Council approves space-needs RFP and directs study to include possible fire facility

Corcoran — The City Council authorized staff to issue a request for proposals (RFP) to conduct a space-needs analysis for city facilities and agreed to evaluation-weight changes and to include fire-service facility options in the study.

City administrator Jay presented the RFP, saying city facilities are "beyond maximum capacity" and that the vendor should work with departments and council to determine current and future space needs. He said staff limited the initial scope to existing city properties and two undeveloped parcels that could support a 5-to-10-acre campus; the RFP asks vendors to evaluate those locations and the three existing facility sites.

Council members discussed evaluation criteria and agreed to change the scoring weights: fee remained an important factor at 40% while the council shifted past record/reference weighting to 25%, staff and proposed project team assignments to 10%, and proposal understanding/work plan to 25% (resulting in 25/10/25/40). Councilors said the change aimed to give more weight to past performance while preserving consideration of fit and cost.

Council also decided the study should include an analysis of whether a fire station or other public-safety facility should be part of a consolidated civic campus; council members said doing so preserves options and yields better planning outcomes than excluding fire from the analysis. The budget placeholder for the work was noted in the capital plan: $300,000 was placed in prior planning documents for facility planning, though staff said the immediate phase of the work is expected to cost much less (staff estimated $50,000 or less for phase one).

The council approved the RFP and the evaluation-weight changes by voice vote and directed staff to return with proposals and to proceed with vendor selection that includes interviews and references.