The City of Garden Grove has an urban forest of approximately 16,000 trees. A combination of contractual and in-house staff is strategically used to maintain the City’s urban forest that encompasses a variety of trees in the right-of-way and residential parkway areas. This approach allows for an in-house staff of six (6) full time employees and two  (2) part time employees to handle an average of 1,100 citizen requests annually. This is in addition to tree planting, emergencies and other priorities. The contractual services include tree removal, tree trimming with a cost effective grid pruning system and an up-to-date GPS tree inventory.  The City’s urban forest brings many benefits to the community such as adding shade to reduce the heat island effect from surrounding pavement and concrete, stabilizing soils by protecting landscapes from storm events, along with minimizing the City’s carbon footprint by absorbing pollutants and cleaning the air.

In July 2019, the City of Rancho Cucamonga underwent a procurement process, Request for Proposal No. 19/20-007. There were 265 notified vendors; 26 prospective bidders downloaded or viewed the bid package, and there were four (4) responses received, one (1) of which was considered non-responsive. An evaluation committee consisting of staff from various departments conducted a thorough analysis of the RFP responses that were scored and ranked. The top two (2) highest ranked vendors were invited to be interviewed and provided an opportunity to present additional information to enhance their proposal submittals. WCA of Anaheim, California, was determined to be the most responsive contractor providing the best value while meeting the scope of services and specifications required.  Staff is recommending piggybacking on to the existing contract with the City of Rancho Cucamonga to procure services from WCA of Anaheim.  

The new contract for tree services is in an amount not-to-exceed $440,000 per year. This contract will be funded through a combination of gas tax and general funds available in the current Public Works budget.

• Approve piggybacking onto the Request for Proposal No. 19/20-007, and enter an agreement with West Coast Arborists, Inc., to provide citywide tree maintenance services, in the firm, fixed price amount of $440,000 per year with an option to extend one year at a time, not to exceed the amount of $2,200,000, over a five-year period; and

• Authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement and to execute option year agreements on behalf of the City, and make minor modifications as appropriate thereto. 

By:  Albert Eurs, Public Works Supervisor