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CC - CONSENT ITEM: 1) Approval of a Five-Year Professional Services Agreement with West Coast Arborists for Citywide Tree Trimming Services in an Amount Not-to-Exceed $5,908,517; and 2) FOUR-FIFTHS VOTE REQUIREMENT: Approve a Budget Amendment to Increase Tree Maintenance Funding from $1,008,528 to $$1,444,779 in Fiscal Year 2022-2023
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Meeting Date: September 19, 2022
Contact Person/Dept.: Gary Wansley/PW Maintenance Operations
Phone Number: 310-253-6444
Fiscal Impact: Yes [x] No [] General Fund: Yes [x] No []
Attachments: Yes [] No [x]
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No [x] Date:
Commission Name:
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Agenda and Meetings-City Council (09/14/2022); West Coast Arborists, Inc and Audubon Society (09/12/2022)
Department Approval: Yanni Demitri/Public Works Director/City Engineer (09/08/2022)
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RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends the City Council (1) approve a five-year agreement with West Coast Arborists (WCA) in an amount not-to-exceed $5,908,517 for citywide tree maintenance services; and (2) approve a budget amendment to increase tree maintenance funding by $136,251 (from $1,008,528 to $1,144,779) in Fiscal Year 20222023 (four-fifths vote requirement).
BACKGROUND:
The City’s urban forest is comprised of 15,000 street and park trees. Since 1996, the City has maintained a contract with WCA for citywide tree trimming maintenance services, which includes tree trimming of over 3,300 trees annually, along with tree planting, tree stump removal, watering, and emergency tree trimming (typically in response to tree limb failures after windstorms). WCA agreements were approved in 2006 and 2011 (for five years each) with a one-year extension in 2016. After completing a competitive bidding process, WCA was awarded a new five-year contract in 2017 which expired on June 30, 2022. The release of a Request for Proposal (RFP) was delayed due to key staff departing the City and the need to recruit replacement staff. All scheduled tree trimming services were suspended on June 30, 2022 with the exception of emergency tree trimming work amounting to $35,766.
DISCUSSION:
Staff released an RFP to competing tree maintenance firms soliciting proposals for citywide tree maintenance services. On July 25, 2022, the City received proposals from WCA and Mariposa Landscaping. The RFP required that each firm include a price schedule for over 30 types of services they will perform. Below is a comparison of the most commonly used services rendered and their comparative prices over a three-year period:
WCA
0-6'' diameter trunk: 10% of 10,000 trees = 1,000 trees X $60 each = $60,000
7-16” diameter trunk: 30% of 10,000 trees = 3,000 trees X $135 each = $405,000
17-24” diameter trunk: 50% of 10,000 trees = 5,000 trees X $225 each = $1,125,000
25” or more diameter trunk: 10% of 10,000 trees = 1,000 trees X $325 each = $325,000
Total $1,915,000
Mariposa
0-6'' diameter trunk: 10% of 10,000 trees = 1,000 trees X $41.62 each = $41,620
7-16'' diameter trunk: 30% of 10,000 trees = 3,000 trees X $112.37 each = $337,110
16” or more diameter trunk:70% of 10,000 trees = 6,000 trees X $228.91 each = $1,373,460
Total $1,752,190
Difference: $162,810/three years = $54,270 annually.
Although the Mariposa bid is $54,270 less than the WCA bid, Mariposa also has a one-time fee not incurred with WCA amounting to $74,939 to recreate the City’s tree inventory on their proprietary system.
After providing the same price for the first two years, WCA’s proposal includes applying an annual cost adjustment of three percent for each subsequent year to account for inflation. Additionally, WCA has continued to provide the City with a GPS street and parkway tree inventory at no additional cost. This feature, called Arbor Access, is already utilized by City staff to view the urban forests inventory and work history but will now be updated to include an inventory of tree grates and sidewalk damage caused by City trees which will allow staff to prepare informed plans to address these related infrastructure issues. WCA will continue to assist the City to regularly update its urban forestry website at no additional cost. This enhanced website will allow residents to review maintenance/trimming schedules and tree trimming history in their areas and to view certain tree information.
The overwhelming majority of calls received from the community are tree related and given their familiarity with the City, WCA is able to respond to each of them in an expeditious manner. If Mariposa were selected, the City would no longer have a tree trimming crew to supervise the inventory of the City’s trees and the City only has one Arborist. Staff anticipates that if Mariposa were to be selected, the number of overtime hours staff would need to dedicate to oversee preparation of the tree inventory and to subsequently familiarize Mariposa crews with the City would exceed the monetary savings by selecting Mariposa over the five-year term.
Per staff’s request and recommendations made by the Audubon Society to protect the ecological system, the new agreement will indicate that no scheduled tree pruning will occur between March and April each year to accommodate the bird nesting season.
WCA’s tenure with the City has resulted in a vast knowledge of the City’s tree population. Furthermore, the additional inventory, GPS and website services proposed by WCA for this new agreement are proprietary since they will be tied into the existing Arbor Access system used by the City. Staff is not aware of any other tree trimming contractor that provides these types of services at no additional cost. For these reasons, staff recommends entering into a new five-year agreement with WCA as follows:
Fiscal Year 2022/2023: $1,144,779*
Fiscal Year 2023/2024: $1,140,695
Fiscal Year 2024/2025: $1,173,025
Fiscal Year 2025/2026: $1,207,936
Fiscal Year 2026/2027: $1.242,082
Total: $5,908,517
*This first year of the contract will be$1,124,856 for basic services plus $$35,766 for four months of emergency services performed by WCA.
ATTACHMENTS:
None.
FISCAL ANALYSIS:
The Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2022-2023 includes $1,008,528 in funding for tree maintenance, which is insufficient for the proposed agreement. The proposed budget amendment to appropriate $136,251 from General Fund reserves to Account #10160220.619800 (Tree Maintenance - Other Contractual Services) requires a four-fifths approval. This amendment will increase the tree maintenance budget from $1,008,528 to $1,144,779 for the fiscal year. Funding for future years of the contract will be included in future fiscal year budgets.
MOTIONS:
That the City Council:
1. Approve a budget amendment to increase Account Number 10160220.619800 by $136,251 (from $1,008,528 to $1,144,779) in Fiscal Year 2022-2023 (four-fifths vote requirement); and,
2. Approve a five-year professional services agreement with West Coast Arborist for citywide tree trimming services in the amount of $5,908,517; and,
3. Authorize the City Attorney to review/prepare the necessary documents; and,
4. Authorize the City Manager to execute such documents on behalf of the City.