PREPARED BY: AMANDA BOOTH DATE OF MEETING: 02/18/20
SUBJECT:
TITLE
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN PABLO AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH GEOSYNTEC CONSULTANTS, INC. FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WATER QUALITY ALTERNATIVE COMPLIANCE PROGRAM AS PART OF THE REGIONAL ALTERNATIVE COMPLIANCE FOR A SUSTAINABLE BAY PROJECT IN THE AMOUNT OF $470,952 WITH A 15% CONTINGENCY FOR A TOTAL AUTHORIZATION OF $541,595
Label
CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Adopt Resolution
Body
Compliance statements
Enhance Community Resilience - 202. Develop Long-Term Environmental Stewardship Goals is an adopted policy item contained in the FY 2019-21 Adopted City Council Priority Workplan, effective March 1, 2019.
CEQA Compliance Statement
This project is statutorily exempt from CEQA under California Code of Regulation 15262: “Feasibility and Planning Studies; a project involving only feasibility or planning studies for possible future actions which the agency, board, or commission has not approved, adopted, or funded does not require the preparation of an EIR or negative declaration but does require consideration of environmental factors. This section does not apply to the adoption of a plan that will have a legally binding effect on later activities”. The project is a feasibility study to understand the mechanisms and documents that would be needed for a market-based water quality trading system. The project will include CEQA review to understand if additional CEQA compliance is necessary.
BACKGROUND
On November 19, 2015, the State Water Board adopted the reissuance of the Municipal Regional Stormwater NPDES Permit No CAS612008 (MRP 2.0). As part of this permit, the City of San Pablo is required to increase programs that improve water quality through the implementation of green infrastructure. Green infrastructure, in this context, is a new way of designing and building roads, parking lots and landscaping to provide water quality benefits.
Green infrastructure can be very expensive to build, particularly in areas with limited water quality improvement benefits. Therefore, in an effort to ensure that stormwater programs reduce costs but also meet the goals of the NPDES permits, City staff applied for a grant to develop a water quality trading system, also referred to as alternative compliance. Water quality trading offers a promising approach to controlling pollutants from multiple sources that collectively impact water quality conditions. In its most simple form, water quality trading would allow one project to sell pollutant reduction "credits" to another project that is not able to reduce pollutants as cost-effectively. The City of San Pablo would be working with other cities, developers and organizations across the Bay Area to develop a water quality-trading program that would provide the most water quality benefits in the most cost-effective way.
On May 6, 2019, San Pablo City Council approved Resolution 2019-062 to accept and appropriate $680,000 from a USEPA San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund (SFBWQIF) grant to develop an alternative compliance system for the funding and implementation of green infrastructure in San Pablo and across the Bay Area.
On November 21, 2019, staff issued a Request for Proposals for Regional Compliance for a Sustainable Bay: A Water Quality Alternative Compliance Pilot Project. Staff received two submittals and after proposal reviews and interviews, a consultant team of Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. (Geosyntec), with sub-consultants Kieser & Associates, Panorama, EOA, Bespoke Mitigation Partners and Troutman Sanders, presented the best overall project proposal and are recommended for selection for the requested services.
Staff is requesting authorization to enter into an agreement with Geosyntec and their team. The term of the agreement will be until the completion of design for the project which is expected to be December 2022. Staff is requesting authorization for the City Manager to enter into an agreement with Geosyntec for the above services for the amount of $470,952 with a 15% contingency for a total authorization of $541,595.
FISCAL IMPACT
The contract amount is $470,952 with an available 15 percent contingency amount of $70,643, for a total authorization of $541,595. Funding for this contract will be provided by the USEPA San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund grant that was accepted and appropriated in Resolution 2019-062 as follows:
|
Fund Name |
Account Code |
Task Code |
Amount |
Approving Resolution |
|
USEPA San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund |
320-3201-43600 |
EPA-120 |
$680,000 |
2019-062 |
|
Total |
$680,000 |
|
This item also requests that funding be transferred into the new project budget code as follows:
|
ACTION |
FROM: Fund/Account Code |
AMOUNT |
TO: Fund/Account Code |
AMOUNT |
|
Transfer |
320-3201-43600-EPA-120 |
$680,000 |
320-0904-43600-EPA-120 |
$680,000 |
The EPA San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund requires a 1:1 non-federal match. Since the project was awarded $680,000 from EPA, the City is required to provide $680,000 in match (cash or in-kind). The project budget outlines the following sources as match:
• $107,000 in match from staff time (from the City of San Pablo staff and other city staff from around the Bay Area).
• $40,000 from a grant partner San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) for the development of a tracking system.
• The remaining $533,000 is expected to come from a Proposition 1 and/or Proposition 68 grant that Public Works Staff will be applying for in 2020.
|
Match Source |
Match Amount |
|
Staff Time (San Pablo) |
$30,000 |
|
Staff Time (Other) |
$77,000 |
|
SFEI match |
$40,000 |
|
Expected grant match |
$533,000 |
|
Total Match |
$680,000 |
Staff will return to Council for approval regarding any match funds outside of staff time, if necessary.
ATTACHMENT: Geosyntec Contract