City Council Agenda Report
October 1, 2024
TO: Honorable City Council
FROM: Jesus M. Gomez, City Manager
BY: Glen W.C. Kau, P.E., Director of Public Services/City Engineer Jacqueline Koontz, P.E., Senior Civil Engineer
Michael Jea, Assistant Engineer
SUBJECT: REJECT ALL BIDS - REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS NO. 25-760 -
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FOR WATER METER READING AND RELATED
SERVICES
Background:
The Utilities Division (Utilities) in the Public Services Department is currently engaged with the development, preparation, and implementation of several capital improvement projects (CIPs) and construction of new water treatment facilities. Utilities is also responsible for addressing regulatory compliance for each City owned system, oversees the management and development of technical studies and master plans (water, sewer, storm drain systems), and must also be responsive to the rise in development activity within the City.
Utilities engineers and crew members play a large role with all activities, as well as other Public Services Departmental duties and external departmental requests/needs. As workloads grow from current and future projects/programs, an increased involvement is required from both Utility engineers and crew member staff. Contract services provide the necessary expertise, knowledge and staff augmentation to offer services necessary to help meet the needs of our community.
The Norwalk Municipal Water System (NMWS) service area is comprised of portions within the Cities of Norwalk and Artesia, and a small, unincorporated portion of Los Angeles County. The City has been successful with upgrading nearly 1,000 of the over 5,350 manual-read water meters to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters for the NMWS. City staff are currently working on upgrading 477 additional water meters for this fiscal year. For the Finance Department to prepare water billing, and the Utilities Division to track water consumption, meter reads are gathered by crew members every other month. Manually reading over 4,350 water meters throughout the City’s water service areas, and later re-reading them to correct errors,
City Council October 1, 2024
RFP No. 25-760 – Reject All Bids
Water Meter Reading and Related Services
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requires a significant effort from crew member staff. Currently there are four, soon to be five, crew member staff to meet all City water, sewer, and storm drain system current and future needs.
To ease crew member workloads, staff solicited Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 25-760 for Water Meter Reading and Related Services on August 9, 2024. The main components of the scope of work for RFP No. 25-760 are:
•Bi-monthly reading of water meters within the NMWS service area •Re-reading water meters that were missed or had incorrect reads •Data collection and to generation of work orders for needed repairs (e.g. broken/obscured registers, meter replacements, broken meter box lids)
•Notification of public safety issues or suspected water leaks •Water service turn-ons and service turn offs
•One-time water service connections materials survey for regulatory compliance •Fire flow testing and cross connection tests, as requested •Additional services related to water meter reading, as needed Proposals were due August 26, 2024. Two companies submitted proposals that were reviewed internally by an evaluation panel of City staff.
Proposals Received & Evaluated
Company/Contractor Costs for Services
Stephen Doreck Equipment Rentals, Inc. $485,074
Big Ben Engineering Unknown
Estimated and budgeted costs for the approved Fiscal Year 2024/25 Budget are $112,000 for these services. Additional funding in the amount of $373,074 will be needed to complete the work. Due to proposals being significantly higher than estimated costs, and a missing rate sheet for one contractor, staff is recommending rejection of all proposals. Solicitation of new formal proposals will not be pursued. Staff will be investigating other, less expensive, options.
Fiscal Impact:
N/A
Citizens Advised:
N/A
City Council October 1, 2024
RFP No. 25-760 – Reject All Bids
Water Meter Reading and Related Services
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Strategic Plan 2023 Implementation:
N/A
Recommended Action:
Staff recommends City Council reject all bids submitted in response to Request for Proposals No. 25-760 for Professional Services for Water Meter Reading and Related Services.
Attachments:
N/A