The Process

The purpose of this item is to brief City Council on the request to seek Qualifications (RFQ) for General Engineering Services and seek direction on how to proceed. Strand and Associates has been providing general engineering services for the City since 1991. There is no contract with Strand for general engineering services and when they change fees they send us notification. As requested by a Council member at that meeting, staff has prepared a motion directing staff to seek Requests For Qualifications for General Engineering Services to be issued in March in order to have a contract in place by July of 2011.
Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) is a method of obtaining professional consulting services for a specific task based on the qualifications and competence of a consulting firm in relation to the scope and needs of the particular task rather than price factors alone. While initial task cost for consulting services is always a major concern, QBS focuses more on other factors such as qualifications of the engineer, compatibility with the City, and knowledge of and experience with the service requirements. Although the cost for consulting services represents only a fraction of the total service cost, the performance of the Consultant can influence the entire course of the project – financial feasibility, public response, appearance, functional efficiency, construction cost, as well as operation and maintenance costs during the project’s life.
If you needed major surgery would you seek out the least expensive doctor you could find? Or would you search for a doctor who had performed the procedure many times with a long list of healthy patient references? The answer here is clear and the field of engineering is no different. Engineers (and architects) should be selected the very same way: based on their qualifications and competence. The selection of an engineer is among the most important factors in the success of a building project.
Even though design fees are often only a small fraction of the total cost of a project, the design itself impacts every aspect of the cost of construction as well as the operation and maintenance costs for the life of the facility. Spending a relatively small amount of money in proper selection can save significant dollars over the life of the project.
Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) has been the procurement method of choice for architectural and engineering services for the better part of the last half century. QBS was adopted as federal law through passage of the Brooks Act in 1972, and since then most states have adopted laws and procurement rules based on the federal statute. Public owners understood that the private design sector was an essential partner for providing services for the public sector, and that a procurement system focused on qualifications – e.g. the ability to provide services that meets or exceeds the client’s goals, on time, and on budget – was critical to meeting those objectives.
The QBS process emphasizes design capability and experience, and the effect that these attributes can have on safety, function, performance, constructability and life cycle costs of facilities. The initial cost of design is outweighed by the final product performance that results from good design solutions.
Consulting firms do not sell a commodity. Instead, they provide technical expertise, innovation, and knowledge of the latest technology. For example, the process for selection of a firm to construct a project differs from that used in the selection of a design firm to design the same project. A construction contract can be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder because all major aspects of the project are defined, including the type and amount of construction materials required to complete the project. On the other hand, Design Consultants turn their undefined concept into a set of plans and specifications. The Consultants take an idea and give it definition. The contractor takes that definition and turns it into a physical reality.
This motion authorizes the City Manager to seek Requests For Qualifications.