Okaloosa County BOCC — January 7, 2014 — Action Item Printout — reading text

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AGENDA REQUEST DATE: January 7, 2014 TO: Honorable Chairman and Members of the Board FROM: Jeff Littrell SUBJECT: Arbennie Pritchett WRF Expansion - Engineering RFQ & Review Committee DEPARTMENT: Water and Sewer BCC DISTRICT: All STATEMENT OF ISSUE: OCWS and Purchasing staff request permission to move forward with a qualifications based selection process for a contract with an engineering consultant for the Arbennie Pritchett WRF Expansion Project to serve as the Owner's Representative and Design Criteria Professional. BACKGROUND: Construction of the Arbennie Pritchett Water Reclamation Facility (APWRF) was completed in 2009 and has an annual average daily flow (AADF) capacity of 10 million gallons per day (MGD). This $65M program with 5 sub-projects was a huge success. The project was completed within budget and on-time. This state-of-the-art WRF has now been operating efficiently for about 4 years with parameters well below our state permit requirements. In addition, the APWRF has been the foundation for many related agreements that have generated revenue or reduced expenses for the Water & Sewer Enterprise Fund: 7th Special Forces, City of Ft. Walton Beach, Eglin Air Force Beach (Duke Field, Camp Rudder, Main Base, and the Navy EOD school), and Niceville/Valparaiso (diverting East County flow). Currently, the actual AADF is approximately 6.3 MGD. With the additional flow of the above- mentioned projects and other ongoing development, we anticipate being above 8 MGD of actual AADF in about 2 years. On paper, the capacity reserved is approximately 8.5 MGD. Although we have about 15% capacity remaining of the average daily flow, this puts us in an uncomfortable position for the long-term and the short-term during peak flow events, such as storms or hi-flow summer weekends. Because of this, OCWS has a 5 MGD plant expansion in our approved 5-year CIP: $2M in FY2014, $8M in FY2015, and $3M in FY2016. Most importantly, we expect this $13M total to be funded with cash. In account 411-4199-599360, OCWS has been saving up Capacity Expansion Charges (CECs) that have been received on the above-mentioned projects and other large projects, such as some of the recent hotels. We currently have approximately $4.5M in this account and are under contract with Eglin AFB for another $8.5M, which is expected to be received in the summer of 2014. Staff feels that the responsible thing to do is fund the 5 MGD needed expansion from the $13M to be in this account. There is also a desire to proceed with the expansion before the amount of CEC funds available is rendered insufficient by construction material inflation. Fortunately, the APWRF was designed and constructed with a future expansion in mind, from 10 MGD to 15 MGD. Certain components (i.e. head works, UV channels, admin building, etc.) have already been constructed for 15 MGD AADF, and room on the site has been left available for the needed expansion (oxidation ditch, clarifier, etc.). As Okaloosa County did in the late 2000s, when APWRF went through the procurement and design process, staff is proposing the design-build method of procurement, following Florida Statues and Design Build Institute of America (DBIA) requirements/guidelines. We feel that design-build is the best approach to large, high-dollar projects; with 1 company doing both the design and construction, it avoids finger pointing and potentially litigious situations, thereby lowering risk to the owner. The bidding process of selecting a design-build (D-B) contractor is qualifications based. Interested firms would submit both qualifications and bids in separate envelopes. The most qualified D-B contractor would be selected with the intent to negotiate a contract. The other set of envelopes would then be opened with their actual bid price. Negotiation then occurs with the most-qualified bidder until a final price is reached. If a price cannot be negotiated, negotiations would cease with the most-qualified bidder and commence with the next-most qualified bidder. This paragraph is just a brief summary of the D-B procurement process. Staff will come back to the Board in the future to obtain permission to move forward with the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for a D-B contractor. Currently, staff is requesting permission to issue an RFQ for an engineering consultant to serve as the Owner's Representative and be the Design Criteria Professional (DCP), as outlined in Florida Statutes 287.055 (AKA "Consultants' Competitive Negotiation Act (CCNA)"). Because the anticipated amount of this contract exceeds the thresholds listed in this statute, an existing continuing contract (AKA "master services agreement") cannot be utilized. A new contract will need to be executed for the professional engineering services necessary to move forward with the plant expansion. These professional engineering services may include but are not limited to the following services: owner's representative in procuring and coordinating with D-B contractor; serve as the Design Criteria Professional; prepare the RFQ (for D-B contractor), the Request for Proposal (RFP), and the Design Criteria Package (performance specifications and preliminary engineering); evaluate Statement of Qualifications and bids; perform engineer's cost estimates; groundwater modeling; permitting; engineering services during construction; resident observation; develop and manage Owner Purchased Equipment (OPE) program; coordinate complete system startup; construction administration; perform any miscellaneous engineering and technical service required in support of the project and specifically requested by the County. OCWS and Purchasing staff would now like to begin the process of obtaining an engineering consultant for the APWRF Expansion Project via the formal qualifications based selection process. If authorized by the Board, OCWS staff will work with Purchasing staff to formulate a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to begin the formal selection process. In the State of Florida per the Competitive Consultants Negotiations Act (CCNA), the selection criteria for the award of engineering contracts are qualifications based. Staff also recommends the following Review Committee to evaluate the statements of qualifications received and bring back a recommendation to the Board, regarding which firms to enter contracts with: Zan Fedorak or designee - Purchasing Manager (non-voting member to oversee) Nathan Boyles - Board of County Commissioners, Water & Sewer Liaison  Jeff Littrell - Water & Sewer, Director Jeb Chessher - Water & Sewer, Project Manager Darren Alford - Water & Sewer, Wastewater Operations Manager Jason Autrey - Public Works, County Engineer OPTIONS: Approve or deny. RECOMMENDATIONS: Staff requests BCC approval to move forward with the qualifications based selection process (via a RFQ) for a contract with an engineering consultant for the Arbennie Pritchett WRF Expansion Project and approval of the above-mentioned review committee. A recommendation of award will be brought back to the BCC at a later date. RECOMMENDED BY: APPROVED BY: Ernie Padgett, County Administrator