R2002-168A AUTHORIZING AN AGREEMENT

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, � This decision is complicated by the fact that the service is a 24/7 type activity. Preliminary thoughts were that the requests could be received at the City's South Water Treatment Plant as it is staffed 24 hours a day. The staffing for this activity is another major variable. Two basic options were considered for the City taking on this responsibility. The first is to dedicate staff members to this activity with utility locates being their primary responsibility. The second option would have the City essentially continue in somewhat the same manner that it has been making locates. In either case, it was estimated that the workload involved in formalizing the locate activities equaled a minimum of two full-time employees. This was based on the time associated to receive, process, make the field locates and document approximately 5,300 requests per year. It was not considered practical to expect this workload to be absorbed into the existing staffing level without adversely impacting other services and programs. The option of adding permanent full-time staff was considered. If finro full-time staff positions were added to accommodate the estimated additional workload, this would not fully meet all of the expected workload associated with this new program. Existing staff would need to provide supervision, support clerical duties and backup during times of heavy workloads or during absences of the designated staff in the event of ineetings, training, vacation, illness or other reasons. Both in-house options have costs in addition to personnel. These additional costs include vehicles, equipment, materials and supplies. Trying to reasonably budget and plan for this program is difficult given the limited firsthand experience of staff and available information from others. Starting and committing to such a program represents a significant level of investment in resources to implement, operate and administer this program. City staff is not comfortable with undertaking this program in-house given the unknowns and variables. It is City staff's recommendation that this should be a contracted service much as Illinois Power and other utilities do. Contracting the service is considered to represent a number of benefits to the City. The primary benefit is that the City is able to join JULIE to satisfy State Law and implement this program with minimal impacts to its existing operations. Another benefit is that the City's liability is reduced by having a private company do the utility locates. The company will rely on information provided by the City. If the City's information is incorrect, the company may not be held liable for mislocating an utility. However, it is likely a City employee would use the same information and make the same mistake. In addition, this program is of an on-call, year-around nature, but is subject to daily and seasonal fluctuation. If the City were doing the locates, the additional work assignments to its employees would have to be of the nature that allows interruption with minimum loss of productivity. After deciding to contract for this service, City staff searched to find companies providing locate services to solicit proposals from. This search included contacting JULIE to ask about companies doing this type of work in the Decatur area. JULIE informed staff that there was 3 companies providing that type of service in the area. Staff contacted these companies to ask about their interest in providing service to the City. Two companies declined a request to submit a proposal. Great Plains Locate Service (GPLS) indicated that it would submit a proposal. Based on the responses that City staff received, the decision was made to not advertise for proposals. City staff contacted GPLS directly, as it is considered a reputable locate service company in central Illinois and negotiated an agreement with GPLS to provide this service for the City. A copy of the agreement is attached. The agreement is renewable on Page 3