December 16, 2025
Finance Department
DATE: December 16, 2025
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Emily Combs, Director of Finance
Mubeen Qader, Deputy Director of Finance
Jerry Gurule, Accounting Manager
Subject:
Contract with ClearGov, Inc. to Provide Budget Book
Compilation Services
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The proposed $78,117 expenditure is included within the approved Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Finance Department
budget and will be budgeted accordingly in subsequent
fiscal year budgets (Account String: 01173415 - 400201).
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
January 28, 2025
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The City of Richmond’s budget book is considered a
policy document and is prepared under the Government
Finance Officers Association (GFOA) guidelines. The
City is selecting ClearGov. Inc. through the competitive bidding process.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: APPROVE a contract with ClearGov, Inc. to provide budget book compilation services, in an amount not to
exceed $78,117, over a three-year term from January 1,
2026, through December 31, 2028 – Finance (Emily
Combs 510-620-6790/ Mubeen Qader 510-412-
2077/Jerry Gurule 510-620-6591).
DISCUSSION:
The City adopts an annual operating budget and five-year Capital Improvement Plan every year and publishes respective books around June of each year, following the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) guidelines.
AGENDA
REPORT
December 16, 2025
City staff issued a formal request for proposals (RFP) in October 2024 for the budget book compiling and publishing services. Bids were received from the following seven vendors:
ClearGov, Incorporated (ClearGov)
Contenda, Incorporated (Contenda)
Govdollars Consulting (Govdollars)
IGM Technology Corporation (IGM)
Lance, Soll & Lunghard, LLP (LSL)
Euna Solutions (EUNA)
TruGov Consulting (TruGov)
Five vendors provided demonstrations on their proposals; however, two vendors, Contenda and TruGov, withdrew their proposals before the demonstrations. The criteria used to evaluate the proposals included:
The Proposal/Methodology and Approach to Work - 20%
Experience/Past Performance/References - 40%
Proposer Qualifications - 20%
Cost Proposal - 20%
Table 1: Rating Matrix
ClearGov Contenda Govdollars IGM LSL Euna TruGov
The Proposal/Methodology and
Approach to Work – 20% 73 0 91 73 78 68 0
Experience/Past
Performance/References – 40% 167 0 175 151 162 155 0
Proposer Qualifications – 20% 81 0 88 81 81 76 0
Cost Proposal – 20% 95 0 95 72 32 59 0
Total 416 0 449 377 353 358 0
Based on the provided features and the pricing, Govdollars Consulting was selected on January 28, 2025, as the best value for the budget book compiling and publishing services.
During the initial year of service GovDollars effectively assisted the City in developing the annual operating budget book and Five-Year capital improvement plan book for fiscal year 2025-2026. However, there were challenges during the development process that led to significant delays and complications developing the annual operating budget book. Specifically, the absence of an organization chart builder with the software added challenges with formatting and image quality.
City staff would like to enter into a contract with ClearGov, the runner-up of the October 2024 RFP. ClearGov’s budget book developer has features that meet the needs of the City of Richmond. ClearGov currently has a built-in organization chart builder that will be useful in retaining quality during production.
December 16, 2025
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Requests for Proposals
Attachment 2 – ClearGov Standard Contract