Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, September 04, 2018
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF AN AGREEMENT WITH WILLDAN ENGINEERING, INC. FOR DOCUMENT SCANNING AND ARCHIVING SERVICES (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
On February 21, 2017, the City adopted Ordinance No. 17-1612, which amends the Carson Municipal Code Article VIII, Section 8111, by increasing the City building fees to recover the costs associated with digitizing and maintaining building permit related documents and records. To date, the City has collected approximately $460,000 from this fee increase to pay towards this one-year contract. Additional fees will be collected to pay for the balance of contract. The first step in the process to digitize all said documents will be to scan the paper building permits that have accumulated since the City’s inception. Staff has identified a qualified vendor to provide those unique and specific services, Willdan Engineering, Inc. Staff recommends approval of the proposed agreement with Willdan Engineering, Inc. to provide electronic document scanning and archiving services to the City of Carson (Exhibit No. 1).
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
TAKE the following actions:
1. APPROVE the one-year agreement with Willdan Engineering, Inc. for document scanning and archiving services in the amount of $635,000.
2. WAIVE further reading and ADOPT Resolution No. 18-127 to transfer $580,000 of General Fund money to the restricted building plan retention fund, and appropriate a total of $635,000.
3. AUTHORIZE the Mayor to execute the agreement, following approval as to form by the City Attorney.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
TAKE any other action that the City Council deems appropriate that is consistent with the requirements of law.
IV. BACKGROUND
The City of Carson has been keeping a number of different types of records since its inception in 1968, almost exclusively on paper. As paper records continue to multiply, it has created a hardship in terms of storage as the growing number of records overrun closets, shelves and offices. One of the types of records kept by the City is building permits and the related documents and records. The accumulation of these permit-related documents has grown to the point where the storage of these documents is impacting and an already tight office space in City Hall.
A modern solution to this growing paper storage issue has been the digitizing of records, which allows for the electronic storage of records and much more efficient access to those records when needed. To that end, the City adopted Ordinance No. 17-1612 on February 21, 2017, which amends the Carson Municipal Code Article VIII, Section 8111, by increasing the City’s building fees to recover the costs associated with digitizing and maintaining building permit related documents and records. It is anticipated that, by reducing the number of paper documents by digitizing them, staff can regain lost office space and repurpose current storage space to more efficient use, as well as gaining efficiencies in accessing of these records.
In January 2018, staff conducted a Request for Proposals (RFP) to identify qualified vendors that provide document scanning and archiving services. Six vendors responded (Exhibit No. 2). Of the vendors that responded, one vendor appeared to have the clear combination of extensive experience and capability that was required for this service, Willdan Engineering, Inc. (Willdan). Willdan has been a consistent industry leader for more than 53 years, providing all aspects of municipal and infrastructure engineering, including building and safety, permit issuance and public works, in addition to document control and scanning services. Their staff has experience that includes working directly with the County of Los Angeles, Building and Safety Division, providing exactly the same services sought by the City. Based on the experience and expertise that Willdan can provide to the City for the requested services, staff recommends approval of the proposed agreement with Willdan Engineering, Inc.
V. FISCAL IMPACT
If approved, this contract will require funding of $635,000. There are two sources of revenue to fund the expenditure. As discussed above, the General Fund has collected approximately $460,000 in building permit revenue since April 22, 2017, which has become part of the General Fund balance. The City also collects another $10,000 per year from restricted building plan retention fees. There is an accumulated fund balance of approximately $55,000 in this restricted fund. Staff recommends transferring $580,000 from the General Fund to the restricted fund, and appropriating another $55,000 from the accumulated fund balance to pay for the contract. The revised estimate of the restricted fund balance at June 30, 2019 will be zero. The difference in cost to the General Fund of $120,000 can be replenished through the future payment of these fees.
The current estimate of the General Fund balance at June 30, 2019 is $17,414,249. If the proposed resolution is adopted, that estimate will be reduced to $16,834,249.
VI. EXHIBITS
1. Draft agreement with Willdan Engineering, Inc. (pgs. 4-31)
2. List of responding vendors. (pg. 32)
3. Resolution No. 18-127, A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF CARSON CITY COUNCIL AMENDING THE FISCAL YEAR 2018-19 BUDGET IN THE GENERAL FUND AND BUILDING PLAN RETENTION FUND (pgs. 33-34)
Prepared by: Brent Gesch, Principal Administrative Analyst