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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOUNCIL - AGENDA ITEM - 05/02/2000 - RESOLUTION 2000-66 APPROVING AN EXEMPTION TO THE U AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY ITEM NUMBER: 18 DATE: May 2, 2000 FORT COLLINS CITY COUNCIL STAFF: Jim O'Neill Susanne Durkin SUBJECT: Resolution 2000-66 Approving an Exemption to the Use of a Competitive Process for Completion of Phase I of the Mason Street Transportation Corridor Project. RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends adoption of the Resolution. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This request is for an exemption to the competitive purchasing process requirements in order to contract with LSA Associates, Inc., as the lead consultants for the planning and design phase of the Mason Street Transportation Corridor Project. The Mason Street Transportation Corridor Project is funded through Building Community Choices dedicated sales tax. The contract amount will not exceed $400,000 and will extend to October 31, 2000. Funds are available within the project budget for FY 2000. BACKGROUND: The City of Fort Collins entered into a contract with Balloffet & Associates, Inc. (`Balloffet") in December of 1998 to complete Phase 1, Planning and Design, of the Mason Street Transportation Corridor project (the "Project"). The Project will create a five-mile corridor within the Burlington Northern Santa Fe right-of-way for the exclusive use of bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit. Recently, the Project Co-Managers and the principal engineer for the Project resigned from Balloffet & Associates, Inc. along with nine other staff. The City gave notice to Balloffet of the termination of its contract with Balloffet on April 10, 2000. (The City received confirmation from Balloffet that it would not contest the decision to terminate the contract.) The City's options are to try to re-contract with Balloffet to get the work completed, cancel the contract and issue another request for proposal, or contract with a firm that closely replicates the original consulting team and maintains the project timeline through an exception to the competitive process requirements provided in the City Code. Balloffet has not submitted a proposal to the City for the completion of Phase I by Balloffet. Issuing a new request for proposal for Phase 1 is impractical because of the amount of time required to select another firm and then mobilize the new contractor to proceed with the work. If a new competitive process were to be used, Phase I of the Project could not meet its October 31, 2000, completion date. This completion date is actually six months beyond the anticipated DATE: May 2, 2000 2 ITEM NUMBER: 18 completion date in the original scope of work. It is important to maintain this date to sustain the momentum of the project, to maintain credibility with the public, and to ensure that the citizen lead team will remain intact. (There have already been three resignations so far because of the amount of time needed to finish Phase 1.) The City received a proposal from LSA Associates, Inc. ("LSA"), for the remainder of the Phase 1 work on the Project. LSA is the firm that the original project manager, Ray Moe, recently joined. LSA will use the same consulting team that worked on the project for the past sixteen months and Ray Moe will continue to be the project manager. LSA will subcontract with other key personnel on the Project through their new firms. The scope of work will include the refinement of the concept plan, examination of development potential and the impacts to transit ridership, transportation model enhancements, prioritization of improvements and the development of a long-term funding and action plan for achieving the Mason Street Transportation Corridor vision. The City will benefit from issuing this contract as an exception to the competitive process because the same team will continue work on the project, the transition will be seamless to the project participants, and the timeline for Phase 1 completion will remain the same. As this request for exception to the competitive process is over $100,000 it requires Council approval. The total contract will not exceed $400,000. There is approximately $275,000 available from the original purchase order for Balloffet & Associates, Inc. Roughly $100,000 will be added to pay for two public workshops, additional engineering to address complications not foreseen in the original scope of work, another video for public information, bicycle and pedestrian design work, and potential environmental work. Appropriations for the cost of the additional tasks to be included in the new scope of work are available in the project budget. RESOLUTION 2000-66 OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS APPROVING AN EXEMPTION TO THE USE OF A COMPETITIVE PROCESS FOR COMPLETION OF PHASE 1 OF THE MASON STREET TRANSPORTATION CORRIDOR PROJECT WHEREAS, on April 7, 1997, the voters approved the Building Community Choices streets and transportation package of capital projects; and WHEREAS, the Mason Street Transportation Corridor project (the "Project") was included in that package; and WHEREAS, the City of Fort Collins entered into a contract with Balloffet & Associates, Inc. ("Balloffet'), for the Phase 1 Planning and Design work for the Project; and WHEREAS, due to changes in personnel at Balloffet, including the departure of project managers and other principal staff assigned to the Project, City staff determined that Balloffet was no longer capable of satisfactorily completing Phase 1 of the Project; and WHEREAS, on April 10, 2000, the City gave notice to Balloffet that the City was terminating that contract, effective April 30th; and WHEREAS, Article IV, Section 8-161(d)(1)b of the Code of the City of Fort Collins authorizes the Purchasing Agent to contract for services without competition if, although there exists more than one (1) responsible source, a competitive process cannot be used or, if used, will result in a substantially higher cost to the city, will otherwise injure the city's financial interests, or will substantially impede the city's administrative functions or the delivery of services to the public; and WHEREAS, the Purchasing Agent has determined that the purchase of consulting services from LSA Associates, Inc., falls within the scope of this exception, because the use of a competitive process to contract for the services remaining in Phase 1 of the Project would likely result in substantial delays in the completion of the Project, and as a result would increase the costs of the Project and impede the delivery of services to the public; and WHEREAS, the Purchasing Agent has submitted the requisite justification for said determination to the City Manager for approval; and WHEREAS, the City Manager has reviewed and approved the justification for this acquisition; and WHEREAS, Section 8-161(d)(3) requires approval of this purchasing method by City Council for items costing more than One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000) prior to acquisition. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS that the Purchasing Agent is hereby authorized to contract with LSA Associates, Inc., for the completion of Phase 1 of the Mason Street Transportation Corridor Project, for an amount not to exceed $400,000, as an exception to the competitive purchasing requirements pursuant to Section 8-161(d)(1)b of the City Code. Passed and adopted at a regular meeting of the City Council held this 2nd day of May, A.D. 2000. Mayor ATTEST: City Clerk