That the City Council:
A. Approve and authorize the City Manager to execute an agreement in the amount of $217,700 with Disability Access Consultants, LLC, for the ADA Accessibility Assessment Survey FY 2023; and,

B. Authorize staff to issue purchase order in an amount not to exceed $250,000 to Disability Access Consultants, LLC.

On July 26, 1990, the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. The ADA is a comprehensive civil rights law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability. It is also a declaration of equality for people with disabilities, including the statement of congressional intent “to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with disabilities.” It broadly protects the rights of individuals with disabilities in employment, access to State and local government services, places of public accommodation, transportation, and other important areas of life. The ADA requires that public agencies operate each service, program, or activity in such a way that when viewed in their entirety, they are accessible to and usable by people with disabilities. In order to comply with this requirement, an analysis of the physical accessibility to facilities, as well as an assessment of City programs, services, and activities is required. 

The City's previous ADA Accessibility Assessment Survey was completed in September 2014, and the language in the Federal statute recommends that agencies perform regular assessments and updates to their transition plans. Accordingly, on January 2023, staff issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to solicit bids from consultants to update the City's ADA Accessibility Assessment Survey. The scope of services listed in the RFP include, but are not limited to, providing a comprehensive evaluation of ADA accessibility compliance and transition plans for City facilities, programs, services, and communications. City programs will mean all City services, activities, employment practices and/or communications addressed by ADA regulations, in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504). The project will involve conducting a self-evaluation and the end product will be a formal Self Evaluation Report and ADA Transition Plan, including estimated costs for addressing the barriers identified.  

On February 16, 2023, three (3) firms responded to the RFP.  An Evaluation Committee consisting of staff from the Public Works Department and Community Development Department evaluated and scored the proposals as follows: 

Staff evaluated and scored the firms based on the following criteria:

1. Qualifications of the Firm - Experience in performing work of a closely similar nature and size; experience working with public agencies, such as, the City of La Habra and/or nearby jurisdictions; demonstrated competence in the services identified in Project Scope of Work; strength, stability, experience and technical competence of subcontractors; assessment by client references.

2. Staffing and Organization - Qualifications of project staff, particularly key personnel, and the Project Manager’s level of involvement in performing related work. Logic of project organization; adequacy of labor commitment; concurrence in the restrictions on changes in key personnel; references from past similar projects. 

3. Overview and Approach - Depth of Consultant’s understanding of the scope of services required by the RFP; City’s objective; overall quality and logic of work plan; appropriateness of labor distribution among the tasks; ability to accomplish services being rendered within the proposed time frames. 

Disability Access Consultants has completed similar projects for the cities of Fullerton, Fountain Valley, and Manhattan Beach and staff found no record of excessive change order requests by the consultant. Staff recommends that the City Council approve and authorize the City Manager to execute an agreement (Attachment 1) with Disability Access Consultants, in the amount of $217,700, to provide ADA Accessibility Assessment Survey for the City of La Habra, and authorize staff to issue a purchase order in an amount not to exceed $250,000, which includes funding for additional evaluation work and analysis that may be deemed necessary as the project is undertaken.

This cost of this agreement, if approved by City Council, is $217,700 and the project is included in the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) with a total available budget of $250,000 from the Gas Tax and General Fund.