AgdaPkt 2014-01-27 Closed and Regular

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7.2.D. - Page 1 REPORT To the Honorable Mayor and City Council From the City Manager January 27, 2014 SUBJECT Third Amendment to an Agreement with Shums Coda & Associates, Inc., for Building Plan Check Services RECOMMENDATION By motion, approve and authorize the City Manager to execute, the Third Amendment to the Agreement with Shums Coda & Associates, Inc., for Building Plan Check Services in the amount of $250,000 for a total amount of $700,000. BACKGROUND In June 2012, the City entered into an initial agreement with Shums Coda & Associates to provide third party plan review support for the Building Division. The amount of this initial agreement was $55,000. Since then, two amendments to the Agreement have been approved by the City Council, such that the current Agreement is $450,000. ANALYSIS The Building Division relies on third party plan check for structural reviews and assistance on large and complicated projects. . The City is recruiting for a Chief Building Official, Senior Building Inspector, and plan checker, in addition to permit counter technical support. The support provided through this contract will assure the City can move through this transition time with adequate professional support. This use of consultants is temporary to deal with the current building boom in the City and not intended as a permanent solution for service delivery. The increased demand for services coupled with recent vacancies is what has led to the need for these contractor services. The City is conducting the recruitments with the assistance of a search firm with the goal of having a well-qualified applicant pool to select from in making these critical appointments. The building boom in Downtown and elsewhere in the City has brought in very large projects that pay very large building plan check and permit fees. The consultants fees are based on the value of the building plan check fee and range from 50-75% of that collected fee. These are standard fee arrangements in the Bay Area for this service. Because the permit fees are large, the payments to the consultants have expended the Agreement funds more rapidly than was anticipated in August, when the last amendment was enacted. Staff plans to issue an RFP for both building plan check and inspection services in February and begin new Agreements with the new Fiscal Year.