CITY OF POMONA
COUNCIL REPORT
July 17, 2023
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: James Makshanoff, City Manager
Submitted By: Andrew Mowbray, Finance Director
SUBJECT: AWARD OF CONTRACT TO HINDERLITER, DE LLAMAS AND ASSOCIATES (HdL) FOR TAX MANAGEMENT AND AUDIT SERVICES RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the City Council take the following actions:
1) Approve an award of a three-year agreement with two one-year renewal options with Hinderliter, de Llamas and Associates (HdL) to provide Tax Management and Audit Services. 2) Authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement and any documents / amendments, upon review and approval of the City Attorney.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The City utilizes the services of tax reporting, monitoring and analysis consultants to identify any misallocation, underreporting, and non-reporting of tax revenue within the community in order to generate additional revenue to the City. Such consultants possess specialized knowledge and unique abilities to access a multitude of resources for the purposes of revenue enhancement. In addition, the consultant offers revenue forecasting, fiscal analysis, and economic development as related to tax revenue matters.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Sales Tax Management will cost $12,600 annually plus 15% of any tax revenue recovered by the audit services. Property Tax Management will cost $22,200 annually plus 25% of any tax revenue recovered by the audit services. The expenses were budgeted in the Fiscal Year 2023-24 Operating Budget (Acct # 101-0101-52274-00000 for Sales Tax and 315-6201-52285-00000 for Property Tax). Any excessive audit costs may result in a request to increase appropriations during the budget reviews. Future contract costs will be budgeted in the appropriate fiscal year.
PUBLIC NOTICING REQUIREMENTS:
Noticing requirements set forth in Section 2-993.1 of the City’s Purchasing Ordinance requires that a notice requesting proposal be published at least 10 days before the date of the opening have been met. The request for proposals was published online using PlanetBids on March 02, 2023 and closed on March 29, 2023.
DISCUSSION:
In accordance with Section 2-993.1 of the City’s Purchasing Ordinance, a public notice inviting bids was posted on Planet Bids on March 2, 2023. Eighty-seven prospective bidders were notified of the bid, 16 downloaded the bids, resulting in the City receiving three proposals.. All proposals were reviewed by a team of three Finance Department staff members. The proposals were evaluated in the areas of overall project approach, firm qualifications, experience, qualifications, and technical skills. Final scores were tabulated based upon the proposal review and cost. The final rankings were determined based on the ranked scores and are indicated below in Table 1.
Table 1
Ranking
Firm
Final Score
1 Hinderliter, de Llamas and Associates
213.58
2 The Pun Group, LLP
111.00
3 Sotomayor & Associates, LLP
89.45 In conducting the Sales Tax Management and Audit activities on behalf of the City, HdL will provide reports that accurately depict the City’s sales tax base, use tax collections and revenues. All reports, graphs, tables and revenue forecasts are designed to enhance the City’s capacity to plan for, expand and manage its sales and use tax revenues. Reports identifying and comparing the retail composition of various sub-geographic areas of the City will also be provided.
In regards to the Property Tax Management and Audit Services, HdL will furnish a variety of reports detailing property and revenue trends for the entire City and for custom defined geographic areas. These reports can be used for budgeting purposes, planning, economic development and public information. Among the reports provided are top 25, 50, 100- property owner/taxpayer listings, multiple ownership properties, non-owner occupied parcels, identification of property ownership transfers and completed construction projects for tracking of reassessments. HdL will also provide the City with quarterly reports of successful, pending and historical assessment appeals. HdL will reconcile the annual Auditor/Controller Assessed Valuations Report and will furnish a breakdown of assessed values within the City and RDA.
In order to increase efficiency and capture the potential additional revenues, staff recommends that City Council approve the award of the contract to HdL and authorize the City Manager to enter into an agreement.
Prepared by:
Shar Perez
Revenue Operations Manager
Award of Contract for Tax Management and Audit Services