(17)AR 050509 Development Services Update

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Development Services Update May 7, 2009 City Council Meeting Page 3 of 4 Willdan Financial Services included an optional work element to prepare a Comprehensive Development Services User Fee Study. This Fee Study is estimated to cost $25,285 and will be funded through savings in the existing Building & Safety professional services agreements (100- 6300-6302-2350). Colton Municipal Code Section 3.08.140 authorizes the city council, in limited circumstances, to award a professional services agreement to a consultant without a formal or informal RFP process. Section 3.08.140(E) provides that competitive bidding, either formal or informal, is not required "When the city manager determines that it is in the best interest of the city and its administrative operations to dispense with public bidding for non-public projects under this chapter." While an RFP was originally issued for the Plan Check services, the scope of services have expanded beyond that original RFP. Therefore, technically this contract award is being made without competitive bidding and it is in the opinion of the City Manager to support this recommendation based upon the following: o Willdan has provided outstanding services to the City of Colton as a result of the prior procurement and the additional scope requested of them; o Willdan is an essential part of the Development Services team, providing a depth of talent a phone call away; o Willdan Financial Services has an outstanding reputation for completing comprehensive User Fee surveys and will be able to leverage the experience of Willdan personnel already familiar with the City's processes. This is a particularly significant reason to support the use of Willdan, and will result in significant cost savings over using a new firm. Planning Commission Enhancements: In working with the City Clerk's department, Development Services has sought to standardize the Planning Commission agenda to match that of the City Council meetings. The objective of this standardization is to have agendas, backup material, and meeting minutes readily available on-line and downloadable from the City of Colton website. In order to provide that capability, an additional site license was required. The City Clerk department has made the purchase of the license (within the budget of Development Services) and materials for Planning Commission meetings in the near future will be available on-line. Legal Support Services: The Development Services department has several legal proceedings moving forward under the support of the Law Offices of Mark Skapik and from attorney Michael Montgomery. City staff is requesting an additional $25,000 of total contract authority to be split as required between Skapik and Montgomery. As legal proceedings progress in the coming weeks, staff will bring back further budgetary information. However, these funds are available in the current Professional Services account for Planning (100-6300-6301-2350).