Finance and Management Committee
October 27, 2026
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Elizabeth Lake FROM: Bradley Johnson
Interim City Administrator Director of Finance
SUBJECT: Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP -
Procurement Enhancement Services
DATE: September 28, 2026
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution:
1) Authorizing The City Administrator Or Designee To Enter Into A Professional Services Agreement With Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP To Provide Procurement, Purchasing, and Contract Enhancement Implementation Services In An Amount Not To Exceed Two Hundred Forty Nine Thousand Dollars ($249,000.00); And 2) Waive The City’s Competitive Request For Proposals/Qualifications (RFP/Q) Requirements Under Oakland Municipal Code Section 2.04.051.B And The Local/Small Local Business Enterprise Requirements
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2023, the Finance Department contracted with Baker Tilly to review, map, and evaluate the City’s purchasing and contracting processes. Upon completion of its assessment, Baker Tilly provided the City of Oakland Purchasing and Contracting Review Observations and Recommendations Report (Attachment A), which identified 24 recommendations focused on enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of purchasing processes, strengthening professional services contracting policies and procedures, and advancing equitable contracting opportunities.
The proposed resolution will authorize the City Administrator and/or designee to enter into a professional services agreement with Baker Tilly to support implementation of the report’s recommendations. Implementation is intended to improve operational efficiency, increase transparency and consistency, streamline purchasing and contracting processes, and expand opportunities for local businesses to compete for and participate in City contracting opportunities.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
On April 14, 2025, the Oakland City Council received an informational report on the FY 2025- 2028 Citywide Strategic Plan. The City has undertaken efforts to improve its purchasing and contracting operations, including prior process improvement work performed by Baker Tilly in Elizabeth Lake (Oct 15, 2026 11:36:09 PDT) Oct 15, 2026 Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP - Procurement Enhancement Services Date: September 28, 2026 Page 2
Finance & Management Committee
October 27, 2026
2024. The City’s Purchasing and Contracting environment involves multiple stages, including solicitation development, proposal evaluation, contract award and execution, and contract management. Effective administration of these processes is necessary to promote transparency, consistency, efficiency, integrity, accountability, and meaningful opportunities for local businesses. The Finance Department seeks to enter into an agreement with Baker Tilly to build upon its prior contract with the City while addressing current and emerging challenges throughout the purchasing and contracting cycle.
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
The proposed resolution will allow the City to move from the assessment to implementation phase of improvements identified in Baker Tilly’s City of Oakland Purchasing and Contracting Review report (Baker Tilly Report - Attachment A). The report evaluated the efficiency and effectiveness of the City’s purchasing and contracting functions and included an assessment of contracting equity. Baker Tilly developed 24 recommendations addressing three primary areas: purchasing and contracting policies, procedures, and requirements; organizational structure and responsibilities; and contracting equity. The recommendations are intended to produce meaningful and sustainable improvements in procurement efficiency and equity.
Baker Tilly’s recommendations were informed by reviewing existing City procurement policies and procedures, interviews and small-group discussions with 20 staff members representing eight City departments and divisions, follow-up meetings with key stakeholders, two process-mapping sessions, industry best-practice research, and a limited analysis of City business data and contractor survey results. The process-mapping sessions specifically examined professional services contracts under $50,000 from both an efficiency and contracting-disparity perspective.
This approach provided an opportunity to evaluate the procurement process from multiple perspectives and identify both operational barriers and opportunities for improvement.
The report identified several systemic challenges including the difficulty understanding and navigating the purchasing and contracting processes for both staff and businesses alike. Staff identified the absence of singular ownership of the overall process, burdensome contracting forms and requirements, lengthy contract-processing timelines, inconsistent compliance, limited procurement training, and the lack of a centralized contract database. The implementation phase will focus on several significant improvements. These include developing a phased approach to streamline the procure-to-pay workflow; establishing a centralized contracts database to improve contract tracking, reporting, and spend analysis; evaluating an enterprise-wide insurance compliance solution; updating and clarifying procurement policies and procedures; simplifying contracting schedules and requirements where appropriate; and improving the organization and accessibility of procurement information for businesses. Baker Tilly also recommends replacing contract schedules with contractual terms and conditions where feasible and evaluating modifications to the insurance verification process, both of which could reduce administrative burdens while maintaining necessary protections for the City. The report concludes that greater consolidation could provide clearer points of contact for the business community, reduce confusion regarding roles and responsibilities, and allow departmental project managers to devote greater attention to project delivery.
Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP - Procurement Enhancement Services Date: September 28, 2026 Page 3
Finance & Management Committee
October 27, 2026
Contracting Equity
Contracting equity is an important component of the recommended implementation. Baker Tilly found that approximately 72 percent of Oakland businesses have ten or fewer employees, representing approximately 21,000 businesses. At the time of the review, only 261 of those businesses were certified through the City's Local/Small Local Business Enterprise (L/SLBE) Program, or approximately 1.2 percent. Baker Tilly identified this gap as an opportunity for targeted outreach and increased participation in the City's contracting process. The report also cautions that its business data analysis was limited and that additional analytical work would be necessary to validate more detailed conclusions.
The proposed implementation is intended to address barriers that may disproportionately affect small and local businesses. Baker Tilly found that the number and complexity of City contracting requirements, difficulties accessing and understanding those requirements, lengthy contracting processes, and burdensome forms can create unintended barriers to contracting equity.
Streamlining these requirements, improving access to procurement information, increasing outreach to local businesses, and improving payment performance are therefore expected to expand opportunities for businesses that may have difficulty navigating the existing system.
As a part of implementation, the department expects that implementation of the Baker Tilly recommendations should result in shorter and more predictable procurement and contracting timelines; clearer roles and responsibilities; improved compliance with City procurement requirements; better contract data, tracking, and reporting; increased use of standardized procurement systems; improved vendor payment performance; greater accessibility of contracting information; and increased participation by local and small local businesses.
Policy Alternative
An alternative would be to maintain the City's existing purchasing and contracting structure and implement individual process improvements internally as resources become available. This approach could reduce near-term implementation costs and organizational disruption. However, it would not provide the coordinated implementation approach outlined by the Baker Tilly report and could perpetuate the challenges identified in the procurement and contracting processes. For these reasons, staff recommends adoption of this resolution so that staff can proceed with a coordinated implementation of the Baker Tilly recommendations rather than addressing the recommendations independently on an ad hoc basis.
WAIVER RATIONALE
Oakland Municipal Code (OMC) section 2.04.051A requires that the City Administrator conduct a competitive process and requests for proposals (RFP) for professional services contracts. Staff recommends that, pursuant to OMC section 2.04.051B, the City Council finds and determines that it is in the best interest of the City to waive the competitive process for this professional services contract because Baker Tilly’s initial contract covered the planning phase of the city’s purchasing and contracting study and the proposed resolution will ensure that Baker Tilly can begin the implementation phase of the contract and purchasing enhancement study.
Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP - Procurement Enhancement Services Date: September 28, 2026 Page 4
Finance & Management Committee
October 27, 2026
RELATED PLANNING EFFORTS
This agenda item supports the Strategic Priority to Streamline Operations. Specifically, this item directly relates to the implementation of the following task(s):
• Create process, timeline, and begin to implement priority 1 recommendations from Baker Tilly report. Evaluate and improve efficiency on the contracting process and payment schedule and timeline.
FISCAL IMPACT
Approval of the proposed resolution authorizes the City Administrator, or Designee, to award a professional services agreement to Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP. in an amount not to exceed two hundred forty nine thousand dollars ($249,000.00) for as-needed contracting and purchasing policy enhancement implementation services.
Funding for the proposed contract is available in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026-2027 Midcycle Adopted Budget in the following funding sources:
Table 1: Funding Sources
Fund Organization Project Account Program Amount
4550 -
Purchasing
08243 –
Purchasing
1000007 –
Admin Project
54011 –
Contract
Contingencies
IP28 –
Purchasing &
Contract
Admin.
$249,000
Total Funding $249,000
There is no impact to the General Purpose Fund and no additional funding is requested.
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
No outreach was deemed necessary for the proposed policy action beyond the standard City Council agenda noticing procedures.
COORDINATION
This report and legislation have been reviewed by the Office of the City Attorney, City Administration, and the Budget Bureau.
Elizabeth Lake, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP - Procurement Enhancement Services Date: September 28, 2026 Page 5
Finance & Management Committee
October 27, 2026
RACE AND EQUITY
Staff did not complete a Racial Equity Impact Analysis on the recommended professional services agreement; however, the 2024 Baker Tilly Report includes a thorough contract equity analysis and are incorporated in the recommendations.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution:
1) Authorizing The City Administrator Or Designee To Enter Into A Professional Services Agreement With Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP To Provide Procurement, Purchasing, and Contract Enhancement Implementation Services In An Amount Not To Exceed Two Hundred Forty Nine Thousand Dollars ($249,000.00); And
2) Waive The City’s Competitive Request For Proposals/Qualifications (RFP/Q) Requirements Under Oakland Municipal Code Section 2.04.051.B And The Local/Small Local Business Enterprise Requirements
For questions regarding this report, please contact Laura Gonzales-Woodward, Procurement & Contract Administrator, at 510-238-7154.
Respectfully submitted,
BRADLEY JOHNSON
Director, Finance Department
Prepared by:
Brittany Hines, Assistant to the Director
Finance Administration
Attachments (A):
A: City of Oakland Purchasing and Contracting Review Observations and Recommendations – Baker Tilly