PLM Meeting Minutes - October 27, 2016

Minutes

Professional Liaison Meeting

Date: October 27, 2016
Business Meeting: 3:15 PM - 4:45 PM
LOCATION: District 4, 111 Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA 94612

1.0 Welcome and Introductions

Cristina Ferraz, District Division Chief, called the meeting to order. Ms. Ferraz talked about the successful and fullpacked town hall meeting of Malcolm Dougherty coinciding with the Calmentor meeting. Ms. Ferraz stated that the California Transportation Plan 2040 or CTP 2040, lays out a vision with a set of supporting goals, policies and recommendations for a transportation future in which more people and more products get where they need to go using only a fraction of the greenhouse gas-producing energy we use today. She said that like prior plans, the CTP 2040 shows how the state’s transportation system can be improved to deliver mobility and safety, as well as economic, accessibility and environmental objectives. But for the first time, the CTP add strategies to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction targets set by the State. Ms. Ferraz stated that CTP 2040 has six broad goals: 1) improving multimodal mobility and accessibility for all people; 2) preserving the multimodal transportation system; 3) supporting a vibrant economy; 4) improving public safety and security; 5) fostering livable and healthy communities; and, 6) promoting social equity; and practicing environmental stewardship. She said, to successfully achieve these goals, we welcome continued engagement with Caltrans transportation partners throughout the State, as well as key stakeholders such as yourself.

Ms. Ferraz re-iterated CalTrans’ commitment to small business. She stated that the Calmentor Program and other departmental small business development initiatives have helped to support smaller firms in getting ready to team with larger firms on procurements, or as has been the case with several Calmentor graduate protégé firms here in District 4, successfully win bids as primes on procurements. These collective efforts have led to Caltrans exceeding the State’s 25 percent Small Business participation goal for the third consecutive year, reaching a five-year high of 46.05 percent, with over $519 million in awards to small business in FY 2015-2016. 

2.0 Approvals

Romy Fuentes (Branch Chief) informed everyone that the minutes of the meeting of the last Calmentor was forwarded by email. Please read, review and advise Romy or Marian Faustino if there are comments or corrections needed.

3.0 District 4/Statewide Reports and Updates

Romy Fuentes discussed the upcoming professional services for A&E and non A&E contracts which he divided into 3 parts: A&E contracts since November 2015, 3 of which were awarded to Calmentor members; non A&E contracts secured from bids; and upcoming contracts to be advertised in November and December 2016.

Catalino Nicolas, D4 Contract Manager, presented his upcoming construction support contract which is a $5 Million contract for 3 years. This will be in the North bay Region (Sonoma, Solano, Napa and Marin counties). This will be advertised in November 2016 and will be accepting Request for Qualification (RFQ).

Bo Yuan, D4 Contract Manager, briefly discussed about his upcoming contract. It will be a spoke about an RFQ for a 3-year contract, starting from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2020. This is a $1M contract on visual impact analysis for the Landscape and Architecture office. Advertisement will start November 15, 2016. 

4.0 Calmentor Steering Committee Report

Steve Mendenhall of Michael Baker International and head of the Caltrans D4 Calmentor Steering Committee gave Q3 progress updates: 100 active protégé firms, 26 active mentor firms, 3 new active mentor-protégé pairing and hoping to increase to 5 at the end of the year. Currently there are 55 pairings and hoping to reach 60 pairings. There are 52 graduate firms – the most recent of which is Albion Environmental Inc. \

Mr. Mendenhall mentioned that 15% of the mentor firms and 64% of the protégé firms are SBE firms; 4% protégé firms are DVBE; and 12% mentor and 40% protégé firms are DBE firms.

He stated that D4 is on the most successful Calmentor programs in the state and that is all due to the people who volunteer their time, support of CalTrans and the public agencies. 

5.0 Special Presentation

Calmentor Steering committee Steve Mendenhall and Nick Panayotou along with Caltrans’ Dan McElhinney, Malcolm Dougherty and Kome Ajise presented awards to the following: Sarah Peelo of Albion Environmental, Inc. (protégé firm) for having graduated; Christi Fu of Arcadis was acknowledged as a mentor firm; and, and Artemise Davenport of Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District with the Outstanding Public Agency Partner Award.

Malcolm Dougherty spoke about his town hall meeting that was just held. First he complimented D4 for having paved the way for the Calmentor. He spoke about the “change” in transportation business, partnerships and innovation which he hopes will channel us towards a better quality of life and economic vitality. California needs more funding invested in transportation especially after the gas tax decrease of 9% last year which deleted $750M projects and pushed out existing projects. He’s hoping for a super majority between the assembly and the senate so that a new legislature will be in force by January 2017. 

6.0 Public Agency Partner Reports

Luz Campos, Purchasing Procurement Specialist of the MTC spoke about the importance of the Calmentor in building relationships among the member companies. To know more on the events and upcoming projects at the MTC please log in to http://mtc.ca.gov/. She specifically mentioned about the meeting/professional consulting services that they will be presenting to the commissioner. Handout materials included tips on how to become a vendor.

Artemise Davenport of the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District distributed handouts with the upcoming projects of the 2 different divisions. For detailed info please go to the contracting opportunities link on their website http://www.goldengate.org/.

Olga Medina, Management Analyst of the Santa Clara VTA, urges the members to visit their website at http://www.vta.org/ofpd to learn more about the contracts & construction coming up. Encourages everyone to attend their Procurement fair workshop the following week on Tuesday on Nov 1.

Hayden Lee of BART mentioned about the RFQ for general engineering services which will award 6 contracts at $25M (total $150M) in November/December 2016. Also mentioned about the pilot program that the BART civil rights groups is initiating. To learn more please visit their website at http://www.bart.gov/about.

7.0 Panel Presentation: Getting Ready for Teaming Opportunities under the New Caltrans Procurement Process

David Lundgren of Stantec and the panel moderator discussed about the changes in procurement processes which rolled out in 2016 and one of the changes is the proper training in a 6-Sigma management plan including Caltrans. Improvement goals are on 2 main areas: reduction to 29 days from the 111-180 days of the selection process and reduction to 45 days from the 125-180 days redefinition of normal process when DPAC approves work to time of contract execution.

The following were discussed: procurement process overview, presented by Saad Samani, DPAC District 4 A&E Coordinator; tips for planning for new process by Arvin Chaudhary, President of Chaudhary & Associates; mentor firm’s perspective on the new process, presented by Steve Mendenhall of Michael Baker International, a mentor firm; tips for small business subcontractors by Robert Wong of Aliquot & Associates, a graduate protégé firm; and, Q&A portion from participants.

8.0 Adjourn Meeting

Romy adjourned the meeting at 5:20PM. Immediately after the regular business meeting, the Caltrans D4 Calmentor Program Steering Committee hosted an informal business networking mixer at Drake’s Dealership in the Utica Room, located at 2325 Broadway, just two blocks from the Caltrans District 4 Office. 

Caltrans Staff

Ajise, Kome (Chief, Deputy Director, Caltrans)
Catalino, Nicolas (Contract Manager, Consultant Services Unit)
Dougherty, Malcolm (Director, Caltrans)
Faustino, Marian (Branch Chief, Admin Services, CSU)
Ferraz, Cristina (Distr. Div. Chief, PPM East Region)
Fuentes, Romy (Branch Chief, Consultant Services Unit)
Horton, Sara (Contract Manager)
Mulingtapang, Cynthia (Consultant Services Unit)
Samani, Saad (DPAC)
Yuan, Bo (Senior Contract Manager, Consultant Services Unit)

Local Agencies

Campos, Luz (Purchasing Technician, MTC)
Davenport, Artemise (Golden Gate Bridge) Medina, Olga (Management Analyst, SCVTA)

Consultants

Alandy, Jason (Green Valley Consulting Engineers)
Baldoa, Ann (VTA)
Bingham, Lauren (Johnson Marigot.com)
Brady, Ryan (Albion Environmental, Inc)
Butcher, Raewyn (Ghirardelli & Associates)
Chaudhary, Arvin (Chaudhary & Associates)
Chow, Reuben (Chow Engineering, Inc.)
Collins, John (Vali Cooper & Asso.)
Dickey, Jim (Cinquini & Passarino Inc)
Elmore, Mike (Sun Mountain, LLC)
Fu, Christi (Arcadis)
Green, Michael (Memory Spring)
Haro, Angelica (VSCE Inc.)
Henry, Phil (Philip Henry Architecture)
Hosley, Lynne (CH2M)
Glazener, Michael (VSCE)
Huang, Wen (AECom)
Lee, Hayden (BART)
Li, Wei (SC Solutions)
Lowry, Patrick (Alta Vista)
Lundgren, David (Stantec)
Masdeo, Dan (Parsons Brinckerhoff)
Mendenhall, Steve (Michael Baker International)
Messiah, Samir (CM Pros, Inc.)
Murthy, Raj (Mott McDonald)
Nadell, Brady (Parsons Brinckerhoff)
Panayotou, Nick (The Hanna Group)
Peelo, Sarah (Albion Environmental, Inc.)
Rikkelman, Anna (BSK Associates)
Rogers, Richard (Solutions Group West)
Ross, Don (CH2M)
Rozumowicz, Becky (Area West Environmental, Inc.)
Sarmiento, Grace (Summit Associates)
Sarro, Suzanne PE (Sarro Associates )
Sathiamurthy, Ramesh (AECOM)
Schaaf, Mike (CALTROP Corp.)
Schell, Samantha (Pacific Legacy, Inc.)
Smith, Jordona (Alta Vista Solutions)
Soncuya, James (BART)
Spillane, Tim (Cogstone Resource Mgmt., Inc.)
Strickland, Karen (Golden Bear Associates)
Taylor, Darcy (Geocon Consultants, Inc.)
Tovar, Michelle (Area West Environmental, Inc.)
Tsang, Steve (Lai & Associates)
Wang, Terry (Ninyo & Moore)
Webb, Kim ( Sun Mountain, LLC)
Wong, Robert (Aliquote & Associates)
Yu, Ming-Chen (AMC Engineers)
Zamani, Amir (Chow Engineering, Inc.)