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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.