Professional Services Contract Extension for the Tinklenberg Group

Purpose:
Consider a proposal from The Tinklenberg Group for an extension to an existing professional services contract.  The purpose of this contract is to advance and promote the construction of improvements within the Trunk Highway 10/169 corridor within the City and, more specifically, to seek funding for the City's current priority transportation projects.

Background:
The City has worked with the Tinklenberg Group for most of the past decade, with the most recent contract with the Tinklenberg Group was from June 2018 through June 2019, The contract was a 12-month contract, compared to the last few years of 6-month contract extensions.  The 12-month contract term resulted in less administrative time and allowed the City and the contractor to use a uniform blended amount for the 12-month period.  The contract was for $3,300 per month, with the annual cost being $39,600. 

Mr. Tinklenberg continues to work with federal, state, county, and regional officials to advance Ramsey's interests in developing the Highway 10 corridor.  The City's past efforts in working with Mr. Tinklenberg have yielded a successful conclusion to the $35M Armstrong Project, which was awarded several grants, including a $10M federal (TIGER) grant, a $10M state (CIMS) grant, a $8M bonding allocation from the state, and a $10.2M award from the Counties Transit Investment Board (CTIB), which fully funded the project.  In 2017, work with the state legislature successfully secured an estimated $1.5 million in funding for the engineering and design of the Ramsey Boulevard underpass of the BNSF rail line.   

More recently, the City of Ramsey received $2 million from the 2018 state bonding bill for the Ramsey Boulevard rail separation project.

Staff believes this extension is important given the recent planning and design work being done by Bolton and Menk that will put the City in a position to ask for future funding.  In order to maintain a consistent message to the Legislature and Congressional Delegation in 2019-2020, coordination with this project is important.

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Due to the successful efforts outlined above, staff recommends extending the contract for an additional 12-month term. 

The Contract is proposed with a $3,300 per month to be paid for the first 6 months, with the remaining 6 month fee to be negotiated based upon approval of both parties in regard to activity and scope of the final 6 months. The fee could remain the same, increase or decrease based upon the work plan defined and agreed to by mutual agreement.







 

Funds would come from the City's Public Improvement Revolving Fund.

Staff recommends consideration of the proposed contract extension with the Tinklenberg Group for 12-months through June 30, 2020, as proposed.   

The alternative direction the Council may take include shortening the term of the contract (e.g., six months), NOT to approve the proposed contract, or seek other consultant proposals.  Either of these alternative may result in a loss of momentum toward the accomplishment of the stated goals.  Consequently, continuation of the contract is recommended at this time.