Report Prepared by: Basant Ghaleb, WWTP Laboratory Supervisor
Title
SUBJECT: Approval of a Professional Services Agreement with LABWORKS, LLC, in the Total Amount of $174,200 Over Five (5) Years, for the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) at the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) Water Quality Control Laboratory
REPORT IN BRIEF
Consider awarding a software contract for the LIMS program for the WWTP Water Quality Control Laboratory.
RECOMMENDATION
City Council - Adopt a motion approving the professional services agreement with LABWORKS, LLC, in the total amount of $174,200 over a five year term, for the LIMS software program at the WWTP Water Quality Control Laboratory; and authorizing the City Manager or the Assistant City Manager to execute all necessary documents.
Body
ALTERNATIVES
1. Approve, as recommend by Staff; or,
2. Approve, subject to other than recommended by Staff; or,
3. Deny; or,
4. Refer to Staff for reconsideration of specific items; or,
5. Continue to a future meeting.
AUTHORITY
Merced Municipal Code Title 3 Article III Purchases over Thirty-one Thousand Dollars.
CITY COUNCIL PRIORITIES
As provided for in the 2018-19 Adopted Budget.
DISCUSSION
The Water Quality Control Laboratory (WQC) is currently regulated by the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP). ELAP is contracting with The National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Certification Program (NELAC), or The National Institute (TNI) for short, to perform the annual audit for recertification.
Since TNI is an environmental program that developed from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and ELAP are looking into adapting their standards by the year 2021, and going through great efforts to inform and train all ELAP certified laboratories on the new and improved standards before the mandatory implementation in year 2021.
The WQC laboratory has gone through a formal TNI audit in November 2017. The Audit triggered more than the average number of findings a standard laboratory would have. More than 50% of the findings had to do with documentation and data tracking.
Currently the WQC laboratory handles the monitoring results for the following programs:
1-Wastewater NPDES CA Permit No. 0079219 program requirements
2-Drinking water for wells and distribution sites under Title 22 requirements
3-Industrial pretreatment program under 40 CFR 136 for 5 industries
4-Waste hauler monitoring
Other programs the WQC laboratory will need to accommodate in the future are a storm water monitoring program that will be required when the population reaches a certain level, and future expansion and growth of the Wastewater Treatment Plant, business, and permitted dischargers.
Due to the increase in required TNI regulation and the above mentioned services, the WQC Laboratory needs a better, more efficient tracking system than log books and spreadsheets. A laboratory information management system (LIMS) is designed to successfully manage the amount of data for State compliance.
The laboratory staff sent out a Request for Proposal for LIMS providers in November 2018; there were six responders. All six vendors were scored on how well their proposal met the City’s requirements, the vendor’s profile, same field application, quality of the proposal, and price, including if requirements were met with no additional cost (see attachment 2 for evaluation scores). The evaluation team was comprised of WWTF staff, Purchasing staff, and IT staff. The top three scorers (Accelerated Technology Laboratory, LABWORKS, LLC, and PROMIUM, LLC) were invited for an on-site scripted demonstration to ensure their program met our needs.
After a thorough evaluation of the top three vendors, which included the participation and guidance of the City’s IT Department, LABWORKS, LLC, was chosen as the LIMS vendor. They demonstrated a strong knowledge of our program’s needs throughout their profile of 244 applications in the field of water testing. Their program seems to be simple to work with, yet meet all the upcoming and increasing regulations and reporting challenges.
LABWORKS, LLC, is a unique program that offers a hosted perpetual license model, where the City will avoid the continuous escalating cost of licensing, but have the ease and convenience of hosting.
IMPACT ON CITY RESOURCES
The cost of the software, implementation, and training is $108,400. There is an annual support service cost of $16,450 per year, beginning with year two, and continuing through year five. The first year of annual support is included in the $108,400. The total cost over five years (initial purchasing costs, implementation, training, and annual support services) is $174,200.
There is sufficient funds available in account number 553-1108-532.17-00 Professional
Services to cover the cost of the LIMS system.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Professional Service Agreement
2. Evaluation Scores