Special Meeting Agenda
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 at 5:00 pm
621 11th Street, Fortuna CA
Zoom Option: 1-669-900-9128 Meeting ID 859 2151 7279 Password 561806 • We May Disagree, But We Will Be Respectful of One Another • All Comments Will Be Directed to the Issue at Hand, and Addressed to the City Council • Personal Attacks are Unacceptable
• The City Council May Take Action on any Item on this Agenda.
CALL TO ORDER / FLAG SALUTE / ROLL CALL
Council
Staff
• Council Member Kyle Conley
• Council Member Carlos Diaz
• Council Member Abe Stevens
• Mayor Pro Tem Tami Trent
• Mayor Mike Johnson
• City Manager Amy Nilsen
• City Clerk Siana L. Emmons
1. ORAL COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC
Members of the Public may be heard at this time on any item within the subject matter jurisdiction of the City that is not on the Public Meeting Agenda. It is the practice of this Council to hold public comment for every item of business on the agenda at the time that item is heard. If a speaker cannot stay for a particular item of business, they may be heard during this time. Comments concerning the Consent Calendar may also be heard at this time. Speakers addressing the Council will be limited to 3 minutes per speaker. Be advised that, by law, the City Council can only deliberate or take action on items that are included on the agenda.
2. Contact: Siana L. Emmons ([email protected] 7077251409) | Agenda published on 10/20/2025 at 2:08 PM
ADJOURN TO CLOSED SESSION
By Council Council consensus, Business Item 5b. was acted on first in order of business.
CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL--ANTICIPATED LITIGATION Initiation of litigation pursuant to paragraph (4) of subdivision (d) of Section 54956.9:
one case.
a.
CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL--ANTICIPATED LITIGATION
Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to paragraph (2) or (3) of subdivision (d) of Section 54956.9: one case. Facts and circumstances involve allegations from California River Watch that the city violated certain environmental laws and regulations.
b.
PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION Title: City Manager, pursuant Section 54957of the California Government Code. c.
CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS Agency designated
representatives: Amy Nilsen, City Manager Employee organization: Fortuna Police Employees Association, pursuant to Section 54957.6 of the Government Code.
d.
3. RECONVENE OPEN SESSION AND REPORT OUT
Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.5, any non-confidential documents or writings that the City distributes, less than 72 hours before a regular meeting, to all or a majority of the legislative body's members must be made available to members of the public at the same time as the distribution. Documents and information related to the agenda topics are available for review at City Hall, 621 11th Street, between the hours of 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Members of the public are invited to come to the meeting and comment. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting, please contact the City Clerk at (707) 725-7600. Notification prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to this meeting
4. CONSENT CALENDAR
Authorize a Supplemental Budget Appropriation of $136,000 for the Secondary Clarifier Project, Authorize the City Manager to award a Contract to FD Thomas as an Emergency Procurement and Establish a Maximum Project Amount of $335,931
a.
5. ADJOURN
Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.5, any non-confidential documents or writings that the City distributes, less than 72 hours before a regular meeting, to all or a majority of the legislative body's members must be made available to members of the public at the same time as the distribution. Documents and information related to the agenda topics are available for review at City Hall, 621 11th Street, between the hours of 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Members of the public are invited to come to the meeting and comment. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting, please contact the City Clerk at (707) 725-7600. Notification prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to this meeting.
6. City of Fortuna - Memorandum
(707) 725-7600 - 625 11th Street – Fortuna, CA 95540
TO: Fortuna City Council
FROM: Amy Nilsen, City Manager and Brian Issa, Public Works Director SUBJECT: Wastewater Treatment Plant’s Secondary Clarifier Recoating Project DATE: October 14, 2025
Background:
The City of Fortuna advertised for bids for sandblasting and recoating of the metal parts of the Wastewater Treatment Plant’s secondary clarifier earlier this Spring. We received three bids as follows:
The City Council awarded the bid to the lowest bidder, CleanInfusion LLC out of Missouri on May 19 in an amount of $118,242. This bid was less than half of the next lowest bidder, F.D. Thomas Inc. at $228,995. The total time allocated for completion was 30 days starting on August 11.
The contractor was three weeks late to the job site and arrived on September 3. From day one it was a struggle to have the contractor adhere to contractual obligations including containment of the site while sandblasting, use of proper materials, and installation of environmental controls meant to ensure that exposed metal remained free of rust until the final coatings could be applied. The contractor failed two inspections by a professional coatings inspector retained by the City. A third inspection was cancelled when it was clear the contractor would not pass.
City staff also observed multiple egregious safety violations for which the contractor was warned in writing. As the job went well past the contractual deadline, the City documented ongoing and repeated failures of CleanInfusion to comply with the contract and to demonstrate a good-faith effort to understand what they had agreed to do by signing the contract. On October 9, the contractor was notified that unless all outstanding violations were cured by 5pm on Friday October 10, the City intended to terminate the contract for nonperformance. The contractor informed the City that they would not be able to comply and packed up and left that weekend. The City is ready to contract with Unified $344,376.00
Clean Infusion1
$118,242.00
Name of Contractor Base Bid Amount
F.D. Thomas Inc. $228,995.00
City of Fortuna - Memorandum
(707) 725-7600 - 625 11th Street – Fortuna, CA 95540
the second lowest bidder (F.D. Thomas out of Sacramento) as an emergency project to complete the work for approximately $280,000. Although some sandblasting work has already been completed, the increase in cost ($161,758) reflects the emergency nature of the project.
Emergency Status:
The Wastewater Treatment Plant’s secondary clarifier is a key component of the wastewater treatment process which slows and settles solids from the primary treated effluent. Use of the secondary clarifier is flow dependent. Essentially, as wastewater flows increase during winter months, the volume of the secondary clarifier is needed to allow a long enough residence time to allow suspended materials to settle out while maintaining sufficient throughput and return of activated sludge (microorganisms) back into the treatment train. Solids, known as Total Suspended Solids (TSS) are an effluent constituent regulated by the State in the City’s wastewater discharge permit. Because of the interactions between various regulated compounds and suspended solids, high levels of TSS also result in less efficient disinfection and washout of return activated sludge (RAS) greatly increasing the likelihood of other violations including high level of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD). As most of the metal is now bare, filling of the secondary clarifier without recoating is a bad option as most of the metal is below the water line and it would likely result in severe corrosion of exposed metal surfaces necessitating costly repairs. If the City chose to rebid the project, we would be well into the winter with no guarantee that the secondary clarifier could be online before we started violating our discharge permit.
The need for the secondary clarifier is entirely dependent on rainfall. In the past five years, the earliest we have put the secondary clarifier online was October 27, and the latest was mid-January. Due to the need to have a secondary clarifier, and a strong desire to avoid unnecessary effluent discharge violations from the State, we believe time is of the essence and seek to get a backup contractor, F.D.
Thomas Inc., also the next lowest bidder, on site as quickly as possible. The City contacted, F.D. Thomas Inc. to determine if they were able to mobilize quickly. F.D. Thomas Inc, is able to mobilize quickly, and is expected to be onsite within 7 days of signing contracts. However, the cost of this quick mobilization will be an additional cost of $161,758 for a total project cost of $280,000.
The City has not received nor paid any invoices from CleanInfusion LLC. The difference in project cost ($161,758) will be paid from the City Sewer Capital Reserve Fund (Fund 560) with the City reserving rights to pursue damages from CleanInfusion LLC and its bonding company.
The contract with F.D. Thomas will be on the Monday, October 20 consent agenda. There will also be a closed session item to further discuss CleanInfusion’s contractual noncompliance. The degree to which the City will be able to recover costs from CleanInfusion either through their Surety bond or through direct litigation is yet to be determined.
Consent Item 5a
STAFF REPORT
City Council Consent Item
DATE: October 21, 2025
TO: Honorable Mayor and Council Members
FROM: Brian Issa, Public Works Director
THROUGH: Amy Nilsen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Award of Secondary Clarifier Coating Project
STAFF RECOMMENDATION(S):
1. Authorize a supplemental budget request of $136,000 from Wastewater Reserves (Fund 560) for the secondary clarifier project (CIP 9125)
2. Authorize the City Manager to award the Wastewater Treatment Plant Secondary Clarifier Recoating Project (CIP 9125) to FD Thomas as an emergency procurement pursuant to FMC 2.50.070(A) in the amount of $279,943
3. Establish a maximum project amount of $335,931 inclusive of contingency.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The City of Fortuna’s Wastewater Treatment Plant is a crucial part of the City’s infrastructure.
Components of the plant are continuously subjected to harsh and corrosive conditions created by wastewater. Periodically components require significant maintenance, and such is the case for the older of the plant’s two secondary clarifiers. The City of Fortuna advertised for bids for sandblasting and recoating of the metal parts of the Wastewater Treatment Plant’s secondary clarifier on April 17th, 2025. The City Council awarded the bid to the lowest bidder, Clean Infusion LLC on May 19 for $118,242. This bid was less than half of the next lowest bidder, F.D. Thomas Inc. at $228,995.
The total time allocated for completion was 30 days starting on August 11.
Despite exhaustive efforts by the City to gain compliance with contractual requirements, on Friday October 10, the contractor was declared to be in default. Anticipating that this might be the case given the contractors ongoing lack of ability to perform throughout the process, staff had been communicating with the second highest bidder to ensure we had another contractor ready to take over the work should the City need to terminate the initial contact.
While much of the metal has been sandblasted, failure to protect it from the elements has resulted in extensive rust which requires sandblasting the entire structure again so the overall amount of work is comparable to starting the project from scratch. This coupled with the emergency nature of the job accounts for the cost increase between F.D. Thomas’ original bid ($229K) and the current proposed fee ($280K). The overall increase in project cost is $161,758. Adding a contingency of 20% results in a total potential cost of $335,931
To avoid the repercussions of not having the clarifier back online when flows require additional treatment, staff asks that this contract be awarded as an emergency procurement pursuant to FMC Consent Item 5a
2.50.070(A).
2.50.070 Exceptions to bidding.
Purchases of supplies, equipment and contractual services shall be by formal or informal bid procedures pursuant to this chapter except:
A. In case of an emergency as determined by the city manager or, in his absence, the acting city manager. The city manager shall be advised of such emergency purchase as soon as practicable;
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The initial award amount of $118,242 was funded through the City Sewer Capital Reserve Funds (Fund 560) with current fiscal year funding of $200,000. The total anticipated costs to complete the project are shown in the table below:
Item Cost
F.D. Thomas sandblasting and coating $279,943
Construction Contingency (20%) $55,989
Total $335,932
Note that the City has not paid Clean Infusion anything to date and just received their first invoice on 10/15. Any payment for work performed is subject to negotiation between the City and the Surety that provided the bond for Clean Infusion.
RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION:
Staff recommends authorizing a supplemental budget appropriation of $136,000 from Wastewater Reserves (Fund 560) for the secondary clarifier project (CIP 9125), authorize the City Manager to award the Wastewater Treatment Plant Secondary Clarifier Recoating Project (CIP 9125) to FD Thomas as an emergency procurement pursuant to FMC 2.50.070(A) in the amount of $279,943, and establish a maximum project amount of $335,931 inclusive of contingency. Consent Agenda Vote.