Accept recommendation of Chief Procurement Officer to award on-call price agreements for green stormwater infrastructure maintenance and irrigation services

The Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) manages a portfolio of more than 2,500 green street stormwater facilities and approximately 150 vegetated regional water quality facilities. Maintenance of these stormwater assets is performed by a pool of on-call contractors managed by BES under multi-year price agreements. Current agreements were executed in 2014 and are set to expire on June 30, 2024. Ordinance 191516 authorized a competitive goods and services solicitation, request for proposals RFP 00002223 to select a new pool of on-call contractors and execute up to 10 new price agreements for green stormwater infrastructure maintenance and irrigation services. Notice of Intent to award nine contracts was published February 27, 2024. Green stormwater infrastructure, including green streets, reduce sewer overflows and backups by slowing and absorbing stormwater runoff from sidewalks and streets. They also protect water quality by helping to prevent pollution from washing into rivers and streams. In addition to the stormwater benefits, green infrastructure provides a range of community and other environmental benefits, including traffic calming, urban heat island reduction, neighborhood livability, climate resiliency, and air quality. Portland began installing green streets to help meet stormwater management goals and regulatory requirements two decades ago. Resolution No. 36500, known as the Green Streets Policy and passed by the Council on April 18, 2007, accelerated the expansion of green streets as part of Portland’s public stormwater collection and management system. Green streets are located in practically every neighborhood of the city. The inventory of green streets continues to grow through BES capital projects, interagency projects with PBOT, TriMet and other local agencies, and public works permit projects where they are required by City regulations for development and redevelopment permits. City Code Chapters 17.28 and 17.32 establish the City’s responsibility to maintain green streets. Green street maintenance entails a range of ongoing year-round activities such as clearing inlets, removing sediment, debris, trash, and biohazards, trimming and pruning vegetation, and removing weeds, and seasonal activities, including planting in spring and fall, watering new plants in summer, and removing leaves in fall and winter.

This contract award does not change the adopted BES budget. Funds will be made available in the Sewer System Operating Fund, FY2024-2025 Budget, Bureau of Environmental Services, cost center ESOM000031. The solicitation resulted in 9 price agreements with a cumulative total of $12,000,000 over five years. The level of confidence for this estimate is high, based on prior use of on-call service price agreements, program capacity, and past program utilization. The impact of not approving the solicitation and associated price agreements would be the need to develop and fund alternative methods of maintaining BES’s green stormwater infrastructure assets, resulting in both greater cost and significant delay in delivery of services. Delayed maintenance will result in degraded stormwater facility condition, decreased function, escalating cost to rehabilitate impacted assets, potential non-compliance with water quality regulations, and reduced community satisfaction with City services. This contract award does not change existing allocations for green stormwater infrastructure operations and maintenance or the adopted BES budget. New price agreements will not increase or decrease workload for existing BES staff. BES staff already manage the portfolio of green stormwater assets utilizing existing on-call contracts.

These award contracts indirectly impacts communities served by BES infrastructure by enabling effective and efficient maintenance of green stormwater assets. Green infrastructure provides a range of community and other environmental benefits, including traffic calming, urban heat island reduction, neighborhood livability, climate resiliency, and air quality. Effective maintenance is essential to ensure that these benefits are optimized and protected. Green streets are located in practically every neighborhood of Portland. (Map of green streets is available at https://www.portlandmaps.com/po… .) Delayed or reduced green street maintenance will result in reduced community satisfaction with BES services due to poor green street condition and increased number of customer complaints. Many green streets are located in historically underserved neighborhoods and vulnerable communities, including east of 82nd Ave, in North Portland, and in Central City. Delayed or reduced maintenance of green stormwater infrastructure in these neighborhoods increases the perception of governmental neglect and inequitable delivery of public services. In addition to the regular maintenance implemented by BES’s contractors, the Green Street Stewards program presents an opportunity for local community members or organizations to partner with BES to improve their local neighborhood. As Green Street Stewards, residents or organizations adopt green street facilities and are trained and empowered to provide maintenance over and above BES’s standard service level. Stewards may remove leaves, sediment, trash, and debris between regular BES maintenance visits in accordance with BES standards. Stewards may also assist with summer watering and, with approval by BES, may remove weeds or add additional plants or flowers (from approved species list).