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CITY OF GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA
REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA ITEM
Report: Award of Professional Services Agreements for Various On-call Water Engineering Services.
1. Motion authorizing the City Manager, or his designee, to enter into and execute Professional Services Agreements (PSA) for initial three-year terms, with an option to extend each PSA for two additional one-year terms, with four consultants: MKN & Associates Inc., Stetson Engineers Inc., Project Partners Inc., and JMDiaz Inc. for an aggregate not-to-exceed amount of $1,500,000 for the initial three-year terms of the PSAs to be shared among the four consultant PSAs to provide on-call water engineering services. The City Manager, or his designee, is further authorized to execute any necessary amendments to each of the PSAs subject to the herein $1,500,000 aggregate not-to-exceed amount.
COUNCIL ACTION
Item Type: Consent Calendar
Approved for June 3, 2025 calendar
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Glendale Water & Power (GWP) has been using Owner’s Engineers who specialize in the design and engineering oversight of various public water system activities to support the Water Division Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) activities for nearly a decade. Utilizing Owner’s Engineering Services has accelerated the delivery of CIP projects and provided engineering support for O&M activities.
With the current Owner’s Engineer contracts set to expire soon, GWP staff has solicited new proposals and seeks to award three-year Professional Services Agreements (PSAs) with the option to extend for two additional one-year terms, to four consultants, MKN & Associates Inc., Stetson Engineers Inc., Project Partners Inc., and JMDiaz Inc.
The consultants will oversee various potable and recycled water projects and processes, help in general staff augmentation for water service planning, and design for water system improvement projects and activities.
The proposed agreements with these firms will cost in the aggregate $1,500,000 over the course of the initial three years. Funding for the renewal terms will be requested as part of the City’s annual budget process.
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RECOMMENDATION
Authorize the City Manager to execute four three-year PSAs with the option to extend for two additional one-year terms, with MKN & Associates Inc., Stetson Engineers Inc., Project Partners Inc., and JMDiaz Inc., to act on behalf of the City as Owner's Engineers.
ANALYSIS
GWP Water Engineering Section plans, designs, and manages the construction of capital projects and oversees the delivery of the CIP. The CIP includes projects funded by grants, pay-go funds derived through water rates, and water system asset depreciation funds. Additionally, the Water Engineering Section provides planning and support services to the Water Operations Section, the Water Distribution Section and the Water Quality Section on operations and maintenance activities budgeted as O&M expense. The Water Engineering Section also provides customer and developer assistance for water service planning activities, budgeted as “customer paid” projects.
The amount of engineering work for capital projects and O&M support activities can require special expertise and additional labor hours to complete the work. The Owner’s Engineer will be under contract for the purposes of augmenting the capacity of Water Engineering Section, both for managing peaks in workload and for providing technical expertise not supported in-house, such as geotechnical and structural engineering services. The Owner’s Engineer will also be utilized to augment existing staff for water service planning processes, including plan checks, permit management, utility research, and service line design.
Executing contracts for these services will provide the following benefits to GWP:
Access to specialized expertise: The selected consultant firms possess a wide range of expertise in various areas of water resource and traffic engineering, thereby allowing GWP to access specific knowledge and skills that may not be available internally.
Focus on Core Services: These services will allow GWP to focus on its core mission of delivering safe and reliable water to customers thereby ensuring the department remains efficient in these critical areas.
Flexibility: These services will allow GWP to exercise flexibility with personnel resources, while making the necessary adjustments to maintain a high level of customer service.
Objectivity: An external engineering consultant can provide an objective perspective on internal projects and processes, thereby leading to a diversification of thought and more informed decision making.
Work will be performed by the consultants on a per project/task basis. For each project, GWP staff will solicit cost proposals from the firms and, from these, select the firm for that particular project/task. Selection will be made according to the availability of each 4c3
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consultant, suitability for the work involved, and price based on the scope of work.
GWP staff will carefully review the content of the proposal and award based on cost and schedule.
On February 24, 2025, GWP staff solicited proposals by issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) which contained detailed instructions on the services being requested, the desired qualifications and experience. The RFP was advertised on BidNet Direct, a public contracts advertising company, that advertises to a wide range of contractors, firms, and other public agencies.
On March 21, 2025, the due date for proposal submissions, GWP received five proposals from the following five engineering firms: NV5 Inc., MKN & Associates Inc., Project Partners Inc., JMDiaz Inc., and Stetson Engineers Inc.
Upon review of the proposals, it was determined that the four firms selected presented outstanding project approaches and understood the city’s needs. Establishing PSAs with four firms will provide variability, flexibility and availability in services, as well as an opportunity to receive the lowest price for the individual projects/tasks.
STAKEHOLDERS/OUTREACH
Not applicable.
FISCAL IMPACT
The total aggregate budget for all four PSAs for Owner’s Engineering to Perform On-call Water Engineering Services is $1,500,000, for the initial three-year term.
Beginning FY 2025-26, the cost for the first year is $500,000, which has been requested as part of the proposed FY 2025-26 budget. Funds for future years will be requested through the annual budget process. No new appropriation is being requested at this time.
Proposed FY 2025-26 Appropriation
Amount Account String Funding Source
$500,000 GL: 43110-5920-GWP-4700 Water Works Revenue
Fund (5920)
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ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW (CEQA/NEPA)
The action requested herein is to establish PSAs for engineering services on an “as needed” basis and is not a project for the purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and thus is not subject to CEQA review.
CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE
In accordance with the City Campaign Finance Ordinance No. 5744, the exhibits to this report contain the names and business addresses of the members of the board of directors, the chairperson, CEO, COO, CFO, Subcontractors and any person or entity with more than 10% interest in the company proposed for contract in this agenda item report (see Exhibits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6).
ALTERNATIVES TO STAFF RECOMMENDATION
1) Choose not to award the PSAs as recommended herein, which will require staff to prepare separate requests for proposals for each project/task for which assistance is needed, delaying completion of CIP projects, and will not provide O&M engineering support.
2) Consider any other alternative not proposed by staff.
ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION
Submitted by:
Scott K. Mellon, P.E., Acting General Manager - Glendale Water and Power Prepared by:
Chisom Obegolu, Assistant General Manager - Water
Approved by:
Roubik R. Golanian, P.E., City Manager
EXHIBITS/ATTACHMENTS
Exhibit 1: Campaign Finance Disclosure for MKN and Associates Inc.
Exhibit 2: Campaign Finance Disclosure for Project Partners Inc.
Exhibit 3: Campaign Finance Disclosure for the Converse Professional Group (subcontractor to Project Partners Inc.)
Exhibit 4: Campaign Finance Disclosure for the DRP Engineering Inc. (subcontractor to Project Partners Inc.)
Exhibit 5: Campaign Finance Disclosure for Stetson Engineers Inc.
Exhibit 6: Campaign Finance Disclosure for JMDiaz Inc. and Subcontractors