01-03-1995 - Proposal to Provide Professional Engineering Services for Assessment Districts - BSI Consultants, Inc.City of West Covina
Memorandum
TO:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
City Manager and City Council
AGENDA
ITEM NO. D-1
Patrick J. Glover DATE January 3, 1995
City Engineer/Public Works Director
i ®PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER
PROPOSAL TO PROVIDE PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING
SERVICES FOR ASSESSMENT DISTRICTS -BSI CONSULTANTS, INC.
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SUMMARY: BSI Consultants, Inc. has submitted a proposal to provide
professional engineering services for the administration of
Maintenance Districts 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and the Citywide
Landscape District. Included in the proposal are optional
services for an analysis of the annual overhead rate and an
evaluation of assessment methodologies with a look at
possible district consolidation. The estimated fee for all
components of the proposal is $122,000 with an additional
fee of up to $29,000 for mailing notices to all district
property owners.
BACKGROUND
Since 1957, when the City first formed a Lighting District, until 1991 the assessment
engineering services where provided by a consultant. City staff assisted the consultant by
gathering basic information on parcel usage and development, preparing the staff report that
went to City Council and preparing summary financial reports. The consultant was fully
responsible for the assessment methodology, preparation of the assessment rolls, submittal of
the assessment rolls to the County Assessor, and updating all parcel information that the
County Assessor provided. In addition the consultant reviewed the assessment districts for
any changes that had occurred due to development within the City and reconciling those
changes with the County".1 Assessor's information, and reviewed all protests of assessments,
along with responding to any complaints both verbally and in writing. This contract ranged
in cost, depending uponJthe level of work involved, from $60,000 to $100,000 per year.
These costs were fully recovered from the various assessment districts. The staff costs
associated with the assessment engineering as well as the engineering support services
including engineering activities relating to maintenance and capital projects were also
recovered from each of ti he districts.
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Commencing in 1991, City staff took on full responsibility .for assessment engineering as
well as all the engineering support services necessary to administer these districts. In order
to accomplish the additional work a Civil Engineering Assistant position was added to the
Engineering Department':I This change resulted in an overall savings to all of the assessment
districts of ' approximately $40,000 per year.
In 1994/95 at City Council direction all engineering costs, both for assessment activities and
support services, were eliminated from the budgets for Maintenance Districts Nos. 1, 2, 4,
6, and 7. The total amount cut from these districts was $103,000; $78,300 for labor and
$24,700 for materials and services. The budgeted advertising costs of $4,480 were
transferred from the Engineering budget to the Maintenance budget for the respective
districts.
In addition to removing the funding for assessment engineering, the City Council expressed a
desire to look at how overhead charges were established for the Maintenance Districts along
with a review of the methodology used in setting the rates in general. This review would
also look at the possibilities for consolidating some or all of the Maintenance Districtsand
the impacts to the residents and businesses of such a consolidation.
Although all engineering'' costs were cut from these budgets, there is still engineering work
gl g g g
that must be done on aw annual basis in order to properly administer these. districts. The
assessment engineering must be done annually and engineering support services must also be
provided as needed in order to respond to problems within these districts. The Civil
Engineering Assistant position that had been providing assessment engineering services and
most of the engineering support services was cut from the budget and the overall engineering
staff was reduced as a result of this position reduction.
City Manager and City Council -
January 3, 1995
Page Two
ANALYSIS
In order to provide the necessary assessment engineering services' and the engineering
inspection/support services that these districts require, a proposal was requested from BSI
Consultants, Inc. in November 1994-. This proposal is divided into five phases. The first
three phases are to provide the same basic level of assessment engineering services that has
been provided by City staff for the past four .years. A breakdown of these three phases and
their costs are as follows:
Phase I: Annual Administration of City-wide Maintenance. District and
Landscape Maintenance District Nos. 4, 6, and 7 (Cost $32,000).
1. Calculate the amount to be collected from each parcel in order to provide the
necessary maintenance service levels.
2. Prepare a preliminary engineer's report for each district.
3. Update Assessment District maps and exhibits to reflect changes over the past
year.
4. Prepare draft legal notice(s) as required for publication in a newspaper or
general circulation.
5. Prepare annual assessment, rolls as required by the County Auditor.
6. Attend Public Hearings to provide technical support and answer questions.
, 7. Provide City with final engineer's report with updated assessment boundary
maps and final assessment rolls. .
Phase H: Annual Administration of Assessment Districts Nos. 1 and 2 (Cost
$3,000).
Provide the same basic services as found in Phase I for Districts Nos. 1 and. 2 which
are ad valorem.
Phase III: Annual Inspection Services for all City-wide and numbered districts
(cost: approximately $60,000. Inspections provided on an as needed
basis at $60 per hour).
1. Inspect open space areas for drainage problems reported by residents.
2. Inspect open space slope damage/erosion problems.
3. Respond to and resolve resident inquires concerning quality of maintenance
issues.
4. Analyze and provide input for.the development of mitigation measures.
5. Inspect implementation of mitigation measures as necessary to resolve
identified deficiencies.
6. Analyze and provide input for the development of soils and/or geotechnical
remedial measures.
7. Inspect the implementation of soils and/or geotechnical remedial .measures, as
necessary, and field inspection for contract compliance.
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City Manager and City
January ,3, 1995
Page Three
The activities enumej
the Districts.The last
collect funds from pr
Assessment District
follows:
Phase IV:
in Phases I - III are necessary to properly and legally administer
phases (IV and V) are not required to be provided in order to
y owners and are a result of Council inquires made during
sessions.. A breakdown of these phases and their costs are as
is of Annual Overhead Rate for the City's Landscape
nance Districts (One time cost of $5,000).
1. Identify ,;services and/or support provided by other City departments associated
with the' lievying, collection and administration of the City's Landscape
Maintenance Districts.
2. Document levels of services and costs for each activity. This will be done in a
standardized format that can easily be updated in future years.
3. Determine which costs should be budgeted as direct costs at the time that the
annual budget is prepared for each maintenance district and which costs should
be recovered as an overhead costs.
4. Calculate) overhead rates for both department and general City overhead that
will fully recover all eligible costs from each Maintenance District.
5. Review calculated overhead rates with City's Finance Director.
6. Prepare final report which documents the recommended overhead rates and the
method of calculating those rates.
Phase V: Assessment Methodology and District Consolidation Study (cost
$ I9,500).
1. Analyze„ the improvements being maintained by each district to determine if
new or revised zones of benefit should be recommended.
2. Analyze. the improvements being maintained by each district to determine if
modifications in assessment methodology should be recommended.
3. Generally analyze the financial impact associated with the recommendations
identified in Tasks Nos. 1 and 2 above.
4. Review the pros and cons of consolidating maintenance districts,
5. Review the pros and cons of utilizing a homeowners association in lieu of
Maintenance Districts.
6. Prepare ;al summary.report for each district explaining• the recommended
modifications and financial impact associated with those changes. The
summary report will include the following:
a) Pros and cons of creating or revising benefit zones.
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b)
c)
d)
cons of existing and proposed modifications to the assessment
;thodology.
discuss the financial impact to the assessment rates for single
ulti-family, commercial and industrial land uses.
)mmendations on whether or not to modify the zones of
ssessment methodologies, consolidation of districts and the
,f establishing a homeowners association.
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City Manager and City Council
January 3, 1995
Page Four
It should be noted that this study does not include updating the current data base to determine
every parcel's true assessment. General assumptions will be made in order to conduct this
study at the most feasible rate.
In addition to the costs of providing the work shown in Phases I through V, BSI anticipated
that reimbursable expenses (mileage, blue printing, reproduction, etc.) not to exceed $2,500
will be needed to complete these services.
Staff has carefully reviewed the proposal from BSI and found it to be complete and cost
competitive in the marketplace. In order to keep the costs at the lowest possible level, staff
is reviewing the Phase III work outline provided by BSI. Since City Maintenance staff
members are currently working with landscape contractors in the districts, it is possible for
them to provide a majority of the inspection services. If there appears to be a field problem,
Maintenance staff can alert the Engineering Department for additional evaluation. With the
inspection time being kept at a minimum staff recommends performing this service in house
at little or no additional cost. This in house inspection program will be. reviewed during the
upcoming year in order to compare the costs and service levels being proposed by BSI.
Therefore, staff is recommending than only Phases I and II be performed by BSI with Phases
IV and V being provided if Council is still interested in reviewing overhead charges,
methodologies and district consolidations.
FISCAL E%APACT
Currently the funding for Maintenance District Engineering costs has been removed from the
Maintenance Districts' Budget. The rates set for the current fiscal year reflect no funding to
provide for the assessment engineering necessary to collect assessments in the upcoming
fiscal- year (1995/96). The funding for this assessment engineering can come from district
reserves or the City's general fund reserves. In order to keep the costs as low as possible
staff recommends using BSI Consultants Phase I and H, which provide basic administration
of all districts at a cost of $35,000, providing inspection services with City staff at little or
no cost, and if Council desires; having BSI Consultants review annual overhead changes and.
assessment methodology with district consolidation at a cost of $24,500. The cost of Phases
I, II, IV and V of the BSI proposal is $59,500 with an additional $2,500 for reimbursable.
expenses. The total cost is $62,000.
Staff has recommended that this cost be funded from district reserves. This funding will
reduce the district reserves by $62,000 and may require rate increases in the future which
could be offset by current reserves. The $62,000 proposed cost does represent a $41,000
reduction from the originally proposed cost of'$103,000 which was removed from the 1994-
95 Budgets for the districts. Attached is a financial projection for.. the 1994-95 Fiscal Year
for all the districts and the Sewer Fund.
ALTERNATIVES
The alternative to having BSI provide district engineering services is to have City staff
provide the service as it has done in the past, This could be performed at two service levels.
The first is to provide the same level of service as has been provided for the past three years
by filling the current vacancy with a staff engineer. The second alternative is to provide a
much lower level of service by only responding to property owner inquiries and reproducing
last year's assessment reports and changing the year. This could result in some inaccurate
and missing assessments as property is subdivided and as the County Assessor makes map
changes. During the three years that staff has been doing full service assessment
engineering, a net increase of $117,000 per year has been "found" by eliminating past
inaccuracies which developed while full service assessment engineering was being provided
by another consultant.
City Manager and City Council
January 3, 1995
Page Five
ALTERNATIVES (Continued
An additional alternative is to solicit proposals from other engineering firms who specialize
in assessment engineering. This would, however, require additional time which would
condense the time frame for the work to be done to a level that could make meeting the Tax
Assessor's deadlines for reports very difficult. Staff did contact another engineering firm to
compare basis hourly rates to those of BSI and found them to be similar. Temple City just
completed a review process for selecting an engineering firm for their assessment districts.
Of the 14 firms reviewed, B.S.I. was selected based on quality, past experience and price.
RECOMIklENDATION
It is recommended that :the City Council take the following actions:
A. Authorize Phase's I and II and appropriate $37,500,($32,000 for Phase I, .$3,000 for
Phase II and $2,1500 for reimbursables) as detailed in BSI's proposal, from reserves in
Maintenance Districts Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and Citywide to Accounts 2215-6117 and
2216-6117. i
B. Authorize Phase' IV and appropriate $5,000,. as detailed in BSI's proposal, from
reserves in Maintenance Districts Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and Citywide to accounts
221576117 and 2216-6117.
C. Authorize Phase, V and appropriate $19,500, as detailed in BSI's proposal, from
reserves. in Maintenance Districts Nos. 1,2,4,6,7 and Citywide to accounts 2215-6117
and 2216-6117.
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D. Accept the proposal from BSI Consultants Inc. for Professional Services for
Assessment Districts and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to execute a Consultant
Agreement for the designated work to be done. With actions A,B and C above the
contract will be ;for an amount not to exceed $62,000.
PJG:Iag
bsi.agn
MDRESV.XLS
12/20/94
SUMMARY OF MAINTENANCE DISTRICTS' FUNDS
FISCAL YEAR 1994-95
DISTRICT
M.D. #1
M.D. #2
M.D. #4
* M.D. #6
M.D. #7
C.W. LIGHTING
C.W. SEWER
RESERVE
$ 1,047,965.00
$261,024.00
$ 1,145,419.00
$ 114,396.00
$313,963.00
$ 1,381,370.00
$ 217,715.00
PROJECTED INCOME
$ 63,480.00,
$ 25,140.00
$ 991,850.00
$ 102,783.00
$ 48,140.00
$ 3,542,240.00
$ 4,923,610.00
$ 3,994,280.00
$ 978,000.00
$1,195,715.00
$ 878,690.00
TOTAL FUNDS FY 1994-95
$1,111,445.00
$ 286,164.00
$ 2,137,269.00
$ 217,179.00
ill 362,103.00
OPERATING BUDGET --
$ W 212,620.00
$ 55,471.00
$ 841,520.00
$102,785.00
$ 55,944.00
C.I.P. BUDGET
$ 250,000.00
$ -
$ 130,000.00
$ -
$ -
$ 235,000.00
$ 84,000.00
TOTAL BUDGET
$ 462,620.00
$ 65,471.00
$ 971,520.00
$102,785.00
$ 55,944.00
$ 4,229,280.00
$ 962,690.00
PROJECTED FUNDS
AVAILABLE 6-30-96
$ 233,025.00
$ 648,825.00
$ 230,693.00
$1,165,749.00
$114,394.00
$ 306,159.00
$ 694,330.00
* NOTE: ONE TIME $30,000 TRANSFER TO DISTRICT
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