City Council Memorandum
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL DATE: SEPTEMBER 20, 2022 FROM: OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER WARDS: ALL
SUBJECT: RFQ 2168 – MASTER PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANT SERVICE AGREEMENTS FOR ON-CALL GRANT WRITING AND GRANT ANALYSIS SERVICES WITH ALTA PLANNING + DESIGN OF LOS ANGELES; CALIFORNIA CONSULTING INC., OF EL SEGUNDO; CLIMATE RESOLVE OF LOS ANGELES; EVAN BROOKS ASSOCIATES OF PASADENA; GLOBAL URBAN STRATEGIES, INC., OF ALHAMBRA; KOA CORPORATION OF ONTARIO; LEXIPOL, LLC OF FRISCO, TEXAS; MARK THOMAS INCORPORATED OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA; MICHAEL BAKER INTERNATIONAL OF SAN DIEGO; AND THE GRACE GROUP OF CLAREMONT FOR A FIVE-YEAR TERM NOT TO EXCEED $350,000 PER CONSULTANT ISSUE:
Approval of Master Professional Consultant Service Agreements for RFQ 2168 for on-call grant writing and grant analysis services with Alta Planning + Design of Los Angeles; California Consulting Inc., of El Segundo; Climate Resolve of Los Angeles; Evan Brooks Associates of Pasadena; Global Urban Strategies, Inc., of Alhambra; KOA Corporation of Ontario; Lexipol, LLC of Frisco, Texas; Mark Thomas Incorporated of Rancho Cucamonga; Michael Baker International of San Diego; and The Grace Group of Claremont for a five-year term with an overall expenditure limit of $350,000 per consultant contract.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
That the City Council:
Approve Master Professional Consultant Service Agreements for RFQ 2168 for on-call grant writing and grant analysis services with Alta Planning + Design of Los Angeles; California Consulting Inc., of El Segundo; Climate Resolve of Los Angeles; Evan Brooks Associates of Pasadena; Global Urban Strategies, Inc., of Alhambra; KOA Corporation of Ontario; Lexipol, LLC of Frisco, Texas; Mark Thomas Incorporated of Rancho Cucamonga; Michael Baker International of San Diego; and The Grace Group of Claremont for a five-year term with an overall expenditure limit of $350,000 per consultant contract; and Authorize the City Manager, or designee, to execute the Master Professional Consultant Service Agreements, including making minor and non-substantive changes as necessary.
BACKGROUND:
The City Council has stated a priority for Riverside to maximize ways to bring in external revenue as a way to address increasing costs for service. This mandate is incorporated into the Envision Riverside 2025 Strategic Plan under Priority 5 - High Performing Government. The fiscal challenges that cities are facing from increased staffing costs, disruptions due to Covid-19, and accelerating supply chain and inflationary pressures are having measurable impacts on City revenues as businesses and the livelihood of City residents overcome recent disruptions and seek a path forward. In order to pull through challenging times, the City Manager’s Office has been looking at ways to build grant writing capacity to generate additional revenue beyond traditional municipal funding sources by cross-departmentally increasing competitive grant activity.
The City Manager’s Office has worked with the Finance Department - Purchasing Division to develop a pool of short-term and technical grant writers who would be available to assist departments when time and/or in-house expertise is not available to complete complex funding applications. This pool would be accessed through the City Manager’s Office and would be available Citywide if departmental budgets can bear the cost of services. The goal is to build an as-needed resource to enable more complex funding applications to be completed.
DISCUSSION:
On March 29, 2022, the Purchasing Division posted Request for Qualifications (RFQ) No. 2168 for bidding, and received a total of 12 responses with one vendor deemed non-responsive. RFQ responses were then reviewed by staff members from the Finance, Police, Fire, and Museum Departments as well as the Office of the City Manager. RFQ 2168 yielded the following responsive bidders:
Vendor Name
City
Respondent Specialty
Alta Planning + Design
Los Angeles
General Grants; Transit; Housing
California Consulting Inc.
El Segundo
General Grants
Climate Resolve
Los Angeles
Climate and Resiliency
Evan Brooks Associates
Pasadena
General; Parks; Transportation
Global Urban Strategies, Inc.
Alhambra
Housing and Climate
KOA Corporation
Ontario
Transportation
Lexipol, LLC
Frisco, TX
Public Safety
Mark Thomas
Rancho Cucamonga
General Grants and Transportation
Michael Baker International
San Diego
Environmental and Transportation
The Grace Group
Claremont
General Grants; Housing
Grant Writing At Its Finest
Consulting LCC
Bellflower
Non-responsive
To access the grant writer, a department would contact the City Manager’s Office with a need for assistance on a timely and complex grant application, City Manager’s Office staff would analyze the request in terms of the grant opportunity versus need to pay for outside services. If the request is compelling, and offers a return that justifies the expense of hiring from the grant consultant pool, the City Manager may authorize assistance.
The City Manager’s Office would then solicit bids internally from the grant writer pool and select the lowest price from the responses received. Requests may be made for general grant writing and completion services to higher-level technical requests for mapping, cost and budget analysis, data analysis, etc.
Additional guidelines set by the City Manager’s Office for the engagement of an outside grant writer include:
Cost for use of an outside grant writer will not exceed 10% of the potential grant award.
If one specific grant writer is utilized by multiple departments for more than $100,000 annually combined, a City Council authorization will be obtained before further usage of that specific consultant.
The City Manager’s Office will analyze the combination of grant writer expenses and required match (if required) by a grant application to ensure that expenditure of municipal resources yields more benefits than costs.
In addition, Administrative Policy 01.006.00 – Grant Administration will apply to the use of this panel.
All contracts have a $350,000 expenditure limit over five-years, however, actual expenditures will vary depending on availability and pricing for services offered by the consultant, type of jobs requested by the City, and the ability for departments to pay for services through department budget allocations. Use of a consultant from this panel for any one task will be limited to $50,000. Expenditures above the $50,000 amount will require City Council authorization. All departments must be able to identify existing budgetary resources before a grant writer will be engaged using the assistance pool.
The Purchasing Manager concurs that the recommendation is in accordance with Purchasing Resolution 23812.
STRATEGIC PLAN ALIGNMENT:
This item aligns with Strategic Priority 5 - High Performing Government and Goal 5.4 to maintain fiscal health by addressing gaps between revenues and expenditures.
This report also aligns with the five cross-cutting threads:
Community Trust – Building grant capacity will serve the public interest by potentially expanding programs and completing projects with external funding; benefiting the City’s diverse populations, and result in greater public good.
Equity – By program design, funding will be used to allow more City departments to be creative and competitive for grants, resulting in a more equitable distribution of funding opportunity that can reach populations citywide.
Fiscal Responsibility – The City ensures to maximize outcomes in usage of grant funds.
Innovation – This funding provides the City with the ability to create an innovative program for building capacity with the result in receiving greater external funding.
Sustainability & Resiliency – Riverside builds capacity to allow more departments to apply for grants, and compete for funding that allows the City to adaptively address resident needs.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no immediate fiscal impact with this action. The costs associated with on-call Grant Writing Services will be on a project-by-project bases and funded through authorized department budgets.
Prepared by: Jeff McLaughlin, Grants Administrator
Certified as to
availability of funds: Edward Enriquez, Interim Assistant City Manager/Chief Financial Officer/City Treasurer
Approved by: Kris Martinez, Assistant City Manager
Approved as to form: Phaedra A. Norton, City Attorney
Attachments:
Master Professional Consultant Service Agreements:
Alta Planning + Design
California Consulting Inc.
Climate Resolve
Evan Brooks Associates
Global Urban Strategies, Inc.
KOA Corporation
Lexipol, LLC
Mark Thomas
Michael Baker International
The Grace Group
RFQ 2168 - Master Service Agreements for On-Call Grant Writing ● Page 4