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HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/1/2009 - STAFF REPORTS - 2.D. �oF ,ALMSpy ry ti c u n k e � City Council Staff Repo Date: JULY 1, 2009 CONSENT CALENDAR Subject: APPROVAL OF AMENDMENT N0, 9 TO THE AMENDED AND RESTATED WASTEWATER SERVICES AGREEMENT (AGREEMENT N0. 4123) WITH VEOLIA WEST OPERATING SERVICES, INC. (FORMERLY VEOLIA WATER NORTH AMERICA-WEST, LLC) From: David H. Ready, City Manager Initiated by: Public Works and Engineering Department SUMMARY Agreement No. 4123 with Veolia West Operating Services, Inc., provides the City with turn-key operation and maintenance of the City's sanitary sewer system. An amendment to the current agreement is recommended to include wastewater auditing, billing, customer support and associated services not currently included in the City's agreement. RECOMMENDATION: 1) Approve Amendment No. 9 to the Amended and Restated Wastewater Services Agreement (Agreement No. 4123) with Veolia West Operating Services, Inc. (formerly Veolia Water North America-West, LLC); and 2) Authorize the City Manager to execute all necessary documents. STAFF ANALYSIS: On June 21, 2006, City Council approved the Amended and Restated Wastewater Services Agreement (Agreement No. 4123) with Veolia West Operating Services, Inc. (formerly Veolia Water North America-West, LLC) ("Veolia"). The Agreement provides the City with operation and maintenance of the City's sanitary sewer collection system and its wastewater treatment plant, as well as to provide the City with a variety of associated programs (such as the Fats, Oils and Grease [FOG] pollution control program, stormwater quality program, and sewer system management plan). The Agreement was a restatement of an original agreement with Veolia (at that time known as U.S. Filter) approved July 28, 1999. ITEM NO. ��' ` City Council Staff Report July 1, 2009 - Page 2 Amendment of Wastewater Services Agreement No. 4123 The original agreement with U.S. Filter had an initial 5 year term, extended to June 30, 2006, by amendment. At the time, the City and Desert Water Agency ("DWA") were contemplating the sale of the wastewater treatment plant to DWA, however, that sale did not occur. As a result, the City negotiated a longer term agreement with Veolia, to ensure the City was provided with appropriate operation and maintenance of its sewer system. The current term of the Agreement extends until June 30, 2013, subject to a performance review by December 31, 2012, and a subsequent 5 year extension until June 30, 2018 (pending a satisfactory performance review finding by the City in accordance with the terms of the Agreement). The original agreement was amended six times, with Amendment No. 7 being the complete revision of terms and extension of time stipulated in the Amended and Restated Wastewater Services Agreement. A minor amendment (Amendment No. 8) to the agreement was approved by the City Manager in 2008 to add street sweeping services of City owned parking lots to the agreement. The proposed amendment is therefore considered Amendment No, 9 to the agreement. The City has approximately 27,000 sewer customers throughout the City. These customers consist of a variety of properties, such as single family homes, condominiums, duplexes and apartments, commercial properties, restaurants, and hotels. The sewer service charges established in the current Comprehensive Fee Schedule are a variety of rates which depend upon the type of'use for the property connected to the City's sewer. For example, residential uses have a flat monthly rate of $10.36 per unit; however, commercial uses have monthly rates that vary depending upon the number of fixture units (bath tubs, sinks, toilets, etc.) in the building, and hotels have monthly rates that vary depending upon whether or not the hotel rooms have kitchens. Annually, these fees generate approximately $5 Million which are utilized to maintain the City's sanitary sewer collection system and wastewater treatment plant. An effort was recently initiated by the Finance Department in the previous fiscal year, using temporary staff, to commence an audit of the City's wastewater fund customer billing database. Although the effort was limited to approximately one year (and ended due to cancellation of temporary employee work assignments as a part of the budget deficit reduction program), the initial auditing effort identified changes to the customer billing database that recovered approximately $200,000 (or 4%) of the City's total sewer charges. A continuation of the audit to its completion is expected to identify more changes to the customer billing database resulting in additional sewer charges, to as much as 10% of the City's total sewer charges. The City's sewer service charges have been collected on the Riverside County tax roll since the 1980/1981 fiscal year. This was done to eliminate the administrative burden of coordinating individual monthly billings for all of the City's sewer customers. However, despite having a vast majority of the City's sewer service charges collected on the County's tax roll, there remain several hundred individual billings that must still - CrG City Council Staff Report July 1, 2009 - Page 3 Amendment of Wastewater Services Agreement No. 4123 be coordinated annually by the Finance Department. These individual billings are related to non-taxed parcels (properties owned by tax exempt or governmental agencies), and therefore, must be separately billed. The sewer service charge billing and management has been implemented by the City using a very old computer software system known as "COBOL", initially developed in 1959. COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages, and it is used primarily in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments. This system has not been updated, is not "Windows friendly", and is very difficult to use if attempting to manipulate the data fields, produce billing reports, or other administrative functions. Converting the City's sewer service charge billing system to a current software program has been one important task that has not yet been accomplished, but is a priority for the wastewater fund. Over the years, the City has expanded its sewer system to provide service to most of the properties throughout the City. As properties develop and connect to the City's sewer system, there is a need to capture that property and ensure it is added into the City's sewer service charge billing database. Over time, there are also changes made to existing properties where buildings are demolished and new buildings constructed, or tenant improvements are made (thereby adding or deleting "fixture units") to existing buildings, hotel rooms are added or deleted (with or without kitchens added), and so forth. These changes to the sewer service charge billing database are equally important to capture. The process to ensure these changes to the City's billing database occur primarily involve the Building and Finance Department, and require preparation of reports identifying changes in connections to the sewer system and data input of those changes into the COBOL system. Over time, through loss of employees through attrition, or more recently, through reduction in staffing levels, there became a need to out-source the sewer service charge billing function. It is staffs recommendation that the sewer service charge billing function and all associated services be added to the Veolia agreement, as Veolia is the most appropriate vendor to coordinate the billing function for the City's sewer system given the operation and maintenance functions they currently perform. It should be known that Veolia currently provides billing management services to over 40 municipal clients, from the City of Seymour CT (10,000 residents) to Indianapolis IN (2,000,000 residents). Based on Veolia's current status as the City's wastewater operator, and given Veolia's experience providing customer billing services and support to other municipal clients, staff solicited a proposal from Veolia to provide Palm Springs with similar customer billing services and support. In accordance with Chapter 7.04.030 "Special Expertise Procurement," of the Palm Springs Municipal Code, the City Council has the authority to consider awarding a sole source agreement without competition when it is determined that an unusual or unique situation exists, in that due to experience and expertise demonstrated in prior contracts with the City a particular contractor is uniquely qualified v � City Council Staff Report July 1, 2009 - Page 4 Amendment of Wastewater Services Agreement No. 4123 for a particular task, that makes the application of all requirements of competitive sealed bidding or competitive sealed proposals contrary to the public interest. Staff would recommend that the Council consider Veolia uniquely qualified in this case. The goals to accomplish related to billing services and support relates to the following 5 primary goals: 1. Provide improved sewer customer billing data collection and management; 2. Provide monthly billing preparation and mailing; 3. Coordinate annual billing data transmission for the Riverside County Tax Assessor; 4. Complete an audit of the City's existing sewer service charge billing database with all available Building Department records to ensure the database is current with all new properties connected to the sewer system, and is current with all prior changes to buildings affecting the total number of fixture units; 5. Provide on-going auditing services of the City's existing sewer service charge billing database to ensure all changes to sewer connections are captured and identified. Veolia has submitted a proposal that matches the City's goals, and is outlined in the following scope of services: Billing Database Auditing — Review existing City records to identify all potential customers who are discharging to the sewer system and not currently paying for sewer services. Review existing City records to identify all existing customers who previously made modifications to their plumbing systems (affecting the number of fixture units) and require a modification of the existing sewer service charge fee. Update the sewer service charge billing database as appropriate. Payment Delinquency Program — Evaluate payment delinquency programs from other municipalities; evaluate current state and/or federal law applicable to sanitary sewer services and payment delinquency programs; identify and prepare an appropriate payment delinquency program for the City of Palm Springs. Data Management — Provide daily customer billing data management off-site by Veolia's customer care and information technology teams. Data management services to include recording on-going changes in customer billing data, additions and deletions of customers to the billing database, and preparation of electronic billing database reports required by the City. Coordinate preparation of annual customer electronic billing database for submittal by the City to the Riverside County Tax Assessor; confirm consistency between the Riverside County Tax Roll and the City's billing database, and make any required changes to the billing database. Provide final annual billing database indicating Riverside County Tax Assessor's Parcel Number and corresponding sewer service charge to City by July 1, for City's transmittal to Riverside County. City Council Staff Report July 1, 2009 - Page 5 Amendment of Wastewater Services Agreement No. 4123 Monthly Billinq — Coordinate all individual monthly billings for those customers not billed through the annual Riverside County tax roll. Prepare, print and mail monthly sewer bills. Coordinate delinquent accounts pursuant to an established payment delinquency program approved by the City. Provide customer service for the City, respond to questions from customers related to their sewer service Charge, and coordinate with Veolia's operation and maintenance staff at the City of Palm Springs wastewater treatment plant for customer service related issues. Coordinate sewer service charge funds collection through direct mail by customers to a lock-box address listed on the customer bill, or via on-line payment made available by Veolia's on-line web-based payment service vendor. Facilitate monthly sewer service charge funds transfer to the City pursuant to the City's Finance Department requirements. Billing Database Conversion — Transfer all existing data from the City's current billing database contained on its COBOL system to Veolia's billing database system (approximately 27,000 customers). Coordinate all data entry, system testing, and verification of billing database conversion from City's COBOL system to Veolia's billing database system. Veolia's billing database to be made available to City staff for viewing by remote connection (via on-line web-based servers) mutually agreeable to City and Veolia. The recommended fees for the billing services and support outlined above are as follows: Billing Database Auditing — $40.80 per hour; hourly rate represents an all inclusive rate (all expenses and benefits) for providing support personnel necessary to perform on-site and off-site auditing of City records. Compensation not to exceed $84,864 annually (equivalent to 2,080 hours). Payment Delinquency Program — included in the Billing Database Auditing compensation rate. Data Management— $10,000 flat rate, annually Monthly Billing -- $3.50 per month; on-line payment will require an additional $1.95 on- line payment processing fee payable by customer with on-line payment. Billing Database Conversion — $160 per hour, not to exceed $20,000 SUMMARY: Out sourcing the sewer service charge billing, customer service and support, billing database management, and other associated services to Veolia will provide final consolidation of the operation, maintenance and administration of the City's wastewater system by Veolia. Staff recommends approval of the contract amendment to ensure that the City's billing database is made current with all customers, and that sewer CIO City Council Staff Report July 1, 2009 - Page 6 Amendment of Wastewater Services Agreement No. 4123 service charges to all applicable customers are assessed in accordance with the City's established billing policies and procedures. FISCAL IMPACT: The first year fee will be established at a maximum, not to exceed amount of $120,158 in accordance with the recommended fees outlined above. The first year's fee includes the one-time not to exceed cost of $20,000 to convert the City's COBOL billing database to Veolia's billing database. The annual fee will be subject to an annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase in accordance with the current agreement. The second and subsequent year fee will be established at a maximum, not to exceed amount of$100,158 (unadjusted for CPI increase). The actual total annual fee incurred should decrease in relation to the initial full-time effort required with billing database auditing, as the database is updated and made current. The initial customer billing database auditing, previously performed by the Finance Department through a temporary employee work assignment last fiscal year, identified changes to the database that recovered approximately $200,000 in sewer fund charges. These recovered funds nearly offset the City's costs for Veolia's services in the first two years. It is expected that a continuation of the auditing effort will continue to recover additional sewer fund charges, and will offset future costs related to the customer billing services. Ultimately, the auditing effort will reduce to a point where no further auditing of the database is required. At that point in time, perhaps within 5 years, on-going updating of the customer database will ensure the database is kept current, which is included in the "Data Management" service identified at a flat rate fee of $10,000 annually. Therefore, the cost for customer billing services provided by Veolia at that time will be limited to the data management fee of $10,000 and the fee for individual billings (assuming 150 individual billings) of$6,300 for a total fee of$16,300, Sufficient funds are available in the Wastewater Fund, account 420-6800-43200 (contractual services). All services associated with the contract amendment are related to the sanitary sewer system, and therefore, no local General Funds will be used. G � City Council Staff Report July 1, 2009- Page 7 Amendment of Wastewater Services Agreement No. 4123 Submitted: David J. Barakian Oeoffrdy Kiehl Director of Public Works/City Engineer Director of Finance & Treasury David H. Ready ATTACHMENTS: 1. Contract Amendment AMENDMENT NO. 9 TO THE AMENDED AND RESTATED AGREEMENT NO. 4123 WITH VEOLIA WEST OPERATING SERVICES, INC. (FORMERLY VEOLIA WATER NORTH AMERICA-WEST, LLC) WASTEWATER SERVICES (OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE) The following articles of Agreement No. 4123 are hereby amended as follows: 1. Section 5.2 Veolia Scope of Services. — The following sub-section (bb) shall be added, as follows: (bb) Sewer Service Charge Customer Billing Services. Veolia shall provide sewer service charge customer billing services as set forth on Schedule FF. City shall pay Veolia for the cost of such services pursuant to the schedule of compensation identified on Schedule FF. 2, Section 7.1 Fees. —The following sub-section (h) shall be added, as follows- (h) Sewer Service Charge Customer Billing Services, The City shall pay Veolia for the cost of Veolia providing sewer service charge customer billing services, as identified on Schedule FF, pursuant to the schedule of compensation identified on Schedule FF. 3. List of Schedules —The following shall be identified on the list of Schedules- FF Sewer Service Charge Customer Billing Services 4. Schedule FF, attached to and made a part of this Amendment No. 9, shall be added. Purchase Order Number(s). 816110 Agreement Number: 4123 Original City Council Approval. June 21, 2006 Original M.O. Number: 7883 Original Contract Amount: $ 3,099,930.00 Amount of Previous Increase(s) $ 9,070.00 Amount of This Increase $ 120,158.00 Amended Total: $ 3,229,208.00 Account Number: 420-6800-43200 SIGNATURES ON LAST PAGE Except as specifically amended by this Amendment No. 9, all terms and provisions of Agreement No. 4123 shall remain in full force and effect. ATTEST: CITY OF PALM SPRINGS, a California charter city By: By: City Clerk City Manager APPROVED AS TO FORM: By: City Attorney VEOLIA WEST OPERATING SERVICES, INC. CONTRACTOR: Check one:_Individual_Partnership X Corporation Corporations require two notarized signatures: One signature must be from the Chairman of Board. President, or any Vice President. The second signature must be from the Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, or Chief Financial Officer). By: By: Notarized Signature of Chairman of Board, Notarized Signature Secretary,Asst Secretary, President or any Vice President Treasurer, Asst treasurer or Chief Financial Officer Name: Name. Title: Title. State of � State of ll County of Jss County of Iss On before me, On before me, , personally appeared personally appeared who proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence)to be who proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence)to be the person(s) whose name(s) istare subscribed to the within the person(s) whose name(&) islare subscribed to the within Instrument and acknowledged to me that he/she/they instrument and acknowledged to me that helshe/they executed the same in hislher/their authorized capecity(ies), executed the same in his/her/their authorized capacity(ies), and that by his/her/their signature(s) on the instrument the and that by his/her/their signature(s) on the instrument the person(s), or the entity upon behalf of which the person(s) person(s), or the entity upon behalf of which the person(s) acted,executed the instrument acted,executed the instrument. I certify under PENALTY OF PERJURY under the laws of the I certify under PENALTY OF PERJURY under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing paragraph is true and State of California that the foregoing paragraph is true and correct. correct. WITNESS my hand and official seal. WITNESS my hand and official seal. Notary Signature: Notary Signature: Notary Seal: Notary Seal: 09 SCHEDULE FF SEWER SERVICE CHARGE CUSTOMER BILLING SERVICES Background The City currently provides and coordinates all customer billing services for its approximately 27,000 sewer customers in-house with City employees. The City desires to out-source this function to Veolia, whereby Veolia shall provide all services associated with sewer service charge customer billing, as outlined herein this Schedule FF. The goals to accomplish related to billing services and support relates to the following 5 primary goals: 1. Provide improved sewer customer billing data collection and management; 2. Provide monthly billing preparation and mailing; 3. Coordinate annual billing data transmission for the Riverside County Tax Assessor; A. Complete an audit of the City's existing sewer service charge billing database with all available Building Department records to ensure the database is current with all new properties connected to the sewer system, and is current with all prior changes to buildings affecting the total number of fixture units; 5. Provide on-going auditing services of the City's existing sewer service charge billing database to ensure all changes to sewer connections are captured and identified. Services Veolia shall provide the following services, effective July 1, 2009, and extending coincident with the term, and any extended term, pursuant to all other applicable provisions of the Agreement Billing Database Auditing — Review existing City records to identify all potential customers who are discharging to the sewer system and not currently paying for sewer services. Review existing City records to identify all existing customers who previously made modifications to their plumbing systems (affecting the number of fixture units) and require a modification of the existing sewer service charge fee. Update the sewer service charge billing database as appropriate. For purposes of clarifying the difference between billing database auditing (as identified here), and recording on-going changes in customer billing data (as identified in "Data Management"), billing database auditing is defined as the identification of all new customers not currently paying a sewer service charge fee, or all existing customers who have modified their plumbing systems requiring a change to their current sewer service charge fee, pursuant to City of Palm Springs Building Department permits issued prior to July 1, 2009. City and Veolia shall determine a mutually agreeable method to monitor the efficiency of the billing database auditing services provided by Veolia pursuant to this Schedule FF, using the total number of new customers and/or new sewer service charges identified and added to the City's billing database by the City's prior temporary staff person assigned this task during the 2008/2009 fiscal year. The mutually agreed method shall be used to adequately assess the performance of this task, and to identify on-going billing database auditing needs beyond the second year of services, commencing July 1, 2011. On or before June 30, 2010, Veolia shall provide a schedule identifying an approximate time frame in which an audit of all the City's records which affect sewer service charges for new or existing customers, pursuant to City of Palm Springs Building Department permits issued prior to July 1, 2009, shall be completed. FF- 1 j'p° PaVment Delinquency Program -- Evaluate payment delinquency programs from other municipalities; evaluate current state and/or federal law applicable to sanitary sewer services and payment delinquency programs, identify and prepare an appropriate payment delinquency program for the City of Palm Springs. These services shall be completed prior to June 30, 2010. Data Management Provide daily customer billing data management off-site by Veolia's customer care and information technology teams. Data management services to include recording on-going changes in customer billing data, additions and deletions of customers to the billing database, and preparation of electronic billing database reports required by the City. For purposes of clarifying the difference between recording on-going changes in customer billing data (as identified here), and billing database auditing (above), recording on-going changes in customer billing data is defined as the identification of all new customers not currently paying a sewer service charge fee, or all existing customers who have modified their plumbing systems requiring a change to their current sewer service charge fee, pursuant to City of Palm Springs Building Department permits issued after July 1, 2009. Coordinate preparation of annual customer electronic billing database for submittal by the City to the Riverside County Tax Assessor; confirm consistency between the Riverside County Tax Roll and the City's billing database, and make any required changes to the billing database. Provide final annual billing database indicating Riverside County Tax Assessor's Parcel Number and corresponding sewer service charge to City by July 1, for City's transmittal to Riverside County. Monthly Billing — Coordinate all individual monthly billings for those customers not billed through the annual Riverside County tax roll. Prepare, print and mail monthly sewer bills. Coordinate delinquent accounts pursuant to an established payment delinquency program approved by the City. Provide customer service for the City, respond to questions from customers related to their sewer service charge, and coordinate with Veolia's operation and maintenance staff at the City of Palm Springs wastewater treatment plant for customer service related issues. Coordinate sewer service charge funds collection through direct mail by customers to a lock-box address listed on the customer bill, or via on-line payment made available by Veolia's on-line web-based payment service vendor. Facilitate monthly sewer service charge funds transfer to the City pursuant to the City's Finance Department requirements. Billing Database Conversion — Transfer all existing data from the City's current billing database contained on its COBOL system to Veolia's billing database system (approximately 27,000 customers). Coordinate all data entry, system testing, and verification of billing database conversion from City's COBOL system to Veolia's billing database system. Veolia's billing database to be made available to City staff for viewing by remote connection (via on-line web- based servers) mutually agreeable to City and Veolia. Reporting and Data Transfer — Ve011a shall program and produce up to 10 routine billing database reports as required by the City. The routine billing database reports shall be transmitted electronically on a frequency required by the City, which shall be considered included in the scope of work "Data Management" (above). FF -2 Schedule of Compensation Billinq Database Auditing — Compensation shall be established at $40.80 per hour, representing an all inclusive rate (all expenses and benefits) for providing support personnel necessary to perform all on-site and off-site billing database auditing. Compensation shall be at a fixed lump sum fee of $84,864 (equivalent to 2,080 hours) applicable to the first and second year of services, fiscal years 200912010 and 2010/2011 only. During fiscal years 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, on or before September 1 of each year, Veolia shall provide an accounting of actual hours worked for the period of July 1 to June 30 of the first and second years of services, respectively. On or before September 1, 2011, the City shall calculate the total number of actual hours worked for the period of July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2011. If the total number of actual hours worked is less than 4,160 the City shall be credited the difference between 4,160 and the actual hours worked, with the difference being credited to actual hours worked and invoiced to the City for the period commencing July 1, 2011. The City shall not be liable for additional costs if the total number of actual hours worked for the period of July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2011, is more than 4,160. Commencing with the third year of service, July 1, 2011, billing database auditing shall be provided on an as needed basis, at the all inclusive rate of $40.80 per hour, not to exceed $84,864 annually (equivalent to 2,080 hours). Payment Delinquency Program — Compensation shall be considered as included in the fixed lump sum fee of$84,864 effective the first year of services (fiscal year 200912010). Data Management—Compensation shall be at a fixed lump sum fee of$10,000. Monthly Billing -- Compensation shall be at a fixed lump sum fee of $3.50 per month per customer account. Customers choosing on-line payment will incur an additional $1.95 on-line payment processing fee (or other fee in force and effect pursuant to Veolia's on-line payment processing vendor). The on-line payment processing fee shall be payable by the customer at the time the on-line payment is made. Billing Database Conversion — Compensation shall be established at $160.00 per hour, representing an all inclusive rate (all expenses and benefits) for providing Veolia information technology and/or other personnel necessary to perform the billing database conversion. Compensation shall not exceed $20,000 and is applicable to the first year of services, fiscal year 2009/2010 only. Reporting and Data Transfer — Compensation for preparation of up to 10 routine billing database reports shall be considered as included in the Billing Database Conversion fees payable the first year of services (fiscal year 2009/2010). Preparation of additional billing database reports, or preparation of special reports required by the City, shall be established at $150.00 per hour, representing an all inclusive rate (all expenses and benefits) for providing Veolia programming and/or other personnel necessary to prepare additional or special billing database reports as required by the City. Annual Fee Adjustments — The hourly and/or fixed lump sum fees identified herein above shall be subject to an annual adjustment in the same manner and subject to the same limitations for Veolja's "O&M Fixed Component" pursuant to Section 7.2 of the Agreement. FF-3 i7 First Year, Fiscal Year 2009/2010 — The maximum compensation payable to Veolia shall be established at a maximum, not to exceed amount of $120,158. Second Year, Fiscal Year 2010/2011 —The maximum compensation payable to Veolia shall be established at a maximum, not to exceed amount of $100,158 (as may be adjusted by an annual adjustment, if any, pursuant to Section 7.2 of the Agreement, effective July 1, 2010). The maximum compensation for the Third Year, Fiscal Year 2011/2012, and beyond, payable to Veolia, shall be established in the same manner as the Second Year, Fiscal Year 2010/2011, FF -4 j