Approval of the 70 agreements will create a pre-qualified pool of architectural, engineering, and other consulting firms for the County to make use of through June 30, 2020. The County has historically used this process to successfully eliminate lengthy consultant selection processes that delay projects from moving forward in a timely manner. The action today is a continuation of this successful tradition for implementing projects. These contracts also allow immediate response for emergency or urgent facilities issues and will create workload efficiencies by reducing multiple agenda items and multiple requests for qualifications.
In order to provide various consulting services for the County and create a pool of pre-qualified architectural, engineering, environmental and other consulting firms, proposals were sought from qualified individuals and firms. A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for consultant services was released in January 2017. A review panel, comprised of representatives from the County Administrator's Office, County Counsel and the General Services Department, reviewed and scored the 92 responses and recommended issuing contracts to 70 of those who submitted. Services covered under these contracts include, but are not limited to:
- Design of remodel projects
- Consultation with outside architects, engineers and construction management on projects including the use of outside architectural and engineering firms
- Assistance with the annual capital improvement plan
- Engineering
- Title 24 compliance which includes energy use and conservation
- HVAC plans which included heating, ventilation, air conditioning and electrical issues
- ADA compliance
The firms being recommended offer the County the best combination of experience and skill for the projects and services required.
By selecting more than one firm to provide the desired services, projects can be divided among the selected firms on a rotating basis at the sole discretion of the County. On-call consultant contracts are typically utilized on an emergency basis and are intended to allow the General Services Department to quickly respond to facilities related issues. Any project that is awarded to an on-call consultant is subject to a review process that, depending upon the size of the contract, may include the County Procurement Agent, the County Administrator's Office or the Board of Supervisors. The General Services Department follows the County Administrative Policies & Procedures Manual (APM) for all work awarded under the on-call contracts. This allows the County General Services Director to authorize services for emergency work and other non-grant funded repair, construction, and/or urgent design projects under $100,000 with approval from the County Purchasing Agent and/or the County Administrators Office depending upon project funding. All projects awarded that are over $100,000 or any grant funded work will be brought to the Board of Supervisors for approval. On-call consultant contracts may be utilized for work on a non-emergency basis, but they do not preclude the County from seeking other firms on the basis of requests for qualifications for any other major project. In the event other firms are required for a project, the General Services Department would seek the approval of the Board of Supervisors in a separate action. All contracts are on file with the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors.
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