RFP Analysis Excerpt from July 20, 2026 Staff Report
On April 29, 2026, the City issued Request for Proposal No. 2026-17 (RFP) for Citywide Tree Maintenance and Emergency Response Services to 205 firms via PlanetBids. Thirty-six firms downloaded the RFP and eight bids were submitted. Following a review by the Purchasing Division for compliance with the solicitation requirements, two proposals were determined to be non-responsive and were not eligible for further evaluation. One submission consisted of a letter from a vendor indicating it would not be submitting a proposal, and the other did not follow the proposal content requirements identified in the RFP.
The six responsive proposals were evaluated by an evaluation committee comprised of City staff with expertise in urban forestry and public works operations. Proposals were evaluated in accordance with the criteria established in the RFP, including project approach, qualifications, and experience, with a maximum possible score of 240. Individual evaluator scores were submitted to the Purchasing Division, which compiled the results to determine the final ranking. Pricing proposals were not released to the evaluation committee until after the technical evaluations and scoring had been completed, consistent with the City’s RFP evaluation process.
After a comprehensive evaluation, Mariposa was determined to be the most qualified and responsible bidder. Reference checks have been completed with positive feedback received from other cities who contract with Mariposa for tree maintenance services.
As indicated in the RFP, the City’s award of contract recommendation is based on overall qualifications of the bidder. The pricing component is evaluated for relevance and reasonableness, but it is only one criterion of several evaluated. As a specialized maintenance service, the City Council is not obligated to award the contract to the lowest-priced bidder as it is with a public works contract. The criteria set forth in the RFP then acts as the evaluation guide to determine which proposal is the best for the City based on its stated objectives and needs. Although cost was included as an evaluation criterion, the bid was conducted as a qualifications-based RFP, where award is based on the proposal that provides the best overall value to the City rather than the lowest price. For this reason, the original staff report on July 6, 2026, emphasized the evaluation results and recommendation instead of comparing proposal pricing.
Direct comparison of total contract pricing is also limited because the agreement consists of two pricing components: (1) a geographic grid maintenance program with a known base cost, and (2) unit prices for on-call and as-needed services, including emergency response, hazardous tree removals, out-of-cycle pruning, stump grinding, tree planting, watering, and maintenance needs. These unit costs are dependent on service needs that arise throughout the year and may fluctuate significantly based on existing tree conditions, historical maintenance practices, weather-related events, storm severity, and other unforeseen circumstances.
The City maintains its trees using a grid trim program for tree maintenance, in which geographic areas are serviced on a recurring schedule based on established trim cycles. As crews complete one area, they move to the next until the entire city has been serviced, and then the cycle begins again. Under the current cycle, street trees and palms are trimmed every five years, while Chinese Elms are trimmed every two years, City park trees are trimmed every three years, and Phillips Ranch and VPD trees are trimmed as-needed only, prioritizing emergency response.
Because tree maintenance costs have increased over time, the RFP established a recommended Level A Service standard that prioritizes public safety and long-term tree health. Under this standard, street trees would continue to be trimmed every five years, park trees every three years, Chinese Elms and palm every two years, VPD trees every three years, and Phillips Ranch trees every ten years.
Compared with the standard set in the RFP, the City’s current maintenance schedule aligns with the proposed Level A Service only for street trees, Chinese Elms, and City park trees.
The RFP also defined a Level B Service standard consisting of a five-year cycle for street trees, four-year cycle for City park trees, two-year cycle for Chinese Elms, three-year cycle for palms, fifteen-year cycle for Phillips Ranch trees, and five-year cycle for VPD trees. Even under the less frequent Level B Service standard, the City’s current maintenance schedule for palms, Phillips Ranch trees, and VPD trees remains below the proposed service levels in the new agreement. The primary difference between the two options is the frequency of the grid trimming cycle, allowing the City to select a service level that best aligns with available funding while still maintaining a structured, citywide tree maintenance program.
The most significant enhancement included in the new RFP is the redefinition of the City’s standard grid cycle tree maintenance. For the first time, the City’s standard level of service is clearly defined as a Full Trim, rather than the limited maintenance provided under previous contracts. A Full Trim includes structural pruning, removal of deadwood, crown cleaning, and crown raising to provide appropriate pedestrian and vehicle clearance. By comparison, prior contracts primarily focused on minimum clearance pruning and the removal of hazardous or dead branches.
This enhanced maintenance standard directly responds to years of feedback from the City Council, residents, and Staff regarding the condition of the City’s urban forest and the need for more comprehensive tree care. Implementing a true Full Trim as the City’s standard maintenance practice is expected to improve overall tree health and structural integrity, reduce the likelihood of branch failures over time, enhance public safety, and create a healthier and more attractive urban forest.
The RFP also acknowledges that many City trees have not received comprehensive structural pruning in decades. As a result, the specifications allow contractors to remove up to 40 percent of a tree’s canopy during the initial maintenance cycle, when necessary, to correct deferred maintenance and restore proper tree structure. Subsequent maintenance cycles are expected to require less intensive pruning as the City’s tree inventory returns to a routine maintenance schedule.
In addition to improvements in tree maintenance, the RFP substantially enhances the City’s palm maintenance program by reducing the trimming cycle from every five years to every two years and establishing clear maintenance standards, including palm skinning where appropriate. These changes are expected to improve the overall appearance of the City’s palm inventory while reducing long-term maintenance needs and providing a more consistent level of service throughout the community.
The proposals were evaluated independently by three-person selection committee. As with all subjective evaluation processes, there are different ranges in scores based on the proposal submissions and the individual evaluator on the evaluation committee. The evaluators are selected based on their experience, professional judgment and impartiality. The evaluation committee members were provided with the RFP, evaluation criteria, and individual access to the evaluation portal via Planet Bids. These best practices procedures resulted in the recommended action.
While the RFP established a citywide grid-based maintenance program for all City trees, including those in the Phillips Ranch Assessment District and Vehicle Parking District, which currently are trimmed on an as-needed basis, Mariposa’s proposal most closely aligned with the Level A service standards defined by the City Arborist. Mariposa took no exceptions to the maintenance standards set in the RFP for a standard grid trim. By comparison, WCA defined a pruning methodology based on removing no more than 25 percent of live foliage, which differed from the City’s prescribed maintenance standards. For the past 26 years, the City’s trees have been maintained under a grid trim defined only as raising canopy for clearance and removing severely poorly structured or dead branches. With the increased level of tree maintenance defined in the current RFP, and accepted by all proposals received, except for WCA, Staff defined a full trim as up to 40% of live foliage removed to increase the standard of care for tree maintenance to be in line with Council and community aesthetic and safety goals.
The RFP included an important scope of work item related to the ten-year grid cycle tree maintenance within the Phillips Ranch Assessment District, which is currently maintained on an as-needed basis with priority given to emergency situations and safety concerns. The RFP established a ten-year grid-cycle maintenance standard for Phillips Ranch and recognized the need for a more proactive approach to address deferred maintenance, fire mitigation, and overall tree health. The Phillips Ranch Assessment District provides approximately $110,000 annually in dedicated funding for tree maintenance. Essentially, the funding available provides for 1,156 trees per year to be trimmed. The Phillips Ranch Assessment District represents approximately one-third of the City’s urban forest and includes a significant concentration of trees that require a proactive, long-term maintenance strategy to address tree health, public safety, and wildfire risk mitigation.
Mariposa was the only potential contractor to acknowledge and affirm the City’s request for a specialized plan for Phillips Ranch trees, given this extended cycle. As part of its proposal, Mariposa committed to developing a full work plan identifying the boundaries of the ten-year grid zones within 30 days of contract execution and prioritizing fuel modification areas when identifying the annual trees to be trimmed. This approach, outlined in Mariposa’s response, indicated the recommended Contractor has a clear understanding of City’s project needs and supports the City’s objective of proactively trimming trees and reducing wildfire risk within the Phillips Ranch Assessment District. Upon contract execution, Staff will review the work plan with Mariposa and coordinate implementation of the approved Phillips Ranch tree maintenance strategy.
Due to differences in the definition of trimming in the proposals received and the thoroughness of the proposal from Mariposa, independent Staff evaluations scored Mariposa higher on the criteria for project approach, resulting in Mariposa being deemed the finalist.
The new agreement also implements the City’s expanded maintenance program as established in the RFP and requires the contractor to complete a full inventory of the City’s trees. A full trim for all City trees has been defined by the RFP to meet ISA standards. Palm trimming will increase from a five-year grid trim cycle to a two-year grid trim cycle (approximately 2,057 palms North of Mission for Year One and approximately 2,057 palms South of Mission for Year Two, repeating every two years), and Chinese Elm trimming will remain on a two-year grid trim cycle. In addition, trees within the Phillips Ranch Assessment District and the Vehicle Parking District will transition from an as-needed maintenance approach to a proactive grid trim based maintenance program.
Attachment No. 6