REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL September 27, 2018 FROM: JENNIFER CLARK, Director Development and Resource Management Department BY: MIKE SANCHEZ, Assistant Director Development Services Division SUBJECT ..Title Approve a Sixth Amendment to the contracts with Brooks Ransom and Associates and Interwest Consulting Group, to conduct professional plan check services for Building and Safety customer projects. ..Body RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends approving the Sixth Amendment to the contract with Brooks Ransom and Associates to reduce the total compensation amount from $325,000 to $275,000; and increase the amount not to exceed $250,000 for Interwest Consulting Group (Interwest) to conduct professional plan check services for Building and Safety customer projects. This amendment also includes the extension of both contracts to June 30, 2019. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Brooks-Ransom and Associates and Interwest Consulting Group are professional consulting firms that have performed plan check services for the Building and Safety Services Division of DARM. Contracts were originally entered into on February 23, 2015, (Interwest) and November 4, 2015, (Brooks-Ransom) with several amendments to the respective agreements having occurred. This proposed amendment will shift $50,000 from the Brooks-Ransom contract to the Interwest contract. This does not involve any request for new monies over what has already been allocated. Due to the continued volume of new residential development projects there is a need to improve services with listed consultants to meet acceptable processing timelines. BACKGROUND Since 2015, Building and Safety Services Division has engaged with outside professional consulting services with Brooks-Ransom and Interwest for plan check services. These services include structural engineering review for commercial/industrial buildings (Brooks-Ransom); and custom single family and standard residential plan check review (Interwest). Both firms have met their timeline commitments to the City. While the workload has remained steady for commercial plan checks, there continues to be a sizeable volume of residential plan checks in the queue. It is anticipated that this level of activity could continue for the next 18-24 months. In efforts to meet reasonable response timelines to the industry, staff is requesting that existing allocated monies in the amount of $50,000 be shifted to cover additional residential plan check review as outlined below: Firm Current Contract Amount Amended Contract Amount Brooks-Ransom $325,000 $275,000 Interwest $200,000 $250,000 In addition, both contracts will be amended to extend their duration to June 30, 2019. Both consulting firms have been agreed to these amendments and terms. ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS By the definition provided in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378 the amendment of an agreement does not qualify as a "project" for the purposes of CEQA. LOCAL PREFERENCE Local preference was not implemented because this item is an amendment to an existing contract. FISCAL IMPACT No additional General Fund appropriations are required for this contract amendment. ATTACHMENTS Exhibit A: Sixth Amendment to Brooks Ransom Agreement Exhibit B: Sixth Amendment to Interwest Consulting Group Agreement Exhibit C: Original Brooks Ransom Agreement Exhibit D: Original Interwest Consulting Group Agreement