2012 Communications

Gustav-Ike Parish Outreach Representatives 

November 15, 2012

Guidance for Gustav / Ike CDBG Disaster Recovery Recipients on a Variety of Issues Related to Implementation of Infrastructure Projects

Please read the below information and apply this guidance when preparing submissions to OCD-DRU. As always, if you have any questions, please contact your Outreach Representative or your OCD-DRU Infrastructure Analyst.

Procurement

Please be reminded that there are two (2) forms that may require submission to OCD-DRU by the grantee after specific procurement instances:

• Verification of Professional Services Eligibility

Only those firms that have not worked with the Office of Community Development within the last five (5) years require OCD-DRU staff to determine eligibility. If a firm has worked with the LCDBG program or any DRU programs, then submission and determination is not required.

• Notice of Contract Award

A Notice of Contract Award (Exhibit 6-14 of the Grantee Administrative Manual) must be submitted to OCD-DRU within 30 days of awarding a prime construction contract.

Submission of Construction Plans, Specifications, Cost Estimate and Change Order

One (1) hard copy and one (1) electric copy of your construction plans, specifications and final cost estimate is to be submitted to the following for review and approval prior to advertising for bids. You must have OCD-DRU approval in writing prior to advertising for bids.

Kristin Celentano-Bohling
Louisiana Solutions, LLC
1515 Poydras Street Suite 1350
New Orleans, LA 70112
tel:  504-799-1139
fax:  504-412-8260
email: celentanoKH@cdmsmith.com 

Please ensure that the most up to-date to date documents are included in the specifications submitted for review and approval.  Sample documents have been provided in Exhibit 6-2 of the Grantee Administrative Manual. Specifically, specifications submitted have been missing the current CDBG Compliance Provisions and Federal Labor Standards, wage decision, and Section 3 forms.

Submission of Change Orders
Please be reminded that, per Section 2 of the Disaster Recovery Grantee Administrative Manual, if any of the following circumstances will be affected by a change order, it must be reviewed and approved by OCD-DRU prior to execution by the Grantee:

• The project eligibility;
• The scope of the project is outside the approved project application; or,
• The project’s environmental clearance.

For clarification, any changes to scope are defined by OCD-DRU as any construction items added that were not discussed in the project description or cost estimate contained in the approved application.

If you are unsure about whether it is required for review and approval, OCD-DRU suggests that the change order be submitted and allow our staff to make the determination for you. This might err on the side of caution, but it will ensure that all costs are eligible for reimbursement.

Drainage Projects Only
If your project is for drainage improvements, you will also need to submit one (1) hard copy of your plans, specifications, final cost estimate and impact study to the State of Louisiana, Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) for review.  Please refer to the attached list of District Administrators to determine which office should perform the review based on the location of the project.  OCD-DRU must receive the review response from DOTD prior to authorizing advertising for bids.

Amendment to Project Application

Contact your infrastructure analyst for assistance in amending the online application.  Although the amendment process is conducted online, a hard copy of the form is provided in the Grantee Administrative Manual as Exhibit 2 – 1 for your reference.
 
OCD/DRU Welcomes New Staff Member

The OCD/DRU Infrastructure Team is pleased to welcome Consuella “Connie” Hall to its team as to Infrastructure Analyst. Connie has previously worked with OCD/DRU as an Outreach Representative since August 2010. Please see Connie’s contact information below, in addition to her assigned grantees:

June 28, 2012

OCD-DRU staff conducted a Webinar on Monitoring and Close-Out Procedures for completed projects. The webinar addresses Chapters 12 and 13 of the Disaster Recovery Grantee Administrative Manual. 

June 2012

Request for Payment: State of Louisiana Fiscal Year End Procedures
The State of Louisiana’s Fiscal Year is July 1 through June 30. Because of this, OCD-DRU requires that a breakdown of the costs for each fiscal year be included for all Requests for Payment submitted within the month of July that contain a range of service beginning prior to June 30 and ending after July 1. This breakout should be included in the “Project Status” section of the RFP form.

For example:
Draw Request for $15,000 for dates of service from May 1, 2012 to July 31, 2012

Project Status Description: The fiscal year breakout of costs is $10,000 for FY2011-12 and $5,000 for FY2012-13.

The Project Status Description on the RFP form should describe the status of the project. For example, if the project is under construction, OCD-DRU would expect an explanation as to how much construction has been completed. This could include the actual percentage of complete construction as of that service period. 

Submission of Change Orders
Please be reminded that, per Section 2 of the Disaster Recovery Grantee Administrative Manual, if any of the following circumstances will be affected by a change order, it must be reviewed and approved by OCD-DRU prior to execution by the Grantee.

1. The project eligibility;
2. The scope of the project is outside the approved project application; or,
3. The project’s environmental clearance.

For clarification, any changes to scope are defined by OCD-DRU as any construction items added that were not discussed in the project description or cost estimate contained in the approved application.

If you are unsure about whether it is required for review and approval, OCD-DRU suggests that the change order be submitted and allow our staff to make the determination for you. This might err on the side of caution, but it will ensure that all costs are eligible for reimbursement.

OCD-DRU Webpage Update
The new link for the Gustav/Ike Recovery Program – Online Entry System is:
http://www.doa.louisiana.gov/cdbg/DR/Gustav-Ike/DR_GustavIkeOnline.htm

Grantee Training For Monitoring and Closeout 
Recently, all grantees registered with our online system received an invitation from the Louisiana Municipal Association (LMA) to attend a webinar hosted by our OCD-DRU staff. LMA is facilitating the webinar on our agency’s behalf and we encourage all grantees to attend. OCD-DRU staff will be reviewing the most recent updates in Section 12 “Monitoring” and Section 13 “Closeout” of the CDBG Grantee Administrative Manual, Version 3.2, and will be facilitating a Q&A for all grantees at the end of the presentation in order to enable grantees to close-out completed projects/grants and prepare for the 2012 monitoring of selected grantees.

If you did not receive an invitation from LMA and would like to attend the webinar, please contact Nikki Blazier with LMA at 225-400-7456 for assistance.

Online System Password Changes and Resets
As part of the Disaster Recovery Unit’s IT Security Policy, passwords for all DRU systems must be changed every three months. For the Gustav/Ike Online System (GIOS), you should receive an email a few days before your password expiration notifying you that your password should be changed. This can be done by finding the last item in the “My Projects” list on the main screen (you may have to scroll to the next page of the list depending upon the number of items). Select the item labeled “Set Password” and follow the on screen prompts to complete the reset.

Should you find that your password has expired, contact our Helpdesk or 225-330-0911 to ask for a password reset. When contacting the helpdesk, please mention you are resetting your GIOS account and provide your user account name. Remember, once a password has been reset, you have seven days to change the default password that is provided to you. If you have any questions, your outreach representative is available to assist you.

May 2012

The Version 3.2 Update to the Disaster Recovery Grantee Administrative Manual is complete. Please take a moment to review the changes and replace the pages in your hard copy that need updating.

Use these Version 3.2 changes to update your Administrative Manual. The packet includes instructions detailing what has changed in the Manual and which pages to discard and replace.

Please ensure that the local staff person and/or consultant responsible for compliance with the requirements described in the Manual is aware of the updates. There are several clarifications, corrections and updated forms that have been made to the manual including, but not limited to, a procurement method that may require OCD-DRU approval if only one bid or proposal is received (Section 6.0 - Subsection 10.0).

The entire updated Disaster Recovery Grantee Administrative Manual, Version 3.2 can be found here. 

April 2012

Guidance for Gustav/Ike D-CDBG Recipients on a Variety of Issues Related to Application Requirements

Addresses:

• Duplication of Benefits
• Commitment of Other Funds
• National Objective

February 2012

Request for Payment Guidance for Gustav/Ike Infrastructure Projects

January 2012

As part of our ongoing efforts to stay current with HUD's CDBG regulations, OCD-DRU has updated the Housing Program Guidelines. The updated document contains information relevant to all CDBG funded housing programs as well as detailed information on each particular type of recovery program available to the parishes utilizing Gustav-Ike CDBG disaster funding. As your parish moves forward with its recovery programs, the updated guidelines should be used to ensure that all pertinent state and federal regulations are followed. 

Please contact your parish's assigned outreach representative or project manager should you have any questions related to the updated guidelines.

Gustav-Ike Infrastructure Data on the Web
OCD-DRU has recently added Gustav-Ike Infrastructure project data onto our public data port Rebuild.la.gov. Project-specific information can be found on the site, as well as filtering elements that allow customized searches by program, recipient, project type, legislative district, etc. The site is available for all parish representatives and the general public to view.