SR 02-09-2021 3A
City Council Report
City Council Meeting: February 9, 2021
Agenda Item: 3.A
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Gigi Decavalles-Hughes, Director, Finance Department, Risk Management
Subject: Award Request for Proposal and enter into Agreement with Humanscale
Corporation for Workplace Injury Prevention Services
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Award RFP# 262 to Humanscale Corporation for workplace injury prevention
services for the Finance Department; and,
2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with
Humanscale Corporation, in an amount not to exceed $480,000 over a five-year
period, with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval.
Summary
Staff recently solicited proposals for workplace injury prevention services to satisfy
Cal/OSHA ergonomic regulations and City safety policies. These services are critical to
Risk Management’s efforts to keep employees safe and prevent on-the-job injuries.
Staff recommends the City pursue an agreement with Humanscale Inc. to provide
extensive professional ergonomic services to the City’s workforce. This would result in
a five-year agreement for an amount not to exceed $480,000. Based on the average
cost of the City’s workers’ compensation claim, the annual investment of $96,000 will be
recovered with a prevention of two injuries each year. Given Humanscale’s track record
of providing high quality and proactive injury prevention services in a variety of
workplace settings, staff anticipates that a higher number of injuries will be avoided.
Discussion
The City’s Safety Officer is assigned to the Risk Management Division of the Finance
Department and is responsible for coordinating the City’s Safety Program and providing
departments with tools and assistance to comply with various safety regulations and
policies. One of these State regulations is the California Ergonomics Standard that is
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triggered when two or more employees report work-related Repetitive Motion Injuries
(RMIs) to the employer in a 12-month period. RMIs occur as a result of performing the
same tasks such as lifting, gripping, pushing, and typing repeatedly. These types of
injuries can be found in both office and field-oriented work environments. Given that the
City provides a wide variety of services (e.g., transportation, fire, sanitation, recreation,
etc.), its workforce is especially prone to RMIs. During FY 2019-20, based on the injury
description, 90 City employees reported RMIs.
Every employer subject to the California Ergonomics Standard is required to have a
program designed to minimize RMIs. The program must include the following three
components: 1) worksite evaluations to determine exposures which have caused RMIs;
2) control of these exposures by either correcting them or if not possible, minimizing
them; and 3) training of employees exposed to RMIs in the workplace. Due to the
specialized technical knowledge required, the City has historically used professional
ergonomic consultants to provide workplace injury prevention services to ensure its
compliance with the Standard. The most utilized services are ergonomic evaluations,
risk assessments, early intervention screenings, one-on-one job coaching, and group
trainings. Since the mid-2000s, Briotix Health has been the City’s ergonomic services
provider.
The use of professional ergonomists offers a much broader benefit to the City than
meeting the regulatory requirements. They provide employees with the training and
tools to safely, comfortably, and efficiently carry out their jobs. As a result of these
efforts, certain workplace injuries are avoided, which in turn lowers the City’s workers’
compensation costs. While the exact cost savings cannot be quantified, they are
significant considering that the average cost of each workers’ compensation claim is
approximately $50,000. These efforts are particularly successful in field-oriented work
settings, as demonstrated by the reduction in workers’ compensation claims in the
Resource Recovery and Recycling Division of the Public Works Department. After the
Division’s FY 2008-09 high of 43 ergonomic claims, the Safety Officer worked with the
ergonomic consultant to proactively identify safer equipment and work processes. For
the past four fiscal years, the number of claims filed by the division employees has
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consistently been below 30. In addition to the injury prevention services, ergonomic
consultants provide post-injury solutions that focus on reducing lost time due to injuries.
The lost time results in additional workers’ compensation costs, as well as lost
productivity and overtime costs.
Vendor/Consultant Selection
Bidder Recommendation
Best Qualified Person/Firm Humanscale Consulting
Evaluation Criteria
(include all that apply)
Training/credentials/experience, competence/skill, capacity/ability to
perform services promptly, sufficiency of financial/other resources,
character/reputation, quality of the presentation/demonstration, ability to
provide future services as needed and price.
Municipal Code SMMC 2.24.190
RFPs Received
Briotix Health Clark Seif Clark, Inc. Humanscale Corporation Poms Risk Control and
Insurance
TCS Risk Management
Services, LLC
RFP Data
Posted On Posted On
Advertised In
(City Charter & SMMC)
Vendors
Downloaded
Date Publicly
Opened
09/14/2020 City's Online
Bidding Site Santa Monica Daily Press 20 10/15/2020
Justification to Award
Staff evaluated the RFP submissions from the five firms and shortlisted four firms for
interviews. Based on the evaluation criteria established in the RFP and criteria in
SMMC 2.24.190, staff recommends Humanscale Corporation as the best qualified firm
or person to provide workplace injury prevention services, based on their knowledge
and ability to identify Repetitive Motion Injury exposures and provide recommendations
to control/minimize these exposures, their extensive experience in providing cost-
effective high qualify professional ergonomics services for diverse workplace settings,
competitive pricing and the quality of their reference checks
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve funding from the Self-Insurance Workers’
Compensation Fund to award an agreement to Humanscale Corporation for workplace
injury prevention services. Funding is available in the adopted FY 2020-21 budget in
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the Risk Management Division. Future year funding is contingent on Council budget
approval.
Agreement Request
FY 2020-21 Budget
Request Amount Department Account # Total Contract
Amount
$40,000 74800002.552010 $480,000
Prepared By: Oles Gordeev, Risk Manager
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Oaks Form - Humanscale
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CITY OF SANTA MONICA
OAKS INITIATIVE DISCLOSURE FORM
In order to facilitate compliance with the requirements of the Oaks Initiative, the City compiles
and maintains certain information. That information includes the name of any person or
persons who is seeking a “public benefit.” If the “public benefit” is sought by an entity, rather
than an individual person, the information includes the name of every person who is: (a)
trustee, (b) director, (c) partner, (d) officer, or has (e) more than a ten percent interest in the
entity.
Public benefits include:
1. Personal services contracts in excess of $25,000 over any 12-month period;
2. Sale of material, equipment or supplies to the City in excess of $25,000 over a 12-month
period;
3. Purchase, sale or lease of real property to or from the City in excess of $25,000 over a
12- month period;
4. Non-competitive franchise awards with gross revenue of $50,000 or more in any 12-
month period;
5. Land use variance, special use permit, or other exception to an established land use plan,
where the decision has a value in excess of $25,000;
6. Tax “abatement, exception, or benefit” of a value in excess of $5,000 in any 12-month
period; or
7. Payment of “cash or specie” of a net value to the recipient of $10,000 in any 12-month
period.
Name(s) of persons or entities receiving public benefit:
Name(s) of trustees, directors, partners, and officers:
Name(s) of persons with more than a 10% equity, participation, or revenue interest:
Prepared by: ____________________________Title: __________________________
Signature: ______________________________________ Date: ________________
Email: ____________________________________ Phone: ____________________
FOR CITY USE ONLY:
Bid/PO/Contract # ____________________________ Permit # ___________________________
Humanscale Corporation
Robert King
Katie Miglin Sr. Contract Administrator, Gov't Specialist
10/13/2020
kmiglin@humanscale.com 732-537-2944
by: _____________
_________________
3.A.a
Packet Pg. 12 Attachment: Oaks Form - Humanscale (4347 : Workplace Injury Prevention Services Contract)