10.C.
City Council Draft Agenda
- Meeting Date:
- 02/06/2024
- From:
- Jackson Salazar, Plan Reviewer
TITLE:
Consideration and Approval of Contract: Professional Services Contract with Ardurra Group, Inc. for on-call professional engineering services to provide Water and Sewer Modeling and Development Impact Analysis (WSIA).
STAFF RECOMMENDED ACTION:
- Approve the Professional Services Contract with Ardurra Group, Inc. for WSIA on-call professional engineering services for three (3) years in the total amount of $279,000.
- Authorize the City Manager to execute the necessary documents.
Executive Summary:
This contract will address the needs of water and sewer modeling and impact analysis which are a requirement of larger developments per city code without using current Engineering On-Call contracts. Additionally, the contract will address the need for longer term infrastructure planning and identifying needed system upgrades.
Financial Impact:
This contract is funded through Water Services Engineering Section – Account # 202-08-305-1070-0-4201 with a budget in FY24 of $93,000. This contract will free up a portion of Ardurra’s on-call contract which has a maximum yearly budget of $500,000. WSIA's are billed to the developer so the only realized costs will be to update and maintain, the models and perform additional modeling to identify needed system improvements.
Policy Impact:
No policy impact.
Connection to PBB Priorities/Objectives, Carbon Neutrality Plan & Regional Plan:
Regional Plan
- Goal PF.2. Provide sustainable and equitable public facilities, services, and infrastructure systems in an efficient and effective manner to serve all population areas and demographics.
- Goal WR.3. Satisfy current and future human water demands and the needs of the natural environment through sustainable and renewable water resources and strategic conservation measure.
- Goal WR.4. Logically enhance and extend the City’s public water, wastewater, and reclaimed water services including their treatment, distribution, and collection systems in both urbanized and newly developed areas of the City to provide an efficient delivery of services.
- Goal WR.6. Protect, preserve, and improve the quality of surface water, groundwater, and reclaimed water in the region.
- Goal LU.1. Invest in existing neighborhoods and activity centers for the purpose of developing complete, and connected places.
- Goal CD.1. Improve the City and County financial systems to provide for needed infrastructure development and rehabilitation, including maintenance and enhancement of existing infrastructure.
Has There Been Previous Council Decision on This:
None.
Options and Alternatives:
- Approve the Professional Services Contract Contract in the amount of $279,000, as recommended; or
- Do not approve the Professional Services Contract and continue to procure services through the current Engineering On-Call list. This alternative would continue to burden the on-call contract with Ardurra which is used for various engineering tasks such as the emergency Spruce Wash Flood Control projects and also does not cover the scope of work presented in this staff summary.
Background and History:
During the City’s entitlement process for private development projects, a WSIA is required of developments that hit a threshold as identified by the City of Flagstaff Engineering Design Standards and Specifications for New Infrastructure. Each development is required to submit a request letter with a description of the development as well as a concept plan with enough information to calculate the anticipated water and wastewater demands. The cost of the WSIA is billed to the developer, but the City pays the upfront cost to complete the analysis to a qualified engineering firm. There are about 5-10 WSIAs completed each year.
In addition to the WSIA, the City also manages the water and sewer models at its own cost. The models are utilized to identify needed system improvements and longer term infrastructure planning.
In July 2022, the City of Flagstaff published a new Engineering On-Call list through a competitive and fair solicitation to determine the City's Professional On-Call firms for select disciplines. The request for WSIA services was not requested in the scope of works submitted in the Request for Statement of Qualifications. When that solicitation closed, the firms chosen for the award did not include previous firms who had previously developed the water and wastewater models and had been completing the majority of water and sewer impact analysis for some time. At this time, the City turned to another On-Call Engineering firm, Woodson, to take on the water and sewer impact analysis and associated modeling. Because of the unexpected nature of this change in the on-call contract and the loss of knowledge in the exchange of the previous model, many water and sewer impact analysis were delayed and a new model was created from the 2013 Sewer Master Plan model. Following this change over, Water Services coordinated with the Purchasing Director to solicit Requests Statement of Qualifications for professional engineering services with Statement of Qualifications due by October 13, 2022.There were four responses to this request and on April 4, 2023, Ardurra was chosen as the highest scoring firm in the fair competitive solicitation.
This new contract will allow the chosen firm, Ardurra, to maintain and update the water and sewer models so that they are able to complete water and sewer impact analysis in a timely and accurate manner.
In addition to the WSIA, the City also manages the water and sewer models at its own cost. The models are utilized to identify needed system improvements and longer term infrastructure planning.
In July 2022, the City of Flagstaff published a new Engineering On-Call list through a competitive and fair solicitation to determine the City's Professional On-Call firms for select disciplines. The request for WSIA services was not requested in the scope of works submitted in the Request for Statement of Qualifications. When that solicitation closed, the firms chosen for the award did not include previous firms who had previously developed the water and wastewater models and had been completing the majority of water and sewer impact analysis for some time. At this time, the City turned to another On-Call Engineering firm, Woodson, to take on the water and sewer impact analysis and associated modeling. Because of the unexpected nature of this change in the on-call contract and the loss of knowledge in the exchange of the previous model, many water and sewer impact analysis were delayed and a new model was created from the 2013 Sewer Master Plan model. Following this change over, Water Services coordinated with the Purchasing Director to solicit Requests Statement of Qualifications for professional engineering services with Statement of Qualifications due by October 13, 2022.There were four responses to this request and on April 4, 2023, Ardurra was chosen as the highest scoring firm in the fair competitive solicitation.
This new contract will allow the chosen firm, Ardurra, to maintain and update the water and sewer models so that they are able to complete water and sewer impact analysis in a timely and accurate manner.