South Coast Air Quality Management District
South Coast Air Quality Management District
BOARD MEETING DATE: August 18, 2000 AGENDA NO. 8
Authorize the Executive Officer to Amend Contracts for California Environmental Quality Act Analysis Assistance
SYNOPSIS:
At its January 21, 2000 meeting, the Board authorized the Executive Officer to award contracts for CEQA consultant assistance to Chambers Group, Environmental Audit, Environmental Compliance Solutions and ENSR for a total aggregate amount not to exceed $150,000. Staff is requesting to add $179,200 from the FY2000/01 CEQA Budget to fund these contracts as the need arises to assist in on-going environmental analyses. Because the specific tasks to be assigned to each contractor are not known at this time, staff cannot identify the funding amount to be added to the individual contracts. However, it is expected that individual funding increases may exceed $50,000.
COMMITTEE:
Administrative Committee, August 11, 2000, Reviewed
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Authorize the Executive Officer to execute contract modifications to increase funding as needed against the individual contracts in amounts that may exceed $50,000 up to an aggregate total amount of $179,200 for all FY2000/01 CEQA consultant work.
Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer
Background
At its January 21, 2000 meeting, four contracts for CEQA consultant assistance were awarded a total of $150,000 from the FY 1999/2000 CEQA Budget. An additional $50,000 from the FY 1999/2000 CEQA Budget was retained for future disbursements to these contracts as the need arose. The following Table identifies the consultants awarded contracts, funding awarded each contract, and projects currently in progress or proposed.
1 Proposed
2 An additional $50,000 was added for supplementary analyses which was necessary to finalize the Environmental
Assessment for the Fleet Vehicle rules. This brings the total for ENSR to $100,000.
The goal for awarding the four contracts was to secure consultant services to augment and /or assist AQMD CEQA staff with preparing entire or portions of CEQA documents for AQMD and non-AQMD projects where the AQMD is the lead agency. Specifically, consultant services are necessary to: assist staff with preparation of CEQA documents to ensure they are completed according to established schedules; provide additional technical expertise in non-air quality environmental disciplines; and, in some cases, provide individuals to work onsite at the AQMD and under supervision of AQMD staff on an as-needed basis to expedite completion of a variety of projects, which may include a range of different types of CEQA documents or intergovernmental review activities pursuant to CEQA. Consultant services may also be necessary to augment staff resources with the periodic updates of the AQMD’s Air Quality Analysis Handbook (formerly the CEQA Air Quality Handbook) and updates to the California Air Resources Board’s URBEMIS program on an as-needed basis.
The Governing Board approved these four contracts for a two-year duration, so that the funds budgeted for CEQA services in FY 2000/01 would be added to any of these contracts as necessary.
Consistent with the Board’s action in January, 2000, staff proposes to modify contracts with Chambers Group, Environmental Audit, Environmental Compliance Solutions and ENSR for California Environmental Quality Act Analysis Assistance to add the funds budgeted for CEQA services in FY 2000/01. Specifically, this adds a total aggregate amount not to exceed $179,200, to be disbursed to the contracts as the need arises to assist in on-going environmental analyses. Because the specific tasks to be assigned to each contractor are not known at this time, staff cannot identify the specific funding amount to be added to the individual contracts. However, based on current projects, it is expected that individual funding increases may exceed $50,000.
Staff further proposes that the Executive Officer be given authority to execute contract modifications to increase funding as needed against individual contracts in amounts that may exceed $50,000. Staff believes this is necessary because often projects must be completed within a short time frame and conflicts with the two-month time frame required to seek Board approval to increase funds to these contracts. Allowing the Executive Officer to execute contract modifications not exceeding the amount the Board approved in the FY 2000/01 budget will allow staff to respond to rulemaking and other agencies’ needs in a timely manner.
Resource Impact
A total of $179,200 has been budgeted in the Planning – CEQA section for 2000/01 FY and thus this action falls within the AQMD’s overall FY 2000-01 Budget.
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