Environmental/Brownfield Consultant SelectionTHE CITY OF
Dui
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Environmental/Brownfield Consultant Selection
DATE: August 13, 2014
Dubuque
band
AI -America City
r
2007 • 2012 • 2013
Eight responses were received to a Request for Proposal issued for a consultant to
provide environmental professional services for a term of three to five years related to
capital improvement projects, soil and groundwater management, health and safety
planning, training for City staff, and community outreach, as well as oversight of the
Brownfields Assessment Cooperative Agreement Grant. Four firms were selected for
an interview.
Economic Development Director Maurice Jones and the RFP Review Committee
recommend entering into a contract negotiation with HR Green with an anticipated
range of $500,000 to $530,000, once a final scope of work has been negotiated.
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
lAitt44 (4,,
Mic ael C. Van Milligen
MCVM:jh
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager
Maurice Jones, Economic Development Director
THE CITY OF
Dui
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
Dubuque
katil
All -America City
1111
2007 • 2012 •2013
Economic Development Department
50 West 13th Street
Dubuque, Iowa 52001-4864
Office (563) 589-4393
TTY (563) 690-6678
http://www.cityofdubuque.org
TO: Michael Van Miliigen, City Manager
FROM: Maurice Jones, Economic Development Director
SUBJECT: Environmental/Brownfield Consultant Selection
DATE: August 6, 2014
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this memorandum is to present the findings and recommendation of the
Review Committee based upon submitted proposals and subsequent interviews with
four consultants.
BACKGROUND
In December 2011, the City submitted an application to the EPA for $400,000 total in
financial assistance for the assessment of environmental contamination in the Historic
Millwork District, the South Port, and the Bee Branch Creek Restoration Area. In May
2012, City staff learned that their request for funding had been denied. The grant was
slightly altered based on comments from the EPA, including the replacement of the
Washington Neighborhood as opposed to the Bee Branch Creek Restoration Area, and
was resubmitted in November 2012. In May 2013, the EPA announced Dubuque had
received assessment grants in the amount of $200,000 for hazardous substances and
$200,000 for petroleum.
The City is also developing an environmental soils and groundwater database that will
be accessible through the City's Geographical Information System (GIS). The database
will be a library of all known existing environmental documents and will be
supplemented as additional reports and documents are generated. The individual
documents will then be linked to the parcel to which they apply. The development of
this database is focusing on the three Brownfield areas outline herein, and then will be
expanded to encompass the entire City when data comes available.
DISCUSSION
On July 7, 2014 City Council approved the release of an RFP seeking environmental
professional services for a term of three to five years related to: capital improvement
projects, soil and groundwater management, health and safety planning, training for City
staff, and community outreach, as well as oversight of the Brownfields Assessment
Cooperative Agreement Grant. The RFP proposes an initial three (3) year contract, with
the possibility of two (2) one-year extensions.
The schedule for the RFP distribution and consultant selection was as follows:
RFP Release to Public
Response Due Date
Consultant Interviews
Recommendation to City Manager
Recommendation to City Council
July 8, 2014
July 22, 2014
Week of July 28 -August 1, 2014
August 12, 2014
August 18, 2014
The Review Committee for the submitted proposals is as follows:
Maurice Jones — Economic Development Director
Steve Brown — Engineering Project Manager
Denise Ihrig — Environmental Engineer
Todd Irwin — Engineering Technician
Chandra Ravada — Transportation Director, ECIA
The Review Committee received a total of eight (8) proposals on/before the Response
Due Date. An initial meeting was held to begin review of the proposals, with each
individual scoring all of the proposals. A second meeting was held to discuss the initial
reactions of the Review Committee members and to select firms to be interviewed,
based upon their successful written responses. Four (4) firms were interviewed over
the course of five days.
The four firms interviewed were Cardno ATC of Waterloo, Iowa; SCS Engineers,
Madison, WI; HRGreen, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Fehr Graham, Rockford, Illinois. HR
Green's presentation was clear and concise. Their understandings of the City's needs
for Brownfields Coordination to complete the necessary steps to fulfill the grant
requirements were clearly understood. They also presented a robust GIS integration
model that will greatly serve the City beyond the locations specified in the Brownfields
grant. The GIS prioritization model they have developed, ranks quickly and visually key
properties ready and able for development by bringing together collected data to show
environmental conditions of the site, past uses, current owner activities, and future use
expectations which will highlight prime real estate reuse potential. HR Green also
demonstrated a sense of urgency as the grant is already in motion and funds need to be
drawn in a timely manner to demonstrate progress is being made. Finally, HR Green will
be working on this project and future projects from their office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
along with other Brownfields project in Iowa; in short, they know and understand the
projects managers in the USEPA Region 7 Brownfields Office and have worked with
them extensively.
BUDGET IMPACT
The estimated cost for professional services is anticipated to be in the range of
$500,000 to $530,000 once a final scope of work has been negotiated.
The work will be funded from the Assessment Cooperative Agreement ($400,000 over
three years beginning October 1, 2013) CIP #100-2567 and #100-2567H, and the
Environmental Consulting Professional Services CIP #710-2544 with a budget of
$50,000 in FY15 and $20,000 each for FY16 — FY19. Work performed on individual
capital projects will be recharged to those projects, with the scope and fee to be
negotiated for each project.
RECOMMENDATION/ ACTION STEP
Based upon both their written response, and presentation and oral responses in the
interview, the Review Committee recommends entering into a contract negotiation with
HR Green.