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Title:
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Amendment to the Eiger Tech Systems contract to include a $39,000 increase in funds for the Culver City Transportation Department.
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City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
RECOMMENDATION:
That the City Council authorize an amendment to the Eiger Tech Systems contract
to include a $39,000 increase in funds for work on the Culver City Transportation
Department’s Smart Bus project.
BACKGROUND:
On October 10, 2002, the Department issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for
program management services. These services are necessary due to the very
technical nature of this procurement. Staff does not possess the technical expertise
to develop appropriate specifications and oversee the purchase and installation of
this technology. Staff recognized that the City’s needs would best be served through
the use of a company that specializes in ITS technology and has an extensive
background working with public transit agencies.
On March 23, 2003, the City Council approved a $156,127 contract with Eiger Tech
Systems for project management services for the Transportation Department’s
Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) project.
DISCUSSION:
The SmartBus project is an integrated project which includes an Automatic Vehicle
Location (AVL) subsystem that determines bus location by utilizing Global
Positioning System (GPS) technology, and a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD)
subsystem that generates an area map display of the location of buses in real time.
Meeting Date: 8/8/05 Item Number: A-6
AGENDA ITEM: Consideration to Authorize an Amendment to the Eiger Tech
Systems Contract to Include a $39,000 Increase in Funds for Work on the Smart
Bus Project.
Contact Person/Dept.: Art Ida Phone Number: (310) 253-6545
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [] No [X]
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [X] Attachments: []
Public Notification:
Master Notification List on 8/3/05; Eiger Tech Systems
Department Approval:
Steve Cunningham 7/28/05
CAO Approval:
Jerry Fulwood 8/2/05
City Controller Approval:
Marlee Chang 8/1/05
City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
Other subsystems to be included will be automatic passenger counters, automatic
bus stop voice annunciation, onboard video surveillance, and vehicle health
monitoring.
The department will eventually integrate other ITS technologies including real time
arrival information at major bus stops and bus signal priority systems.
This project is highly technical and Eiger Tech Systems has been very responsive in
making sure system requirements for the Transportation Department will be met.
However, due to the complexity of the SmartBus project, we have experienced
several events which contributed to additional consulting hours for Eiger Tech
Systems.
First and foremost, we have had to deal with several issues relating to the radio
channel used by the SmartBus system. The Department originally included in the
specifications that the proposed vendors would have to provide a solution which
incorporates the licensing of a 900 mhz radio channel for voice and data
transmission. Since then, we have been notified by the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC), that they will limit the issuance of any new 900 mhz licenses in
Los Angeles County for an undisclosed period of time. This would mean huge delays
in the project schedule along with additional costs to the project. Fortunately, the
City’s Communications Division developed an alternative solution which would use
an existing City UHF channel to transmit the data. This solution would provide
approximately $120,000 in savings and also reduce the time it would take to
implement the project. This change, while ultimately beneficial to the project,
created an enormous amount of additional technical work that was not accounted for
in the Eiger Tech Systems original contract.
Other costs that were not originally accounted for in the original contract were the
Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Intelligent Information Systems (ITS)
architecture audit. Last year, the FTA incorporated a new grant policy which stated
that all grantees who use federal funds to implement ITS technologies will be
required to perform and document an ITS architecture analysis. Although, the ITS
regulation was not yet finalized, the FTA selected Culver City to go through a
preliminary ITS Architecture process to be used as a model agency for future audits.
Although this audit required a lot of additional time and effort on the part of staff and
our consultant, it was beneficial because we were found in compliance with these
FTA regulations when we went through our last FTA Triennial review.
City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
FISCAL ANALYSIS:
The Transportation Department has allocated sufficient federal transit capital grant
funds in the current budget for this contract amendment.
There will be no impact on the City’s general fund.
MOTION:
That the City Council:
1. That the City Council authorize an amendment to the Eiger Tech Systems
contract to include a $39,000 increase in funds for work on the Culver City
Transportation Department’s Smart Bus project;
2. Authorize the City Attorney to prepare the necessary amendment to the contract
and authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to execute the contract
amendment on behalf of the City.