e e e 6 o'clock I'm going to call this meet to order up first uh we don't have a pastor tonight so I'm just going to get everyone to uh pre please stand with me and we'll just take a moment of silence all right thank you so much uh Council woman councilwoman a bear with the pledge please all righty well thank you all for being here today for the uh special city council meeting uh and H happy Holly day out there Holly slash day all right so up first is going to be uh public comments before we get into uh our one and only section A so is there anyone here from the public that wishes to speak at this time seeing none I'll close the public comments and move on to new business a um Kim do you have anything to start this off or thanks mayor we are going to um look at the RFP 241 Phase 1 utility underground con conversion project RFP and we have our special utility Council Chef right here that's going to walk us through the process and then we will allow presentations of the three contractors and then turn it back to Mr Wright for additional instructions to the council thank you good evening Mr mayor council members members of the public thanks very much for having me here yet again i' love coming over on January 23rd the city released RFP number 24-1 titled Phase 1 utility underground conversion project by this RFP the city requested proposals from qualified contractors to successfully complete all work necessary to convert the overhead facilities of FPL Cox Communications Century Link and unity fiber in the project area the project area is basically us98 or Harbor Boulevard from the maror bridge Airport Road including certain overhead facilities it's a fair amount of power lines that extend away from the lines on us98 to serve adjacent properties and customers the city received three proposals from Advanced drilling Systems Incorporated commonly referred to as ads high power LLC and Wilco electrical Incorporated all three proposals were deemed responsive all three are acceptable to fpl all three received favorable references from uh from folks they said we should call as their references consistent with the RFP bids were opened on February 22nd the bid committee reviewed the proposals and held a public meeting to discuss score and rank the proposals on March the 7th the scoring criteria are shown with points assigned to each of the criteria or categories on the sample score tabulation sheet that's included in your agenda package pursuant to the RFP the Council now has the task of deciding which proposal the council wants staff to begin negotiations with that summarizes where we are in the process as we sit here right this minute if there are any questions I'm happy to answer them now if not it would be appropriate to hear from the proposers all right thank you so much so at that time if you have um just your first proposal how do you want to who's going to go first are there proposers in the audience that wish to speak okay you can have 10 minutes and then if Council has questions they'll ask them at the end of the 10 minutes once you've had a turn we will ask if there are any other proposers in the audience and then if you pushed that button yeah please say um you know thank you your name and who you're speaking on behalf of for the record thank you good good evening my name is Carrie Kennedy I am the project coordinator for ads and uh thank you for this opportunity again we really appreciate it um again I am for this project the project coordinator I'm going to introduce our team we have Juan Martinez who's going to serve as the project manager and who will serve as your day-to-day contact we have Frank Castillo who is going to be our electrical engineer and we have Mario oo Jr who is here representing ads and he is the vice president of the company we have prepared a 10-minute presentation which is going to explain who we are how we operate and we'll also discuss project updates from the projects we submitted within our proposal and we'll point out some key differences in ads and why we are still the better fit for the company for the city tonight again we are here to build a partnership with you and your community it's who we are and it's what we do ads is a leading boring company and we've been building private and Public Partnerships for the past 25 years we currently have about 150 experienced team members to support the largest of conversion products in sorry conversion projects including yours this experience in depth makes us one of the largest boring contractors with the most experience in coastal communities in the state of Florida this is a major benefit to your project as roughly 60% of the major component of your project includes boring in our proposal we submitted the three required FPL projects all three were in very challenging Coastal communities and two of them were within CRA districts tonight we are focusing on two projects because of the scope and the expectations are going to be identical to yours city of Bradington Beach since we've seen you last we are happy to uh say that this project has been 100% completed um as you know it's extremely challenging to work in environments with tight corridors heavy pedestrian traffic and vehicle traffic and very active businesses because of this challenges we are also very proud to say this project was completed ahead of schedule and without any change orders we are also very proud to say there were no damages or there were no unplanned outages to businesses and to the residents this is a testament to one of our core beliefs is that we need to catch the issue before it comes the problem our approach and our process throughout this entire project was a success and it was praised by the leaders of Bradington Beach Community the CRA director said in our reference check that the job was done to perfection we were also complimented on our communication our responsiveness and keeping our work area clean we even had a resident show up to one of the City Council meetings to express their thanks to us and their work and as you know the city uh Commissioners don't show up that often to give compliments and they showed up to give us a compliment and again we take that as a testimony to who we really are and we have some before and after pictures on Bradington Beach of the differences with the lines and without there's another one dark and gloomy with the line with the power lines and just bright and sunshine right bright and sunshiny without next we'll go to the city of Gulf Breeze we are currently facing the same challenges here as we will with your project we have tight corridors high traffic and keeping the impact to a minimum as Juan did with Bradington Beach he pre-planned with Gulf Breeze uh and businesses in order to ensure minimal impacts to the community this has been crucial to the success of this project as it will be to yours we are proud to say with all the challenging existing utilities again we had no damage and no unplanned outages to Residents and businesses we are 75% complete and contrary to what was submitted to city council from one of our competitors in the form of a Written Letter the delays were not our fault they weren't anything that we had that ads had caused it was an issue with the Ft fdot permit from fpnl and since then we have installed all of the conduit everything has been tied in we are currently setting equipment and we'll begin switching as soon as cable installations are complete one other note that we'd like to mention on the city of Gul Breeze that um we did have a negative we did have a change order it was a negative change order and um it was almost half a million dollars in addition to the negative change order um the city also asked us if they if we would help them to locate sections of their gas Main and uh we did that with no expense to them and again this is just to show who we are and how we can demonstrate being an excellent partner city of Destin the two projects tonight really mirror your project including all of them being within a CRA District which I believe is another factor that sets us apart from our competitors because of the Golf Breeze project we are already familiar with the carriers that will be involved in your project our established working relationships will eliminate the learning curve and provide for a smoother transition our relationships with the FPL engineer who who will oversee this project how TR is remarkable we have established this relationship over the past few years and it continues to grow another advantage to the city will be the expertise that we have in working through adjustments related to the differences in the FPL a proposed equipment in the old golf power system and I believe our competitors do not have that experience either pre-planning communication and honesty are what's going to set us apart from the others and it's also what's going to be a success for your project we uh have had so many projects that we've recently completed but tonight we just wanted to focus on the two um because the scope and the expectations are are yours they identically match uh your project we fully understand and we successfully performed the same identical scope as you have for this project the majority of our projects are coastal communities within Florida this is is where we Thrive and why we know we are the best fit for the city we specialize in the environments with tight corridors active businesses congested sidewalks and within CRA districts this is what we do best we don't have Subs that come in and do the specialized work we do it ourselves in fact our competitors call us to perform this work in these type of of environments regardless of what our competitors have said throughout the specific process we stand firm on our value values on our reputation and our commitment to you our competitors have said a couple of times that they think ads is not qualified to do that project to us we see that as a direct conflict with what FPL has said with their assessment of us and it's also in direct conflict with the opinion of the FPL engineer with Tran we have a stellar reputation with FPL the entities the cras the businesses and the communities that we serve we are confident that we can deliver your project sucessfully without any change orders and on time given this confidence in our work and as a measure of accountability I would be more than willing to provide you with monthly status updates should we get the job and I would love to come here and present monthly to you thank you very much for your time I hope I was under 10 minutes you got a minute 40 left so thank you all right so with that open for questions yes up first I got councilman Schmidt thank you um for being here uh thank you for your presentation um I would if you do win um I would love to have whoever wins I'd love to have them here every month so that'd be fantastic uh I love the fact about the subs and all the work you guys do yourselves so very nice um I'm going to go ahead though and just make a mo oh oh yeah there anybody else here sorry it's okay we're looking into the audience and we don't see the other proposers but but for the record are any of the other proposers in the audience including high power or Wilco nobody let's just check the lobby um thank you for the presentation ads if you want to I do have a couple more on the board oh yep okay all right councilwoman abor I want to make my motion before we go okay all right so we're seeing none in the lobby as well I'd like to move to accept the committee report and ranking and i' like to direct the city manager to negotiate a contract beginning with the highest ranked proposer in accordance with the RFP second all right I have a motion in a second I'll continue discussions Council abar I was just going to say what Kevin just said make the motion I'm Glad You Came tonight I'm glad that you are you know willing and able to um update us monthly if you get the bid um I'm like I said glad that you showed up and at least gave us the um the 9 Minute presentation thank you all right up next uh Council M gal I think we uh identified that no other bidder or company showed up were they all invited equally they were all made aware of the meeting and yes as you all know and just for the record the three presentations are all included in the published agenda so you have all three presentations um from ads from Will and from high power so Council has had a chance to review those you also have a copy of the bid committee report which as you just heard in council members uh council member Schmidt's motion he um moved to accept the report and the rankings the city's purchasing manual does require that the motion um provide for rankings not just the top bidder so Mr Schmidt um did do that because the bid committee's report does rank the proposed just for the record the ranking in the committee report that you all have a copy of is it was ads with 376 points high power with 363 points willco with 360 points so the way this would work under the proposed motion if it passed would be that uh the city manager would attempt to negotiate a contract with ads if that did not work out they would move down to the second ranked proposer which is high power and then if those two both did not they would move down to the third ranked proposer which is Wilco there's also reasoning set forth in the bid committee report which I know you all have had a chance to review so if you were to um pass Mr Schmidt's motion it would be um assumed by us that that is your reasoning so if that is not your reasoning please state that for the record otherwise we will understand that you agree with the committee's report thank you all right anything else go no sir thank you councilman dtin thanks mayor um you guys their status with Gulf Breeze is what you're almost done you're done you're Buton it up y I'll let Juan speak to that status on go uh we're about um 75% complete uh we've done all the pipe work for everybody all the tie-ins were about to start pulling cable and then doing the switching we would have been done but F you know had a little issue with uh their permit with Dot and it took them eight months for us to get it so we couldn't do no work in those eight months not we probably would have been done already but as we speak right now we're we got the permit last month and the following week we came up and we've been here since trying to wrap it up and you estimate how much longer to finish them up you think right now we're it all depends with FP now because we're waiting on cable we're ready we're just sitting and ready they they're sending the material as it comes and um as soon as we have it here we're going to keep going and finish it so it's not it's not up to us if we get the table next week we'll start pulling it in next week okay thanks uh City attorney done an awful lot of these and it's customary that the council rank now I understand by making a motion that we're going to accept the ranks that that the staff went forward with um I suppose that is acceptable in your opinion so we did um have three options for you that uh Mr Wright was going to explain after the proposers were finished um so if you don't mind I'll turn that over to Mr Wright and he'll just give you the three options before you vote on whether you agree with the motion thank you Kim council member the uh the RFP and the city's purchasing manual both expressly provide for three options for the council to decide how they want to proceed from this point where we sit right now one is to accept the ranking and report of the bid committee and and proceed according to that that ranking the second method is what I call the one two3 method uh where you you can rank the various proposals with one being best two being second best three being third best and add up points one one two three and the low score wins like in golf and the third methodology is to rescore and this is expressly an option for Council to rescore each proposal using the same criteria and the same point waiting system that this that is set forth in the RFP and that was applied by the bid committee so you got three options they're all expressly allowed you're good to go with the motion as as opposed or or with any of the other two methodologies and so the motion on the floor is to accept the ranking of the uh bid committee that that's as I understand the motion yes sir and to and to direct staff to begin negotiations with the highest ranked proposer per the bid committee's report and that's ads and that certainly seemed to be the simplest way to do it however being oldfashioned and having done a lot of these I always liked the council to rank so that we could have some discussion as to why we chose who we chose and and I will admit that ads is my uh choice but the reason is that they have done two projects that are so similar as they pointed out and uh they seem to have gotten both of those projects one completely done and the other very close to being done with very little of any um problems now I guess everybody put in a a bid price like they did last time and U you know just for the record you all were not the lowest bidder correct we were not well in my opinion your expertise and your track record makes up the difference and I you know if we if we went through ranking then that would be my reasons but uh it it appears that my rank would be basically the the same as what the bid committee did maybe not for the same reasons but your experience in our area and in our situation is what Tils me towards you not the uh not necessarily the price that was bid which you were not the lowest thank you council member dtin I think if it's okay with Council for me to just take maybe two more minutes of your time um because they the purchasing manual has a policy that when the award is not given to the apparent lowest cost bidder then we need to have a full and complete statement of the reasons for the decisions prepared and filed with the documents I understand from Mr Schmidt's motion motion should it pass that those reasons were in the report but you indicated your own reasons so I would like to read the committee report reasoning into the record for you all and that way Council can individually decide if they agree with those reasons is that okay okay so at the meeting on March 7th 2024 the bid committee discussed the proposals and the scoring methodology specific discussion addressed the experience and qualifications of one of the proposers high power discussion also addressed pricing and whether the omission of cost values in the schedule of values submitted by one of the proposers Wilco would have any effect on the city's ability to negotiate appropriate price terms if that proposer were to be selected for negotiations the bid committee scored the three proposals in accordance with the scoring provisions of the RFP and the results were totaled by Mr Kad and confirmed by the city clerk with the foll following numeric results ads 376 points high power 363 points willco 360 points pursuant to the RFP the bid committee voted to forward these rank ordered results to the city council for council's consideration of which proposer it wants City staff to negotiate a contract with for council's information the bid committee's individual score sheets are also included with the agenda as reflected in the committee members individual score sheets there were some differences in the scores assigned by the respective committee members to the criteria in the RFP high power was the lowest cost bidder and accordingly high power received maximum points from all four committee members on the price schedule of values criteria or category the committee members assigned higher points to ads and Wilco on the criteria for contractor uh qualifications ability and experience and the criteria for contractor Personnel qualifications and experience the individual scores on each Criterion and numeric totals reflect the committee members judgment on the criteria set forth in the RFP if anyone on Council has different reasoning please state it um when you vote for the motion otherwise we will assume that you agree all right so I have a motion in a second and see no forther discussion so I will call the vote uh with the asteris of our City attorney of um saying anything that's above and beyond in in that motion so at this time I will call the the vote all right eyes have it 6 to zero motion passes all right thank you guys so much so we will attempt to negotiate the contract with ads if that uh fails we will attempt to negotiate a contract with high power if that fails we will attempt it with wico awesome thank you guys so much thank you we appreciate your time thank you very much thank you guys yes thank you sir all right at this time uh before we wrap up I have public comments so if anyone from the audience is here to that would like another bite at the Apple seeing none I will close the meeting at this time thank you guys for being here