Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER AWARDING SEVEN CONTRACTS TO PROVIDE AS-NEEDED, ON-CALL ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING SERVICES FOR BROWNFIELDS SITE ASSESSMENTS & GRANT IMPLEMENTATION ACTIVITIES (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
The City has been awarded three (3) Equitable Community Revitalization Grant (ECRG) Round 2 funding for a total amount of $875,000 from the State of California Environmental Protection Agency’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), and one (1) Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Program from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The City is awaiting results from one additional ECRG grant application and intends on applying to more brownfield funding in the future.
Request for Qualifications (RFQ) was issued on March 14, 2024, to seek qualified firms to provide on-call environmental services to implement the awarded grants (and any future grants). Seven proposals were received by the RFQ deadline RFQ deadline of April 24, 2024. A selection committee reviewed the proposals and evaluated each firm on the criteria set forth in the RFQ. All seven firms are determined to be well qualified by the committee and are all recommended to provide services for brownfield site assessment and other grant implementation activities.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
TAKE the following actions:
1. AWARD and APPROVE the on-call Contract Services Agreement to EnSafe Inc. for a not-to-exceed sum of $750,000 for a five-year term, following approval as to form by the City Attorney;
2. AWARD and APPROVE the on-call Contract Services Agreement to Stearns, Conrad & Schmidt Consulting Engineers, Inc. (dba SCS) for a not-to-exceed sum of $750,000 for a five-year term, following approval as to form by the City Attorney;
3. AWARD and APPROVE the on-call Contract Services Agreement to Terracon Consultants, Inc. for a not-to-exceed sum of $750,000 for a five-year term, following approval as to form by the City Attorney;
4. AWARD and APPROVE the on-call Contract Services Agreement to Dudek for a not-to-exceed sum of $750,000 for a five-year term, following approval as to form by the City Attorney;
5. AWARD and APPROVE the on-call Contract Services Agreement to Montrose Environmental Solutions, Inc. for a not-to-exceed sum of $750,000 for a five-year term, following approval as to form by the City Attorney;
6. AWARD and APPROVE the on-call Contract Services Agreement to Ninyo & Moore for a not-to-exceed sum of $750,000 for a five-year term, following approval as to form by the City Attorney; AND
7. AWARD and APPROVE the on-call Contract Services Agreement to Catalyst Environmental Solutions for a not-to-exceed sum of $750,000 for a five-year term, following approval as to form by the City Attorney.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
TAKE another action the City Council deems appropriate.
IV. BACKGROUND
Carson is developing a brownfields program and have received five (5) grants within the past two years. Staff intends on applying to more grants in the future to address remediation city-wide long-term. Retaining the seven qualified firms enables the City to move quickly on grant projects for brownfield site assessment without the delays caused by having to process separate RFPs/RFQs for each individual project. This will ensure services can be provided timely to meet grant deadlines and to obtain fair and competitive pricing. Maintaining diverse suppliers is also a commitment under the ECRG program and will likely look favorably to DTSC in future competitive grant applications.
The on-call consultants may also assist the City with other non-grant funded activities such as lead-based paint and asbestos inspection and remediation for the City’s Commercial Façade Improvement Program. This scope was included in the solicited RFQ.
The Scope
The general scope for the on-call consultants includes, but are not limited to the following tasks:
o Brownfield Planning and Inventory
o Community Outreach, Public Education, and Reuse Visioning
o Performing Environmental Assessments on properties city-wide.
o Perform Environmental Investigation or Cleanup on properties city-wide.
o Assistance with Grant Writing, Management and Reporting.
o Inspection, testing for, and abatement of lead-based paint (LBP) and asbestos for properties for the façade improvement program.
o Other related as-needed on-call environmental consulting services desired by the City.
Once retained, detailed task orders will be issued by the City’s contract officer to on-call firms specifying in greater detail the exact services needed by the City. On-call firms will bid amongst each other if they desire to provide service under each task order. The on-call agreements do not guarantee that the any Consultant will be selected to perform services, and only the most qualified consultant will then be selected to carry out the task.
The Selection Process
On March 14, 2024, the City issued RFQ No. 24-001Q (Exhibit No. 1) seeking qualified consulting firms to provide on-call environmental consultant services for brownfield site assessments and grant implementation activities. The RFQ was advertised on the Planet Bids website through the Purchasing Division of the Finance Department. On May 23, 2024, the City received seven proposals from the following firms:
1. EnSafe Inc.
2. Stearns, Conrad & Schmidt Consulting Engineers, Inc. (dba SCS)
3. Terracon Consultants, Inc.
4. Dudek
5. Montrose Environmental Solutions
6. Ninyo & Moore
7. Catalyst Environmental Solutions
The proposals of each firm were reviewed and evaluated based on the criteria set forth in the RFQ by the selection committee. The selection committee comprised of staff in the Community Development Department and includes the Special Projects Manager, Economic Development Manager, and Assistant Planner (“Selection Committee”). The rating worksheet reflecting the Selection Committee’s evaluation form is attached (Exhibit No. 2). In summary, the qualification-based selection process included the following eight (8) criteria: 1) Understanding of scope of services; 2) Demonstrated professional skills and credential; 3) Related Experience; 4) Quality of Submission; 5) Approach to Performing Services; 6) Familiarity with local, state and federal procedures; 7) Diverse Supplier and 8) References / Satisfaction of Previous Clients.
After an extensive review, all seven (7) firms are recommended by the Selection Committee as qualified firms based on the criteria of the RFQ. The final qualification rankings and scores are summarized as follows:
1. EnSafe Inc. - 95.00
2. Stearns, Conrad & Schmidt Consulting Engineers, Inc. (dba SCS) - 93.67
3. Terracon Consultants, Inc. - 92.67
4. Dudek - 91.00
5. Montrose Environmental Solutions - 89.33
6. Ninyo & Moore - 87.00
7. Catalyst Environmental Solutions - 78.00
All seven (7) on-call contracts are included under Exhibit Nos. 3 to 9. The contracts read nearly identical except for slight variations in contract modification language as requested by each firm during the RFQ process.
V. FISCAL IMPACT
All seven (7) on-call contracts require firms’ on-call availability but do not guarantee that the firm will provide service to the City. It may be possible that certain on-call consultants do not receive work in the five-year term, and in those instances, there would be no fiscal impacts to the City associated with that specific contract.
Therefore, the fiscal impact at this time is only limited to project task orders issued by the City in connection to awarded grants or funded programs. These awarded grants and funded programs currently include:
• Three grants from ECRG totaling $875,000, of which $800,000 is budgeted under Account No. 206‐70‐500‐100‐6004 (Professional Services).
• The federal MAC grant of $500,000, which will be addressed at a future meeting once a grant agreement is finalized with US EPA.
• A small component of the contract(s) may be used to fund the lead-based paint and asbestos inspection and remediation tasks for the Commercial Façade Improvement program from the General Fund Account No. 101-70-701-100-6004 (Community Development/Professional Services).
Future awarded grants may also be used to fund these on-call contracts over the next five years. Other funding sources such as developer deposits may be used as appropriate.
VI. EXHIBITS
1. RFQ No. 24-001Q (pgs. 6-20)
2. RFQ No. 24-001Q Rating Sheet (pg. 21)
3. Contract Services Agreement (EnSafe Inc.) (pgs. 22-55)
4. Contract Services Agreement (SCS) (pgs. 56-90)
5. Contract Services Agreement (Terracon Consultants, Inc.) (pgs. 91-126)
6. Contract Services Agreement (Dudek) (pgs. 127-163)
7. Contract Services Agreement (Montrose Environmental Solutions) (pgs. 164-199)
8. Contract Services Agreement (Ninyo & Moore) (pgs. 200-234)
9. Contract Services Agreement (Catalyst Environmental Solutions)(pgs. 235-268)
Prepared by: James Nguyen, Special Projects Manager / Saied Naaseh, Director of Community Development