REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
August 28, 2014
FROM: SCOTT L. MOZIER, PE, Director
Public Works Department
BY: ROBERT N. ANDERSEN, PE, Assistant Director
Public Works Department, Capital Management Division
SUBJECT
Title
Approve the Third Amendment to Agreement with Sharp Inspection Group in the amount of $626,968 and extend the completion to April 27, 2015 for the construction management services on the City of Fresno Commercial Water Meter Retrofit Project (Citywide)
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff is requesting that the Council approve the Third Amendment to Agreement with Sharp Inspection Group and allow for the Public Works Director or his designee to sign on behalf of the City.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City has been replacing commercial water meters with the Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) technology since the Spring of 2013. Due to the nature of some commercial businesses such as being open 24 hours a day, being unable to be without water at specific times and so on, it has taken more time for this project to be completed. Staff is requesting to extend the contract with Sharp Inspection Group for additional inspection services.
BACKGROUND
Since 2009, the City Department of Public Utilities has been working diligently to get all of the 110,000 residences throughout the metropolitan area on water meters. This was due to the various Senate bills requiring the City to be completely metered by January 2013 or face losing our Federal water allotment. We completed the residential project in Fall 2012.
City staff has started retrofitting the remaining commercial manually read meters with the AMR meters that the rest of the City is using. This means either upgrading or replacing the manually read meters on our commercial customers. There are approximately 20,350 commercial meters to retrofit. These meters run from 5/8" to 2" in size. The larger meters (above 2") will be retrofitted by City staff. By doing this project, all water customers will have their water usage collected electronically. Also, the utility service workers we currently employ will be able to assist in maintaining the new meter inventory.
On July 26, 2012, Council approved an agreement with Sharp Inspection Group, Inc. for construction management services on the City of Fresno commercial water meter retrofit project.
On December 20, 2012, Council approved the first amendment with Sharp Inspection Group for the coverage of warranty issues and customers complaints on the residential meter project between the end of the residential Construction Management contract (December 31, 2012) with the prime consultant Vali Cooper and Associates and the beginning of the Commercial Construction Management contract with Sharp Inspection Group. Sharp Inspection Group has handled these customer concerns since then under the commercial contract.
On February 28, 2013, Council awarded a project to Vulcan Construction Inc. for the installation of the commercial water meters sized 2" and below.
On October 29, 2013, Council approved the second amendment to agreement with Sharp Inspection Group to extend the original contract to September 1, 2014. No additional monies were requested.
Staff recommends the City Council approve the third amendment to agreement with Sharp Inspection Group in the amount of $626,968 and extend the completion to April 27, 2015 for the construction management services on the City of Fresno commercial water meter retrofit project.
ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS
By the definition provided in the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines Section 15378 the award of this contract does not qualify as a "project" and is therefore exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act requirements.
LOCAL PREFERENCE
Local preference was not implemented because the amendment of a contract does not involve a bid or the award of a construction or services contract.
FISCAL IMPACT
The funds for this contract exist in the current Water Enterprise Fund budget.
Attachment: Third Amendment to Agreement