DATE: November 3, 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
Chuck Venook, Chief Building Official
DEPARTMENT: Community Development
SUBJECT: CONTRACT AMENDMENT NO. 3 WITH 4LEAF, INC. FOR ON-
CALL BUILDING SERVICES IN A TOTAL AMOUNT NOT TO
EXCEED $875,000; APPROVING SUPPLEMENTAL
APPROPRIATION OF $300,000 FOR FY 2025-26
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council adopt the attached Resolution (Attachment 1) authorizing the Mayor to execute Contract Amendment No. 3 to the existing Agreement with 4LEAF, Inc. (4Leaf) for professional on-call building services, to extend the term of the Agreement to June 30, 2027 and increase the amount of compensation by $550,000 for a total Agreement amount not to exceed $875,000; approving the supplemental appropriation of $300,000 for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-26 to Account No. 001-0820-424-4251 from the General Fund Reserves; and find the request exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines 15061(b)(3).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Building Division has a limited staff comprised of six (6) full-time positions and one (1) temporary Principal Building Inspector position (recently approved) providing services related to all construction permit activity in the City. Over the last two (2) years, there have been significant ongoing challenges in staffing, including vacancies and staff absences.
Currently, there are only four (4) full-time personnel in the Building Division. Additionally, permit activity has significantly increased this year, especially commercial permits, and staff have been extensively relying on consulting services from 4Leaf and West Coast Code Consultants (WC3) to provide continuous and uninterrupted building services. WC3 has been providing plan check services and 4Leaf has been providing Permit Technician and building inspection services.
Currently, the Permit Technician and Principal Building Inspector positions are vacant, and the Senior Building Inspector is on extended leave. While the current agreement remains in effect through June 2026, the remaining balance of $24,000 will not be sufficient to continue supporting the City's needs for temporary staffing, specifically for the vacant Permit Technician and Building Inspector positions.
Gilead Sciences currently has two (2) lab buildings under construction and additional building anticipated at Chess Hatch site in early 2025. This requires a dedicated permit technician for permit processing and a Principal/Senior Building Inspector for inspections on almost daily basis. Given the number of buildings currently under construction and anticipated future projects upon approval of planning entitlements for Chess Hatch, these services cannot be provided at current building staffing levels.
Staff recommends that the City Council via attached Resolution approve Contract Amendment No. 3 with 4Leaf, increasing the not-to-exceed amount by $550,000 (the estimated costs of providing services in FY 25-26 and FY 26-27), extending the term to June 30, 2027, and approving a supplemental appropriation of $300,000 for services during FY 25-26. The cost of the agreement for FY 26-27 will be included in the proposed budget.
BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS
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, Housing/Sustainability, 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.
Currently, the Building Division is staffed by one (1) Chief Building Official (CBO), one (1) Plans Examiner, three (3) Inspectors, and two (2) Permit Technicians, which proves challenging during staff absences due to vacation, training, illness, and 9/80 off days, as well as during periods when positions are vacant and recruitment is underway.
Over the last two (2) years, there have been significant challenges in staffing, including vacancies and staff absences. Currently, of the seven (7) authorized full time positions (FTEs), two (2) are vacant and one (1) has been on extended leave since June 2, 2025.
These vacancies and absences pose a significant challenge in providing continuous and uninterrupted services. Therefore, staff have been using current on-call consulting services with 4Leaf and WC3 to augment staffing needs.
On July 15, 2024, the City Council approved professional on-call building service agreements with 4Leaf and WC3 in an amount not to exceed $150,000 each for two (2) years ending June 30, 2026, to provide coverage during staff absences, ensuring continuity of services, increased flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and enhanced customer satisfaction.
On April 7, 2025, Contract Amendment No. 1 to the on-call building service agreement with 4Leaf in the amount of $75,000 was approved for continuing on-call building services. At the time, the unspent personnel budget from the vacant CBO position was used to fund the agreement.
On July 21, 2025, Contract Amendment No. 2 to the on-call building service agreement with 4Leaf in the amount of $100,000 was approved for continuing on-call building services through a supplemental appropriation.
Since July 2024, 4Leaf has been providing services for staff augmentation for various building services.
There are currently several large and complex projects underway in the City that are identified below. This is in addition to numerous additions to homes, modifications to homes, and commercial tenant improvements that occur on a regular basis. Major projects under construction include:
Foster City’s new Community Center
Gilead Lab Building at 331 Lakeside Dr.
Gilead Lab Building at 335 Lakeside Dr.
Osaka Marketplace tenant improvements at Edgewater Shopping Center There are also several Tenant Improvement and construction projects anticipated to commence in the next few months, which are identified below:
Visa - Full interior renovation of the twelve-story buildings (M1 & M2 towers) from level 5 through 12, approx. 573,237 square feet.
Lab Building at Chess Hatch (upon entitlement approval) Multi-family ADUs at two (2) different locations
Recognizing the increase in construction activity, on September 15, 2025, the City Council approved a three-year temporary Principal Building Inspector position.
The recruitment for the two (2) vacant positions (Permit Technician and Principal Building Inspector) is underway and can take anywhere between three (3) to six (6) months before the position is successfully filled. In recent times, filling vacancies and finding qualified candidates has been a challenge, given the current job market, and when competing with other jurisdictions that have similar job openings.
The remaining balance in the 4Leaf contract is approximately $24,000 (October invoice is not received yet, and has been estimated), which is insufficient to continue providing uninterrupted services to the community. Although funds remain available in the WC3 contract, they are unable to provide building inspections and permit technician services.
The City has adopted a Master Fees & Service Charges Schedule, which specifies the payment for all processing costs associated with the review of applications for building permits. The costs of services related to building permits and associated inspections are covered by the applicable building and inspection fees charged by the City. However, the City must have the staffing to be able to provide those services and therefore the amendment with 4Leaf is necessary to ensure that services are not interrupted.
As noted earlier, Gilead currently has two (2) lab buildings under construction on its main campus and is anticipating an additional lab building on the Chess Hatch site, pending entitlements approvals. These projects require substantial staff time for permit processing (from intake through issuance), multiple plan reviews and numerous inspections at all stages of construction. Gilead and the City will be entering into a cost reimbursement agreement relating to the funding for building consulting services to support these efforts.
The breakdown of 4Leaf contract and subsequent amendments including source of fundings is shown in the table below:
Consultant Agreement
Date
Amount Source of Funding Impact on
General Fund
4Leaf July 15, 2024 $150,000 General Fund $150,000
Amendment
#1
April 7, 2025 $75,000 Unspent Salary from
vacant CBO position
None
Amendment
#2
July 21, 2025 $100,000 General Fund $150,000
Proposed
Amendment
#3
Nov 3, 2025 $550,000:
$300,000 (FY25-26)
and
$250,000 (FY26-27)
General Fund, to be
largely offset by
reimbursement from
Gilead including cost
reimbursement and
unspent personnel
budget authority.
None (After
reimbursement
from Gilead
including cost
reimbursement
and unspent
personnel
budget)*
Note: Staff has estimated $25k for Gilead projects per month (30 hours per week) and rest of the funds from unspent personnel budget from vacant positions.
California Environmental Quality Act
The approval of Contract Amendment No. 3 to the existing agreement with 4LEAF, Inc. (4Leaf) for professional on-call building services is not subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3) as it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, then the activity is not subject to CEQA.
FISCAL IMPACT
The agreement for on-call services includes building inspections, permit support services, and plan reviews. Therefore, for staff augmentation services, staff is requesting a supplemental appropriation of $300,000 for Building Division professional services (Account No. 001-0820-424-4251) in FY 2025-26 from the General Fund Reserves.
However, there will be no fiscal impact as the majority of the cost is anticipated to be offset by fees charged for the services, including the reimbursement of costs from Gilead and unspent salary budget from vacant positions. The cost of the agreement for FY26- 27 will be included in the proposed budget.
CITY COUNCIL VISION, MISSION, AND VALUE/PRIORITY AREA
Smart Planning, Development, and the Local Economy
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1 – Resolution
Attachment 2 – Contract Agreement No. 3
Attachment 3 – 4Leaf Agreement and Contract Amendments