Date: November 19, 2013

The purpose of the City Engineer Forum is to provide an opportunity for City Engineers and their senior engineering assistants to:identify topics of mutual interest; discuss these topics amongst their peers; share and learn best practices; build stronger relationships with their counterparts.

Minutes:

  1. Opening
  2. Introduced Sheila Hamilton, APWA Executive Director
  3. Noted that City Engineers Forum is now an official APWA/AZ Committee (officially known as the Municipal Engineers Committee)
  4. Reports from officers, standing sub-committees
  5. None
  6. Unfinished business
  7. Discussed the format of meetings. Considered: option of breaking into “sub-committees to discuss topics or to discuss items as a committee of the whole. The consensus was to discuss issues as a group.
  8. Follow-up on items from prior meeting:
  9. Construction Cost Data Sharing: The consensus was that for the majority of communities this was not a high priority item. Several smaller communities did express interest in following up on this. A subcommittee of Woody Scoutten (Litchfield Park), Andrew Goh (Tempe), and Greg Smith (Casa Grande) will follow up on this off-line and will report back to the larger group.
  10. Web based information exchange: Sheila indicated that APWA national is updating their website and it will likely have options that will facilitate data exchange and “member only” discussions. This is still several months out.
  11. CIP Benchmarking: Rob Kidder (Mesa) noted that he/Mesa had found a report prepared in around 2008 that had a number of BMP’s for CIP management with benchmark data. He noted that Mesa had found this info to be of value in evaluating their performance of their CIP project delivery. Rod suggested it would be advantageous to update this data. Wylie (Phoenix) noted that he thought folks in the Tucson area had taken point on this initially. Rob will follow up with the original folks if possible to get an update. He will try to get a copy of the report to the others so they can review prior to the next meeting.
  12. Capital Project Management Software Systems

Varies per community:

  • Mesa uses CIP Planner: Purchased after extensive research. So far working well; pricey.
  • Peoria uses an in-house system based on MS Access. Andy will look into the possibility of sharing w/ other communities.
  • Phoenix has in-house system
  • No others use a full system. (CCG uses McClain as a means of entering CIP requests. The program does not provide, or used for, more PM activities.)
  • Cooperative purchasing agreement (supplies, services, equipment)

Communities add the cooperative use clause intermittently. Several of the smaller communities noted that they like to be able to piggy-back on these so they are very glad when other communities add that provision.

3.2.6.Legislative Issues: Issues in this area should be coordinated through APWA’s Legislative Committee.

3.2.7.Coordination with Utilities & other non-local agencies: There was significant discussion on this topic. There is concern about an inconsistent approach between the communities that the utilities are able to take advantage to the disadvantage of the municipalities. Scottsdale, Phoenix, and Tempe agreed to bring in staff from their organizations who regularly deal with the utilities to participant in a panel discussion on some BMP’s and lessons learned. Wylie Bearup (Phoenix), Andy Granger (Peoria), and Andy Goh (Tempe) will take point in getting their teams represented at the next meeting.

3.2.8.Bonding: No discussion.

3.2.9.City Engineer Metrics: Limited discussion and no action item.

  1. New business
  2. Organization of committee:
  3. Chair / Vice-Chair: Rob Kidder of Mesa agreed to serve as Vice-Chair, Greg Smith of Casa Grande will serve as Chair.
  4. Other positions: None established at this time.
  5. Sub-committees: Small groupswill address specific topics in greater detail and report back to full group
  6. Coordination with AACE (Arizona Association of County Engineers: Would be interested in coordinating but not at their winter conference. Would prefer to integrate into annual conference, at which both groups would have participants.
  1. Establish date and time for next forum: Tentatively set for February, 2014; date to be confirmed.
  1. Adjourn

Location:

Maricopa Association of Governments’ Saguaro Room, 302 N. 1st Ave., 2nd floor, Phoenix, AZ 85003.

Parking will be validated.

Participants:

Attendance / Name / Agency
Title / Office Phone
Cell Phone / Email
Andrew H. Y Goh, P.E. / City of Tempe
Deputy PW Director / City Engineer / 480-350-8896 /
Andy Granger, PE / City of Peoria
Engineering Director / 623-773-7215 /
Beth Huning PE / City of Mesa
City Engineer / 480-644-2512 /
Bill Fay, / Town of Maricopa
City Engineer / 520-316-6944 /
Charles Andrews / City of Avondale
City Engineer / 623-333-4216 /
Dan Cook / City of Chandler
Asst. PW Director, Transp & Ops / 480-782-3426 /
Dan Nissen / City of Peoria
Assistant City Engineer / 623-773-7214 /
Dave Lipinski / City of Scottsdale
Principal Project Manager / 480-312-2641 /
David Ramirez / City of Goodyear
City Engineer / 623-882-7954 /
Debra Albert / City of Glendale
Transportation Director / 623.930.2939 /
Derek Earle / City of Scottsdale
City Engineer / 480-312-2776 /
Duane Eitel, PE / City of Casa Grande
Traffic Engineer /
Edgar Medina / Town of Gilbert
Assistant Town Engineer / 480-503-6754 /
Giao Pham, PE / City of Apache Junction
Public Works Director / City Engineer / 480-474-8513 /
Greg Rodzenko, PE / City of Glendale
Assistant City Engineer - Land Development / (623) 930-3623 /
Greg Smith, PE/PS / City of Casa Grande
City Engineer / Deputy Public Works Director / 520.421.8625 /
James Shano / Town of Paradise Valley
Town Engineer / 480-348-3573 /
John Mitchell, PE / Town of Florence
Utilities Director / (520) 868-7695 /
Jorge Gastelum / City of El Mirage
Assistant City Engineer / (623) 876-2971 /
Keith Brown / City of Goodyear
Assistant City Engineer / 623.882.7956 /
Kelly Jensen / City of Mesa
Assistant City Engineer / 480.644.4254 /
Maher M Hazine, P.E., PWLF / City of Peoria
Deputy Public Works - Utilities Director / 623-773-7502 /
R.J. Zeder / City of Chandler
Transportation and Development Manager / 480-782-3400 /
Randy Harrel / Town of Fountain Hills
Town Engineer / 480-816-5112 /
Ray Dovalina / City of Phoenix
Assistant Street Transportation Director / (602) 256-4341 /
Rob Kidder, P.E. / City of Mesa
Assistant City Engineer / 480-644-5467 /
Scott Tkach / City of Prescott
City Engineer / (928) 777-1140 /
Scott Zipprich, PE / Town of Buckeye
Town Engineer / (623) 349-6211
Sue McDermott, PE / City of El Mirage
Deputy City Manager/City Engineer / 623-876-2971 /
Susanna Struble, PE / City of Coolidge
Public Works Director/City Engineer / 520-723-4882 /
Wayne Costa, PE / Town of Florence
Public Works Director / 520-868-7617 /
Woody Scoutten, PE / City of Litchfield Park
City Engineer / 623-349-6222
Wylie Bearup, PE / City of Phoenix
Street Transportation Director / City Engineer / 602.262.6136 /

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