City Hall
0300 Torres Avenu
upertino, CA 9501
CITY OF
CUPERTINO
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS
Summary
AGENDA ITEM NO AGENDA DATE: January 25, 2002
SUBJECT AND ISSUE
Report on bids, recommendation to reject all bids and authorize re-bid of the yearly maintenance contract for Blackberry Farm Golf Course Maintenance, Project No. 2001-08.
BACKGROUND
When Blackberry Farm was acquired by the city, it was agreed that the city would hire the existing maintenance staff as city employees. Since that time, the course and its infrastructure have aged and regulations regarding the use of herbicides and pesticides have changed. Staff will be addressing the infrastructure issues during the Blackberry Farm Master Plan process, but operational improvements can be made now to improve the level of maintenance of the course.
Options considered for improving maintenance of the course included: hiring an in-house turf management expert, using the Public Works turf crew, and contracting for golf course maintenance.
Specifications were prepared a contract with a specialty maintenance contractor and the cost of the work under the contract was estimated to be $185,000. This was approximately $27,000 less than the current operational cost if the work continued to be performed by City staff. However, besides the potential for saving money, our primary reason for considering the option of contracting the work is to improve the level of maintenance with a specialty contractor.
Staff displaced by the maintenance contract has been reassigned to existing vacant positions in the Public Works Department Service Center. Except for the reassignment, there are no impacts on City staffing or to the cost of current operations. Pursuant to the MOU with OE3, a 45-day written notice of the intent to contract out golf course maintenance was sent on Oct. 1, 2001 and staff subsequently met with Union representatives on the reassignment of staff.
Printed on Recycled Paper
Blackberry Farm Golf Course Maintenance, Project No. 2001-08 January 22, 2002
DISCUSSION
Bids for contract maintenance at Blackberry Farm Golf Course were opened on January 15, 2002 and the following is a summary of the bids received:
Bidder Base Bid
Int. Natl. Golf Maintenance, Inc. $ 235,608
Environmental Golf $ 192,917
Spot Water Management $ 186,600
Engineers Estimate $ 185,000
The low bidder, Spot Water Management, presented a bid document that had some minor competitive advantage for the low bidder and can therefore be waived.
In addition, subsequent to the bid opening, a letter of protest was received from Environmental Golf, the second lowest bidder (copy attached). Staff has reviewed the letter and believes that most of the representations in it do not have merit nor does the City have significant exposure to the threat of court action by this bidder. However, in reviewing the process, the concern raised by the protest about the award criteria is sufficiently confusing that when combined with the matter of the low bid irregularity, staff believes that the best course of action would be to simply reject all bids and immediately re-bid the project with amended language to eliminate any possible confusion or misinterpretation of the award criteria.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Reject all bids and authorize re-bid of the yearly maintenance contract for Blackberry Farm Golf Course Maintenance, Project No. 2001-08.
Submitted by:
Ralph A. Qualls, Jr. Therese Ambrosi Smith
Director of Public Works Director of Parks and Recreation Approved for submission:
David W. Knapp
City Manager