PLM Meeting Minutes 7-28-2016

Professional Liaison Meeting

Date: 
July 28, 2016
Time:                         
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Location:              
District 4                                          
11 Grand Avenue,                                          
Oakland, Ca 94612

1.0 Welcome and Introductions:

  1. Cristina Ferraz spoke on Bijan Sartipi’s behalf and started the meeting by talking about the successful 3rd Annual Calmentor Program Awards Luncheon held last May 5, 2016. Ms. Ferraz mentioned that the awards luncheon was successful on all account: The attendance was met with 116 attendees; at least 2 new mentor-protégé firms, increased pairings from 23 companies, 21 of which are A&E firms. The results of the survey show the 2/3 of the mentor-protégé and graduate protégé best supported their firms’ business goals.  100% of the companies said their participation helped the other new companies in accomplishing their business goals.

    Cristina also talked briefly about: 

a) the approval of Gov. Brown’s transportation budget for 2016/2017 for $36B within a 10-year period, $23B of which is allocated for the repairs and maintenance of the transportation infrastructure;

b) the Road Charge Pilot program wherein the drivers pay to help maintain the roads based on the distance they travel or a period they use the roads rather that the amount of gasoline they consume; 

c) the retirement of Brigetta Smith and the appointment of Deborah Smith as the Acting Deputy for External Affairs; she also announced the new Calmentor coordinator in the person of Mario Solis;

d) events D4 Caltrans will host the 4th Bi-Annual Innovation Fair on Aug 10 & 11 which will showcase this year’s theme of Sustainability, Innovation and Leadership.

e) In September, District 4 will participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Alameda County Transportation Commission and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority to launch a $79M I-80 SMART Corridor Project. This project implements innovative strategies to reduce congestion, reduce travel time, improve safety and provide real time information to drivers during emergency and special event protocols.

f) District 4 is participating in a regional briefing with BART regarding the closure of BART tracks between the BART Daly City and Glen Park stations on multiple weekends from July 30 through mid-October including Labor Day weekend. The closure will have regional impacts on both traffic and transit services including up to one-hour delays in service for BART riders to SFO to catch flights.

g) Calmentor news: 61 protégé firms graduated; 2 more expected to graduate and new mentor-protégé pairings of Garcia & Associates with Cogstone Resource Management and Alta Vista Solutions with Sun Mountain

2.0 BART Presentation

Robert Mitroff, BART Chief Planning & Development Officer, started with a bit of BART history: ideas completed in 1946; voter approval Nov 6, 1962 then construction started shortly after.  It was not until 1972 when BART started running and serviced the East Bay.  

Some BART statistics: 420K riders everyday which was 100K per day more than in 2010, 104 tracked rails, 5 lines, 45 stations, 46K parking spaces which makes BART the largest owner of parking spaces, $656M in operations budget, $655M capital budget, 9 members on the Board of Directors, 3 voting members, 3 counties represented (Alameda, Contra Costa & San Francisco), serving San Mateo county under an agreement and will start serving Santa Clara county late next year with the opening of the Berryessa extension.  

Big 3 projects of BART:  a) acquisition of new train cars @ 1081 cars; b) to build a new maintenance yard in Hayward; and c) new train control system.

3.0 Approvals

Romy Fuentes (Branch Chief) spoke on behalf of Ali Banani (Office Chief, Consultant Services Unit) and informed everyone that the minutes of the meeting of the last Calmentor was forwarded in March 2016.  Please read, review and advise Marian Faustino if any corrections are needed.  

4.0 District 4 / Statewide Reports and Updates

Romy Fuentes’ slide presentation described the 5 types of funds used for last fiscal year’s A&E contracts: Reimbursed, State, Bond, State Corridor Improvement Fund and Traffic Congestion Relief Fund.  It also presented the 5 types of A&E contracts: environmental (37%), construction support (22%), design (20%), new services (12%) and traffic management (1%).  He also touched base on the different small businesses California contracts are being award to: SBE, DVBE & SDVE.

There are 8 new contracts in District 4 that will soon be advertised starting August – November.  For a more detailed list please go to the DPAC website. 

5.0 Calmentor Steering Committee Report

Jim Dickey, Chairman of the Steering Committee, came up in front and presented the 2nd Quarter Report.

  • There is now a total 43 graduates since 2007; several of these graduates have 1 contract with Caltrans and some are now mentors
  • 3 additional protégé firms will graduate
  • There is a need for more mentors to pair with 44 protégés
  • There will be an election for 4 positions in the Steering Committee; Karen has the applications and they are due by August. As soon as all the applications are submitted, these will be sent out and there will be online polling.
  • The new Steering Committee will vote the Chairman. It is expected that by October 15 there is a new Steering Committee

6.0 Public Agency Partner Reports

Mr. Panayotou called the Local Agency representatives to give an update on their agency. The first to stand up and gave the report was Luz Campos of Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). Ms. Campos mentioned that MTC have upcoming contract opportunities and they are in their website. She also briefly discussed about the website of 511.org for commuters looking for vanpools and transportation services. 

The next to give an update on their agency was Olga Medina of Santa VTA. Ms. Medina that they have upcoming contract opportunities and you can find them on their website. She mentioned that she distributed pens which has information on how to do business with agency. Ms. Medina stated that there will an upcoming Pre-Proposal Conference on the construction of BART to San Jose. Information on this can be found on their website.   

7.0 Contract Procurement Process Update

Romy introduced Esther Morris, Assistant Division Chief, DPAC. She discussed about the new Consultant Selection process and that they are requesting for feedback. If there are questions on these, please their website. Ms. Morris also mentioned about the Senate Bill 854. She said it is not applicable to A&E but only to Construction projects. 

8.0 Adjourn Meeting

The meeting was adjourned at 4:55 p.m. The next Calmentor meeting will be on October 27, 2016.

Caltrans Staff

Banani, Ali (Office Chief, Consultant Services Unit)
Faustino, Marian (Branch Chief, Consultant Services Unit)
Ferraz, Cristina (Distr. Div. Chief, PPM East Region)
Fuentes, Romy (Branch Chief, Consultant Services Unit)
Fung, Thomas (Contract Manager, Consultant Services Unit)
Garcia-Horton, Sara (Consultant Services Unit)
Morris, Esther PE (Asst. Division Chief, DPAC)
Mulingtapang, Cynthia (Consultant Services Unit)
Nguyen, Doanh (Deputy Director, PPM)
Tsang, Kee (Contract Manager, Consultant Services Unit)

Local Agency

Baltao, Anne (Office Support Specialist, VTA)
Campos, Luz (Purchasing Technician, MTC)
Medina, Olga (Management Analyst, SCVTA)

Consultants

Ajiake, Matthew (Sonika Corporation)
Alandry, Jason (Green Valley)
Borges, Frank (Towill, Inc.)
Caffey, Jane (Safework CM)
Chaudhary, Arvin (Chaudhary & Associates)
Dickey, Jim (Cinquini & Passarino Inc)
DiFrancia, Michele (Mott Macdonald)
Fu, Christi (Arcadis)
Gauryl, Paul (MNS Engineers, Inc.)
Graham, Ardis (BART)
Havens, Chad ((Michael Baker International)
Hosley, Lynne (CH2M)
Jackson-Smith, Jordona (Alta Vista Solutions)
Lau, Eddy (Retired)
Lelo-Butcher, Raewyn (Ghirardelli Associates, Inc.)
Lohrentz, Tim (BART)
Lundgren, David (CH2M)
Masdeo, John (Parsons Brinckerhoff)
McCarthy, John (Garcia & Associates)
McClary, David (AECOM)
Melendez, Carlos (Ghirardelli & Associates, Inc.)
Mendenhall, Steve (Michael Baker International)
Mittroff, Robert (BART)
Murthy, Raj (Mott MacDonald)
Panayotou, Nick (The Hanna Group)
Sarro, Suzanne PE (Sarro Associates )
Soncuya, James (BART)
Sparrowe, Tom (INNOVEX Environmental Mgmt.)
Strickland, Karen (Golden Bear Associates)
Tom, Jason (AECOM)
Tovar, Michelle (Area West Environmental, Inc.)
Tzifas, Peter ( PSM Associates)
Wang, Jack (Cornerstone Transportation)
Webb, Kim (Sun Mountain, LLC)
Wong, Robert (Aliquot Associates)
Youmans, Denise (Harris & Associates)
Young, Brian (Towill, Inc.)
Zewdie, Adams (Self)