DATE: August 20, 2025
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
FROM: Water Utilities Department
TITLE: PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH AQUATIC INFORMATICS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF HACH WATER INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM PLATFORM
RECOMMENDATION
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Staff recommends that the City Council approve a Professional Services Agreement with Aquatic Informatics, in an amount not to exceed $124,320, for implementation of the Hach Water Information Management System platform at the Weese Filtration Plant, the Mission Basin Groundwater Purification Facility, and the Advanced Water Purification Facility as a Sole Source purchase; approve a budget change; and authorize the City Manager, or designee, to execute the agreement.
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BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Three of the City’s five treatment plants (Weese Filtration Plant, Mission Basin Groundwater Purification Facility, and Advanced Water Purification Facility), currently are in need of a software platform that will allow data from the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system, the Laboratory Information Management System, and manual entries to reside in one database. The City’s two wastewater plants currently utilize Hach’s Water Information Management System (WIMS) for this purpose. Having all the data reside in one database greatly increases the ability of the facility to track operational parameters and to create required regulatory reports. Currently, operators and supervisors are using several software platforms to enter and analyze data as well as to create these reports. Often, data has to be entered multiple times during the course of the day or week to ensure reports are complete. WIMS allows for one entry per data point since all necessary databases are tied into one platform. Aquatic Informatics will create both data entry forms and reports so that time spent on data management is reduced from hours to minutes per day.
Staff recommends that the City Council approve this procurement as a sole source per City Code Chapter 28A. Aquatic Informatics has proprietary rights to the Hach WIMS software so a Request for Proposals was not needed. Utilities and Aquatic Informatics staff spent a considerable amount of time developing the scope of work to obtain an accurate quote. The amount of the quote is a not to exceed amount.
FISCAL IMPACT
The total contract amount of the Professional Services Agreement with Aquatic Informatics for task completion is $124,320. Staff is requesting that Council approve a budget change from the following accounts 750754711.5320, 750755711.5320, and 750775711.5320 to their respective 5355.0009 accounts in the amount of $41,440 each. The three 5320 accounts each have current available balances of $424,000, $515,500, and $565,000 respectively; therefore, sufficient funds are available. Water service charges and meter fees in the Water Operating fund, are the source of funds for this project.
COMMISSION OR COMMITTEE REPORT
The Utilities Commission approved staff’s recommendation at its regularly scheduled meeting on July 15, 2025.
CITY ATTORNEY’S ANALYSIS
Purchases must comply with Chapter 28A of the City Code. The referenced documents have been reviewed by the City Attorney and approved as to form.
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Prepared by: Rudy Guzman, Water Utilities Division Manager
Approved by: Michael Gossman, Assistant City Manager
Submitted by: Jonathan Borrego, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Staff Report
2. Agreement