The Ontario City Council approved nearly $28 million in consultant contracts Tuesday night to design and manage roads and utilities for the Ontario Ranch Road and Grove Avenue Corridor Improvement Project, the next phase of infrastructure work on the city’s west side.
City Manager Scott Ochoa defended the spending, explaining the contracts cover “utilities, for inspection services, engineering and for traffic and transportation that all relate to Ontario Ranch,” an area annexed in the late 1990s and early 2000s with a master-planned community in mind. The East Side of the ranch is roughly 70% developed, he said, and the time has come to begin work on Phase 2 west of the flood control channel.
The item, approved as part of the consent calendar without discussion, bundles five contract actions totaling more than $27.77 million. The largest is a nearly $10.4 million amendment to a project management agreement with Moote Cos. LLC bringing that contract’s total to just under $10.5 million. A separate nearly $7.46 million amendment to the design services agreement with Ardurra Group Inc. brings that firm’s total to over $13.23 million. A new design services agreement with Westland Group Inc. carries a not-to-exceed amount of $7.54 million.
The package also includes a resolution declaring the city’s intent to issue tax-exempt obligations, a step that mentions up to $500 million in possible future financing for capital projects including Ontario Ranch West infrastructure.
Public speakers pushed back on the process before the vote. One commenter said the council was being asked to add nearly $28 million in consultant contract authority, including a $7.5 million contract he said was awarded without competition, and asked the city to disclose how firms were selected and which funds would pay for the work. A second speaker criticized the Moote contract amendment specifically, noting the budget was rising from $100,000 to $10 million without competitive bidding.
Ochoa said the funding comes from development impact fee accounts paid by developers, and that professional service firms are prequalified and then able to bid on projects in a more expedited manner than a full request for proposals. “The bidding process was executed with the firms that are prequalified and are on what we call the bench,” he said.
“Rest assured that the bidding process was executed with the firms that are prequalified and are on what we call the bench for all of our technical engineering department,” the city manager added.
The corridor project involves improvements along Ontario Ranch Road from Euclid Avenue to Archibald Avenue and Grove Avenue from Riverside Drive to Eucalyptus Avenue, including street, utility undergrounding, storm drain, sewer, water, recycled water, and fiber optic work.
The AI platform Civilio assisted this report.