That the City Council:
A.  Approve the Project Specifications for the Alley Improvement Project, Alleys No. 1 and No. 83, City Project No. 3-R-21;

B.  Award a construction contract for the Alley Improvement Project, Alleys No. 1 and No. 83, City Project No. 3-R-21 to F.S. Contractors, Inc., of Sylmar, California, in the amount of $139,700 and reject all other bids; and,

C.  Authorize the City Manager to execute an Agreement with F.S. Contractors, Inc., and authorize staff to issue a purchase order to F.S. Contractors, Inc., in the amount of $167,640, which includes a 20 percent contingency.

As part of the City's multi-year Alley Improvement Project, the construction contract to improve Alleys No. 1 and No. 83, City Project No. 3-R-21 ("Project") is being proposed for approval. Alley 1 is located north of Gregory Lane between Beach Boulevard and Ridgeway Lane. Alley 83 is located north of Gregory Lane between Alley 1 and Ridgeway Lane.

The Project consists of pavement cold milling; proof rolling and compacting existing base; asphalt concrete (AC) dig out repairs, new pavement resurfacing; resetting a steel pipe bollard; resetting survey markers; replacing manhole frame and cover to grade; in addition, the preparation and implementation of storm water "best management practices"; re-construction of an existing concrete longitudinal v-gutter, alley and driveway approaches, sidewalks, curbs and gutters; removal of a tree; and other incidental work as identified on the Project's Specifications. 

On January 17, 2024, the City received six (6) bids with the following results:
 

 
Staff reviewed all the bids received and found three bids to be non-responsive, as indicated in the table above. The bids for Terra Pave, Inc., Hardy & Harper, Inc., and Sequel Contractors, Inc., were deemed non-responsive for failing to submit all the required Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) documents that were required to be submitted with their bids. The apparent low bidder, F.S. Contractors, Inc. had a discrepancy in their bid as they submitted an incorrect Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number with their bid package; however, staffrequested F.S. Contractors to verify that they had a valid UEI number with SAM.gov prior to submitting a bid, as required by the Project specifications. Staff also confirmed via SAM.gov that F.S. Contractors had an active registration prior to the advertisement of this Project. Staff consulted with the City Attorney’s Office regarding this discrepancy and were advised that this would be considered a minor irregularity that can be waived as it could be easily corrected.

It should be noted that two CDBG forms, the Disclosure of Lobbying Activities form and the Debarment and Suspension Certification form, were inadvertently not included in the Project specifications when it was released for bid. As a result, the forms were not included in bid packets submitted by the contractors. Staff consulted with staff in the City's Economic Development and Housing division and were advised that although the forms had not been provided as part of the bid packet, the responsive contractors submitted their Federal Lobbyist Certifications with their bids, which satisfies the need to submit the Disclosure of Lobbying Activities form. Since the Debarment and Suspension Certification form was not provided, staff reviewed the responsive contractors' registration with SAM.gov to verify that they had not been debarred or suspended from receiving federal projects. F.S. Contractors, Inc. was not debarred nor suspended from receiving federally-funded projects. 

Staff checked F.S. Contractors, Inc.'s references and found their record of performance satisfactory and no record of excessive change order requests. F.S. Contractors, Inc. submitted the lowest responsive bid in the amount of $139,700 which is approximately 30% lower than the Engineer’s estimate; therefore, staff recommends that the City Council waive the minor bid irregularities and deem F.S. Contractors, Inc.'s bid as responsive; authorize the City Manager to execute an Agreement (Attachment 1) with FS Contractors, Inc.; and authorize staff to issue a purchase order in the amount of $167,640, which includes a 20% contingency.

This project is included in the Fiscal Year 2021-2022 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) with a total approved budget of $650,000; therefore, sufficient funding has already been appropriated to complete the construction of the Alley Improvement Project, Alleys No. 1 and No. 83, City Project No. 3-R-21.