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CC - Authorization to Release a Request for Proposals for the Maintenance of the City’s Sanitary Sewer Emergency Notification System/Sewer Flow Monitoring System (ENS/SFMS)
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Contact Person/Dept: Gabe Garcia/PW
Phone Number: (310) 253-5633
Fiscal Impact: Yes [] No [X] General Fund: Yes [] No [X]
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [] Attachments: Yes [] No [X]
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No [X] Date:
Commission Name:
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - City Council (03/11/16); Utility Systems, Science & Software (US3) by email.
Department Approval: Charles D. Herbertson, Public Works Director/City Engineer (02/26/16)
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RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council authorize the release of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for professional services for the maintenance of the City’s sanitary sewer Emergency Notification System/Sewer Flow Monitoring System (ENS/SFMS).
BACKGROUND
Sewer Flow Management System (SFMS)
The City owns its sanitary sewer system, which is presently comprised of seven pump stations and 90 miles of sewer pipeline which system conveys about 4.3 million gallons per day to the City of Los Angeles’ sewer transmission lines for treatment at the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant. The arrangement is per the conditions contained in an approved Agreement between the City of Los Angeles and the City for the Conveyance, Treatment and Disposal of Wastewater (the Amalgamated Sewer Agreement - ASA). The ASA requires that the City of Los Angeles treat and dispose of Culver City’s wastewater. The ASA also requires Culver City to report sewer flow data at monthly, quarterly, and annual intervals and to pay for the sewage conveyance and treatment to the City of Los Angeles. The purpose of the flow data is to determine the City’s fair share of operational and capital costs at the Hyperion Plant and the maintenance of the City of Los Angeles sewer transmission lines. There are financial penalties to the City if sewer data reported is incomplete.
Culver City’s Sewer Flow Monitoring System (SFMS) was installed in the year 2000. The SFMS consists of sewer flow meters, sensors, data loggers, data communications, computer servers, and related equipment. The sewer flow meters are integrated through a wireless communications network into a cloud-based system. The wireless network architecture provides for remote meter reading and sewer flow data communications based on TCP/IP and other industry standard protocols using the City’s trunked radio system for local communication and cellular communication to a remote server at the site of the present professional engineering firm providing maintenance services. The SFMS utilizes Flo-Dar Open Channel Flow meters (Radar and Ultrasonic-based Velocity/Area) manufactured by Hach Marsh McBirney, with a data management communication software package called Flo-Ware for Windows, in a network independent of the City’s computer network.
Sewer Emergency Notification System (ENS)
The ENS system utilizes Motorola ACE, a digital communication hardware, to maintain compatibility with the City’s trunk radio system, which is the backbone for the ENS communication and integrates the City’s seven sewer pump stations into an intelligent technology network that assesses mission-critical components and reports normal status as well as alarms to first-responder City staff.
The ENS reports alarm incidents from the pump stations wirelessly to a central unit located in City Hall. The server and assistant hardware then deliver text messages (SMS) to cell phones, e-mails to staff computers, and make voice phone calls to a tree list of responsible first-responders of City staff and consultants. The ENS is a mission-critical component of the City’s Sewer Spill Prevention Program.
The ENS system employs Trihedral Engineering’s Virtual Tagged System’s (VTS) Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, a state of the art SCADA system, to give intelligence to the ENS system, notify staff of incidents, and maintain related databases.
DISCUSSION
The ENS/SFMS is being maintained by a professional engineering firm under a City Council-approved five-year contract approved in 2009, plus a two-year extension approved by the City Council in 2014. The second year of this extension will conclude at the end of June 2016. Culver City Municipal Code (CCMC) Section 3.07.050 Multi-Year Contracts, requires that “In the event the same supplier, contractor or consultant has been utilized for a period of five (5) continuous years, the formal or informal bidding procedures as set forth in CCMC section 3.07.075 and 3.07.080 of this Subchapter shall apply.”
Further, CCMC section 3.07.085 requires that the award of a contract for the professional services, such as to maintain the ENS/SFMS, be based on competitive quotations.
Staff recommends that the City Council authorize the release of an RFP to solicit professional services to maintain the ENS/SFMS.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
Release of an RFP does not create a fiscal impact for the City. The staff report which conveys staff’s recommended award of a professional services agreement will include an appropriate fiscal analysis
ATTACHMENTS
None.
RECOMMENDED MOTION(S)
That the City Council:
Authorize the release of a Request for Proposals for professional services to maintain the sanitary sewer’s Emergency Notification System/Sewer Flow Monitoring System (ENS/SFMS).