Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 11-22-05 ‎(regular)‎ — reading text

of 10% each year. The program establishes a maximum $ 50, 000 per eligible residence, which includes 10% administrative fees. The City was awarded $ 300, 000 for use in rehabilitating damaged residences. DISCUSSION As part of the application for t he HOME Again program, t he City had to include in its " Program Design" the methodology for the contractor bid, selection and contractor award/ agreement process. The City originally stated that it would follow the contractor selection process used for the CDSG Rehab program, whereby the City would solicit competitive sealed bids, select the lowest responsive, responsible bidder then award the contract. However, with the local contractor' s increase in work due to Hurricane Ivan, and more recently, Hurricane Dennis, it is increasingly difficult to find contractors who will go through the City' s bid process, and the two contractors who routinely work on the CDSG and CRA rehab programs are working on too many of these houses to bid on new work. For that reason, and because the HOME Again program is a loan program, not a grant program, and the homeowner has more invested in t he decision as to the contractor, the Florida Housing Finance Corporation has approved a change in the City' s contractor selection process for this process to allow the homeowner to request three contractor quotes utilizing the following process: a. The written scope of work ( prepared by the City' s Home Inspector for the CDSG and CRA rehab programs) must be mailed to the participating contractors. The contractor is notified that their estimate must be based on this written scope of work. b. All jobs must be bid on the scope of work only, with no additions or deletions unless specified by the building official. 4  o o c. The homeowner must submit all contractor bids to City staff, who will verify that the contractors are licensed and that the bids are based on the scope of work. d. An item by item comparison is made between all bids, ensuring that all bids use comparable materials. Care is given to watch for large discrepancies in costs for one or more item as this could indicate the possibility of a " low- ball" bid. While the lowest bid is, of course, most often considered to be the awarded bid, other considerations such as past performance, ability to proceed, number of jobs in progress, reputation for finishing in a timely manner, willingness to work with program constraints and the ability to understand and work with a low income homeowner, are all additional measuring criteria used in making the decision to recommend the contract. e. Once the award recommendation is made, the paperwork will be finalized and sent to the FHFC for approval, and the contractor will then be instructed to proceed with the execution of a contract for the rehabilitation services. SUMMARY Pursuant to Chapter 2, Section 2- 266, Purchasing Policies and Procedures, Ft. Walton Beach Code of Ordinances, staff requests a waiver of the formal bid process and authorization for the City Manager to award contracts for rehabilitation services to the lowest responsive, responsible quote for rehabilitation of homes eligible for funding from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation HOME Again Disaster Relief Loan Program. The contract amount for any single residence is not to exceed 50, 000.00. RECOMMENDATION Consideration to approve the waiver of the formal bid process and authorize the City Manager to award contracts of up to $ 50, 000 to the lowest responsive, responsible quote for rehabilitation of homes eligible for funding from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation HOME Again Disaster Relief Loan Program. Attachment: Revised Program Design for the HOME Again program REPORT PREPARED BY: fo~ e~ A D i: e/ f/ tJr;- 7/ REVIEWED & SUBMITTED BY: ~ Missy CDS Mc Director im y/ "- DateL:~~ REVIEWED AND CONCUR: jJ J I", O~ Date 2  o APPLICATION TAB! PROGRAM DESIGN 1. County to be Served with HOME Again funds: HOME again funds awarded to the City of Fort Walton Beach will be administered solely within Okaloosa County strictly on a first come, first verified, first served basis to those individuals who fall within 80% of the Adjusted Median Income limit as indicated on the 2004 FHFC Income Limits chart. 2. Key Personnel: The City of Fort Walton Beach Community Development Services Staffwill administer the HOME Again Program. Relevant staff include the CDBG Specialist, the Planner II, the Senior Staff Assistant, and the Chief Building Official. The duties the execution involving and administration of this grant are as follows: NamelTitle Duties Mary Cox, Responsible for the overall execution and administration of the CDBG Specialist grant ensuring that all applicable State and Federal statutory, regulatory and other legal requirement s are met. Further, this position will be responsible for overseeing all elements of the program design which includes advertising & notification to the target population, protocol development for selection and screening of applicants, working closely with the Building Official to select criteria for the damage assessment phase and to oversee finalization of the scope of work for selected properties, as well as supervising the contractor bid and selection process. Will review and finalize all re orts to the Ci and State. Cathy Ducharme, Responsible for submittal of all reimbursements to the State for Senior Staff Assistant work completed and assisting with all other compliance issues regarding the State and Federal Government. Will provide updates of funds expended and remaining, will compile and complete all required report for the State, will oversee applicant intake procedures and will assist in implementing market strategies. Will be responsible for assessing the recipients' status on homeowners insurance and to assess the degree of assistance needed as weB as to complete paperwork to provide the insurance while working closel with the insurance a ent involved in each case file. Linda Carnley, Chief Will make site visits to assess damage and formulate the Inspection Building Official Report, including digital photos of existing damage conditions as well as overall " before" pictures of the premises. Will create a written scope of work with a cost estimate. The scope of work will serve as the basis for the bid documents. The building official will coordinate with the bid process. The building official will be responsible for regularly inspecting the job site, accepting ins ection re uests for draws and verifyin com leted work. Program Design Application Tab 1 Page 1 of5  o o Key personnel involved in the HOME Again grant will operate as a team and with team spirit, paying particular attention to the special needs of the families to be served through this grant. It is the intention of the City of Fort Walton Beach to provide the best service possible, with the best attitude possible to those people in need of housing assistance. 3. Damage from Hurricane Ivan: The National Weather Service ( Mobile/Pensacola) updated their web site http:// www.srh. noaa. gov/ mob/ ivan pageI/van- main.htm) on October 12, 2004 with the following infonnation: Ivan came ashore as a high Category 3 stonn with 130 mph surface winds. Overall damage estimates over 5 billion dollars. Maximum surface winds were in the right front quadrant just prior to and after landfall. Peak wind gusts of 119 mph were recorded at Mary Esther at 3 :50 AM but had subsided to 86 mph by 12: 30 AM. Stonn surge at Brooks Bridge in Fort Walton Beach was 6. 12 ft while Destin was at 5. 39 ft. The 24 hour rainfall ( ending at 7 :00 PM) indicates that Crestview received 8.4., Niceville with 6.55 in., Valparaiso got 7.43 in. and Ft. Walton 6. 06 in. Damages caused by Hurricane Ivan within Okaloosa County surpassed $ 144 million dollars. Based on the initial windshield survey conducted by the City of Fort Walton Beach damage assessment team the day after Hurricane Ivan, it was estimated that almost 6. 8 million of residential property damage had occurred, which didn' t include any damages sustained inside residences and not visible from the outside. According to FEMA Florida Individual Assistance County Data" ( December 7, 2004), 6, 355 residences were eligible for FEMA assistance in Okaloosa County. The City has had calls requesting information on assistance for hurricane damages from citizens whose income levels initially seem to fit the criteria for the HOME Again Program. Most of the requests relate to roof damages that did not