Title
The Board of Water Commissioners for the City of Detroit, Water and Sewerage Department authorizes the Director to approve Amendment No. 1 to DWSD Contract 6002281 with Ecopia Tech Corporation, to expand the scope of work and to add $60,000 for a new amended total not-to-exceed amount of $308,000 for impervious surface mapping and classification of aerial images of Detroit. This also authorizes the Director to take such other action as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
Body
Agenda of September 15, 2021
Item No.: 21-0586
Proposed Amendment 1
Contract No. 6002281 (CS-1959)
Contractor: Ecopia Tech Corporation, 101 College St, Suite 401, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7
Current Contract Amount: $248,000
Proposed Amendment 1 Amount: $60,000
New Proposed Total Contract Amount: $308,000 Current Term: 6/1/19 - 6/30/22
TO: The Honorable
Board of Water Commissioners City of Detroit, Michigan
FROM: Gary Brown, Director
Water and Sewerage Department
RE: Proposed Amendment 1 to DWSD Contract 6002281 to expand the scope of work and add funds
Ecopia Tech Corporation
MOTION
Upon recommendation of Mamata Burgi, Operations Resource Manager, the Board of Water Commissioners for the City of Detroit, Water and Sewerage Department authorizes the Director to approve Amendment No. 1 to DWSD Contract 6002281 with Ecopia Tech Corporation, to expand the scope of work and to add $60,000 for a new amended total not-to-exceed amount of $308,000 for impervious surface mapping and classification of aerial images of Detroit. This also authorizes the Director to take such other action as may be necessary to accomplish the intent of this vote.
BACKGROUND / JUSTIFICATION
In compliance with federal regulations, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) provides billable impervious acreage assessments for property parcels in Detroit. This includes runoff and snowmelt that flow from rooftops, parking lots, and other hard, impervious surfaces into the City's combined sewer system. Since 1975, most DWSD customers have been paying for drainage. DWSD has updated its billing system information to ensure all parcels that drain to the City's combined sewer system are billed for their fair share of drainage costs. The updated billing calculation is based on the amount of impervious (non- permeable) area within a parcel.
As the City of Detroit continues to experience growth, impervious surface areas are rapidly changing due to both demolitions and new construction projects. As a customer's drainage charge is a direct reflection of the amount of impervious area within their parcel, it is imperative that DWSD maintain accurate and up-to-date information on impervious surface throughout the City of Detroit. Furthermore, as the type of impervious surface of a property impacts engineering analyses done on that property when a customer is working with DWSD to identify cost-effective stormwater management practices, this classification must be categorically defined.
In an effort to update and maintain an accurate impervious surface database of the City of Detroit, DWSD requires this contract to provide impervious surface mapping and classification on an annual basis, which will be based on the annual aerial imagery captured in the spring of each year using "leaf off' and "no snow" conditions. Aerial imagery is provided for under a separate contract with Nearmap Inc. and will be re-solicited soon to line up with this contract.
The current scope includes only the classification of impervious land cover within the City of Detroit with the data being accessible to all City of Detroit departments. The Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) is working to leverage this data to develop a dataset of right of way classifications. Right of way is the legal right, established by usage or grant, to pass along a specific route through grounds or property belonging to another. The majority of right of way within the city of Detroit is owned by the City of Detroit, Wayne County, or the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and includes land cover such as roadways, sidewalks, medians, berms, and alleyways. The current scope does not include all the land cover classifications that would allow DoIT to produce a right of way dataset. This amendment is being requested to assist City of Detroit’s DoIT in their goal of producing a right of way dataset for use by all city departments and to add additional land cover classifications including medians, berms, sports fields, swimming pools, grass, bare land, trees, and water bodies. While this change in scope does not directly benefit DWSD at this time, it gives the City the ability to develop a dataset of right of way land within the City that can be leveraged by all city department, including the Assessor’s Office, who can utilize this data as reference to improve the accuracy of parcel data. Improving the accuracy of parcel data will allow DWSD to more accurately perform calculations on impervious calculations, asset locations, and public right of way location and access.
PROCUREMENT METHOD
This solicitation was competitively solicited under Request For Proposals (RFP) No. 468596. It was advertised and posted on the Michigan Inter-Governmental Trade Network (MITN) website on 4/23/19 through 5/22/19. No addenda were posted. Notices were sent to 304 firms subscribing to the relevant NIGP code(s), of which 33 firms downloaded the RFP document. A single Proposal was received.
A low bid inquiry was performed to understand why only one proposal was received and if it was due to deficiencies in the Request for Proposals. Based on the responses below, it appears that the lack of interest is due to the resources available to Proposers, as well as the specialization of this field which does not have a large vendor pool. Additional vendors were contacted but could not be reached for comment.
Ecopia Tech Corporation’s Proposal was evaluated and determined to be responsive. DWSD was able to negotiate the price down to $248,000, a savings of $14,000, for a term of three years.
Requisition #489704 submitted by DOIT for Proposed Amendment 1 was approved on 7/12/21. This request is to expand the scope of work as listed below and to add $60,000 to the total contract amount to cover these additional services for the remainder of the contract term of 6/30/22.
Ecopia’s clearances are expired but they have submitted a new application on 7/28/21, which is being processed. A formal amended contract document will be routed for signatures. Ecopia is based in Canada and is not a Detroit firm.
SUMMARY
Contract No.: 6002281
Initial Contract Term: 6/1/19 - 6/30/22
Proposed Extension A1: N/A
Original Contract Amount: $248,000
Proposed Amendment 1 Amount: $60,000
Proposed Total Contract Amount: $308,000
Funding Source: O&M Funds (DWSD) & 100% City Funding (DoIT)
GL String(s):
DWSD: 5820-20179-493301 -622302-000226-15805-0000-000000 - 100% for DWSD services
DoIT: 1000-29350-350800-622302-000000-00000-0000-000000 - 100% for CoD services
This proposed amendment was presented to the BOWC Finance Committee on September 1, 2021. Per DWSD procurement protocol, no other approvals are required by DWSD.