San Leandro staff train council on contracting rules; council presses for prequalification, transparency and stronger project reporting

City staff gave a detailed contracting training after the work‑plan updates, walking the council through procurement rules, approval thresholds and public‑works practices.

Assistant Finance Director Felicia Silva reviewed contract types and approval authorities, noting thresholds for informal and formal procurement. She said department directors have discretion for lower‑value purchases, city manager approval is typically required for contracts between $25,000 and $100,000, and city council authorization is usually required for contracts of $100,000 or greater. Silva noted formal competitive bidding is required for many public‑works contracts above specified thresholds and reiterated vendor requirements such as business licenses and insurance.

Felicia Silva explained sole‑source and single‑source distinctions and the requirement to document sole‑source justifications; she also described goods and materials thresholds (informal quotes for amounts up to $60,000 and formal bidding above $200,000 for certain procurements).

Public Works engineer Jason Emeissen described capital project phases and the role of contingency and change orders in managing unforeseen conditions. He illustrated individual versus cumulative change order limits and why cumulative limits can require council review even when an individual change order is under the individual limit. "A contingency is a designated amount of funds set aside in a project budget to account for unexpected costs," Emeissen said, and gave examples in which change orders produced credits or higher value for a project, including design savings and reuse of an existing sewer lateral at Memorial Park and lowering traffic signal conduits on Bancroft Avenue to avoid future damage.

Council members asked for data on the distribution of contract sizes, the existence of prequalified contractor lists and the city’s plan to create project dashboards so members and residents can track status and costs. City staff said they are evaluating prequalification approaches, that an RFP scoring rubric is used for evaluations and that scoring results are publicly available (notes from evaluators generally are not). City Attorney guidance was requested on the release of scoring details.

Council also pressed on contract controls: whether change‑order limits apply at the prime contract level (staff said yes; the city’s contract is with the prime contractor and limits relate to the prime contract), liquidated damages (staff confirmed they are used), and incentive contracting or owner’s‑representative models for large programs. Staff said they will pursue improved communications and a project status page for major capital projects, and acknowledged the need for stronger data and dashboards for public and council visibility.

Ending

Council directed staff to return with additional analysis on prequalification, contract distributions by size, and options for public project dashboards and clearer communications about change orders and contingencies. The training concluded and council adjourned.