City Council Agenda Report
TO: Mayor McCord and Members of the City Council
FROM: Ken Irwin, City Manager
BY: Ken Irwin, City Manager
MEETING DATE: November 15, 2022
ITEM NO: 7.2
SUBJECT: Approve Resolution No. 2022-77, Approving a Service Agreement with the Downtown Modesto Partnership for the RAD Card Program, in an amount not to exceed $250,875, and Authorize the City Manager to Execute the Agreement and all Future Documents for this Program on the City’s behalf.
RECOMMENDATION
Motion to Approve Resolution No. 2022-77, Approving a Service Agreement with the Downtown Modesto Partnership for the RAD Card Program, in an amount not to exceed $250,875, and Authorize the City Manager to Execute the Agreement and all Future Documents for this Program on the City’s behalf.
BACKGROUND
In addition to its impact on public health, the 2019 corona virus disease (COVID-19) caused major financial distress to the business community and many of our residents. Businesses struggled financially due to required closings, supply chain interruptions, and operational requirements to address COVID-19; impacts which caused some businesses to close.
With small businesses reeling from these effects, Stanislaus County partnered with the Downtown Modesto Partnership for the RAD Card, or “Relief Across Downtown” Card, program; effectively putting more spending dollars in consumer wallets for purchases at downtown restaurants and retailers and doubling spending dollars for downtown businesses.
The RAD Card is a digital gift card created by the Downtown Modesto Partnership which was originally focused on aiding downtown Modesto businesses. The program showed remarkable success within Modesto’s downtown and after the County Board of Supervisors learned of the success, they voted to deploy the program in downtown districts countywide and committed one million dollars from the County’s CARES Act to the program. The dollars committed by the County were used to match participating consumers’ funds dollar-for-dollar, up to $100 per person.
As a result of the County’s adoption of the RAD Card program and their initial influx of matching funds, nine Patterson downtown businesses are participating in the program, and 817 Patterson RAD Cards totaling $140,460 have been purchased to date; 109 RAD Cards remain active.
ANALYSIS
The RAD Card program functions much like a gift card, however, the funds are only accessible by downloading an application (app) onto a mobile device. When a consumer downloads the RAD Card app, their purchase amount of either $25, $50, $75, or $100 is automatically matched, doubling the funds in the consumer’s RAD Card account. The consumer’s app is then assigned a unique QR code that can be scanned by participating restaurants, retailers, and personal care services when a transaction occurs. When a consumer makes a purchase, the retailer scans the QR code, enters the amount of the purchase, and uploads a picture of the receipt. The funds in the account are encumbered accordingly, and the consumer’s purchase is complete. On the back end, funds are disbursed to retailers electronically on a weekly basis.
With the lingering effects of the pandemic and increasing inflation impacting businesses and our City's residents, revisiting this program may help stimulate the economy for the city’s small businesses and our residents. However, in revisiting this program, to broaden the positive effect of this program, staff is recommending expanding the parameters of the program from strictly the downtown district to the entire City of Patterson. The requirements for participation other than business location would remain the same, meaning participating businesses would only be brick-and-mortar, non-chain, non-franchisee, and no pop-up businesses.
To ensure even greater success for the citywide RAD Card program extensive marketing will be conducted with direct mailers, face-to-face communication with qualifying businesses, and coordination with community partners such as the Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Economic Strategic Commission.
FISCAL IMPACT
Staff is recommending allotting $250,875 ($225,000 in matching funds and $25,875 for administrative costs) to launch the expanded RAD Card program. Funding for Economic Recovery Programs, such as the RAD Card program, was approved in the 2022/23 fiscal year budget from American Rescue Relief Funds.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Resolution No. 2022-77
2. Agreement