Business Item 5c
STAFF REPORT
City Council Business Item
DATE: June 17, 2024
TO: Honorable Mayor and Council Members
FROM: Brendan Byrd, Public Works Director/City Engineer THROUGH: Merritt Perry, City Manager
SUBJECT: Supplemental Budget Request and Professional Services Contract Amendment with GHD for Design and Environmental Services for the Mill Creek Habitat Connectivity Project (CIP#9123)
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Receive staff presentation and recommendation to authorize the City Manager to execute a professional services contract amendment with GHD for design and environmental services for the Mill Creek Habitat Connectivity Project (CIP#9123) and authorize a supplemental budget request in the amount $107,000.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
As the Council is aware, staff have been working with engineering consultants GHD on the Mill Creek Habitat Connectivity Project, which includes developing engineering designs and permitting packages for four culvert crossings along Mill Creek in Fortuna. Over the past several months, GHD has been active completing field surveys and walking the extents of the creek to identify existing conditions. During these field surveys, an additional privately-owned culvert crossing was discovered in between Mill Street and Rohnerville Road. This crossing is also a fish passage barrier, and would require replacement in order to achieve full habitat connectivity along this section of Mill Creek.
Given the location of the private culvert, and the fact that future construction funding grant opportunities would rely heavily on providing for full creek habitat connectivity, staff recommend that a new fish passage friendly design be developed for the private crossing as part of the City’s current project. Staff would like to note that developing the design as part of the City’s project would not result in the City inheriting responsibility of the crossing, nor would it require that the City fund its replacement in the future. Staff have been working with the property owner on the concept of including crossing improvements in the City’s project, and they are fulling willing to participate and allow for access.
To fund the design and environmental work for the additional crossing, staff reached out to the City’s grant manager with the Wildlife Conversation Board (WCB), who indicated that they had additional funding that could be obligated under a grant amendment. Staff worked with GHD to develop the additional fee required to augment each existing task from the original scope (Attachment A), after which staff formally made a funding request to the WCB for $107,000. The WCB staff approved the funding request, and City staff are currently working to finalize the grant Business Item 5c
agreement amendment and funding augmentation with the WCB. A draft of the grant has been included as Attachment B.
With the council’s approval, staff would work to finalize the amendment with the WCB for the above-mentioned amount, and once completed execute a contract amendment with GHD adding the additional funding to the contract to complete the design work for the additional culvert.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
As noted above, the additional project work would be fully funded under a grant from the WCB, in the amount of $107,000. This would augment the City’s existing grant agreement of $966,000 and increase it to a new total amount of $1,083,000. The City has committed as part of the initial agreement $10,000 worth of staff time as a match over the course of the project, however, no additional staff time match is required in securing the additional funding.
The new funding amount of $107,000 would be added to next fiscal year’s budget, which already was approved by the Council (along with the City’s Capital Improvement Program) at the June 3rd meeting. A draft Supplemental Budget Request augmenting next year’s approved budget for the project has been developed for the funding augmentation and is included as Attachment C.
RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION:
1. Receive staff presentation and review Council questions with staff
2. Open Public Comment
3. Close Public Comment;
4. Motion to Authorize the City Manager to execute professional services contract amendment with GHD for engineering and environmental services for the Mill Creek Habitat Connectivity Project (CIP#9123) and authorize a supplemental budget request in the amount $107,000, voice vote
Attachments:
Attachment A – GHD Amendment Proposal
Attachment B – Draft WCB Grant Agreement Amendment
Attachment C – Supplemental Budget Request