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Water And Wastewater Rate Study Request for QualificationsREQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQs) FOR WATER AND WASTEWATER COST OF SERVICE AND RATE STUDY INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS TO SUBMITTERS 1 GENERAL INFORMATION 1.1 Pursuant to the authority granted to it under MCA Title 7, Chapter S, Part 43, the City of Kalispell is soliciting proposals for services to perform a comprehensive cost of service and rate study for the City's water and wastewater (including wastewater treatment) utilities. 1.2 The Statement of Qualifications must be received by the City Clerk at 201 First Avenue East, Kalispell, Montana, by 5 pm local time, January 7, 2019. 1.3 General questions pertaining to the project should be directed to Susie Turner at (406) 758- 7852, sterner@kalispell.com. 1.4 The City of Kalispell shall not be held responsible for any oral instructions. Any changes to this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) will be in the form of an addendum, which will be publicly advertised at www.kalispell.com. 1.5 The City of Kalispell reserves the right to reject any or all SOQ's, to waive any informality or irregularity in any Proposal received, and to be the sole judge of the merits of the respective Proposals received. 2 - ANTICIPATED SCOPE OF WORK After being selected, the successful Vendor will execute an agreement with the City to provide services and/or materials to fulfill the excepted Scope of Services, provided in Attachment A. 3 - PROPOSAL SELECTION CRITERIA 3.1 The SOQ will be selected through the following selection process. Firms interested in providing the above described scope of services to the City of Kalispell must submit a Proposal that addresses the following evaluation criteria. Applicants are encouraged to organize their submissions in such a way as to follow the general evaluation criteria listed below. Information included within the SOQ may be used to evaluate your firm as part of any criteria regardless of where that information is found within the SOQ. Information obtained from the SOQ and from any other relevant source may be used in the evaluation and selection process. 3.2 Cover Letter (1-page) containing at a minimum: Company name, contact name, address, fax number, and email address. 3.3 Qualifications Criteria 3.3.1 General Information a. Description of company b. Legal company organization; organization chart with names c. List of applicable Montana licenses 3.3.2 Relevant Company Experience a. Applicant's overall reputation, service capabilities and quality as it relates to this Proposal. b. A statement of recent (within the past five years) project specific experience in cost of service analysis and planning of municipal water and wastewater utility rate systems for communities of not less than 10,000 population. References and contact information shall be included for each project listed. c. A resume for each person assigned to the project and a statement of specific responsibilities. d. Identification of sub -consultants and specific roles and personnel. e. List and describe any litigation; arbitration; claims filed by your firm against any other jurisdiction as a result of a contract dispute; any contract or negligence claims filed against your company; premature termination from a services agreement. f. Applicant's capacity and intent to proceed without delay if selected. 3.3.3 Company Qualifications a. Describe the company's history in the industry. Provide resumes of key personnel in Appendix A. List professional continuing education. b. Briefly describe certifications and licenses held by the company in the state of Montana. 3.3.4 Contract Understanding and Approach a. Describe your understanding of the all aspects of the scope of work provided in attached A and the particular expertise your company has in this area of work including: i. Water and wastewater (conveyance and WWTP) cost of service analysis and rate development ii. Wastewater high strength surcharges iii. Experience and knowledge of impact fees in general and of Kalispell's impact fees b. Identify and discuss any potential difficult issues your company may face in providing services. c. Identify and discuss methods to mitigate these difficulties. 3.3.5 Approach to Contract Management a. Describe your company's approach in initiating and establishing the service that meet the needs and requirements of the City. b. Describe systems used for planning, scheduling, estimating and managing manpower requirements. 3.3.6 Proposal for Project a. Provide a work schedule with beginning and ending times that meet the scope criteria. b. Identification of key personnel and a commitment of dedication and continuity for these personnel for the duration of this work. c. Provide a full schedule of proposed work methods that meet the scope criteria. d. Provide a full schedule of costs for each component of the work scope. 3.3.7 Other Factors a. Current contracts and ability to proceed promptly. b. Willingness to abide by the City's needs and requirements with few or no objections or changes. c. Relevant factors impacting the quality and value of service. 4 - SUBMITTAL REQUIREMENTS 4.1 The SOQ shall include aone-page cover letter plus a maximum of ten pages to address the RFQ criteria specified in Section 3 (excluding resumes). Table of Contents and section divider pages do not count towards the total page count. 4.2 Five copies of the Statement of Qualifications must be submitted to the City Clerk at 201 First Avenue East, Kalispell, Montana, 59901 by 5 Pm local time, January 7, 2019. 4.3 Failure to comply with the following criteria may be grounds for disqualification: a. Receipt of submittal by the specific cut-off date and time. b. The number of originals and/or copies of the submittal specified. c. Adherence to maximum page requirements. 4.4 Adherence to the maximum page criteria is critical; each page side (maximum 8 1 /2" x 11 ") with criteria information will be counted. Pages that have photos, charts and graphs will be counted towards the maximum number of pages. 5 - SELECTION PROCESS AND SCHEDULE 5.1 A 5-member Project Evaluation Committee will evaluate each SOQ according to the above criteria and may select up to three finalists that will be Short Listed for the contract. If interviews are determined to be desirable, the Short List firms will meet with the Project Evaluation Committee for interviews. The purpose of the interview will be to expand on the information provided in the Proposal, not to repeat information already provided. Those firms selected for the Short List will be provided additional instruction by the City. Those firms not selected for further consideration will be notified. 5.2 The following tentative schedule has been prepared for this project. Firms interested in this project must be available on the interview meeting date. SOQ due: 5 pm, January 7, 2019 Firms notified for interview: [TBD] Interviews: [TBD] 5.3 Following the interviews, the Project Evaluation Committee will rank each Short List firm of this RFQ. Consideration will be given to both the written Statement of Qualifications and any oral presentations or interviews. No other factors or criteria will be used in the qualification ranking. 5.4 The highest ranked firm will be recommended to the City Manager and City Council for contract award. 5.5 Requests for debriefings or selection decisions shall be made in writing to the City. All information submitted by firms and related Project Evaluation Committee evaluations and rankings shall be considered confidential until after contract execution and award by the City Council. 5.6 The City will enter a contract upon selection of the firm for the project to be submitted to the City Council for approval. A template of the proposed contract with the City will be provided to the Proposers upon request. If the selected firm determines not to enter into a contract with the City, the City may then contact the second or third highest ranked team until a contract is executed, or may decide to terminate the selection process. Publication Dates: December 2, 2018 December 30, 2018 Attachment A: Scope of Services The City is completing or has recently completed detailed utility (water, wastewater system, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP)) facility plans that outline requirements for maintaining, operating, upgrading and developing the water, wastewater conveyance, wastewater treatment plant utility systems. The City would like to perform a cost of service analysis and develop corresponding rate structures to generate adequate funds to maintain the same quality of service and fund capital projects to meet the current and future utility needs of a dynamic community. Scope of Work Provide a detailed utility cost of service study followed with a rate design analysis that will provide justifiable and equitable methodologies for appropriate user fees that are adequate to fully fund the expenses including, operations, equipment repair, maintenance, rehabilitation, replacement, debt service, capital, etc. associated with the water, wastewater system, and the wastewater treatment plant. In general, the consultant will: • Participate in City Council workshops and public information meetings. • Perform a complete revenue requirement analysis, cost of service analysis, rate design analysis and provide impact fee development support for the metering and water system, wastewater system, and the WWTP utilities. • Recommend a system of rates, charges and fees for operations, maintenance, replacements and system development that reflect the cost of service, proper allocation of costs, capital expenditure and debt service requirements for currently identified needs and future capacity/growth related needs. • Prepare draft and final reports. Anticipated task may include: 1) COST OF SERVICE STUDY The City desires to ensure that, to the extent practical, it recovers from each customer the cost of providing service to that customer. The cost of service includes recovery of all operating costs, amounts necessary to maintain reasonable operating reserves after funding operations, debt service, and capital projects. a) Planning Criteria i) Review proposed capital improvement plan(s) and total projected project costs. ii) Review financial history, including revenues and expenses, and current rate and fee structure. iii) Develop requisite Revenue Requirement analysis of revenue and expenses as the foundation of the cost of service class analysis. iv) Examine customer database and review current customer classifications. b) Reporting: The selected consultant must present the findings, conclusions and resulting recommendations in the cost of service study final report in a clear and concise manner. A written report is required. c) Presentation: Data gathering and summary presentation to the City Council may also be required during a regularly scheduled public meeting. d) The Consultant shall work with the City to ensure the cost of service study can be updated as needed by City Staff. 2) RATE DESIGN DEVELOPMENT The City seeks to ensure its water and wastewater utility rates cover the true cost of providing utility services to its customers. In doing so, the proposed rate/fee structure must ensure an equitable treatment of all charges on future and current users. a) Specific Issues for Consideration: i) Review of existing rate structures. ii) Consistency between rate schedules and fee schedules. iii) Consideration for Evergreen Sewer District WWTP Rates, out of City service, metering, and high strength surcharges. iv) Adequate and equitable usage, demand, basic charges, surcharges (WWTP). v) Aid to development of impact fees. b) Rate Design Investigation: Evaluation of accepted policies, practices and procedures to ensure model reliability, predictability and rate stability over the long term. Accordingly, the selected consultant must meet with City staff to review and discuss available documentation including, but not limited to, utility billing records, historical budget documents and audit reports, resolutions, policies, Evergreen Sewer District Agreement, operation and maintenance practices. c) Evaluation: Specifically, the selected consultant shall review, analyze, validate the reasonableness, and recommend changes where appropriate for the following: i) Methodologies of fee structure, rates and charges. ii) Repair/Replacement Funding Methodology, considering long-term capital improvement needs, debt service opportunities, impact fee funding, and associated funding sources/levels. d) Rate Design Study to Include: i) Analyze and discuss impact of existing and future capital improvements. ii) Assess revenue needs for specified planning period to include adequate coverage for operations and maintenance, capital projects, program activities and debt service. iii) Analyze existing rate and fee structure and recommend alternatives based on findings. iv) The selected consultant must advise the City on industry -accepted methodologies for allocating costs to the various customer classes. The selected consultant must also provide a breakdown of these expenses and show how they relate to providing water, wastewater collection, and WWTP services. v) Examine current user classes and current rate approaches. vi) Examine the City's use of debt financing for capital improvements and make recommendations related to its uses and limitations relative to maintaining a proper balance for debt coverage and rate stabilization over a designated period. vii) The selected consultant must recommend a structure for the proposed rate schedules on the basic premise that each customer should be classified and served under a schedule that will cover all costs of that customer's service plus return a reasonable margin for proper operating reserves, capital improvements, adequate supplies, and contributions to general administrative costs. e) Reporting: The selected consultant must present the findings and conclusions in the rate study final report in a clear and concise manner. The report must include detailed recommendations for changes, if any, to current practices and/or procedures. All work products and reports will conform to applicable State and Federal laws and regulations. f) A summary presentation to the City Council will be required during a regularly scheduled public meeting.