City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: CONSENT CALENDAR
Lead Department: Public Works
Meeting Date: June 17, 2025
Report #:2505-4621
TITLE
Approval of General Services Contract No. C25193659 With Community Tree Service LLC for Utility Line Clearance Services in an Amount Not-to-Exceed $16,500,000 for a Period of Five Years; CEQA Status – Exempt Under Section 15301(h)
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council approve and authorize the City Manager or their designee to execute Contract No. C25193659, with Community Tree Service LLC for utility line clearing services in an amount not to exceed $16,500,000 over a five-year term.
BACKGROUND
The City has contracted services for utility vegetation management since the mid-1980s to ensure the clearing of trees and other vegetation from electrical conductors, poles, substations, fiber optic lines, traffic signals, streetlights and other relevant electrical facilities throughout Palo Alto. The most recent utility vegetation management contract was with Davey Tree Surgery, Inc. for a five-year term ending on May 31, 2025, with a not-to-exceed total of $14,486,057 1.
The work to be performed under the contract includes the resolution of utility-related vegetation conflicts: mainly the clearing of trees and other vegetation from the overhead electric system throughout the City. Clearing vegetation from power lines is an on-going operation necessary to ensure that the City provides safe, reliable power to the City’s utility customers. Clearance requirements have been established by the California Public Utilities Commission for Investor-Owned Utilities and these requirements have been accepted as the applicable standard for vegetation clearance in the City of Palo Alto. All tree work must conform to the techniques and standards specified in the Tree Care Industry Association 1 City Council, June 1, 2020; Agenda Item #3; SR #10883; https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=169226&repo=r-704298fc
standard of care (ANSI A300 – Tree, Shrub and Other Woody Plant Maintenance – Standard Practices). As a utility operator, the City of Palo Alto is subject to thorough regulatory requirements to keep all vegetation away from utility infrastructure regardless of ownership of said vegetation. This contract for vegetation management is separate from the City’s overall tree trimming contract in that it specifically addresses utility line clearance. Utility line clearance work requires additional personnel certifications and equipment requirements not needed for standard tree trimming. The proposed contract with Community Tree Service LLC requires adherence to these standards and equipment requirements for utility line clearing.
Grid Modernization and Fiber to the Premise projects are currently underway and are supported by the line clearance contract. Continuing to support these projects will require additional line clearance resources and coordination. For Fiber to the Premise, much of the communication space in the overhead system has been historically under-maintained from a vegetation perspective by the communication companies who lease that space. This vegetation overgrowth encroaches into the City’s utility space. This has led to additional work assigned to the line clearance contractor so the equipment can be safely and efficiently installed. For grid modernization, additional resources are also needed from the line clearance contractor, mostly through vegetation clearing for personnel and equipment access.
In the past few years, the Foothills Undergrounding project has also been supported by the line clearance contract. Line clearance resources will continue to be utilized in support of this project until its completion. For example, vegetation clearing of the right of way (ROW) has been key in supporting the undergrounding of electrical lines in elevated fire threat areas of the service territory. While much of the electrical lines in the elevated fire threat areas have been undergrounded, the project will continue and is likely to expand as the areas considered to have elevated fire risks become more expansive.
ANALYSIS
The term of the proposed contract is five years.2 Staff has found that a multi-year contract is advantageous to the City as it allows a contractor to better amortize major equipment purchases and retain highly qualified workers, and in turn lower prices are offered for the work.
Familiarity with the trees in the City also improves efficiency as areas are returned to by the same contractor within that five-year time frame. Tree growth is highly dependent on precipitation and other conditions; therefore, the actual work levels and costs in each work item may be higher or lower than the estimated quantities in the contract documents. The rate schedule establishes the unit, hourly and span unit rates for each type of work included in the contract scope.
2 Community Tree Service LLC, Utility Line Clearance Contract, C25193659; https://www.paloalto.gov//files/assets/public/v/1/public-works/tree-section/new-folder/contracts/community- tree-service-llc-utility-line-clearing-contract-c25193659-partially-executed.pdf Summary of RFP Process
The Request for Proposals (RFP) for utility vegetation management services was distributed to potential contractors via opengov.com and a competitive solicitation notification was sent directly to companies on February 20, 2025. A pre-proposal meeting was held on March 5, 2025. The proposal period was 43 days and proposals were received from 9 contractors.
The quantities given in the cost proposal schedules were based on an average amount of work that might be expected in a twelve-month period and were given as a basis for comparison of proposal costs. The City did not guarantee that the actual amount or proportion of work would correspond to the cost proposal schedule amounts.
RFP Name/Number 193659 Utility Line Clearing Services
RFP Issued February 20, 2025
Proposals Due April 4, 2025
# of Tree Industry Firms Notified 1144 RFP views, 54 Tree Firms Downloaded RFP Total Days to Respond to RFP 43
# of Proposals Received 9
Non-responsive bidders/ Responsive bidders 0 / 9
Public Link to Solicitation https://procurement.opengov.com/portal/palo-alto- ca/projects/148575
Proposals Price Range $12,741,910 - $33,153,181
An evaluation committee consisting of three City staff members from the Public Works department reviewed and evaluated the proposals according to the criteria identified in the RFP.
Staff recommends that the rates from the Community Tree Service LLC (CTS) proposal of $12,741,910 for a maximum five-year term submitted be accepted based on responsiveness to the City’s needs as defined by the evaluation criteria. The proposal from CTS scored highest and thoroughly addressed the needs of the line clearance program.
The proposed contract not-to-exceed amount is greater than the CTS proposal of $12,741,911 for a five-year term due to changes in specific work quantities between the RFP and the proposed contract. The proposed contract work quantities included in the contract are based on recent work by the current line clearing contractor and estimated increases in work scope to accommodate future phases of the Grid Modernization and Fiber to the Premise projects. Staff believes it is possible to meet minimum regulatory compliance and facilitate these infrastructure improvement projects with the proposed budget. Should additional work be needed, staff will return to Council with a contract amendment.
When comparing the Community Tree Service LLC proposed rates with the contract rates from the previous contracted vendor, there is a reduction in the average hourly rate. The average Year Five hourly crew rate for the previous contract was $252.00 per hour, while the CTS proposal’s average hourly crew rate is $240.00 per hour, a reduction of 4.8%.
Staff confirmed with the Contractor’s State License Board that CTS has an active license on file.
CTS has performed satisfactory work for other utilities and agencies on a similar multi-year contract basis.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
Funding for the first year of this contract is available in the Fiscal Year 2026 Electric Fund operating budget. Continued work and funding under this contract for Fiscal Year 2027 through Fiscal Year 2030 will be subject to Council approval of annual budget appropriations.
The contractor’s rates for contract years 2-5 during the term include annual escalation of approximately 3% as shown in the table below.
FY2026 FY2027 FY2028 FY2029 FY2030 5 YR TOTAL
Base Amount $2,828,075 $2,909,419 $2,996,728 $3,086,582 $3,179,196 $15,000,000 Contingency $282,808 $290,942 $299,673 $308,658 $317,920 $1,500,000 Annual
Contract Total
$3,110,883 $3,200,361 $3,296,401 $3,395,239 $3,497,116 $16,500,000
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Stakeholder engagement for this contract consisted of consultations with the Utilities Department on the required scope of work and the City’s procurement process notification to prospective RFP respondents.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The recommended action is exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15301(h) [maintenance of existing landscape].
ATTACHMENTS
None.
APPROVED BY:
Brad Eggleston, Director Public Works/City Engineer