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Staff Report
City Council
Item No. 6.C
Meeting Date: August 23, 2023
From: Sandra Molina, Deputy Director of Development Services Title: Professional Services Agreement for STVR Support Services
City Council
RECOMMENDATION:
Approve a professional services agreement with Deckard Technologies for STVR support services in an annual amount not to exceed $31,500 and authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement.
BACKGROUND:
In 2020 , the City established a short term vacation rental (STVR) Program for the administration and enforcement of licensed and unlicensed STVR p roperties. An integral component of the program is contract services provided by Deckard Technologies (Deckard) and Central Communications (Central Comm).
Deckard monitors online advertising platforms for properties being advertised in the City for short term rental purposes and reviews them for compliance with City regulations.
The information is available to staff for enforcement via Deckard’s Rentalscape dashboard with real ti me links to the online advertising. The City has contracted with Deckard since 2019.
Central Comm is the City’s 24 -hour STVR hotline and has been providing this service since 2019 . Central Comm routes all received calls to the City’s Police Department dispatch center and forwards an email and text to Code Compliance. Central Comm also has an online dashboard Staff can access to review records of all calls received by the hotline.
DISCUSSION:
As the STVR Program has continued to evolve and enforcement shifted to a proactive approach, it is an appropriate time to evaluate our current STVR support services, other offerings in the marketplace, and to strategically plan for the future of the program.
Staff developed a Request for Proposal (RFP) to identify c onsultants that could provide a full menu of STVR related services including an online licensing portal, TOT
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collection, online location mapping, mobile inspections, in addition to the STVR property identification, monitoring and reporting , and a 24/7 hotline, and could be scaled as the program needs change in the future.
The RFP was issued on April 10, 2023 with responses due on May 10, 2023. The RFP was sent to four firms and posted on the City’s website Upon the due date, proposals were received from four firms:
Consultant Location
Avenu Insights and Analytics Centreville, VA
Deckard Technologies San Diego, CA
GovOS Austin, TX
Granicus Denver, CO
The proposals were reviewed and evaluated by an internal committee of staff members.
In addition to th e written proposal, each consultant provided a presentation to the Committee on the ir proposal. Each proposal was evaluated based on experience, project approach, scope of work, schedule, and cost. The proposals were ranked as follows:
Consultant Ranking
(1 Highest)
Score Cost
Avenu Insights and Analytics 1 121.3 $77,000
Deckard Technologies 2 121.3 $31,500*
GovOS 3 119.3 $28,500*
Granicus 4 109.6 $49,000
*Revised cost proposal
Avenu Insights and Analytics and Deckard Technologies were equally ranked. However, Avenu Insights and Analytics had the highest cost at $77,00 0 a year , including a minimum annual cost of $50,000 regardless of the services selected.
Due to the removal of online licensing and TOT collection services from the scope of work, staff requested Deckard and GovOs a revised cost proposal , as it is anticipated Energov will allow for online licensing in the future.
Staff recommends contracting with Deckard as they have the higher ranking, provide for a seamless transition, provide additional services, and provide an opportunity to expand services in the future. Additionally, Staff is familiar with Deckard’s services and representatives and Central Comm is their partner for hotline services.
As proposed, Deckard will provide STVR prope rty identification, compliance monitoring and reporting provided via a live dashboard, a 24 -hour STVR hotline with dashboard, a public facing webpage with STVR map and information, mobile inspection web forms for health and safety inspections in the field, ongoing portal maintenance and unlimited client support.
Deckard monitors over 40 online sites with Expedia/VRBO, Airbnb, TripAdvisor/FlipKey
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and Booking.com accounting for 30 various sites and will add additional sites requested by the City at no additi onal cost. Deckard currently provides STVR services to the cities of La Quinta, Palm Desert, Riverside County, Rancho Mirage and Desert Hot Springs.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The service contract will have an annual cost of $31,500. The services were budgeted in th e adopted biennial budget (Account # 100 -100-150-157-8600-8601, Professional and Technical Services) for the first two years of the contract. The third year of the service contract will be included in the next biennial budget.
FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN:
This action will further Goal A – Serve the Community with Pride and Dedication
Objective – Through diversity, equity and inclusion driven employee programs and employee experiences, Cathedral City is the employer of choice with a workforce that is engaged, motivated and respected public stewards.
A-1 – Study the need to reallocate staff resources including the use of contracts.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1: Agreement for Services
Attachment 2: Deckard Proposal