EAST PALO ALTO
CITY COUNCIL
STAFF REPORT
DATE: May 17, 2022
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
VIA: Patrick Heisinger, Interim City Manager
BY: Jessica Caballero, Management Analyst II
Amy Chen, Community & Economic Development Director
SUBJECT: Revisions to Master Consultant Agreements for Processing Development Applications
Recommendation
Adopt a resolution authorizing the Interim City Manager to:
a) Amend the Master Consultant Agreements (MCAs) for professional services with the recommended consultants by extending the contract term by two-years with an option to extend for up to two (2) additional six-month extensions; b) Amend the Master Consultant Agreement for building plan review and inspection services for pre-entitlement services to clarify the contract limit of $750,000 as per Resolution No. 5166; and
c) Amend the Consultant Agreement with West Coast Code Consultants for postentitlement building services by extending the contract term by two-years with an option to extend for up to two (2) additional six-month extensions.
Alignment with City Council Strategic Plan
This recommendation is primarily aligned with:
Priority No. 2: Enhance Economic Vitality
Priority No. 3: Increase Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency Priority No. 6: Create a Healthy and Safe Community
Background
In 2019, the City of East Palo Alto Community and Economic Development (CEDD) and Public Works (PW) experienced a significant increase in development application review activity, and to address these demands both departments are to comply with critical State mandates by entering into developer-reimbursement professional service agreements.
On April 2, 2019, the City Council directed staff to issue a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for consulting services to support the City with processing development applications. On April 5, 2019, staff released an RFQ to the City's preapproved lists of firms for the following services:
designated contract planner; environmental review analysis; housing needs assessment; fiscal impact analysis; design review; engineering review analysis; transportation consultant. A total of fifteen (15) firms responded and members of the CEDD and PW evaluated each proposal based on a scoring system outlined in the RFQ and identified top scoring respondents in each service category.
Prior to 2019, City Council awarded contracts to David J. Powers and EMC Planning to prepare planning documents for complex development projects listed in that staff report. The process of securing those CEQA consultants took months because of the complexity of projects.
As a result, on July 2, 2019, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 5142 (See Attachment 2) authorizing the City Manager to execute up to $5,950,000 in Master Consulting Contracts and seek reimbursement from project applicants for such contract consulting services through Developer Reimbursement Agreements (DRA) and/or Master Fee Reimbursement Agreements (MFRA) to aid in developing an on-call bench of consultants. Additionally, City Council also directed staff to issue a separate RFQ to identity up to two consultants to help with the City building plan review services and inspection services. On September 17, 2019, City Council authorized the City Manager to establish a contract limit of $750,000 for building plan review and inspection services for pre-entitlement services with 4Leaf and West Coast Code Consultants (See Attachment 3 – Resolution No. 5166).
On December 17, 2019, the City entered into a consultant agreement with West Coast Code Consultants, Inc (WC3) and CSG Consultants, Inc. for post-entitlement services with a total contact limit for building-related professional services not to exceed $1,000,000 and a term of expiration of June 30, 2022 with up to two (2) six-month extensions, at the discretion of the City Manager (See Attachment 4 – Resolution No. 5202).
Subsequently, on June 2, 2020, the City Council directed staff to hire a designed contract planner to assist with larger development projects in the Ravenswood Business District (RBD).
On November 5, 2020, the City entered into a consultant agreement with Good City Company with a total contract limit for project management services not to exceed $500,000 and a term expiration of July 20, 2023 with up to two (2) six-month extensions, at the discretion of the City Manager. In that same Council action, staff also was directed to execute a contract with Raimi and Associates for the purposes of analyzing a potential update to the RBD Specific Plan. This Raimi and Associates contract includes initial analysis as well as an environmental analysis component for the Specific Plan, where Raimi will subcontract work with Strategic Economics, Schaaf + Wheeler, Hexagon Consulting, and David J Powers. The contract with Raimi and Associates also may act as a pass-through agreement if the Council were to direct staff to move forward with the Specific Plan update and developers were to contribute to the cost of the Raimi contract. The action recommended in this staff report does not impact either Good City Company or Raimi and Associates RBD Specific Plan efforts, and if there need to be contract amendments, City staff will bring them back separately.
Good City Company is noted in Attachment 7 to provide a consolidated list of MCAs. Raimi and Associates and the RBD Specific Plan efforts are intentionally not included as their contract is not directly related to a project at this time.
On May 18, 2021, Staff provided City Council with an update on the current Master Consultant Agreements (MCAs) noted in Resolution 5142; and received approval to amend the budget capacity of respective MCA’s to accommodate an influx of development applications (See Attachment 5 – Resolution No. 64-2021).
The purpose of this staff report is to provide City Council a status update on the current Master Consultant Agreements (MCA) noted in Resolution 5142; and to request approval to amend the Master Consultant Agreements (MCAs) for professional services with the recommended consultants by extending the contract terms of the MCA’s in order to continue working on existing projects. At this time staff is not requesting to extend the term of the Good City Company’s MCA but may reapproach this specific MCA in the future. Staff also requests approval to amend the Consultant Agreement with West Coast Code Consultants for postentitlement building services as noted in Resolution No. 5202 by extending the contract term.
Analysis
Status Update of Current Master Consultant Agreements
The City Manager entered into Master Consultant Agreements (MCA) with the list of contractors selected by City Council to provide services on an as needed basis (see Attachment 7 for a full list of MCAs). Upon receipt of a planning application, staff determines which MCAs must be utilized to process each application. Complex planning applications require multiple consultant services and, therefore, multiple Request for Proposals (RFP) processes and enters into a Developer Reimbursement Agreements (DRAs).
Staff facilitates the work of consultants to ensure the resultant product meets the City’s needs, the costs associated with these consultant contracts are wholly funded by the developers. For this reason, the General Fund is not impacted by the implementation of MCAs.
Contract Term Extensions for Master Consultant Agreements As the City approaches the three-year milestone since authorizing the City Manager to execute MCAs (2019), most MCAs are due to expire June 30, 2022. More projects are continuing to be processed and new development applications are still coming in.
Staff recommends the City Council authorize the City Manager to extend the contract terms of the MCAs by two-years with an option to extend for up to two (2) additional six-month extensions as noted above.
The MCA for building plan review services and inspection services inadvertently references a not to exceed budget capacity of Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars $650,000. Staff recommends the City Council authorize the City Manager to amend the MCA to clarify the not to exceed contract limit of $750,000 as required by Resolution No. 5166.
Contract Term Extension for Consultant Agreement (Building Plans Review) The consultant agreement with WC3 for post-entitlement building plans review, building inspection, and other building division support services expires June 30, 2022. Staff recommends the City Council authorize the City Manager to extend the contract by two-years with an option to extend for up to two (2) additional six-month extensions as noted above. Due to the continued increase in development review activity, the Building Services Division continues to require consultant support to address current development project application demand and comply with critical State mandates.
Next Steps
Staff will prepare MCA contract term extensions with the recommended consultants in nine (9) service categories. Currently the MCA’s for all but one consultant noted in Attachment 7 expire June 30, 2022 (Good City Company expires July 20, 2023). Staff also will prepare an amendment to the MCA for building plan review and inspection services for pre-entitlement services to clarify the contract limit of $750,000 as per Resolution No. 5166. Staff will prepare a contract term extension for building plan review, inspection & support services for postentitlement services. Currently, staff is asking only to extend the contract terms to accommodate continued work.
Fiscal Impact
There is no fiscal impact to the General Fund. This recommendation is only to extend the contract term of the respective MCAs to continue work on existing projects and to clarify the correct contract limit of $750,000 for building plan review and inspection services for preentitlement services, per Resolution No. 5166.
Public Notice
The public was provided notice of this agenda item by posting the City Council agenda on the City’s official bulletin board outside City Hall and making the agenda and report available at the City’s website and at the San Mateo County Library located at 2415 University Avenue, East Palo Alto.
Environmental
The action being considered does not constitute a “Project” within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), pursuant to CEQA Guideline section 15378 (b)(5), in that it is a government administrative activity that will not result in direct or indirect changes in the environment.
Attachments
1. Resolution
2. Resolution #5142
3. Resolution #5166
4. Resolution #5202
5. Resolution #64-2021
6. First Approval of MCAs - Staff Report Dated July 2, 2019
7. Consolidated List of Agreements with Expiration Dates