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BACKGROUND <br />With the retirement of the Public Works Director, the City is in need of a consultant to <br />sign subdivision final maps and parcel maps. The California Subdivision Map Act <br />requires that a civil engineer or land surveyor sign these maps, certifying them as being <br />technically correct. The Subdivision Map Act was amended in 1996 such that the only <br />persons authorized to practice land surveying, and prepare, examine or approve <br />surveying maps or documents, pursuant to the Professional Land Surveyors Act, are <br />those licensed by the State as land surveyors or civil engineers who were registered <br />before 1982. <br />The retired Director of Public Works, Rob Wilson, has performed this function for the <br />City over the last few years. Unfortunately, with Mr. Wilson's retirement, the City has no <br />other civil engineers registered before 1982 that are qualified to sign surveying maps <br />and documents. The City is currently using the firm of Kier & Wright, Civil Engineers & <br />Surveyors, Inc. and BKF Engineers to perform on-call surveying and drafting services. <br />These firms can also be used for map checking services. In addition to the use of <br />existing on call surveying contractors, staff is recommending that another qualified local <br />surveyor be retained by the City for this same function should one of the on call <br />surveyors be the firm that prepared an original map for review, thus avoiding a conflict <br />of interest, or be unable to perform the work in the time requested. <br />DISCUSSION <br />After review of potential consulting firms qualified to perform the necessary services, the <br />firm of Alexander and Associates, Inc. was selected by staff. The scope of services <br />under the proposed contract includes performing survey map checking in conformance <br />with the California Subdivision Map Act, Land Surveyors Act and Business and <br />Professions Code. In addition, the surveyor will also be asked to sign the certificate <br />statement on the map stating that the map is technically correct and in accordance with <br />the California Subdivision Map Act. The term of the proposed contract, until June 30, <br />2010, corresponds to the term of the existing on call surveying contracts. <br />When a subdivision final map or parcel map is submitted for plan check, staff would <br />then send the map to one of the three qualified map check firms. The consultant would <br />then submit an estimate of the time it would take to complete the map check. The <br />applicant would then be notified of the amount of the deposit required. Once the money <br />has been deposited, the on-call consultant would be authorized to begin the map check. <br />Typically, the cost for checking of a parcel map by a consultant is between $750 and <br />$1,000 and for a subdivision map between $1,500 and 2,500, dependent on the size, <br />Page 2 of 3 <br />