Agency: City of Farmersville
Contact: Steve Huntley (shuntley@cityoffarmersville-ca.gov)
Phone: 5597470458
Deadline: 06/30/2020
More: RFP Detail Online

OBJECTIVE
The objective of the RFP is to receive proposals for a Comprehensive User Fee Study and Development Impact Fees Study that includes reviewing and updating all fees and charges for services, recommending additional fees, with a goal for cost recovery. Additionally, consultants are invited to provide an “add-on” proposal to review and recommend an allocation plan for overhead costs.

Comprehensive User Fee Study

The City is seeking to evaluate all cost of services provided and examine whether a reasonable relationship exists between the cost of providing services and current service fees, while ensuring compliance with Proposition 26, Proposition 218, and other applicable statutory requirements. The City desires to undertake a comprehensive citywide review and evaluation of user fee and rate charges resulting in a cost-based user fee study. The Comprehensive Fee Study will calculate the full 100% cost of providing certain City services and provide a recommended fee to be charged for each applicable service. The firm shall recommend cost recovery strategies and identify best practices in establishing user fees. These strategies should take into consideration the complexities and demands of each department and program. The selected firm will provide thorough analysis, development of fee models and recommendations including, identifying and recommending new fees and revenue sources. It is the City’s goal to have a well-documented and legally defensible cost of service plan that will identify rates that will be used to recover billable costs for services and develop user fees that comply with Proposition 26, Proposition 218 and other applicable statutory requirements. A survey comparison of rates and fees with similar cities is required.

Development Impact Fee Study

The City has several development impact fees, with a fee study most recently updated in 2006/07. The City’s current development impact fees are available upon request. In addition, the City has several planning documents that may be helpful in developing the impact fee study:
• General Plan
• Zoning Ordinance
• Comprehensive Fee Schedule (FY 2011-2012)
The City’s impact fee program must comply with the Mitigation Fee Act (California Government Code Section 66000 et seq., also known as Assembly Bill 1600). The study shall provide sufficient information and the necessary findings to help the City determine the development impact fees based on the proposed infrastructure requirements to support the City’s General Plan growth projections and the City’s Capital Improvement Plan. The consultant is expected to work with City staff to determine other supporting infrastructure (i.e. equipment, vehicles, etc.) or other operational services that could rightfully be included in the fee program to ensure the costs of such supporting infrastructure are paid by development. The City would also like feedback from the consultant on recommended best practices to help ensure better collections and any adjustments to municipal code if necessary.

Option A – Full Cost Allocation Plan
The additional purpose of this project is to ensure that the City of Farmersville has a basis of applying comprehensive overhead rates and is accurately accounting for the true cost of providing various services by department. A Cost Allocation Plan allocates all direct and indirect costs between funds, as appropriate. Additionally, best practices, accounting standards and EMB 2 CFR part 225 make it necessary for the City to maintain a well-documented cost allocation plan to appropriately allocate general and administrative costs in its budget; properly identify overhead rates that can be used in the calculation of billable hourly rates for federal and state grants, user fees, and reimbursements from other governmental agencies.

PROJECT SCHEDULE
Below is the desired schedule for initiation of this project; however, dates may be subject to change and adjusted as necessary.
RFP Issued June 1, 2020
Request for Clarifications due June 15, 2020
Clarification Responses Provided June 22, 2020
Proposal Submittal Deadline June 30, 2020
Oral Interviews (conducted at City discretion) July 27, 2020 (week of)
Contract awarded by City Council August 10, 2020

SCOPE OF SERVICES
There is a separate scope of work for each of the studies. Project tasks shall include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following described below. If the firm feels that additional tasks are warranted, they must be clearly identified in the firm’s proposal. Firms responding to this RFP shall be prepared to deliver services and perform the work necessary to provide the services within six months after initiation of the project. The City would like to have the study complete by February 8, 2021 for presentation to the City Council in March 2021 and incorporation into the FY 2021/22 Operating and Capital Budget. The project consists of furnishing all labor, materials, supervision, and travel necessary to complete the tasks outlined below:

Comprehensive User Fee Study
Prepare a Comprehensive User Fee Study for the City, which may include the following elements (if the consultant feels that additional tasks are warranted, they must be clearly identified in the consultant’s proposal):
1. Work and meet with City staff to refine the project scope, purpose, uses and goals of the City’s Comprehensive User Fee Study to ensure that the study will be both accurate and appropriate to the City’s needs. Review project schedules and answer any questions pertaining to the successful development of the study.

2. Meet with staff and conduct interviews as needed to gain an understanding of the City’s processes and operations. Conduct a comprehensive review of the City’s existing fees, rates and charges.

3. Identify the total cost of providing each City service at the appropriate activity level and in a manner consistent with all applicable laws, statutes, rules and regulations governing the collection of fees, rates, and charges by public entities including, but not limited to, Proposition 26 and Proposition 218.

4. Compare service costs with existing recovery levels. This should include any service areas where the City is currently charging for services as well as areas where perhaps the City should charge, considering the City’s practices, or the practices of similar or neighboring cities.

5. Recommend potential new fees and charges for services the City currently provides but does not have any fees and/or charges established. Recommendations should be based on practices by surrounding cities that may charge for similar services, industry best practices, or the consultant’s professional opinion. The City is particularly interested in incentive programs offered in other agencies to promote economic development and the goals of the City.

6. Recommend appropriate fees and charges based on the firm’s analysis together with the appropriate subsidy percentage of those fees where full cost recovery may be unrealistic.

7. Prepare a report that identifies each fee service, its full cost, recommended and current cost recovery levels. The report should also identify the direct cost, the indirect cost, and the overhead cost for each service.

8. Prepare a report that identifies the present fees, recommended fees, percentage change, cost recovery percentage, revenue impact and fee comparison with other Tulare County cities or other California cities that are comparable to the City of Farmersville, including, but not limited to, those with harbors or ports. A survey comparison of rates and fees with similar cities is required.

9. Report on other matters that come to the Consultant’s attention in the course of the evaluation that, in the Consultant’s professional opinion, the City should consider.

Provide a computer-based model in Microsoft Excel for adjusting these fees and charges for the City’s current and future needs and provide the City with an electronic copy of the final comprehensive study, including related schedules and cost documentation in a format that can be edited and updated by City staff to accommodate changes in the organization or changes in costs. The requirements of the models should allow for:

a. Additions, revisions, or removal of the direct and overhead costs so the comprehensive fee study can be easily adapted to a range of activities, both simple and complex.

b. The ability of the City to continuously update the model and fees from year to year as the organization changes.

c. The addition of hypothetical service area information for future service enhancements, and the ability to calculate the estimated costs of providing the service under consideration (i.e. ad-hoc analysis).

10. Prepare and deliver presentation to the City Council to facilitate their understanding of the plan and its implication for the City and make necessary adjustments as requested.

11. Provide on-site training to enable staff to update fees on an annual basis.

12. Prepare a final report and provide twenty bound copies, and a PDF file of the Comprehensive Fee Study that can be made available to City Staff, Council and Committee members. Models, tables, and graphs should be provided in Excel. Any Comprehensive Fee Study revisions developed shall also be made available to the City in Excel and PDF formats, providing the ability to add, delete and/or update information as needed.

13. Consult with City staff should it become necessary to defend the City’s Comprehensive User Fee as a result of any legal or other challenges.

Development Impact Fee Study
1. Kick-off meeting between consultant and City staff to review objectives of study, agree to methodology, exchange information, timing and schedule for all tasks, and to determine information to be provided by City staff, to support a comprehensive Impact Fee study of each existing fee.

2. Consultant shall also propose new impact fees that the City is not currently collecting for consideration by the City. After consideration of such new Impact Fees, the City may elect to request the consultant prepare the necessary nexus study or studies. Such study or studies shall be deemed “Extra Work” entitled to additional compensation.

3. Impact Fees shall be calculated to provide for facilities, equipment, infrastructure, and services needed to support growth based on forecasts of new development over a 20-year period. The Impact Fees analysis shall consider existing fees, if any, and be compared to both (a) surrounding and (b) comparable cities to ensure reasonableness, consistency and feasibility. The City is particularly interested in incentive programs offered in other agencies to promote economic development and the goals of the City.

4. The consultant shall prepare either an individual report for each Impact fee for a single compiled report for all Impact Fees that documents the fee study results, including a description of the overall assumptions, approach, and methodology, findings, supporting justification, recommended fee amount and the calculations that provide the legal nexus between the recommended Impact Fee and new development.

5. Review findings with City staff. Consultant to provide information supporting findings to date and proposed fees.

6. City Council meeting to present draft study. Discuss methodology, findings, formal presentation, answer questions about finding, and collect input for preparation of final report.

7. Final City Council meeting to follow up on first meeting and present final report.

8. Please consider the optional meeting in your proposal as separate line item cost – Public meeting to present draft study report. Meeting to share findings with stakeholders, including developers and engineers. Consultant to facilitate meeting, provide exhibits and formal presentation, collect input and prepare meeting minutes capturing public input.

9. Prepare a final report submitted to the City containing background information, methodology, findings, and recommendations. More specifically, consultant shall prepare a report containing, but not limited to, the following:

a. Background Information.

b. Description of the overall methodology.

c. Supporting justification.

d. Calculations that demonstrate the legal nexus between recommended fees and the impact created by new development.

e. Relationship between the fee’s use and the type of project on which it would be imposed.

f. Any additional matters that City staff should be made aware of, findings, and recommendations.

10. If the consultant feels that additional task are warranted, they must be clearly identified in the consultant’s proposal under this option.

11. The City reserves the right to modify the scope of services before the contract is awarded.

Option A – Full Cost Allocation Plan
Prepare the City’s Cost Allocation Plan, which may include the following elements (if the consultant feels that additional tasks are warranted, they must be clearly identified in the consultant’s proposal):
1. Work and meet with the selected City staff to refine the project scope, purpose, uses and goals of the City’s Cost Allocation Plan to ensure that the study will be both accurate and appropriate to the City’s needs. Review project schedule and answer any questions pertaining to the successful development of the study.

2. Meet with staff and conduct interviews as needed to gain an understanding of the City’s processes and operations. This includes where certain services and functions are performed together or shared through cooperation between different departments. Costs should be identified so they can be allocated to and tracked by appropriate department.

3. Identify the total cost of providing each City service at the appropriate activity level and in a manner consistent with all applicable laws, statutes, rules and regulations governing the collection of fees, rates, and charges by public entities including, but not limited to, the State Controller’s Office Guidelines for Cost Claiming and OMB 2 CFR Part 225 standards.

4. Develop a Cost Allocation Model using FY 2020-21 budget and/or actual data for calculation of the full costs of providing each City service. The requirements of the model should allow for:

a. Additions, revisions, or removal of direct and overhead costs so the cost allocation plan can be easily adapted to a range of activities, both simple and complex.

b. The ability of the City to continuously update the model and full cost allocation plan from year to year as organization and/or service model changes occur over time.

c. The addition of hypothetical service area information for future service enhancements, and the ability to calculate the estimated cost of provide the service under consideration (i.e. ad-hoc analysis).

5. Report on other matters that surface during the evaluation that the City should consider.

6. Present the plan to the City’s management group and make necessary adjustments as requested.

7. Prepare and deliver presentation to the Council to facilitate their understanding of the plan and its implications to the City.

8. Work with the Finance Department in developing service provisions, cost categories, and allocation criteria for current and future programs.

9. Provide the City with an electronic copy of the final comprehensive review, including related schedules and cost documentation in a format such as Microsoft Word and Excel that can be edited and updated by City staff to accommodate changes in the organization or changes in cost.

10. Prepare a final report and provide twenty bound copies, and a PDF file of the Cost Recovery Plan that can be made available to City staff, Council and Committees. Models, tables, and graphs should be provided in Excel. Any Cost Allocation Model revisions developed shall also be made available to the City in Excel and PDF formats, providing the ability to add, delete and/or update information as needed.

11. Provide a computer-based model in Excel for adjusting these fees and charges for the City’s current and future needs and provide the City with an electronic copy of the final comprehensive study, including related schedules and cost documentation in a format that can be edited and updated by City staff to accommodate changes in the organization or changes in costs.

12. Consult with City staff should the need arise to defend the cost allocation plan as a result of audits or other challenges.