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CR 97-05 Approve Contract for Custodial Services for Various City BuildingsDecember 30, 1996 Council Report: 97-05 y 5 ~ F K ` ~ APPROVE CONTRACT FOR CUSTODIAL SERVICES FOR VARIOUS CITY BUILDINGS Proposed Action. Staff recommends adoption of the following motion: Overview. City staff has conducted an analysis of the current program of having city employees provide custodial service for various city buildings. This analysis was completed in order to determine if the city could reduce building maintenance costs by contracting out certain building maintenance services. Requests for proposals were solicited and three proposals were received for providing daily custodial services at Public Works, and the Activity Center, and weekend and holiday custodial services to the Police station. Two of the three proposals were lower cost than staff estimates for providing services in-house. If approved, Coverall Cleaning Concepts could start in 10-15 days. Primary Issues to Consider o What are the cost savings to the city? o Police Department and Activity Center concerns. o Is the award to Coverall Cleaning Concepts in the best interest of the city? o Will any city employees be displaced if contract is awarded? Supporting Information G / F G\ o Specifications and Request for Proposal o Alternatives Council Report: 97-05 Page 2 Detailed Backaround At the present the city employs one full time person to clean the Public Works building and the Hopkins Activity Center. We also have a building maintenance employee report on the weekends and Holidays to clean the police station and check the city boilers. Currently Building Maintenance Standby costs and duties are shared between HRA staff and building Maintenance staff. Because of changes at HRA they have optioned to employ a live-in caretaker at Dow towers. When the live in caretaker is in place (sometime mid-December) HRA has informed city staff that they will no longer share in the weekend standby duties. The live in caretaker will be handling all callouts for HRA. With this change we were faced with our standby duty costs doubling. Fortunately the majority of callouts for the person on standby originated from HRA properties; Dow towers and 20th Avenue townhomes. With this in mind staff decided not to have our own Building Maintenance person continue to carry a pager and be on standby. If any problems occur after hours the public works standby supervisor would handle the calls. The custodial contract would provide cleaning service to the police station on weekends and Holidays. City staff would still need to check the city Hall and Activity Center boilers during the winter period, monthly. This state requirement of checking the boilers each day is scheduled to change in March of 1997. The change in State regulations will leave it up to the chief engineer of a building to decide how often the boiler needs to be checked. When this regulation is changed we may decide to only check the boiler once a weekend or not at all and monitor its operation remotely with a computer. There would also be about a $1,500 savings for both areas for cleaning supplies as the contractor would supply their own. This savings may be used to provide contract carpet cleaning at the Activity Center if city staff is unable to schedule it with available manpower. Analysis of issues o What are the cost savings to the city? The cost savings by awarding the custodial contract to Coverall Cleaning Concepts are outlined below: CURRENT PERSONNEL COST - Activity Center & Public Works 1 full-time employee Wages & Benefits $35,500 Contract Amount $19,200 Savings $16,300 Council Report: 97-05 Page 3 CURRENT PERSONNEL STANDBY COST5 - Police Station/Check Boilers 1 hour per day on standby plus 2 hours O.T. each time employee reports minimum 11 hours O.T. per week at $25.00 per hour. $275 per week x 26 weeks = $7,150 per year Contract Amount S3.456 per ear Savings $3,649 per year * Savings will be less for first part of 1997 until requirement for checking boilers is reduced. If we continue to check boilers daily deduct $2,600 from savings amount. TOTAL SAVINGS $19,949 o Police Department and Activity Center concerns. Police department At the Police department there were some security issues that needed to be addressed, such as a security check for all cleaning personnel and access to the Police department. These issues were addressed by having all cleaning personnel for the Police department go through a background check prior to having access to the Police department. We also would make a set of keys that the cleaning personnel would check out from Dispatch upon his/her arrival and return after cleaning the facility. Also the cleaning contract does not cover any office areas but only hallways, jail cells, wens restroom and squad room. The other areas of the Police department are cleaned by city personnel during the work week. The Police department is satisfied with how the security issue is being addressed and are willing to proceed with the contract. Activity Center Several issues were brought up by the Activity Center staff that needed to be addressed before proceeding with a cleaning contract. One issue was security for several areas of the Activity Center. This problem has been addressed by changing locks on several storage areas and the Raspberry patch craft room. Another issue was taking down and clean up after the noon senior dining program. In the past city staff has assisted the Activity Center staff in taking down the tables and chairs and cleaning the floors. Because the contract custodial service would be cleaning the Activity Center after it closes in the evening there would be no custodian on site to assist the dining program with the task. Several ideas were suggested as to finding someone to assist with the task. Dave Johnson, the Hopkins Minnetonka Joint Park Recreation Director, is working with Susan Newville, the Activity Center Coordinator, to find someone that could assist the Activity Center staff with this clean up after dinner. The current level of service provided by Public Works will continue until an alternative is mutually agreed upon. Council Report: 97-05 Page 4 o is the award to Coverall Cleaning Concepts in the best interest of the city? The city solicited proposals from various cleaning contractors. A mandatory walk through of each building was a requirement for submitting proposals. Proposals were due November 27, 1996 and three proposals were submitted. The amounts are itemized below: Activity Public Center Works Police Total Coverall 10,500 8,700 3,456 22,656 Jani-King 12,084 8,420 2,420 23,124 Marsdan 18,576 5,424 6,324 30,324 After review of the proposal amounts and checking supplied references, staff recommends awarding the contract to Coverall Cleaning Concepts based on lowest overall cost to the city. o Will any city employee's be displaced if contract is awarded? The current city employee that is performing the custodial services will be taking an internal transfer to a new position in the Street division of Public Works. Alternatives o Rehire Full-time position If we decide to rehire for the custodian position the city would have to increase the Public Works personnel budget approximately $16,000 to pay for the increased personnel costs. This increase is the difference between the contract amount and the cost of a full- time employee. We would also need an additional $2,500 per year above the current budget amount of $3,000 for contract cleaning for police station maintenance on weekends and holidays. This cost is for a two hour call in for a city employee to perform these duties. o Hire Part-time employee Another area that was explored was hiring a permanent part-time employee to clean public works and the Activity Center. Currently if we establish a permanent part-time position the employee can work up to 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, without the city providing full benefits. This scenario won't work because five hours a day is not enough time to provide cleaning services for both buildings. The current work load requires at minimum six to eight hours daily in order to maintain the buildings. Council Report: 97-05 Page 5 The other scenario of six hours a day, five days a week would come to approximately $23,000 per year with benefits or $3,600 more than the contract amount. The other added expense is that we would need to pay overtime or reduce service when this employee is on vacation or sick leave. At the Police station we would need to find someone to come in for two hours per day on weekends and holidays. If we paid a regular employee a two hour minimum call in on overtime, the cost would be about $6, 000 per year or $2, 500 per year more than the contract. Overall the cost savings and level of service to the Activity Center, Public Works and the Police department are not there when all factors are figured in. o Contracted Cleaning When we first looked at alternatives to our current full-time city employee, we started contacting several cleaning companies that were currently cleaning buildings. We asked them to give a ballpark number to see if the cost savings would warrant further action. The quotes we received looked promising and with this information started proceeding with drawing up specifications to present to various cleaning companies. When the bids were opened, the cost savings turned out better than the estimate. While there are some drawbacks to contractual cleaning like added staff time to monitor their duties and loss of a full-time employee in the Building Maintenance division, I believe our duty to the people who pay taxes is to provide them with the best buy for their dollar. Recommendation o Contract with Coverall Cleaning Concepts The low bidder for the custodial contract was Coverall Cleaning Concepts. The company has been in business since 1989. What Coverall does is package contracts like the one we proposed and turn them over to franchises that have a vested stake in the work they do (see attached article). We hope to get a person or persons cleaning our buildings that show pride in their work. If we do have problems with the cleaning personnel, Coverall will replace them with a different franchisee. I have personally checked several references at other cities. One was Gary Johnson the Public Works Director at the City of Inver Grove Heights. Gary was very satisfied with the service he has received from Coverall. Another city that is using Coverall that I contacted was Peggy Linc at the City of Circle Pines. She is also happy with the service they are receiving. It is apparent that Coverall will work with us to ensure quality work from a franchisee. However, I believe in the end we can make it work for the good of all concerned by contracting with Coverall Cleaning Concepts. Small business Coverall partners ,~~~ ~: cleaning up with ` `~ ~ • t janitorial service nickYoungbiooa There are several reaaoas be- yond an appamndy permanent shoetege of qsh why INe nevu made It in the ehuepreneurmg e. Indolence is another fattor, no[ to overlook rampant ditotge Wiz+uon Ma:nN. 6owewn Ne problem Is surtP Y a lack pf imagl- nauon For euample, 1 never Tvpuld ante, Md V I hatl, I rertainly never would brie thought to taro it inroafrancldaebuslnesa- ' But that's what a gmt in MIS- eissauge, Ontario. @ doing w1N his Shsed•h Iad.. attording to a heRy rome celled "The Source Book of Pmnchlse Opportu• Wtl¢a' And I don't think evm the en- vepceneurlal Ilke of Curt Ca~l- son or 7eno patilueci ever had a brainstorm ro rival ehs[ of Ron Hru8eld oiMemphia. Tenn. 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