Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF PROPOSED AMENDMENT NO. 1 TO THE AGREEMENT WITH TRANSTECH ENGINEERS, INC. TO PROVIDE BUILDING AND SAFETY SERVICES FOR THE CITY OF CARSON (CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
In July 2023, the City of Carson transitioned from utilizing Los Angeles County to Transtech Engineering, Inc. (Transtech) for building and safety services. Shortly after this transition, the City experienced an increase in building permit activity. This increase caused the cost to provide building and safety services to increase well beyond those anticipated when the City entered into the original agreement with Transtech. The original contract was for $3,900,000 over three (3) years with two, one-year extensions.
This amendment proposes to increase the maximum contract amount from $3,900,000 to $9,0000,000 over the same three-year period. Since the compensation to Transtech is largely based on a percentage of building permit activity (and not necessarily based on consultant hours), this increase is based on increased building permit activity, which volume increased independently of the contract. As a result, Transtech's invoices have been significantly larger than expected, totaling approximately $2,790,000 for the first six (6) months of the contract, leaving approximately $1,110,000 for the remaining two and half years.
Based on the level of permit activity, it appears the natural amount of the contract should be about $3,000,000 per year or $9,000,000 over the three years. Nearly the entire contract for Transtech is paid by developers, residents, and contractors, and their fees are calculated based on the valuation of their projects. Therefore, staff is recommending approval of Amendment No. 1 to allow the building and safety services to continue for the life of the agreement.
It should be additionally noted that staff has received positive feedback from developers and the comm...
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