TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Philippe Eskandar, City Manager
BY: Nicole Tibbet, Community Engagement Manager
Amber Shah, Parks & Public Works Director/City Engineer DATE: February 28, 2025
SUBJECT: APPROVAL OF A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT
WITH WESTERN AUDIO VISUAL FOR THE INSTALLATION
AND 5 YEAR MAINTENANCE CONTRACT FOR AUDIOVISUAL SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS FOR CITY COUNCIL
CHAMBERS AND INSTALLATION OF CAMERAS FOR
PUBLIC MEETING RECORDING AT THE SAN MARINO
COMMUNITY CENTER IN THE AMOUNT OF $110,139.11
STRATEGIC PLAN CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS
Efficient, Responsive, and Effective City Services
Engaged and Connected Residents
Fiscally Responsible and Transparent City Government
Inviting and Relevant City Facilities
BACKGROUND
The City of San Marino strives to deliver a high level of transparency in operations to the residents it serves. A critical piece to that transparency is the conducting of City Council and Advisory Body meetings in the City Hall Council Chambers. These meetings rely on an operational and dependable Audio-Visual (AV) system to provide the public with audio and visual access to the meeting in-person and provide audio and visual access to people watching recordings of the meetings after they are conducted.
The AV system in Council Chambers has become increasingly unreliable in the past couple of years. Different pieces of it have broken or developed operational problems as the system has aged well beyond its useful limits. In Gretchen Shepherd Romey, Mayor
Tony Chou, Vice Mayor
Hunter Chang, Council Member
John Chou, Council Member
Calvin Lo, Council Member
research, staff has been unable to find records for the purchase of any new additions or maintenance of the system in the past 10 years. Additionally, AV companies are typically unable to service systems they did not install, so staff has been unable to replace any piece of equipment malfunctioning without a full system replacement. As such, the FY 2024-25 budget included a CIP budget request to upgrade the AV system in Council Chambers in order to ensure the continuity of transparent and well-facilitated public meetings. The City Council approved this proposal in the FY 2024-25 Budget.
The San Marino Community Center underwent significant renovations beginning in 2022, and was substantially complete in September 2023. As a result of the renovation, the building has become a great option for community meetings that require a larger meeting space than Council Chambers will allow. Although the building was equipped with excellent sound and projection capabilities, a camera system that would allow for recording of community meetings was not included as part of the original project scope. With the renovation project completed within budget and contingency money remaining, additional improvements that could be made were identified after the building’s grand opening and the community began utilizing the new spaces. In particular, there were two community meetings held in April 2024 for the Mission Street Beautification Project and the Housing Element that would have benefited from the ability of being able to provide remote access to community members and a recording of the meetings available for viewing afterwards. Therefore, staff presented potential uses of the remaining contingency funds to the Council on May 31, 2024, and was directed to use some of the remaining funds to install a camera system in the main multipurpose room (MPR 1) for community use.
In order to facilitate the installation of a system that was using identical equipment, and save money by using the same labor force, the Council Chamber AV improvements and the San Marino Community Center camera installation were placed in a Request for Proposals (RFP) bid opportunity together.
DISCUSSION
Staff utilized the City’s procurement platform, OpenGov, to publish the joint RFP for Council Chambers AV and San Marino Community Center cameras on September 4, 2024. The RFP called for proposals to install 2-3 cameras in MPR 1 at the San Marino Community Center and installation of updated AV equipment to fix the control panel and audio issues that continue occurring in Council Chambers while using as much existing equipment as possible to save the City money on the project.
A pre-proposal conference meeting was held on September 19, 2024, with five (5) companies attending. Of those companies, 3 companies submitted proposals, however, only 2 were considered fully responsive proposals after reviewing the required submitted materials.
Staff interviewed both proposal groups, after reviewing the submitted proposals and reviewing the notes from the interviews, staff concluded that Western AV had the better all-around proposal. The following is a summary of their proposals:
WesternAV EIDIM
Cost for the full
project
(equipment and
installation labor)
$95,579.11 $166,375.41
Warranty and
Maintenance
$2,912 per year
(includes a company
history of no city being
serviced ever having to
miss a meeting due to
AV issues)
$3,327.50
(included lowest level
response time, faster
response time
increased from this
price)
Experience in Similar
Projects
Yes Yes
Staff from Parks & Public Works and City Manager’s Office concurred that due to price, experience, and maintenance scheduling, WesternAV was the overall better submission. The warranty and maintenance is an important component of a new AV system as it will take time to work out any initial issues with set up and the protection of such a large investment is critical to ensure longevity of its use. WesternAV has stated that their warranty includes the ability to try to first repair equipment to full use before recommending full replacement as an extra cost-saving measure in this contract. Staff recommends the Council award and approve the installation and 5-year maintenance contract with WesternAV for audio-visual system improvements for City Council chambers and the installation of cameras for public meeting recording at the San Marino Community Center.
FISCAL IMPACT & PROCUREMENT REVIEW
This project followed the city’s procurement policy through solicitation of proposals through a formal bidding process.
The City Council Chamber AV project was included in the FY 2024-25 CIP budget for up to $150,000 in account #591-11-4613-0565. The proposed project from WesternAV will have a fiscal impact $68,499.41 for installation and the first year of maintenance. Additional years of warranty and service will have a $2,912.00 impact to the IT budget.
The San Marino Community Center project through WesternAV will have a fiscal impact of $29,991.70. This project was approved to come out of the CIP allocation for the full San Marino Community Center budget in account #394- 40-4600-1000.
The combined projects and 5 years of warranty and maintenance has a fiscal impact of $110,139.11.
LEGAL REVIEW
The City Attorney's office has reviewed and approved as to form.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the Council award and approve the installation and 5-year maintenance contract with WesternAV for audio-visual system improvements for City Council chambers and installation of cameras for public meeting recording at the San Marino Community Center. If the Council concurs with staff’s recommendation, an appropriate motion would be:
“I move to approve the Professional Services Agreement with Western Audio Visual for the installation and 5-year maintenance contract for audio-visual improvements for City Council chambers and installation of cameras for public meeting recording at the San Marino Community Center in the amount of $110,139.11.”
ATTACHMENTS
1. Professional Services Agreement with Western Audio Visual
2. Proposal Received from EIDIM Group Inc.