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File Number: 22-509 dumping clean-ups, and maintenance of City trees, had two Tree Trimmer I’s, two Tree Trimmer II’s (who were also certified arborists), plus the Supervisor who had promoted up from a Tree Trimmer II and continued to do tree trimming as his other duties allowed. At that time, with the exception of the High Maintenance Trees (those that require trimming every two years) and the Sycamore trees on the major thoroughfares (Bancroft, E. 14th Street and Davis Street), tree trimming was performed by in-house staff on an approximate schedule of every five years. With the retirement of the Supervisor in 2014, the next Supervisor was not from the tree trimming side of operations. At the end of 2019 one of the Tree Trimmer II’s retired, and the second Tree Trimmer II retired in mid-2020 after having been out on medical leave for a year. After an unsuccessful recruitment effort for the Tree Trimmer II positions in early 2020, the area maintenance schedule was pushed out to have trimming every approximately seven years, which is not ideal for the health of the trees. As part of the current biennial budget, and in light of the City’s inability to hire permanent staff, one-time monies were allocated for contract tree services to supplement the remaining two full-time staff. Analysis As a way to get back on track with area maintenance , the current Streets Supervisor has proposed a contract model for on-call maintenance services that is similar to what other cities who have few or no tree-staff/equipment deploy. Further, in consultation with the City Attorney’s Office and the Purchasing Technician, piggybacking the use of a competitively bid proposal by the City of Burlingame is being proposed. The City of Burlingame issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) in May of 2021. Four companies submitted proposals. After careful review by Burlingame staff and based on criteria listed in the RFP, staff selected West Coast Arborists, Inc. as the most qualified company to provide required tree-related services based on their compliance with the RFP, proposal content, knowledge, sustainability, years in business, number of certified arborists on staff, availability of tree workers and equipment, and proposal cost. Legal Analysis Tree maintenance services are a non-professional service and therefore the proposed contract is subject to the requirements of Municipal Code Chapter 1-6. Nothing in Municipal Code Chapter 1-6 explicitly allows piggybacking for the purchase of non-professional services. However, Section 1-6-315 of the City’s Municipal Code provides that such a contract may be exempted from the otherwise applicable competitive bidding requirements when the Council determines it will serve the best interest of the City. City Council approval of this agreement with West Coast Arborist, Inc. is serving the best interest of the City because the proposed contract saves the City the time and expense of the formal bidding process, but still meets the relevant criteria under Chapter 1-6 Article 2 Competitive Bidding. This includes, but is not limited to: Page 2 City of San Leandro Printed on 8/31/2022