Zero Tower, located in the middle of the pier, needs repairs
The City Council this week authorized Public Works Director Steve Myter to execute a contract to repair the Lifeguard tower in the middle of the Seal Beach Pier. The contract went to C.I. Services, Inc.
The contract (“professional services agreement”) was on the Consent Calendar. Items on the Consent Calendar are voted on collectively unless removed from the calendar for separate consideration. However, nothing was removed from this week’s Consent Calendar.
Technically, the vote was 4 to zero because District Three Councilman Michael Varipapa was absent from the Monday, Feb. 10 meeting.
Prior to the meeting, Mayor/District Four Councilwoman Schelly Sustarsic emailed questions to city staff about the agenda. Among Sustarsic’s questions, “In the agreement with C. I. Services, in recital C, what are street sweeping services that will be provided by this contractor?” Sustarsic was referring to a detailed statement of the services that C.I. Services, Inc. would provide
According to the email reply from City Manager Jill Ingram to the council members, “This was a typo and will be deleted from the contract.”
As required by law, a copy of the “recitals” to which Sustarsic referred was made available to the public at the council meeting Monday. The contract to fix up the Zero Tower—that’s what the tower in the middle of the pier is called—was awarded to C.I. Services, Inc. The contract, according to the staff report prepared by Assistant Engineer Denice Bailey, will not exceed $30,800. That was the amount bid by C.I. Services, Inc., according to Bailey’s report.
The project is technically called the Zero Tower Safety Improvements project. It was part of the city’s 2019-20 capital improvement (building and maintenance) program.
The competing bids were for $12,331 from Chapman Coast and for $38,340 from Tecta American Southern California, according to the staff report.
“Chapman Coast submitted the lowest bid at $12,331; however, they were not able to comply with contract requirements and withdrew their bid,” according to Bailey’s report.
“The next responsive low bid is C.I. Services, Inc. (CIS) with a bid amount of $30,800. While this bid amount is notably higher than the low bid, it is consistent with the Engineer’s Estimate. More importantly, CIS was able to meet the contract requirements of providing a detailed Containment Plan,” the report said.
“CIS has consistently completed similar roofing projects for other local agencies, such as Newport Beach and Corona Del Mar,” the report said.
“Since the combined total of the existing deck repair project and the recommended roofing repair is $55,300 and would exceed the $33,970 signing authority threshold of the Public Works Director, staff is requesting authorization to award a separate Public Works Agreement with CIS to perform the Zero Tower roof,” the staff report said.
The old tower needs work, according to the information on the Zero Tower project fact sheet, which is page 17 of the “Approved 5 Year Capital Improvement Program” for fiscal years 2018/19 – 2022/23.
“Many components of the building has passed its useful life in the structure and needs replacing. The roof, flashing, siding, exhaust fan and lighting needs to be replaced,” according to the fact sheet.
