Discussion:
In 2018, the City Council approved a three-year professional engineering consulting pool list for 2018 through 2020 consisting of 21 different firms. The preapproved consulting pool list was used to streamline the selection process and to assist municipal staff in obtaining consulting services in areas where special expertise is required or when workload is such that it cannot be accommodated in a timely fashion by in-house staff.
With the expiration of the current consultant pool list, statements of qualifications (SOQs) were again solicited and received from qualifying firms. In reviewing the qualifications, the philosophy is to establish a pool of firms whose combined and overlapping areas of expertise and abilities will allow staff to draw upon their services in the most cost-effective manner possible without becoming overly dependent on any one firm. While some firms are obviously specialists in a specific field of practice, it is staff's goal to attempt to retain firms whose secondary areas of expertise can serve as backup in the event that a primary firm has a conflict of interest, or is unable to undertake a project for whatever reason.
The City received SOQs from 27 firms. For the 2021 through 2023 period, the firms listed in the attached resolution are being recommended for approval for the areas of expertise listed for this three-year period. These firms were selected after a thorough review of all SOQs. All firms have the technical expertise and capacity to assist in delivering the City’s projects. Overall, this combination of consulting firms represents sufficient expertise to accommodate the recurring engineering, architectural, planning and design needs of the City in an efficient and cost-effective manner. The recommended 2021 through 2023 preapproved consultant pool list would again exist for a three-year period and would be drawn upon on a project by project basis to enter into professional services agreements for the needed services.