Council orders new RFP after debate over engineering-contract selection and transparency
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Summary
After a contested procurement process, the West Covina council voted to reject the staff selection and issue a new RFP for city engineering services; staff will include additional materials requested by council and may continue limited month-to-month work with the incumbent.
The West Covina City Council on April 15 directed staff to reject the current selection and issue a new request for proposals for city engineering services after members raised transparency and budget concerns about awarding a multi-year contract to TransTech.
City staff had recommended TransTech Engineers based on an RFP process, interviews and the vendor’s experience with grants, brownfield/landfill projects and local projects in West Covina. During the meeting council members asked for a detailed budget breakdown, the contract’s maximum exposure, and the provenance of interview and scoring notes; several council members raised concerns about apparent score changes between rounds of review.
Following extended public comment and council debate, Councilmember Brian Gutierrez moved — and Councilmember Ollie Contos seconded — a motion to reject all bids, issue a new RFP and allow staff to work with TransTech to prepare any materials the firm may need for the new solicitation. The council approved the motion in a 4-1 vote (Mayor Wu recorded the lone no). Councilmembers said the decision was driven by a desire for clarity on fiscal exposure and documentation of the selection process.
City staff told the council that contracting with a consultant is currently less expensive than building a full in‑house engineering division — staff cited an estimated $480,000–$607,000 minimum for base pay to hire an equivalent in‑house team — and that, historically, the city’s annual engineering invoices have averaged about $873,000 over the past five years. Staff also reported the city has budgeted engineering funds across several sources (general fund, Prop C, gas tax, sewer funds) and that invoices are paid on an hourly, project-by-project basis.
TransTech representatives led by Melissa DeMerci presented the firm’s experience, including work on 56 combined completed and in‑progress capital projects for West Covina and nearly $20.9 million in grant funding the firm said it helped secure for the city over the past five years. TransTech emphasized brownfield, FEMA and grant-writing experience and introduced staff who would be assigned to West Covina.
Councilmembers pressed for an explicit maximum contract amount or clearer budget guardrails. Staff said the contract was structured without a firm maximum to allow flexibility as projects scale but confirmed the city maintains budget controls and the firm is paid on hourly rates and project funding sources. After the council’s directive to reject the current selection and reissue an RFP, staff said the city manager will prepare the supplementary information the council requested and that the incumbent may be retained on a month-to-month basis while the new procurement is conducted.
The council also asked staff to provide: the scoring notes used in the original evaluation, a clear list of funding sources that would pay for the contract in FY25, the estimated annual spend that the city can expect under the new contract (staff provided an average historical invoicing number during the meeting), and more detail about what the proposed team had offered during interviews. Staff indicated it expected to run a fair and open RFP and to return to council with the additional materials.
