RESOLUTION NO. (XX)
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COTATI
AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO TRANSFER FUNDS FROM THE
WATER AND SEWER UNAPROPRIATED FUNDS TO THE RESPECTIVE WATER
AND SEWER OPERATING ACCOUNTS FOR THE WATER SERVICE LINE REPLACEMENT FOR 766 E. COTATI AVENUE AND THE CHARLES STREET
SEWER LINE REPAIRS
WHEREAS, 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; and
WHEREAS, periodically, City staff is augmented by contract services for tasks including emergency or urgent repairs which exceed the capabilities of City Public Works department; and
WHEREAS, these repairs typically have an added level of complexity, difficulty or require specialized equipment as well as other contributing factors that require the use of contract services, including staff shortage and/or a spike in the workload; and WHEREAS, 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; and
WHEREAS, 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; and
WHEREAS, the work was completed for both efforts in late October through the first week of November of this year, and 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; and
WHEREAS, 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, and 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; and
WHEREAS, Staff requested proposals from two contractors and received not-to-exceed pricing of $40,800 and $28,793, and the contractor with the lower price, Argonaut Constructors, was also available to begin the work the following week and Staff, therefore, issued the notice to proceed; and
WHEREAS, the work was completed October 28, 2025, and the City Engineer has determined it to be in accordance with City construction standards, and the City has been billed $26,060.83 for this work and the City Engineer recommends the payment of the invoice; and WHEREAS, between late September and mid-October of this year, the Charles Street mainline sewer was observed to be blocked several times, and 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; and
WHEREAS, Staff hired services to videotape the sewer which showed root intrusion but was inconclusive as to the condition of the main line due to the roots blocking the camera; and WHEREAS, Staff contacted two contractors and only one was available within the following two weeks to perform the excavation and clearing of the sewer, and Staff requested a not-to-exceed proposal from Piazza Construction and received a proposed amount of $33,200 and has billed the City $29,586.44 for the work; and
WHEREAS, work was started on October 20, 2025 and the main line was cleared on October 21, 2025 and the trenching was paved November 4, 2025; and WHEREAS, 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 the not to exceed amount; and
WHEREAS, there are insufficient funds in an operating account from either the Water Enterprise fund for the water repairs or the Sewer Enterprise Fund for the Sewer repairs, 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 needed; and WHEREAS, 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.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that City Council of the City of Cotati determines the following:
1. All the recitals above are true and correct,
2. The City Manager is authorized to transfer $26,060.83 from the unappropriated Water Enterprise fund balance to the Water Enterprise operating account for contract services,
3. The City Manager is authorized to transfer $29,586.44 from the unappropriated Sewer Enterprise fund balance to the Sewer Enterprise operating account for contract services.
IT IS HEREBY CERTIFIED that the foregoing resolution was duly adopted at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Cotati held on December 9, 2025, by the following vote, to wit:
Approved:___________________________
Mayor
Attest:______________________________
Kevin Patterson, Deputy City Clerk
Approved as to form:______________________________
City Attorney