CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Waive the applicable provisions of the Naperville Procurement Code and award Procurement 21-354, Grant Application Assessment, Preparation and Submittal Services, to West Monroe Partners, LLC for an amount not to exceed $150,000 (requires six positive votes)
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DEPARTMENT: Electric Utility
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Groth, Director
BACKGROUND:
On November 5, 2021, the U.S. Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“Act”). This bipartisan legislation is designed to invest in the nation's infrastructure, including funding for roads and bridges, rail, transit, ports, airports, electric grid, water systems, broadband, among other priorities.
The City seeks to identify and submit grant applications based on the different funding mechanisms within the Act in anticipation of it becoming law by the end of the year and estimates a total grant value of approximately $20-$30 million.
Based on an initial assessment, the following six areas in the Electric Utility have been identified to have shovel ready projects that may be potentially eligible to receive funding:
1. tollway substation improvements
2. distribution automation upgrades
3. undergrounding primary and secondary cable
4. fiber optic cable upgrades
5. EV charging infrastructure (for municipal and public access)
6. Cyber security (likely to be bundled within the other five main areas)
DISCUSSION:
The City does not have in-house expertise and resources to identify, research, and prepare grant application submittals. In addition, with the Act just approved on November 5 and the grant application submittal process scheduled to begin in December 2021, there is not enough time to conduct a formal Request for Proposal (“RFP”) process to identify a consultant.
To be proactive and improve the likelihood of obtaining funding, staff requests that the Council authorize a contract with West Monroe Partners (“WMP”) without conducting a formal RFP. WMP will provide the City with the following services:
1. Thoroughly vet the six opportunity areas above and clearly document project scopes, schedules, funding requirements, hard/soft benefits and shovel ready status in preparing grant applications;
2. Perform a detailed review of the approved Act and submission requirements to make recommendations on how grant applications should be positioned to increase the likelihood of being funded;
3. Lead the effort of preparing comprehensive grant applications (up to six) to be submitted in accordance with the forthcoming grant submittal requirements.
The City has worked with WMP in the past and is confident that that they possess the staffing, resources, and expertise to deliver high quality service.
In 2017, the City awarded RFQ 17-010, IT Strategic Support Services, to WMP for a two-year term and in 2018 awarded Contract 18-281, Water Utility Automated Meter Infrastructure Business Case and Preliminary Implementation Plan. Staff has reviewed hourly rates of WMP and find them to be consistent with engineering projects that the City has recently competitively bid. Additionally, when compared with pricing for similar services provided to the Utility in 2009, WMP pricing has only risen by 2%.
The pricing proposed by WMP includes all work described above. WMP will invoice the City only for authorized work in a time and materials fashion with a cap on expenditures at the previously discussed limit.
Approval of the award for WMP to provide grant application assessment, preparation and submittal services requires a Waiver of Section 1-9B-4 (Methods of Source Selection) of the Naperville Procurement Code because the recommended process is not one of the enumerated methods under the Municipal Code.
The term of the contract is from date of award through December 31, 2022.
FISCAL IMPACT:
CIP: N/A
Grant Application Assessment, Preparation, and Submittal Services is expensed to the Other Professional Services account listed below. The amount below represents the 2022 proposed budget as much of the contract term takes place during then. This award has the potential to be offset by securing large amounts of Grant funding for the City.
|
Account Number |
Fund Description |
Total Budget Amount |
|
40101300-531309 |
Electric Utility Fund |
$11,500 |