October 1, 2024
Department
DATE: October 1, 2024
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Shasa Curl, City Manager
Patrick Seals, Administrative Chief
Subject:
On-call List for Qualified Consultants for Grant Writing, Grant Seeking, and Other Grant Related Service
FINANCIAL IMPACT: All departments that utilize on-call grant support services will be responsible for appropriating funding for these services from their approved fiscal year operating
budgets (Object Code 400201).
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
November 20, 2018
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
In an effort to support City departments in successfully pursuing and receiving grant funding, the City Manager’s Office released a Request for Qualifications in March
2024, to create a prequalified eligibility list of individuals, consulting firms, or teams to seek, evaluate, and/or
prepare grant proposals for individual or a collaboration of City department(s).
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
ADOPT a resolution approving eighteen (18) firms to
provide on-call grant writing, grant seeking, or other
grant-related services to City departments, on an as-
needed basis, for a three-year term expiring September
30, 2027, with two one-year options to extend, and a not to exceed total expenditure of $100,000 per firm annually – City Manager’s Office (Patrick Seals 510-307-8016).
AGENDA
REPORT
October 1, 2024
DISCUSSION:
City staff are requesting that City Council adopt a resolution, establishing a pre-qualified list of eligible consulting firms, or teams to provide grant writing, grant seeking, or other grant related services (Attachment 1). The City Manager’s Office would like to support the effort of City departments to successfully pursue and receive grant funding, with the goal of achieving:
Funding that helps departments reach their objectives Funding opportunities for activities that would otherwise be financed by the General Fund
Funds to cover one-time costs, versus ongoing operational costs Funding opportunities to departments that would not be able to respond in a timely manner due to lack of staff, grant writing expertise, or workload constraints Funding for collaborative efforts with multiple departments, agencies, community- based organizations and/or other jurisdictions
Opportunities to leverage significant additional resources
The City of Richmond continues its practice of taking advantage of granting opportunities to support operations, programs, and capital improvement projects. Major sources of grant awards are federal, state, local agencies, and private organizations.
Grants differ based on the funding source, scope of work, requirements, and timelines.
To that end, engaging a list of experienced consulting firms to support City Staff’s efforts to procure grant funding enables City staff to move more projects forward and off-set General Fund expenditures.
Background
In 2018, the Finance Department released and received proposals for grant writing supportive services. Ultimately, four (4) firms were recommended, approved, and placed on a pre-approved vendor list by Resolution No. 90-18. The pre-approved list was available beginning in 2018 and expired in December 2023, so City staff is re- initiating the pre-approval listing for grant writing support through 2029.
Solicitation and Review
The City Manager’s Office issued a Request for Qualification (RFQ) on March 28, 2024, through the City of Richmond's BidsOnline system (Attachment 2). A total of 53 vendors were notified (Attachment 3). The firms submitted proposals in response to the RFQ by May 2, 2024. Each proposal included information regarding pricing and budget, qualifications, references, and experience providing grant seeking services to public agencies, including an indication of whether grant funds were awarded.
Twenty (20) firms responded to the RFQ, and after the review of the proposals by City staff members from the City Manager’s Office, Employment and Training, Literacy for Every Adult Program (LEAP), and the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS), the following eighteen (18) firms scored an average of 70 points or higher out of 100 points.
October 1, 2024
Consequently, the following firms are being recommended for placement on the pre- approved vendor list for City Council consideration (Attachment 4):
Proposed On-call grant vendors:
Ardurra BKF Engineers California Consulting Inc.,
The Canna Mind CRPA Strategies Inc. Eleventh House Solutions Engineering Solutions
Services Evan Brooks Associates Glen Price Group
Interwest Group Intuitive Group, LLC Linscott, Law and
Greenspan Engineers
Momentum PLACEWORKS Renne Public Policy Group
Rincon Consultants Inc. RDA Consulting and Witt O’Brien’s LLC
On-call Grant Services
Tasks that may be included in a contract scope of work with consultants include, but may not be limited to the following:
Developing overall grant outline
Working with appropriate department staff to determine writing assignments, including providing a prediction of how much City staff time is needed at the beginning of each project
Providing the department project manager with a list of stakeholders that the firm would need to contact, and any relevant information required Taking the lead in scheduling meetings, bringing together stakeholders, and obtaining relevant information from multiple stakeholders Ensuring that all required components of the proposal are included in the submission, ensuring adherence to grant evaluation criteria Providing budget guidance and justifications in alignment with City policies and personnel guidelines and conformance with grant solicitation requirements Editing draft proposals for consistency of messaging, ensuring integration of grant requirements and succinctness before department final review and submittal to granting agency
Organizing facts, data, statistics, and narratives collected and written as part of assigned projects and making those items available to the department for future use
Providing the department with regular grant forecasts and timely suggestions of which grants to pursue based on the priorities of the City and other City needs, interests, and capacity
Providing training and support opportunities that are high quality and relevant to grant writing and funding development to local community-based organizations and nonprofits in Richmond
October 1, 2024
Providing training and capacity-building opportunities for City staff and non-profits as necessary to improve fiscal and administrative services for grant-funded programs awarded.
Process and Contracting
The City Manager’s Office staff will make each proposal accessible to all department staff to review and select a consultant from the list of pre-approved consultants, as needed. City departments will be able to negotiate and enter into contracts with approved consultants for a contract amount not to exceed $100,000 per vendor per year.
In the event that the not-to-exceed amount of $100,000 per vendor per year is exceeded, the department will be required to take the contract before City Council for approval. City Manager staff will inform all consultants and departments of this requirement and require that departments check the amount. If needed, the qualified consultant list for grant-related services may be modified to include new vendors at the end of each fiscal year. This will be done by reissuing the RFQ through the BidsOnline system. At that time, a modified list will be brought before City Council for review and approval.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1 – City Council Resolution for Qualified Grant Consultant List Attachment 2 – Request for Qualifications (RFQ)
Attachment 3 – BidsOnline Project Report
Attachment 4 – Rating Scoring Sheet