That the City Council:
A.  Waive formal bidding requirements per the La Habra Municipal Code Section 4.20.070 (C), and utilize the cooperative purchase provision of a competitively bid contract awarded by the City of South El Monte with West Coast Arborists for tree maintenance services;

B.  Approve and authorize the City Manager to execute a three-year agreement between the City of La Habra and West Coast Arborists (WCA) in the amount of $1,243,704 for tree maintenance services, as well as annual purchase orders in the amount of $414,568 per year; and,

C.  Authorize the City Manager to execute two optional one-year extensions, upon mutual agreement of the two parties.

The City's tree maintenance services are currently provided by West Coast Arborists (WCA). Their work consists of maintaining the City’s street and park trees on a fiscal year basis. Since 1999, WCA has provided the City with high quality, reliable tree maintenance services and utilize technology such as the ArborAccess software, to help keep track of La Habra’s urban forest. WCA has consistently provided competitive pricing for their services and have met the City's performance and insurance requirements. WCA also has a past practice of providing volunteers and resources for City special events which have contributed to the City’s beautification efforts.

The current tree maintenance agreement with WCA ended on June 30, 2024, and services have been provided since then on a month-to-month basis. During Fiscal Year 2023-2024 staff began discussions with WCA regarding the renewal of their contract. Staff reviewed a recent contract award by the City of South El Monte to WCA based on a competitive bid process the City of South El Monte conducted less than a year ago. Grid trimming is the service most used by the City of La Habra in its contract with WCA and comprises the most significant annual expense for maintaining the City’s urban forest. To ensure the pricing secured by the South El Monte bid process was competitive, staff surveyed tree trimming maintenance costs from 15 cities in the region and found that they ranged from $41 to $134 per tree, with an average per tree cost of $76.52. The City of La Habra's current grid trim price is $53.70 and, based on negotiation with WCA, will increase to $64 with this new agreement, if approved by Council. The new $64 price matches the pricing provided by WCA to South El Monte as part of that competitive bid process and places La Habra’s per tree trimming cost at fourth lowest in the range of cities that were surveyed.
 
The term of the proposed agreement, if approved, would be from October 1, 2024 through June 30, 2027, and will include two optional one-year extensions subject to mutual agreement of both parties. Staff recommends that the City, pursuant to La Habra Municipal Code Section 4.20.070 (C), utilize the pricing secured by a competitive bid process undertaken by the City of South El Monte for tree trimming services, and authorize the City Manager to enter into an agreement with WCA for tree maintenance services. Staff also recommends that the City Manager be authorized to issue an annual purchase order for each year of the agreement, and that the City Manager be authorized to execute the two optional extension years, subject to mutual agreement by the two parties at that time.

The cost of the initial three-year agreement is $1,243,704, or $414,568 per fiscal year. There is adequate funding available in the fiscal year 2024-25 Refuse Operations and Parks Maintenance Budgets to fund the first year of the proposed agreement. The adopted FY 2024-25 Refuse Budget allocates $258,668 in funding for street tree maintenance and the Parks maintenance budget allocates $155,900 in funding for parks tree maintenance, which will cover the first year cost of the agreement in the amount of $414,568.