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Home My WebLink About06/04/2024 09.A. Resolution appointing the City Engineer as authorized signor of Washington State Department of Transportation documents i4 e+ /A L4141110 !1— i,i BUSINESS OF THE CITY COUNCIL YAKIMA, WASHINGTON AGENDA STATEMENT Item No. 9.A. For Meeting of: June 4, 2024 ITEM TITLE: Resolution appointing the City Engineer as authorized signor of Washington State Department of Transportation documents SUBMITTED BY: Scott Schafer, Director of Public Works * Bill Preston, City Engineer SUMMARY EXPLANATION: The City of Yakima (City) is frequently awarded federal and state funding for transportation projects. Those funds are typically administered through WSDOT Local Programs. WSDOT requires both a Prospectus, a description of work, and a Local Agency Agreement (LAA), an obligation of funds for expenditure, to be signed by a City representative. The City has Delegation of Approval Authority Policy 2-200 designating all contracts be signed by the City Manager. Delegating authority to the City Engineer to sign the Prospectus and LAA will speed up the process of obligating already awarded and accepted funds. This will allow projects to begin sooner. This is only for projects where the City Council has already accepted the Awarded funds and authorized the City Manager to execute contracts for the project. The City has Resolution R-2016-161 that authorizes the City Engineer as signor of documents for the sole purpose of requesting reimbursement for federally funded road construction projects. ITEM BUDGETED: N/A STRATEGIC PRIORITY: N/A RECOMMENDATION: Adopt Resolution. ATTACHMENTS: Resolution Signing Authorization LAA Prospectus Request City Engineer as Signor 55 RESOLUTION NO. R-2024- A RESOLUTION appointing the City Engineer as an authorized signor of documents with Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) required for obligation of awarded funds. WHEREAS, the City of Yakima (City) is frequently awarded federal, state, and other grants administered by WSDOT; and WHEREAS, WSDOT requires the City to designate the responsible individual allowed to sign documents; and WHEREAS, the City has Delegation of Approval Authority Policy 2-200 designating all contracts be signed by the City Manager; and WHEREAS, WSDOT administers awarded funds through WSDOT Local Programs utilizing the Local Agency Guidelines Manual, requiring a Prospectus that describes scope of work and a Local Agency Agreement (LAA) obligating the funds for expenditure; and WHEREAS, appointing the City Engineer as the authorized signor would allow for execution of the Prospectus and LAA for the sole purpose of obligating already awarded, and accepted, federal, state, and other grant funds; and WHEREAS, Resolution R-2016-161 authorizes the City Engineer or Chief Engineer as signor of documents for the sole purpose of requesting reimbursement for federally funded road construction projects; and WHEREAS, in order to seek timely obligation of awarded funds, the City Council wishes to grant, to the City Engineer for the City of Yakima, authority to sign the Prospectus and LAA which will legally bind the City solely for the purpose of obligating awarded, and accepted, funds for road construction projects, and finds that it is in the best interest of the City and its residents to do so; now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF YAKIMA: For the purposes of administering funds through the Washington State Department of Transportation local programs, the City Engineer for the City of Yakima shall be delegated authority shall be authorized to sign the Prospectus and the Local Agency Agreement for road construction projects on behalf of the City of Yakima. ADOPTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL this 4th day of June, 2024. Patricia Byers, Mayor ATTEST: Rosalinda Ibarra, City Clerk 56 April 23, 2024 The City Engineer is requesting the City Manager to delegate the signing authority of the WSDOT Local Agency Agreements and Prospectus forms to the City Engineer on behalf of the City of Yakima. Background The City of Yakima regularly obtains federal, state, and other grants that is administered by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). WSDOT administers all funds through Local Programs utilizing the Local Agency Guidelines (LAG) Manual. The LAG Manual requires that all funds administered by Local Programs include a Prospectus (Scope of Work) and a Local Agency Agreement (LAA). The LAA is the form WSDOT uses to "authorize"the City to begin spending the funds and receiving reimbursements. WSDOT requires the City to designate the responsible individual allowed to sign both documents. Currently the CM is the only person designated. The City of Yakima has a Delegation of Approval Authority Policy 2-200 that designates all contracts be signed by the CM. The CM signs all contracts less than $100,000 and signs all contracts over$100,000 after City Council approval. Because the LAA is technically an agreement,therefore a contract, by policy the CM has the only signing authority. The Prospectus is not an agreement or contract. The following are important elements when evaluating this proposal: • City Policy 2-200 requires that all grants be accepted/approved by the City Council. This would not change as a condition of this request. • It is standard policy of the City Engineer that when presenting a funding Award to the City Council,the Resolution includes language allowing the CM to "execute" all required documents for the completion of the project. These typically include the Prospectus,the LAA, Consulting Agreements, and the construction contract. This allows the CM to sign agreements/contracts over$100,000 without going back to City Council. The CM will not sign the agreements/contracts if the language is not in the Award resolution. This would not change as a condition of this request. • The Prospectus is a scoping document and is not an agreement or contract. WSDOT, nor the City Policy 2-200, require the form be signed by the CM. However, since the form itself designates "Mayor/City Manager", signing authority remains with the CM. Approval of this request would allow the City Engineer or the CM to sign the Prospectus. • The LAA is a standard form that WSDOT uses outlining the requirements for spending Local Program managed funds. It is completed by the City Engineer, signed by the CM, and sent to WSDOT by the City Engineer. The LAA identifies the various funding sources and amounts for the project and which the City Engineer is ultimately responsible. Approval of this request would skip the step of obtaining the CM's signature for the LAA. • The current process requires the City Engineer to obtain the Public Works Director, legal division, and the Finance Director's signature on the CM Transmittal form prior to submitting to the CM. This takes additional time and effort on the part of the City Engineer. This would be eliminated as part of this request. • Both the Finance Director and the Public Works Director review the funding associated with the documents to ensure that adequate funding is available. About half the time, the project is 57 100%funded by the grant, so review isn't really necessary. The other half of the time there is a match required of the City and it is the City Engineer's responsibility to ensure the match is available. A risk associated with this request is that the City Engineer signs the LAA without adequate match. • Due to the timing when receiving grants and the City's budget development, it is a regular occurrence that a budget amendment is needed to cover match requirements and/or including the grant into the Engineering budget. The City Engineer would be required to prepare budget amendments and discuss match requirements with the Finance Director if the Engineering budget is showing a deficit. The current process ensures this discussion takes place. This request will not change the existing process. • It typically takes one to five days to get the CM signatures on both documents with the current process. This request would eliminate that time and speed up the funding timeline. • Sometimes the WSDOT requires the documents to be resigned due to an error or a change in dates, etc. When that happens,the process begins anew, and it takes even more time before work can begin on a project. This request would speed up the process as the City Engineer could resign and send on without having to take it to the CM, explain the change, and get a new signature. • The City Clerk's Office does not file the Prospectus and LAA. They are kept with in the Engineering Office with the project documentation. This would not change as a result of this request. • Resolution R-2016-161 had previously delegated signing of the LAA to the City Engineer. It is unclear when it was rescinded, or if it was, but the intent of this request is to update/renew the old resolution to include the Prospectus and all funding administered through WSDOT. • This request is similar to the Delegation of Authority the CM provides to the Transit Division Manager to implement FTA funding. • The timing of this request comes when the City is currently without a Finance Director. While not eliminating the need for the Finance Division to be involved in project funding,this request does reduce the involvement of an already understaffed Finance Division. When evaluating the pros and cons of this proposal,there is little risk with delegating the signing authority of the Prospectus and the Local Agency Agreement to the City Engineer. The benefits appear to outweigh the cons and there is already precedence for this type of delegation. If the City Manager wishes to move forward with this request,the City Engineer will prepare the necessary resolution for Council. If there are any questions, please contact Bill Preston. F5 -�f 58