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Home My WebLink About07 - Landscape Maintenance of City Medians & Roadside AreasCITY OF NEWPORT BEACH CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT Agenda Item No. 7 October 23, 2007 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: General Services Department Mark Harmon, Director, 949 - 644 -3055 mharmon(a)city. newport- beach.ca. us SUBJECT. Selection of a Vendor for Contract Negotiations for the Landscape Maintenance of City Medians and Roadside Areas ISSUES: Should the City Council select a vendor and direct staff to negotiate a two -year agreement to provide landscape maintenance services for medians and roadside areas in the City? RECOMMENDATION: Direct staff to negotiate a two -year agreement with Merchants Landscape Maintenance, Inc., of Santa Ana to provide landscape maintenance services of City medians and roadside areas, and return to the November 13th City Council meeting with an agreement for approval. DISCUSSION: Existing Landscape Contract: In September 2005, the City Council approved a contract with TruGreen Landcare for the maintenance of over 90 acres of medians and roadside areas throughout the City at an annual cost of $414,000. Among the high profile areas maintained under this contract are all medians and roadside areas on Coast Highway from the. Santa Ana River to Corona Del Mar; MacArthur Boulevard and Jamboree Road from the northern City limits southward to Coast Highway; areas of the Peninsula and Balboa Island; and miscellaneous roadways such as Irvine Avenue, San Joaquin Hills Road, and San Miguel Drive (see attached Selection of a Vendor for Contract Negotiations for the Landscape Maintenance of City Medians and Roadside Areas October 23, 2007 Page 2 map).. Newport Coast is not included, since that area is maintained under a different contract approved by Council on September 25, 2007. TruGreen commenced work under this medians and roadsides contract on October 1, 2005. The term of the agreement was for one year, however, it is renewable for up to four additional years. Over the past six months, however, the quality of the work provided by the firm has significantly diminished. They have experienced some employee turnover of skilled positions, and when it occurs, the company has been slow to fill the vacant positions. This has led to TruGreen getting behind on maintenance schedules and being slow to notice and rectify deficiencies, such as pest and irrigation problems. In response to the problems, the City has withheld payment as allowed in the contract, and in some cases, paid another contractor to service certain areas. Due to these on -going issues, staff decided not to renew the agreement with TruGreen for an additional year. The City may cancel the agreement upon 30 days' notice; in August, TruGreen was notified of our intent to seek other landscape proposals and they would be employed on a month to month basis, but that we would give them the required notice before cancelling their contract. They were agreeable to these conditions, and were allowed to submit a new proposal. Request for Proposal Process: On August 24, 2007, staff mailed Requests for Proposal to 18 landscape maintenance companies, with a due date of September 14. There were two changes between the current maintenance agreement and the guidelines given in the RFP. First, as noted above, the existing agreement had a one year term, but was renewable in one -year increments up to four times. The RFP discusses our intent to enter into a two -year agreement, with an allowance for up to three one -year extensions. While the end result is very similar, it does protect the City from the vendor giving notice that they choose not to renew at the end of only one year, requiring another RFP process. The RFP also provides for a CPI increase not to exceed 2.5% at the end of the two -year term and annually thereafter upon renewal of the agreement. A second change is the requirement for a minimum level of manpower. The RFP stated that the workforce should include a supervisor plus 13 employees: two leadworkers, two irrigation technicians, four positions to perform detailed maintenance, a mowing crew consisting of an operator and a laborer, and two positions dedicated to general litter control, refuse removal, and grounds policing, to ensure the contract area is checked for litter each day. Additionally, the contract is to be supplemented with three additional laborers from June 1 through September 30 each year. This manpower requirement doesn't preclude a contractor from bringing in additional manpower as necessary, but it allows the City to quantitatively measure their adherence to the contract on a daily basis. Selection of a Vendor for Contract Negotiations for the Landscape Maintenance of City Medians and Roadside Areas October 23, 2007 Page 3 On September 5, a mandatory pre -bid meeting was held at the Corporation Yard, and the meeting was attended by six vendors. Following the meeting, the vendors toured the City to view the maintenance areas. RFP Results: Staff received three proposals by the 11:00 a.m. deadline on September 14. The respondents and annual contract costs were as follows: Vendor Annual Cost Annual Cost Difference from Lowest Proposal Merchants Landscape Services, Inc. $654,035 -0- TruGreen Landcare, LLC. $834,000 $179,965 Midori Gardens Landscape Services $964,908 $310,873 Evaluation of Contractor: Merchants Landscape Service currently has municipal contracts with the Cities of Seal Beach, Santa Ana, Orange, Indio, Palm Springs, and Chula Vista. Staff contacted representatives from each of these cities, and the comments were predominantly favorable. Additionally, staff visited work sites in Orange and Seal Beach, and found them very well maintained. Merchants maintains parks and assessment district areas in the City of Orange, and all City parks, facilities, medians and roadside areas in Seal Beach. Department Recommendation: Staff is recommending approval to negotiate with Merchants Landscape Services based on cost and quality of work performed in other cites. With your approval, we will return with an agreement for approval at the November 12th meeting. In negotiations, we will attempt to further define fixed pricing for extra work and out of contract services. FUNDING: Due to the manpower required in the proposal, the maintenance cost has increased. However, given the distance between worksites in this contract, the number of personnel is justified in order to maintain the maintenance schedule. Since the medians and roadside areas were privatized in 1996, contracts have continually been understaffed. The required staffing level will help to bring our median areas to a substantially higher level of maintenance. Merchants Landscape Services' cost is $20,003 more per month than paid to TruGreen under their current agreement. Consequently, staff will request a budget amendment concurrent with approval of an agreement at the September 25th meeting to fund the difference over the six months of the fiscal year for which this contract would be in force (January 1, 2008 through June 30, 2008). Selection of a Vendor for Contract Negotiations for the Landscape Maintenance of City Medians and Roadside Areas October 23, 2007 Page 4 ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: This action requires no environmental review, as it is not a project pursuant to CEQA. Prepared by: Y&C�:M� Mike Pisani Deputy General Services Director General Services Director Attachment: City Median and Roadside Area Contract Map If Medians and Roadsides Contract General Services Department r 1 \ I — T ; I I -Medians -38.87 Acres Roadsides -57.38 Acres N W' � E Rle S 0 0.25 0.5 1 Miles .mzd l UPPER ti F/ I • Aewrow♦ _ FASHION ISLAND • r., NEWPORT 1( RIDGE J NEWPORT i y 1 1 i CRYSTAL COVE STATE PARK /