12-23-19 MINUTES OF
A ' GULAR MEETING
OF THE
CITY COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF ROLLING HILLS, CALIF° " IA
MONDAY, DECEMBER 23,2019
1. CALL TO 0" I ER
A regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Rolling Hills was called to order by Mayor
Mirsch at 7:00p.m. in the City Council Chamber at City Hall, 2 Portuguese Bend Road, Rolling
Hills, California.
2. ROLL CALL
Councilmembers Present: Mayor Mirsch, Pieper, Dieringer, and Wilson.
Councilmembers Absent: Black
Others Present: Elaine Jeng, P.E., City Manager.
Meredith Elguira, Planning & Community Services Director
Yohana Coronel, City Clerk
Michael Jenkins, City Attorney
3. OPEN AGENDA- PUBLIC COMMENT WELCOME
There were no public comments.
4. CONSENT CALENDAR
Matters which may be acted upon by the City Council in a single motion. Any Councilmember may
request removal of any item from the Consent Calendar causing it to be considered under Council
Actions.
NONE.
5. COMMISSION ITEMS
NONE.
6. PUBLIC HE• NGS
NONE.
7. OLD BUSINESS
NONE.
8. NEW BUSINESS
A. CONSIDERATION AND APPROVAL TO AWARD A CONSTRUCTION
CONTRACT TO PCI FOR THE FY 2019-2020 T' FFIC SIGNING, STRIPING,
AND PAVEMENT MARKING PROJECT FOR AN AMOUNT OF $40,479.50
FOR WORK INCLUDED IN SCHEDULE A.
City Manager Elaine Jeng gave an overview of the striping and pavement marking project. She
stated that staff came before the Council in October for authorization to release a construction bid
for the project. She pointed out that in the bid, the project is separated into two sections. The first
section is labeled Schedule A, which includes the signing and striping of streets that were paved
back in March 2019. Schedule A includes Williamsburg Lane, Lower Blackwater Canyon Road,
Middleridge Lane North, Middleridge Lane South and Crest Road. The second section is labeled
Schedule B which consists of the equestrian crossings, an intersection at Williamsberg Lane and
Lower Blackwater Canyon. Those intersection were included on the recommendation from the
City's Traffic Engineer, Vanessa Munoz. It is proposed to be switched from a two-way stop to a
four-way stop for safety reasons. It was the intention of staff to focus on Schedule A as a priority
and place Schedule B as an alternate,unfortunately,that was not captured in the bid. City Manager
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Jeng explained to the Council that the choices before them were the following: the Council could
choose to award the contract to the lowest apparent bidder, in this case PCI or they could reject all
bids and check with Los Angeles County Public Works Department to do the striping. She
proceeded to review the process and timeline of the bid and referred to the information given to
the Council in their staff reports.
City Manager Jeng reported that two bids were submitted (PCI and Stemdahl). She highlighted
the pricing component and stated that if the Council were to look at each schedule individually or
combine Schedule A and B, PCI would still be the lowest apparent bidder. She further explained
that staff looked into the unit prices because all jobs vary in size which can lead to the cost being
very different. The way to equalize it is by looking at the unit prices. Staff compared PCI's unit
prices with the engineer's estimate. It showed on the average, PCI's bid is approximately
2.7 times more than the Engineer's Estimate. Bids are reflective of current market
conditions. Comparison of the bids received show the highest bid for Schedule A is
approximately 75% more than the lowest bid. The highest bid for Schedule A and B is
approximately 91% more than the lowest bid.
City Manager Jeng stated that staff recommends the Council to award the contract to PCI
as the lowest responsive bidder. She pointed out that because of the way the bid was
comprised, the Council must award the entire bid, with both Schedule A and B. City
Manager Jeng contacted the contractor along with the legal department, to see if it was
possible to eliminate Schedule B under this award,both responded yes.She reported that
the quickest PCI can begin the project, with 10 days for contract execution, is 2.5 weeks
to have technicians on site. Bringing the start date to approximately the end of January.
Councilmember Wilson asked why the prices came in higher than the Engineers estimate. Why
was the variance between the two bids so high?
City Manager Jeng answered, that she believed the Engineer's estimate came in low and did not
know why the variance is so high. Her guess was Sterndahl has never bid on a job or worked in
the City of Rolling Hills which may account for the variance. Sterndahl may not be familiar with
the streets and how business is conducted. She also reported not having enough time to collect data
for unit prices from other facilities due to holiday season.
Councilmember Wilson asked who has recently done striping in the City.
City Manager Jeng answered J&N Striping.
Mayor Pro Tern Pieper asked if they had compared previous cost with what was received and if
there was an expected number.
City Manager Jeng responded that the County data they had did not break down the linear footage.
What staff did, based on past practices,was to inform the County that the City would like to have
five streets striped. This would then lead to each street having a cost estimate but would be listed
as one single price by the County. She stated that it is hard to compare previous cost with current
cost because she would have to add up the linear footage based on whether it is a white stripe,
and/or a double stripe which is difficult to do.
Mayor Pro Tern Pieper stated that he was not comfortable awarding the contract without having
the County's pricing. He inquired when the City would know what the County pricing is.
City Manager Jeng stated that the County informed staff they could give pricing in 10 days.
Mayor Pro Tem Pieper recommended waiting an additional 10 days in order to have the County's
pricing.
Mayor Mirsch stated she had placed some time constraints on this project in the hopes of getting
the project going. She was optimistic but was not anticipating the bid coming in with high numbers.
She wanted to expedite the project because of the rain coming and the complaints from the
residents who live on Crest Road and Lower Blackwater Canyon. She believed that it would have
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been a small effort on the City to expedite this project but she was not interested in wasting the
residents' money in order to have the project start two weeks early.
Mayor Pro Tern Pieper asked if the Council needed to take action on the item.
City Manager Jeng replied no.
Councilmember Dieringer asked if the bids had an expiration date.
City Manager Jeng replied yes, however she could not recall the date but did know that the bids
were valid for the next thirty days.
Mayor Mirsch asked if there were to be an accident, could the City be liable.
City Attorney Michael Jenkins replied that it was his opinion that both, the City and the RHCA,
could be sued but other considerations would be taken into account. For example, was the driver
speeding?Was it a foggy night?Was the driver under the influence?He also reminded the Council
that the City has insurance in place to help protect it from these sorts of claims.
Mayor Mirsch stated that she believed that it was the right thing to do, to have the City's business
done expeditiously. She added that she believed it would be foolish on the City's part to spend
extra money when it is not necessary. She also asked if the County's pricing usually comes in
higher than private pricing.
Councilmember Wilson stated that he recalled that they did not the last time.
Mayor Pro Tern Piper wanted to confirm if the City had a linear footage for this project. He asked
if the City knew how much the County charges per foot?And what fee was considered normal for
striping.
City Manager Jeng replied no, the County does not give out unit pricing. They instead take it as a
service request based on the scope of work the City provides to them.
Councilmember Dieringer asked if they could require the County to provide unit pricing.
City Manager Jeng stated that in past practice the City would submit a service request. The County
takes that request as an internal department request. She explained that the County does not bid on
other agency's projects. They provide the City the service based on the fact that Rolling Hill is a
contract city,much like Building and Safety service they provide. Therefore they cannot be treated
like a regular vendor. She also reported that the Planning Director heard back from the County
inquiring if the City was asking for their pricing in order to compare it to other bids. They
proceeded to remind the Planning Director that the County is not interested in competing with
vendors.
Councilmember Wilson asked if the bid included replacing the broken dots and if there was an
accurate number of how many dots the City has in place. He wanted to confirm that if the
replacement of the dots were only for the streets that were recently paved.
City Manager Jeng answered yes. The dots being replaced are only for the streets identified in the
bid.
Mayor Pro Tem Pieper moved that the City Council take no action on the item and have staff bring
it back on the next Regular Council Meeting on January 13th, 2020 along with the County pricing.
Councilmember Wilson seconded the motion and the motion carried without objection by a voice
vote as follows:
AYES: COUNCILMEMBERS: Mayor Mirsch, Pieper, Dieringer, and Wilson
NOES: COUNCILMEMBERS: None.
ABSENT: COUNCILMEMBERS: Black.
ABSTAIN: COUNCILMEMBERS: None.
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9. MATTERS FROM THE CITY COUNCIL AND MEETING ATTENDANCE
REPORTS
10. MATTERS FROM STAFF
NONE.
12, ADiOURNMENT
Hearing no further business before the City Council, Mayor Mirsch adjourned the meeting at
7:35p.m. The next regular meeting of the City Council is scheduled to be held on Monday,January
13, 2020 beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the City Council Chamber at City Hall, 2 Portuguese Bend
Road, Rolling Hills, California.
Respectfully submitted,
Yohana 11,o lel, MBA
City Clerk
Approved,
Leah Mirsch
Mayor
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