Discussion:
At the March 6, 2018, City Council meeting, this item was tabled for further consideration to allow more time to evaluate the consultant pool information. Additionally a question was raised pertaining to a possible conflict of interest pertaining to a consultant that was already working for the city on its comprehensive planning project. The city attorney has reviewed this issue and provided guidance that this scenario does not present a conflict of interest situation that would preclude them from being pre-approved from potentially working as a consultant to the city on future project.
The following is the prior background information that was provided:
Consulting services for architectural, engineering, scientific or other professional services are typically obtained on an individual project basis as needed by obtaining bids from several consultants. In an effort to streamline the 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, a preapproved consulting pool selection process and list are being provided for consideration. This consultant pool would exist for a three-year period and would be drawn upon on a project basis to enter into professional services agreements for the needed services.
Staff solicited Statements of Qualifications (SOQs) from qualifying firms and 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 21 firms. For the 2018 through 2020 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, staff feels that 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.