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4 DATE: April 7, 2025
TO: Mayor and Members of the City Council
VIA: Stefan Chatwin, City Manager
Marlene Subhashini, Assistant City Manager
FROM: Sofia Mangalam, Community Development Director
Becki Hanan, Senior Management Analyst
DEPARTMENT: Community Development
SUBJECT: CONTRACT AMENDMENT NO. 1 FOR THE AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $75,000 WITH 4LEAF, INC. FOR PROFESSIONAL ON-
CALL BUILDING SERVICES
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council adopt the attached Resolution (Attachment 1) authorizing the Mayor to execute Contract Amendment No. 1 to the existing agreement with 4LEAF, Inc. (4Leaf) for professional on-call building services for an additional amount not to exceed $75,000; and find the request exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines 15061(b)(3).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Community Development Department (CDD) is committed to planning, maintaining, and improving the quality of life and public safety of Foster City in keeping with the vision of the City Council in the General Plan and other measures that reflect the City’s heritage as a Master Planned community. CDD is comprised of the Planning/Code Enforcement and Building Divisions.
The Building Division is responsible for ensuring that all construction projects permitted within the City comply with the California Building Code, the Foster City Municipal Code and all other applicable codes and regulations. The Building Division provides permit intake, plan check, and building inspection services to ensure compliance with the California Health and Safety Codes.
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4 The Building Division has a limited staff comprising of six (6) personnel providing services related to all construction permit activity in the City. Limited staffing poses a significant challenge in providing continuous and uninterrupted building division services. To address these challenges, on July 15, 2024, the City Council approved professional on- call building service agreements with 4Leaf and West Coast Code Consultants, Inc. (WC3) in an amount not to exceed $150,000 each to provide coverage during staff absences, ensuring continuity of services, increased flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and enhanced customer satisfaction.
As of February 28, 2025, the City has used approximately $118,437 of the current contract amount of $150,000 for 4Leaf. The current agreement for on-call building services is valid until June of 2026. The remaining unspent appropriation of $31,563 will not be enough to continue using 4Leaf for CBO and building inspection services.
Staff is recommending that the City Council approve Contract Amendment No. 1 to the existing agreement with 4Leaf for an additional amount not to exceed $75,000 to continue using 4Leaf consulting services for on-call building services.
BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS
Currently, the Building Division is staffed by one (1) CBO, one (1) Plans Examiner, two (2) Inspectors, and two (2) Permit Technicians, which proves challenging during staff absences due to vacation, training, illness, and 9/80 off working schedules, as well as filling positions on an interim basis when vacancies arise.
In recent times, there were two (2) vacancies in the building division, and filling them took time.
The CBO position became vacant on March 19, 2024, and the new CBO started on March 17, 2025.
The Permit Technician position became vacant on July 10, 2024, and was filled on December 2, 2024.
For the vacant CBO position and building inspection services when building inspectors were out of the office due to illness or training, staff utilized consultants from 4Leaf to augment staffing needs. For the vacant Permit Technician position and major commercial plan checks, staff utilized consultants from WC3.
As of February 28, 2025, these are the approximate balances for the two (2) on-call building service agreements.
Table 1: On-call building services agreements
Consultant Agreement
Timeline
Agreement
Amount
Remaining
Balance
4Leaf June 30, 2026 $150,000 $31,563
WC3 June 30, 2026 $150,000 $116,869
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4 As noted earlier, the CBO position became vacant on March 19, 2024, and it took one (1) year to fill the vacant position. During this time, staff extensively used 4Leaf for interim CBO services. Table 1 shows the remaining balance of $31,563, which will not be enough to cover until June 30, 2026. Additional funds are required to continue to use 4Leaf for on-call building services. Funds remaining in the WC3 contract will be utilized for on-call building services, but the contract will not be extended. Instead, staff would like to retain 4Leaf for on-call building services due to the high quality services provided by their consultants and familiarity of their inspector(s) with the ongoing projects.
It shall be noted that there is an unspent personnel budget due to the vacant CBO position (from October 2024 to March 2025, approximately $128,343) to cover the additional proposed contract amendment amount.
Staff is recommending that the City Council approve contract amendment No. 1 to the existing Contract Agreement with 4Leaf for professional on-call building services, for a total amount not to exceed $225,000 (initial contract amount $150,000 plus proposed contract amendment amount $75,000). The unspent CBO salary budget can be used to cover the additional contract amount.
California Environmental Quality Act
CEQA General Rule Exempt per Guideline, Section 15061(b)(3)
FISCAL IMPACT
The unspent personnel budget in the amount of $128,343 from the CBO position within the Building Division can be used to offset the cost of the contract amendment of $75,000; therefore, no additional appropriation is required.
CITY COUNCIL VISION, MISSION, AND VALUE/PRIORITY AREA
Smart Planning, Development, and the Local Economy
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1 – Resolution
Attachment 2 – 4Leaf, Inc. Contract Amendment No. 1
Attachment 3 – 4Leaf, Inc. Agreement