REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RECORD OF ACTION
December 5, 2023
FROM
MARK WARDLAW, Director, Land Use Services Department
SUBJECT
Title
Contract with AD Improvements, Inc. for Fire Hazard Abatement Services
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Approve contract with AD Improvements, Inc., for the provision of on-call fire hazard abatement services, for the period of December 12, 2023, through August 31, 2025, for an aggregate amount of $1,050,000 for all on-call contracted fire abatement services, with two one-year options to extend the contract.
(Presenter: Mark Wardlaw, Director, 387-4431)
Body
COUNTY AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Operate in a Fiscally-Responsible and Business-Like Manner.
Provide for the Safety, Health, and Social Service Needs of County Residents.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Approval of this item will not result in the use of additional Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). Effective December 12, 2023, the contract with AD Improvements, Inc. (ADI) will add one more vendor to the existing list of three on-call fire hazard abatement contractors. The three original contracts were approved for an estimated annual cost of $350,000, for an aggregate total not to exceed $1,050,000 for the period of September 1, 2022, through August 31, 2025. The addition of the contract with ADI will not change the original aggregate not to exceed amount of $1,050,000. Sufficient appropriation to fund this contract is included in the Land Use Services Department (LUS) - Code Enforcement (CEN) Division 2023-24 budget and will be included in future recommended budgets.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
LUS provides fire hazard and weed abatement services through the CEN Division in the Mountain, High Desert, and Valley regions of the county. Fire hazard abatement is done as prescribed by Chapter 3 of Title 2 of the San Bernardino County Code. The fire hazard abatement process begins when CEN conducts proactive inspections of properties to determine if hazardous fire conditions exist. Mountain region parcels are inspected once per year during the summer season. Desert and Valley regions are inspected twice per year during spring and fall seasons.
When hazardous conditions are identified by CEN, the owner is notified and given 30 days to abate the hazard. After 30 days, the property is re-inspected, and if the property is not in compliance at that time, CEN brings the property into compliance by abating the hazard. These abatement services are performed by County employees or contractors, and the property owner is billed for labor and administrative costs related to the services performed to reduce costs to the County. The impact of these efforts is to provide defensible space around properties and structures, and increases safety for the community members, firefighters, and other first-responders.
PROCUREMENT
On May 20, 2022, Request for Proposal (RFP) No. LUSD22-LUS-4596 was released through the County’s Electronic Procurement Network (ePro) to identify qualified vendors for on-call fire hazard abatement services. On June 17, 2022, LUS received proposals from the following vendors:
|
Vendor |
Location |
|
AB Landscape |
Riverside, CA |
|
AD Improvements, Inc. |
San Bernardino, CA |
|
C & M Weed Abatement |
Apple Valley, CA |
|
Sustainable Mitigation |
Angelus Oaks, CA |
A three-member committee of subject matter experts from LUS evaluated four proposals for qualifications, experience, technical review, references, and costs. Based on this evaluation, LUS selected three of the top four proposals; ADI was not selected. On June 28, 2022, Notice of Intent to Award letters were sent to all selected vendors. No protests were received during the 10-day appeal/protest period. On August 9, 2022 (Item No. 22), the Board of Supervisors approved the contracts with the initially selected three out of the four vendors. LUS now recommends awarding a contract to the remaining vendor, ADI, after the CEN deemed a fourth vendor necessary based on the level of services currently available from the previously selected vendors.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Daniel Pasek, Deputy County Counsel, 387-5455) on October 10, 2023; Purchasing (Ariel Gill, Supervising Buyer, 387-2070) on October 16, 2023; Finance (Penelope Chang, Administrative Analyst, 387-4886) on October 18, 2023; and County Finance and Administration (Robert Saldana, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on November 20, 2023.