July 26, 2022
Community Development
DATE: July 26, 2022
TO: Mayor Butt and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Lina Velasco, Director of Community Development
LaShonda White, Interim Director of Library and
Community Services
SUBJECT:
R3f Strategic Planning and Governance Advisor Contract
FINANCIAL IMPACT: On June 21, 2021, the City Council allocated $1 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds towards
Housing Initiatives, including $700,000 to the Richmond Rapid Response Fund (R3F). Of the $700,000 to R3F,
$600,000 would be for direct disbursements for residents for rent assistance and a pilot basic income program.
The allocation also included $100,000 for this Strategic Plan and Governance Structure work.
The $125,000 contract shall be funded using $100,000 of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated to the
Housing Division (13631063 400201 AR238) and
$25,000 from West Contra Costa Public Education Fund.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
June 21, 2021
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The City of Richmond and the West Contra Costa Public
Education Fund initiated a joint Request for Proposals
(RFP) seeking a consultant to design and execute a
strategic visioning and comprehensive and inclusive
planning process for the Richmond Rapid Response
(R3F) Fund. City staff is recommending a contract be
executed with Dalberg, the highest ranked team, for this work.
AGENDA
REPORT
July 26, 2022
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROVE a contract with Dalberg, in an amount not to
exceed $125,000, for a term beginning July 26, 2022,
and ending June 30, 2023, to prepare a Strategic Plan
and Governance Structure for the Richmond Rapid
Response Fund (R3F); and AUTHORIZE the City
Manager to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement with
the West Contra Costa Public Education Fund to accept
their $25,000 contribution towards this work – Community Development (Lina Velasco 510-620-6741).
DISCUSSION:
The West Contra Costa Public Education (EdFund West) partnered with the City of Richmond, The RYSE Center, The Ed Fund, Richmond Promise, Building Blocks for Kids, and various other community stakeholders to launch the Richmond Rapid Response Fund (R3F). EdFund West is the fiscal sponsor for R3F. R3F was created as a community-centered and community-driven fund with the sole purpose of supporting Richmond residents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. R3F is a wraparound initiative that was designed to meet the immediate and ongoing needs of the community during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, and raised over $1 million in revenue to support the disbursement of cash disbursements for basic needs and rental assistance.
R3F is Richmond focused and was created because there were no existing funds ready to focus on and fundraise for COVID-specific needs and support, including an equitable recovery. Beyond this pandemic, the goal of R3F is to create healing centered, racially just policies, practices, and investments for long-term community transformation.
In light of R3F’s larger vision and City Council direction, the City of Richmond and the Ed Fund initiated a joint Request for Proposals (RFP) process to identify a vendor qualified to design and execute a strategic visioning and comprehensive and inclusive planning process for R3F. The selected consultant will support the development of a strategic plan and program design that outlines an optimal governance framework, including transition to an elected board which may include community members and community-based organizations. The selected consultant will develop the operational plan and timeline for this elected board transition and create the framework for the voting process.
On March 11, 2022, the City issued the RFP. It was posted on the City’s BidsOnline System, and 432 vendors were notified (Attachment 2). Of the firms notified, 24 firms downloaded the RFP. There were four (4) total respondents to the RFP. The RFP responses were reviewed by a panel consisting of staff from the Planning Division, Community Services Department, Richmond Promise, RYSE, and Ed Fund.
Proposals were rated on the basis of the firm’s general experience and qualifications completing similar work, qualifications and experience of key personnel working on the
July 26, 2022
project, approach and understanding to the requested scope of work, and costs.
Dalberg was selected as the highest ranked team and is being recommended for a contract.
The Dalberg team, including Richmond-based Empathy in Action, are being recommended to support strategic planning and the governance model design for R3F through three phases of work over a period of approximately 18 - 24 weeks. The contract term is expected to end on June 30, 2022. The proposed phases of the work are:
Phase 1: Initial Community-led Data Gathering - During this phase, prior to the formal project kickoff, Dalberg will seek to gather data specifically from community experts (i.e., those with lived experience of the areas R3F is considering prioritizing). Dalberg will also use this time to recruit several of these community experts to be engaged on an ongoing basis throughout the project to ensure that decisions are continuously informed by community-led perspectives.
Phase 2: Governance Structure and Strategic Planning - Dalberg’s approach will build a high-level view of both the governance model (Phase 2A) and overall strategy (Phase 2B) in parallel. Dalberg believe this is the optimal approach given the stakeholders that we will engage for perspectives on the governance model design will be the same stakeholders that can weigh in on the overall strategy. Additionally, the consultants foresee co-dependencies between the governance structure and the strategy, so conducting these workstreams in parallel will enable us to apply learnings across each. Throughout Phase 2A:
Governance Structure Design and Phase 2B: Strategic Planning, the consultants will continue to engage community experts at critical steps in the process to ensure that they are centering the project deliverables around placing collective- decision making processes and power in the hands of the most impacted communities/end-beneficiaries.
In Phase 3: Sustainability - Dalberg will focus on building out the implementation plan and timeline, providing a high-level roadmap of how to operationalize the governance model and strategy. After Phase 3 is complete, Dalberg Project Directors will remain engaged through the end of 2022 to provide advisory support as R3F rolls out its structures and processes during implementation.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Contract
Attachment 2 – Request for Proposals
Attachment 3 – BidsOnline Report
Attachment 4 – Rating Matrix