Agenda Item: 7
CITY OF SANTA CLARITA
AGENDA REPORT
CONSENT CALENDAR
CITY MANAGER APPROVAL:
DATE: May 10, 2022
SUBJECT: AWARD OF STREETLIGHT MAINTENANCE SERVICE
CONTRACT
DEPARTMENT: Neighborhood Services
PRESENTER: Kevin Tonoian
RECOMMENDED ACTION
City Council:
1. Award a three-year contract to Taft Electric Company to provide recurring streetlight maintenance services for an annual amount of $120,000 plus an additional $480,000 in contract expenditure authority for as-needed services arising from emergencies and streetlight knockdown replacements, for a total contract amount not to exceed $1,800,000.
2. Authorize the City Manager or designee to execute up to two additional one-year renewal options beginning in year four, for an annual amount not to exceed $600,000, plus an appropriate Consumer Price Index, upon request of the contractor.
3. Authorize the City Manager or designee to execute all contracts and associated documents, subject to City Attorney approval, and contingent upon the appropriation of funds by the City Council during the annual budget for each fiscal year.
BACKGROUND
In 2017, the City Council approved a Purchase and Sale Agreement with Southern California Edison (Edison) to acquire the City of Santa Clarita’s (City) streetlight system. The California Public Utilities Commission approved the City’s purchase of the streetlight system on May 10, 2018.
Ownership of the streetlight system provides numerous benefits, including local control, installation of environmentally friendly and energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures, and the realization of significant operational savings. By acquiring the streetlights and converting
to LED technology, staff forecasts savings in excess of $28 million during the first 30 years of ownership.
Consistent with the City Council’s original commitment to the community, in FY 2020-21 the City began passing along net operational savings realized by purchasing the streetlight system to property owners in the form of reduced assessments. While the maximum streetlight assessment rate for Fiscal Year 2022-23 is schedule to adjust by the annual change in CPI to $93.91, staff will recommend maintaining the current rate at $66.00. The recommended rate is $27.91 (30 percent) less than the maximum rate allowed by state law, and is a direct result of the Council’s decision to purchase the streetlight system from Edison.
For three years following the transfer of ownership of the streetlight system, Tanko Lighting was responsible for managing the organization’s streetlight program and for the coordination of field repairs. Managing the streetlight program included the LED conversion and ongoing maintenance of the City’s streetlight system. The coordination of field repairs included responding to maintenance outages and light shield installation requests, facilitating warranty replacements, and addressing streetlight knockdowns resulting from vehicle collisions.
In lieu of renewing the City’s agreement with Tanko Lighting, a cost-benefit analysis conducted in advance of the Fiscal Year 2021-22 mid-year budget process recommended transitioning the overall management of the streetlight program to in-house staff. The transition to in-house management creates additional operational efficiencies, while also generating annual savings of more than $96,000 by reducing recurring contractual costs. While the management of the streetlight program is now a City function, there is still a need to contract for field repairs in support of the streetlight system.
For the competitive procurement of streetlight maintenance services, staff sought proposals for the ongoing maintenance responsibilities of the City’s streetlight system by circulating Request for Proposals (RFP) LMD-21-22-22. The City transmitted the solicitation to 346 potential vendors, and 17 vendors downloaded the RFP. Upon close of the solicitation, two vendors submitted proposals.
Unlike a bid procurement, where the recommended contract award is based upon the lowest, most responsive bid, this procurement utilizes multiple weighted criteria to evaluate and score proposals. A multiple weighted criteria procurement reinforces performance expectations and works to ensure that vendors dedicate adequate employees to service the contract. The following categories comprise the weighted criteria used to evaluate the proposals:
• Project Understanding and Approach (35%)
• Experience of Team Members (25%)
• Successful Experience with Similar Projects (20%)
• References and Certifications (10%)
• Proposal Amount (10%)
An internal evaluation team completed a review of each responsive proposal, and scored the two proposals as follows:
COMPANY LOCATION SCORE
Taft Electric Company Ventura, CA 93 points
Yunex LLC. Riverside, CA 80 points
The review process determined that the Taft Electric Company (Taft) proposal constitutes the best overall value for providing as-needed streetlight services to the City. In addition to their experience and demonstrated success for managing similar operations for multiple public agencies, the evaluation team noted that Taft possesses extensive working knowledge of the City’s existing streetlight infrastructure, its assets, and performance expectations. Taft maintains an effective working relationship with Edison’s planning staff and field technicians, and possesses a strong understanding of their operational procedures and protocol. Taft has sufficient and qualified staff to meet both the City's scheduled maintenance and emergency response needs, and operates/dispatches staff out of a local satellite facility.
If the contract is awarded, the following are streetlight maintenance services that Taft will provide for the City:
• Respond to all streetlight knockdowns and address immediate public safety hazards. • 24-hour, stand-by personnel to respond to emergency conditions within two hours. • Complete repairs for standard streetlight pole knockdowns within five to seven working days of the City's notice to proceed.
• Respond to non-emergency reports of streetlight outages and complete repairs within five working days.
• Install streetlight shields, repair wiring, replace missing pole box covers, replace missing pole identification tags, and provide as-needed streetlight plan check review and field inspection.
In addition to recurring maintenance services, automobile accidents are responsible for damaging approximately 60 streetlight poles each year. The recommended action approves additional expenditure authority for an amount not to exceed $480,000 annually to respond to and replace pole knockdowns resulting from collisions as they occur.
In approximately 70 percent of such instances, the City recovers the full cost of replacing damaged streetlights from responsible party’s auto insurance provider. As such, a great deal of the annual streetlight replacement expenditures constitute “pass through charges,” which are ultimately recovered by the City through insurance claims.
The recommended contract amount is based on the City's actual loss experience, and is not guaranteed compensation to the contractor. All maintenance and repair work will be assigned by staff on an as-needed basis, with the exception of after-hours emergency situations requiring an immediate response to address public safety concerns.
City staff conducted due diligence reviews of Taft’s professional references, and found their operational record and customer service approach meets the City’s high standards for performance.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION
Other direction as determined by the City Council.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no impact to the General Fund associated with this action. Adequate funds to support recurring streetlight maintenance activities and services to replace streetlight knockdowns have been previously appropriated as part of the annual budget process. Base budget funding to support continued operations in Fiscal Year 2022-2023 and future years will be contingent upon appropriation of funds by the City Council during the annual budget process.
ATTACHMENTS
RFP LMD-21-22-22 (available in the City Clerk's Reading File) Taft Electric Company Proposal (available in the City Clerk's Reading File)