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BACKGROUND At your July 15, 2014 meeting, the City Council approved naming the .75-acre site located at the corner of Vervais Avenue and Main Street at the northern entrance to downtown Pleasanton "Rotary Park." The naming is in recognition of the many contributions that the three Pleasanton Rotary clubs have made to the community and their agreement to contribute approximately $25,000 to cover the cost of purchasing a clock tower that will be installed in the park's plaza area. At the same meeting, the Council also recognized that in order to meet the project schedule, the park will need to be phased with the first phase consisting of a plaza area, clock tower, precast game tables, litter containers, plant trellis, improved trail access, decorative fences and benches. As a result, the Council directed staff to return with a construction and funding plan. DISCUSSION Public works construction projects are governed by the state's Public Contract Code and the City's purchasing guidelines. Currently, these sources provide that public works construction projects between the cost of $40,000 and $175,000 may be let to contract by an informal bidding process. While this may vary slightly by organization, the process requires the City to issue standard specifications to a list of qualified contractors maintained by the City based on categories of work. The project specifications must specify the time and place when bids must be submitted. The guidelines also provide for the City Manager to award the informal project contract(s). The advantage of this process allows the City greater flexibility to determine timelines, limits the potential list of contractors who may bid on the project (thus reducing bid review and preparation time) and allows for contract award without formal City Council action. When staff first began discussing this project and considering the Rotary's timeline, it considered a design build construction approach that utilized both "As-Needed" contractors, city staff and local independent contractors to construct the work. However, after more fully considering this approach, it became clear that an informal bid process, utilizing standard specifications, would be both required, because the estimated project construction cost is $75,000, and desirable since it will assure the City receives a low bidder. One aspect of the informal bid process is that all those who are invited to bid must have standard specifications to assure that they are bidding on the same project. However, because the City was contemplating a design build process, its contract with the project architect, Keller Mitchell & Co. did not include this work and as a result staff is amending that contract by adding $27,500 to prepare the standard specifications and provide construction administration. As indicated in Attachment 2, the architect anticipates delivering the specifications to the City on September 30, 2014. Based on this timeline, the schedule is as follows: Page 2 of 4