City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: April 28, 2020
Agenda Item: 3.D
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Susan Cline, Director, Public Works, Engineering and Street Services Subject: Award of Contractual Services Agreement to Apex Companies for Maintenance & Inspection of Stormwater Best Management Practices Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Award RFP# SP2622 to Apex Companies, LLC, a California-based company, to provide inspection and maintenance services for the City’s stormwater infrastructure;
2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with Apex Companies, LLC, in an amount not to exceed $977,733 (including a 15% contingency) for three years, with one renewal option of up to two years;
3. Authorize the Director of Public Works to issue any necessary change orders or modifications to complete additional work within contract authority; and
4. Authorize budget changes as outlined in the Financial Impacts & Budget Actions section of this report.
Summary
The maintenance of the City’s stormwater infrastructure is essential to protecting the public right of way and private property from urban flooding. Maintaining stormwater infrastructure reduces the probability of flooding impacts to motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists. Further, the City of Santa Monica is a recognized leader in reducing urban runoff pollution and owns, operates, and maintains over 700 different structural stormwater best management practices (BMPs) including multiple bio retention basins, permeable pavers, permeable pavement, 644 catch basin inserts, multiple drywell infiltration systems, and 10 hydrodynamic separators. The City also recently completed two stormwater reuse plants that require an operator to regularly check the systems and respond to emergency calls. City staff maintains the current infrastructure; however, the recent addition of over 600 catch basin inserts (trash collection devices) and the completion of two stormwater reuse plants have increased the maintenance requirements beyond staff’s capacity. Additionally, the consultant’s scope will include
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technical inspections and condition assessment reports of the stormwater infrastructure, which are important to the long-term planning of capital upgrades. Staff recommends Apex Companies, LLC (Apex) to provide inspection and maintenance services in an amount not to exceed $977,733 (including a 15% contingency) for an initial three-year period with one renewal option of two years. Staff have worked with Finance to ensure funds are available within the Clean Beaches & Ocean Parcel Tax Fund and the Public Works budget to support this request.
Discussion
The City complies with the requirements of the Clean Water Act, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), and the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit by installing stormwater infrastructure to reduce pollutant levels entering the Santa Monica Bay. The infrastructure, commonly referred to as structural Best Management Practices (BMPs) by regulators and the stormwater industry, comes in different forms. BMPs installed in the City include bio retention basins, permeable pavers, permeable pavement, catch basin inserts, infiltration systems, and mechanical separators. The Los Amigos Park Project installed a small-scale stormwater treatment plant that reuses treated stormwater for irrigation and toilet flushing. The Marine Park Project installed a holding tank and a pump to provide treated stormwater for irrigation at Marine Park. Both projects are important BMPs in helping the City achieve water selfsufficiency and compliance with regulatory permits and require periodic visits from a trained operator to ensure proper operations.
The BMPs range in age from approximately two to fifteen years old. City staff maintains the infrastructure by cleaning out catch basins (those without inserts) and mechanical separators, and by operating the vacuum function of a street sweeper over permeable pavements. And while staff cleans the BMPs in preparation of rain events and after rain events, the current maintenance work does not include cleaning the 644 catch basin inserts, maintaining and operating Marine Park and Los Amigos Park reuse plants, or inspection and reporting. Apex would provide in-depth technical condition assessment inspections and reports and would perform maintenance activities for the recently added BMPs, including: quarterly cleaning of 644 catch basin trash collection inserts; biweekly operations, maintenance, and water quality sampling at Los Amigos Park; and biweekly
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operations and maintenance at Marine Park. The full scope of work includes inspection and/or maintenance activities at 45 sites and the 644 catch basins mentioned above.
Vendor Selection
Bidder Recommendation
Best Qualified Firm Apex Companies, LLC
Evaluation Criteria Price; the ability, capacity and skill of the firm to perform the services; the capacity of the firm to perform both the technical inspections and the maintenance activities; the reputation and experience of the firm with stormwater infrastructure.
Municipal Code SMMC 2.24.190
Bid Data
Date
Posted Posted On
Advertise In
(City Charter & SMMC)
Vendors
Downloaded
Date Publicly
Opened
6/14/2019 City's Online
Bidding Site
Santa Monica Daily
Press
62 10/04/2019
Best Bidder Justification
Staff recommends Apex Companies, LLC, as the best qualified firm based on bid price, demonstrated quality of work in the stormwater infrastructure field with the San Diego Unified Port District, the US Navy, and private sector clients including Wal-Mart and Tesla. City staff compared the hourly rates proposed by Apex to other current contractual service agreements in the City for operations and maintenance. Staff concluded that the hourly rates within the proposal are consistent with contractual services in the area.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve funding from the Clean Beaches and Ocean Parcel Tax Fund to award a contract with Apex Companies, LLC for the Inspections, Operations, and Maintenance of Structural Stormwater BMPs.
Contract Request
Request Amount
FY 2019-20 Budget
Expenditure Account #
Total Contract
Amount
$312,327 16500003.529070 $936,981
$13,584 16500003.550010 $40,752
Total $977,733
Submittals Received
Apex Companies, LLC $283,401
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Award of the contract requires the following budget changes:
FY 2019-20 Budget Changes
Appropriate Funds
Account Number(s) Amount
16500003.529070 $239,416
16500003.550010 $13,584
Total $253,000
Future year funding is contingent on Council budget approval.
Prepared By: Curtis Castle, Principal Civil Engineer
Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Apex Oaks
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