To: Board of Supervisors
From: Warren Lai, Public Works Director/Chief Engineer
Report Title: Consultant Services Agreement for On-Call Architectural Services with Loving Campos Associates, Architects, Inc.
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Public Works Director, or designee, to execute a contract amendment with Loving Campos Associates, Architects, Inc. (LCA), effective May 21, 2024 to increase the payment limit by $2,000,000 to a new payment limit of $3,500,000 for on-call architectural services with no change to the term April 18, 2023 through April 17, 2026, Countywide.
FISCAL IMPACT:
100% Various Funds. Projects will be assigned to the on-call architect when there is an approved project and funding.
BACKGROUND:
On April 18, 2023, the Board of Supervisors approved an on-call Consulting Services Agreement with LCA in the amount of $750,000.
On December 12, 2023, the Board of Supervisors approved Amendment 1, increasing the payment limit by $750,000 to a new payment limit of $1,500,000.
LCA is currently engaged under this Consultant Services Agreement to provide services on multiple County projects. Due to LCA’s demonstrated expertise and responsiveness, they have developed into a preferred option to provide architectural services for many types of projects including tenant improvement projects, deferred maintenance projects, and projects requiring particularly close coordination with our department user clients. Some of the County projects that LCA is currently engaged on include a chiller replacement, a fire suppression system upgrade, a roofing replacement, two dog parks for Behavioral Health, and multiple tenant improvements projects.
LCA is also engaged to provide programming, feasibility and concept development type services for a trio of critical County projects with sensitive project schedules: (1) the Brookside Mental Health Rehabilitation Center in Richmond, (2) the El Portal Residential Treatment Facility in San Pablo, and (3) the Environmental Remediation and Demolition of Old Juvenile Hall in Martinez. These projects are now ready, or will soon be ready, to proceed to full design services. LCA has developed a detailed understanding of these three projects while performing preliminary services for them and has demonstrated their relevant competency and expertise while performing these services. Therefore, Public Works judges LCA to be the best option to perform ongoing architectural services for these projects. However, due to the size and complexity of these projects, the associated architectural fees will significantly exceed the fee limit currently available in the LCA Consulting Services Agreement. The additional architectural fee for the Brookside Mental Health Rehabilitation Center project is expected to exceed $900,000. The additional architectural fee for the El Portal Residential Treatment Facility project is also expected to exceed $900,000. The additional architectural fee for the Old Juvenile Hall demolition project is expected to exceed $420,000. This combined anticipated fee of over $2,200,000 compares to only $770,473 currently available under the existing Consultant Services Agreement. Allowing also for contingency on existing projects, Public Works estimates that $2,000,000 should be added to the LCA Consulting Services Agreement to accommodate services for the projects noted above.
Therefore, to accommodate these projects and assure that they proceed as quickly and efficiently as possible, Public Works needs to execute a contract amendment increasing the fee limit of the Agreement.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If the amendment is not approved, the County will be unable to use LCA to provide all of the required architectural services for these three critical projects. Instead, the County would need to select other options for procurement of architectural services for these projects. The timeline for completing the projects would be delayed, probably 3-6 months, to accommodate alternative procurement scenarios. Delays would be expected to increase project costs and could potentially jeopardize grant funding for the Brookwood and El Portal projects. Additionally, the procurement effort might result in the County necessarily engaging an architect or architects less well-suited for these projects than LCA. At the least, any new architect brought onboard would need to invest time and effort to get up-to-speed, which would result in an expected loss of efficiency and time for the applicable project.