MICHAEL BRANDMAN ASSOCIATES - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

City of Santa Ana Firm and Personnel Experience Statement of Qualifications for Environmental Consultants and Project Experience Highly trained and dedicated Reprographics and Publications department staff ensure that document reproduction is closely monitored for compliance to internal and external client protocols. In -House Resources Information is the raw material of MBA's work. To ensure the availability of materials, MBA maintains an in-house reference library to assist project staff. The main corporate library holds thousands of titles cataloged on a microcomputer database. This arrangement allows staff to quickly search for information by subject, title, title words, geographic location, report number, and other parameters. In addition to general references and standard texts, numerous government reports and hard -to -find local planning documents are in the collection, including examples of environmental impact studies prepared by MBA and others. The library also receives over 200journals, newsletters, and other periodicals and maintains updated copies of appropriate regulations. Compliance with Processing and Legal Requirements MBA has established an excellent record of legal defensibility for environmental documents. In our 25-year history, 23 projects completed by the firm have been involved in litigation. However, none of the MBA environmental documents has been found to be inadequate at the conclusion of litigation. This has included successful defense of projects to the Supreme Court. In most cases, however, litigation has generally been averted entirely because of MBA's strict adherence to regulatory content and processing requirements. MBA exercises particular care to ensure that our environmental documents contain thorough environmental analysis and explicit documentation of all data sources and research contacts. This approach reduces the potential for successful legal challenge. MBA staff are highly experienced in conducting environmental documentation for litigation -sensitive projects and have developed research, documentation, and environmental assessment techniques in compliance with legal requirements. As you are aware, over the years the CEQA process has become increasingly litigious as projects become more complex and environmental resources in California obtain increased protection under the law. MBA has made efforts to respond to this trend in three very important ways. First, a number of MBA staff have been involved in working closely with CEQA attorneys in providing expert testimony for a variety of CEQA projects. Secondly, we have taken strides to retain key staff with extensive backgrounds in law and the provision of services in the preparation and/or review of the CEQA process. Lastly, on almost all large-scale projects in which MBA has been involved, the project applicant or lead agency routinely included special CEQA attorneys as part of a multi -faceted project team. This required MBA engage in considerable interaction with these attorneys in their review and development of specific analysis included in the CEQA documents prepared for these projects. MBA Personnel The following provides information on staff in the local Irvine office. MBA also has a full compliment of resources including natural and cultural resources, regulatory permitting, restoration planting, water quality, and air quality services in Irvine and throughout the State of California. For this project, MBA has designated Michael Houlihan, AICP, Manager of Environmental Services, as the City's primary point of contact. Michael Brandman Associates Michael E. Houlihan, AICP Mr. Houlihan has more than twenty-two years of experience preparing Project Manager/ Aesthetics environmental documentation and performing planning studies in California. He has managed preparation of various CEQA documents for Availability: 50% public agencies, schools and universities, small-scale commercial developments, large research parks, hillside developments, landfills, and other infrastructure -type facilities. He has managed and prepared a variety of environmental assessments, ranging from transit improvements 7 May 21, 2007