City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: October 28, 2025
Agenda Item: 4.D
1 of 4
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Rick Valte, Public Works Director, Public Works, Water Resources Subject: Approval of First Modification to Agreement #11255 with MentorAPM, LLC for Asset Collection and Management Services
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt a finding of categorical exemption pursuant to Section 15061 (b)(3) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines; and
2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a first modification to agreement #11255 (CCS) in the amount of $250,000 with MentorAPM, LLC for asset collection and management services for the Public Works Department.
This will result in a five-year amended agreement with a new total amount not to exceed $1,013,000, with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval.
Summary
The City of Santa Monica’s Public Works Department - Water Resources Division (WRD) provides high-quality drinking water and wastewater collection services to over 93,000 residents and 2,700 commercial and institutional customers (e.g., schools) In April 2022, the City Council approved an agreement with MentorAPM, LLC to implement an enterprise asset management system for tracking water and wastewater assets and scheduling maintenance. Since then, MentorAPM has developed MentorLENS, a companion tool that enhances field data collection and condition assessment capabilities. This tool provides considerable savings to traditional asset data collection and assessment methods. Staff recommends amending the agreement to increase the contract by $250,000, for a revised not-to-exceed amount of $1,013,000. The 2 of 4
amendment includes a two-year subscription to the companion tool and asset data collection services.
Discussion
On April 12, 2022, the City Council authorized a five-year agreement with MentorAPM, LLC to implement an enterprise asset management system (EAMS) to support the tracking, maintenance, and lifecycle management of the City’s water and wastewater infrastructure. Since then, the Water Resources Division (WRD) has successfully deployed the MentorAPM platform and now uses it to generate work orders and manage asset data for both the water distribution and wastewater systems.
In May 2025, the Public Works Department completed a major upgrade and expansion of the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant and added the new Olympic Advanced Water Treatment Facility. The project included construction of a new advanced water treatment facility and upgrades to existing equipment, significantly increasing the plant’s overall treatment capacity. The City also completed the Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project (SWIP) in 2022. These improvements and new additions to the City’s water/wastewater infrastructure have introduced a large inventory of new and upgraded assets that must be incorporated into the City’s asset management system for effective long-term management and maintenance.
Historically, collecting and entering asset data in the field has been time-consuming and prone to human error. To address these challenges, MentorAPM developed MentorLENS, a proprietary companion software tool that enables more efficient and accurate field data collection to enhance asset management capabilities. MentorLENS uses advanced technology to extract nameplate information from equipment and perform routine condition assessments using a thermal imaging camera. The software is fully integrated with the MentorAPM system, allowing automatic synchronization of collected asset data. WRD staff attended two on-site demonstrations of MentorLENS at the Arcadia Plant and confirmed its functionality and compatibility with existing operating and treatment systems. Existing operation staff could use the MentorLENS tool to 3 of 4
conduct routine condition assessments more frequently and independently rather than relying on outside consultants to perform such work and manually enter data. The proposed services also include incorporating existing assets with MentorLENS.
To support the integration of the City’s water and wastewater assets and improve the accuracy and efficiency of data collection, staff recommends that the City Council approve an amendment to the existing agreement with MentorAPM. This amendment would provide a two-year subscription to MentorLENS (approximately $25,000 per year) and include field services for two MentorAPM staff (for approximately 15 weeks and not to exceed $181,000 in total) to complete initial setup of asset data collection and establish baseline for condition assessments for MentorLENS. As the MentorLENS software tool is proprietary to MentorAPM, only MentorAPM staff is trained to provide field services to setup up asset data collection for existing assets. Having MentorAPM lead this initial effort will also serve as hands-on training for WRD staff. To ensure the proposed scope of services provided is cost competitive, staff compared MentorAPM’s billing rates to other consulting firms and previous level of effort for setting up new assets in the asset registry. The proposed amendment would increase the contract amount by $250,000 (including roughly 10% contingency), for a revised not-to-exceed total of $1,013,000.
Environmental Review
The first modification to agreement 11255 (CCS) is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption) of the CEQA Guidelines, which states that CEQA does not apply “where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment.” This agreement would provide asset data collection service that is administrative in nature. Therefore, it can be seen with certainty that the order would not result in adverse physical impacts on the environment, and as such, exempt from CEQA.
4 of 4
Past Council Actions
Meeting Date Description
04/12/22 (attachment A) Original bid and aware of agreement with MentorAPM, LLC for an enterprise asset management system
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve available funding from the Water and Wastewater Funds to increase the amount of agreement #11255 with MentorAPM, LLC for a twoyear subscription to MentorLENS and asset collection and condition assessment services.
Agreement Modification Request
Agreement
#
Current
Authorized
Amount
FY 2025-26
Amount Dept Account # Future Year Amount
Total
Revised
Contract
Amount
11255
(CCS) $381,500 $110,000 C5008590.689000 $15,000 $506,500 $381,500 $110,000 C5108590.689000 $15,000 $506,500
Total: $763,000 $220,000 $30,000 $1,013,000
Future year funding is contingent on Council budget approval.
Prepared By: Sunny Wang, Water Resources Manager
Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. April 12, 2022 Staff Report (Web Link)
B. FY 25-26 Oaks Initiative (MentorAPM)
C. FY 25-26 Levine Act (MentorAPM)