To: Board of Supervisors
From: Monica Nino, County Administrator
Report Title: East County Service Center (ECSC) Project Construction Contract
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. FIND, on the basis of the whole record, including the proposed Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (“IS/MND”) and any comments received and staff responses thereto included in this staff report and attached to it, that there is no substantial evidence that the Project will have a significant effect on the environment, and further FIND that the Mitigated Negative Declaration (“MND”) reflects the independent judgement and analysis of the lead agency, Contra Costa County (“County”).
2. ADOPT the MND and the Mitigation and Monitoring Reporting Program (“MMRP”) for the Project.
3. APPROVE the East County Service Center Project, Phase 2 - Construction.
4. SPECIFY that the Contra Costa County Public Works Department is the custodian of the documents and other material that constitute the record of proceedings upon which the Board’s decision is based, and that the record of proceedings is located at 255 Glacier Drive, Martinez, CA.
5. DIRECT the Director of Department of Conservation and Development (DCD), or designee, to cause a CEQA Notice of Determination (NOD) to be filed with the County Clerk and State Clearinghouse within five working days, and
6. AUTHORIZE the Public Works Director, or designee, to arrange for payment of $3,043.75 for California Department of Fish and Wildlife fees and a $50 fee to the County Clerk for filing the NOD.
7. AUTHORIZE and APPROVE the County Administrator, or designee, to execute a construction contract approved as to form by County Counsel with Webcor Construction L.P., a Delaware Limited Partnership, in an amount not to exceed $155,000,000, including contingencies, for the construction of a 117,000 square foot government services center in Brentwood, the East County Service Center (ECSC) Project. (100% General Fund Capital Reserve)
FISCAL IMPACT:
The total construction budget is currently estimated to be $155,000,000, including contingencies. The County will fund the project out of assigned fund balance and will not incur any debt-financing. The current Capital Reserves assigned fund balance is $343,657,148.
BACKGROUND:
East County Service Center Project Background
On March 7, 2006, the Board of Supervisors directed the County Administrator’s Office to conduct a regional needs assessment to determine if County departments providing services to the public had equitable distribution across the county. On May 9, 2006 the Board accepted the regional needs assessment report from the County Administrator’s Office which identified East County as the geographically disadvantaged in relation to County service delivery and recommended that the County plan to add, expand and replace aging facilities to accommodate that changing population and growing demand for services. On January 18, 2011, in response to the regional needs assessment, the Board of Supervisors authorized the purchase of 2.83 acres on Technology Way in Brentwood at a cost of $1.3 million for the eventual construction of the East County Government Center (Attachment A).
The Board’s direction to construct regional service centers was reaffirmed on September 20, 2022, when the Board of Supervisors adopted the Capital Facilities Master Plan, which again identified the need for equitable distribution of County services by means of creating regional service centers in East, Central, and West County. East County was identified as the first of the regional service centers for construction given the ongoing rapid population growth.
In March of 2025, the County began the procurement process for a Design-Build team for this project through the release of a Request for Qualifications (RFQ), resulting in the selection of Webcor Construction, whose Phase 1 - Preconstruction/Design Contract for this project was approved by the Board on July 8, 2025. Details of the overall procurement process for this project are listed in the attached staff report to the Board dated July 8, 2025 (Attachment B).
On May 13, 2025, the Board of Supervisors authorized the purchase of an additional five acres on an adjoining parcel to expand the site plan of the ECSC Project to approximately 8 acres.
County staff have actively solicited local input from City of Brentwood staff and elected leadership in a series of meetings between October 2024 and January 2026; exact dates of these meetings are referenced in the attached correspondence to the Brentwood City Manager, dated February 17, 2026 (Attachment C).
The approval of this action, including the contract award to begin Phase 2 - Construction, will keep this project on schedule with an estimated completion date in December 2027.
Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) Background
The County, as the project sponsor and the lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”), completed all required environmental review for the project. An Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) identified potentially significant impacts in the areas of aesthetics, air quality, biological resources, cultural and tribal cultural resources, geology & soils, hazards and hazardous materials, noise, and mandatory findings of significance, and further identified mitigation measures to reduce all such impacts to less-than-significant levels. The IS/MND and corresponding documents were posted for public review on January 30, 2026. The public comment period for accepting comments on the adequacy of the environmental documents extended from February 2, 2026, through February 23, 2026.
The proposed MND attached to this staff report (Attachment D) includes corrections and clarifications in response to comments received, but none of the changes to the MND constitutes a “substantial revision” that would require recirculation of the MND. (See CEQA Guidelines, § 15073.5(b), (c).) In connection with the approval of the Project and award of the Project construction contract recommended by this staff report, staff also recommend the adoption of the MND and a related Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program (the “MMRP”). The MMRP (Attachment D) is a program for reporting and monitoring Project changes required of the Project to mitigate or avoid all significant environmental effects identified during the environmental review process.
Seventeen comment letters were received via email within the comment period (Attachment F and G). The letters received are discussed in further detail in the CEQA Public Comment section of this report.
Tribal Cultural Resources Background
In accordance with Section 21080.3.1 of the California Public Resources Code, Notices of Opportunity to Request Consultation were sent via email and mailed to the Wilton Rancheria (WR) and to the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation (CVLN) on February 24, 2025. These are the two California Native American tribes that have requested notification of proposed projects within Contra Costa County. Pursuant to Section 21080.3.1(d), there was a 30-day time period for each of the tribes to either request or decline consultation in writing for this project. CVLN did not provide information about resources or request consultation, but did provide recommendations on avoidance, mitigation, and monitoring measures. WR requested consultation on February 24, 2025. The County consulted with WR regarding the methods of resource investigation and avoidance, mitigation, and monitoring measures. Measures were agreed upon, and consultation was concluded on September 10, 2025.
Mitigation measures CUL-1 through CUL-5 for Cultural Resources, and mitigation measures TCR-1 and TCR-2 for Tribal Cultural Resources, have been included in the IS/MND and also in the mitigation monitoring program as part of staff’s recommendations, and attached to this staff report. The Cultural Heritage Specialist of WR indicated that the Tribe has no further information to supply about the proposed site for this service center.
CEQA Public Comments
While the Board is required to consider all comments received during the public review process for the MND, formal responses to comments, such as those required in a final EIR, are not required under CEQA when a mitigated negative declaration is being adopted (see CEQA Guidelines, § 15074). Nevertheless, staff brings to the Boards attention the following staff responses to issues raised in the City of Brentwood’s comment letter (Attachment I).
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
Failure to approve this action today will delay the start of the ECSC Project and could ultimately cost the County more money due to cost escalation, and up to approximately $5 million in unrealized federal tax credits that expire at the end of 2027.