Cotati Avenue and clear a blockage from the Charles Street sewer pipeline, respectively.
The work was completed for both efforts in late October through the first week of November of this year. These efforts met the exemptions 3 and 4 of Section IV, J, which are as follows:
3. There is a breakdown in machinery or an essential service which requires the immediate purchase of supplies and equipment to provide essential city services; and
4. An essential departmental operation affecting the public health, welfare or safety would be greatly hampered if the prescribed purchasing procedure would cause an undue delay in procurement of the needed item.
The service line serving 766 E. Cotati Avenue extends the entire width of E. Cotati Avenue and has had two leaks in the past several months and this indicates potential future leaks are likely.
City Staff have repaired these leaks, however, there was more than half the service line remaining to be replaced and requires complex traffic control and tunneling techniques which the City does not have the ability to perform. Therefore, Staff requested proposals from two contractors and received not-to-exceed pricing of $40,800 and $28,793. The lower priced contractor, Argonaut Constructors, was also available to begin the work the following week.
Therefore, staff issued the notice to proceed. The work was completed October 28, 2025, and the City Engineer has determined it to be in accordance with City construction standards. The City has been billed $26,060.83 for this work and the City Engineer recommends the payment of the invoice.
Between late September and mid-October of this year, the Charles Street mainline sewer was observed to be blocked several times. This stretch of sewer typically requires clearing twice per year, so several blockages in a 3-4 week span indicated a worsening condition needing to be corrected. Staff hired services to videotape the sewer, which showed root intrusion but was inconclusive as to the condition of the main line. Staff contacted two contractors and only one was available within the following two weeks to perform the excavation and clearing of the sewer. Staff requested a not-to-exceed proposal from Piazza Construction and received a proposal for $33,200. Work was started on October 20 and the main line was cleared on October 21 and the trenching was paved November 4.
It was determined that the issue was with two abandoned sewer laterals which had become overrun with tree roots, which in turn grew into the main line. The City’s main line was observed to be in good condition so the roots were removed and the laterals capped. The trench was then backfilled and paved. The City Engineer has determined the work to have been completed in accordance with City construction standards and recommends the payment of the invoice up to a not to the not to exceed amount. The City has been billed $29,586.44 for this work.
Financial Considerations
There are insufficient funds in an operating account from either Enterprise fund (Water or Sewer) to pay for these contracts. Therefore, fund transfers from the unappropriated fund balances of the Water and Sewer funds in the amounts of $26,060.83 and $29,586.44, respectively are recommended as outlined in the attached budget adjustment.
Environmental Issues
This action is found to qualify for a Class 1 Categorical Exemption under CEQA Section 15301 in that the project consists of the operation, repair, maintenance, permitting, leasing, licensing, or minor alteration of existing public or private structures, facilities, mechanical equipment, or topographical features, involving negligible or no expansion of the existing or former use.