05/23/2011 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Search

TKDA SIGINEERING -ARCHITECTURE -PLANNING The right time. The right people. The right eompan May 20, 2011 Mr. Michael Grochala City of Lino Lakes 600 Town Center Parkway Lino Lakes, Minnesota 55014 Re: City Engineering, General Services Rates City of Lino Lakes, Minnesota Dear Mr. Grochala: 444 Cedar Street, Suite 1500 Saint Paul, MN 55101 (651) 292-4400 (651) 292-0083 Fax www.tkda.com This submittal is in response to your letter, dated May 12, 2011, requesting additional information regarding City Engineering General Services Rates. We understand the challenge of evaluating the many different rates and formats engineering firms use to present their fees and welcome any opportunity to discuss and fully disclose the methodology we use. We understand that the success of the relationship between a city and its professional service providers is inextricably tied to trust and transparency. Experience has shown us that the most cost effective professional city engineering services are those delivered with trust and transparency. The presence of these two qualities will result in the lowest TOTAL cost for the city's infrastructure systems, including their planning, design, construction, and on -going operations and maintenance. As outlined in our proposal, in order to provide our clients with transparency in our billing rates, our hourly rates are based on a 2.90 multiplier applied to the actual wages for each staff and includes all overhead costs. The wages for each staff person are tied to typical industry wages for each job classification and level of experience. By using a multiplier to establish the hourly rates, our profit margin is fixed, so there is no incentive to shift the work to a less experienced employee that produces a higher profit. Our 2011 Schedule of Billing Rates included in our original proposal details the hourly rates of the specific team members that have been serving Lino Lakes for many years. This team consists of a Senior Municipal Engineer with over 20 years of experience, a Licensed Engineer with six years of municipal experience and a Senior Engineering Specialist with over 25 years of experience. Your supplemental request specifically asks for rates for a Licensed Engineer and a Technician and /or Graduate Engineer that could perform the tasks outlined in the request. As an alternative to the highly experienced team currently serving the City, TKDA is open to adjusting our staff and /or our level of services to meet the changing needs of the City. In response to your supplemental request we offer the following adjustments: An Employee Owned Company Promoting Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity