City Council Memorandum
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL DATE: OCTOBER 22, 2024 FROM: COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WARD: ward 1 DEPARTMENT OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY SUBJECT: AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN SUBRECIPIENT AGREEMENT WITH FIVE KEYS SCHOOLS AND PROGRAMS FOR THE FIVE KEYS RIVERSIDE ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURE TRAINING PROGRAM AT THE NORTHSIDE AGRICULTURE INNOVATION CENTER IN THE AMOUNT OF $503,310 ISSUE:
Approve an American Rescue Plan Subrecipient Agreement with Five Keys Schools and Programs for the Five Keys Riverside Ecological Agriculture Training Program at the Northside Agriculture Innovation Center located at 895 and 900 Clark Street, in the amount of $503,310.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
That the City Council:
Approve an American Rescue Plan Subrecipient Agreement with Five Keys Schools and Programs for the Five Keys Riverside Ecological Agriculture Training Program at the Northside Agriculture Innovation Center located at 895 and 900 Clark Street, in the amount of $503,310; Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to execute the American Rescue Plan Subrecipient Agreement with Five Keys Schools and Programs including making any minor, non-substantive changes, and sign all documents necessary to encumber the funds to deliver the Five Keys Riverside Ecological Agriculture Training Program for the Northside Agriculture Innovation Center.
BACKGROUND:
The Northside Agriculture Innovation Center is a community-led initiative created to build regional workforce capacity, foster innovation, entrepreneurship and tech-enabled business creation around modern, sustainable agriculture and food production technologies. This multi-phase 8.8 acres project will offer a multitude of working landscape and agriculture-theme experiential and hands-on community workshops, workforce training programs, and ag start-up creation opportunities.
DISCUSSION:
On July 30, 2024, the City issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) No. 2395 though the City’s online bidding system, Planet Bids, seeking prospective bidders to provide services for Agriculture Workforce Development and Training. The notification was sent to 188 City of Riverside vendors and 500 external vendors. The RFP closed on August 13, 2024, with a total of four proposal submission. Three proposals were deemed responsive, and one proposal was deemed to be unresponsive. Under the guidance of the Purchasing Department, a total of three City staff members evaluated the proposals, which resulted in Five Keys Ecological Agriculture Training Program ranking No. 1. The evaluation criteria, total points and ranking for each evaluation round are summarized in the tables below.
Evaluation Criteria
Qualifications
25%
Pricing
20%
Curriculum
20%
Professional References
10%
Approach and Methodology
10%
Evaluation Results
VENDOR
LOCATION
RANK
Five Keys / Ecological Agriculture Training Program
Norco, CA
1 Agritecture
New York, NY
2 Sustainable Environmental Education
Whittier, CA
3 * Rancho Abila Inc
Mora, NM
4 * Deemed unresponsive due to not meeting the minimum requirements.
Purchasing Resolution 24101, Section 508 Awards states, “Contracts procured through Formal Procurement shall be awarded by the Awarding Entity to the Lowest Responsive and Responsible, except that: (d) Contracts for Professional Services procured through Formal Procurement shall be awarded by the City Council.
The Purchasing Manager concurs that the recommended actions are in accordance with Purchasing Resolution 24101, Section 508 (d).
The Five Keys Ag Training Program will offer Small Farm Apprenticeship Training, as well as Farm and Garden Workshops that promote hands-on learning. The curriculum is rooted in practical farming wisdom and integrates emerging practices tailored for the increasingly urbanized agricultural landscape across the region. The proposed Ag Training Program will facilitate access to agriculture career pathways and job opportunities for farming apprenticeship completers, while providing workforce training programs that address the skilled labor shortages. The training will also equip participants with the foundational skills necessary to accelerate their entry into agriculture careers. Offering a 500-hour Small Farm Apprenticeship Training Program and a Community-Focused Farm and Garden Workshops Series, the Ag Training Program will train new and promising farmers through hands-on experience and classroom instruction, covering essential topics such as sustainable agriculture, soil management, irrigation, and farm business planning. Additionally, the program also offers community workshops, mentorship, land access support, and organizes a weekly farmer's market, all while fostering connections within the local urban agriculture landscape.
Grant funding will allow Five Keys to offer the Small-Farm Apprenticeship Program free of cost. However, the Farm and Garden Workshops Series may require minimal fees for materials depending on engagement level by community members. All participants of Five Keys’ Riverside Ecological Agriculture Training Program will receive Career Technical Education (CTE) high school credit based on their hours, completion of assignments, and participation in the program. Five Keys Schools and Programs traditionally recruits underserved populations, including adults who have not graduated from high school, low-income people, veterans, formerly incarcerated adults, people with disabilities, and immigrants. Five Keys has a strong referral network within the City of Riverside, including partnerships and/or past collaborations.
The consultant’s experience, approach, and course selection will provide a variety of agricultural training programs that will promote entry into agriculture for Riverside residents. The ability of Five Keys to start the programs offsite at their Norco location will enable the program to move forward successfully to use the grant funds within the grant deadline while the NAIC center is being constructed.
STRATEGIC PLAN ALIGNMENT:
The Five Keys Riverside Ecological Agriculture Training Program contributes to the following Strategic Priorities and Goals:
Arts, Culture and Recreation: Provide diverse community experiences and personal enrichment opportunities for people of all ages.
Goal 1.5: Support programs and amenities to further develop literacy, health, and education of children, youth, and seniors throughout the community.
Economic Opportunity: Champion a thriving, enduring economy that provides opportunity for all.
Goal 3.1: Facilitate partnerships and programs to develop, attract and retain innovative business sectors.
Goal 3.2: Work with key partners in implementing workforce development programs and initiatives that connect local workers with high quality employment opportunities and provide access to education and training in Riverside.
Goal 3.3: Cultivate a business climate that welcomes innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment.
Goal 3.4: Collaborate with key partners to implement policies and programs that promote local business growth and ensure equitable opportunities for all.
Goal 3.5: Lead public-private partnerships to build resources and grow the capacity of the local food system.
Environmental Stewardship: Champion proactive and equitable climate solutions based in science to ensure clean air, safe water, a vibrant natural world, and a resilient new green economy for current and future generations.
Goal 4.5: Maintain and conserve 30% of Riverside’s natural lands in green space including, but not limited to, agricultural lands and urban forests to protect and restore Riverside’s rich biodiversity and accelerate the natural removal of carbon, furthering our community’s climate resilience.
Infrastructure, Mobility & Connectivity: Ensure safe, reliable infrastructure that benefits the community and facilitates connection between people, place and information.
Goal 6.2: Maintain, protect, and improve assets and infrastructure within the City’s built environment to ensure and enhance reliability, resiliency, sustainability, and facilitate connectivity.
Collaboration with Five Keys at the Northside Agriculture Innovation Center aligns with each of the five Cross-Cutting Threads as follows:
1. Community Trust – The concept of the Northside Agriculture Innovation Center has been developed in collaboration with and is driven by community members and food systems stakeholders. As a community-based project, delivery of an agriculture workforce training program at the Northside Center reflects a sustainable approach to achieving food systems priorities through education, employment and training, environmental stewardship, and increasing food resiliency.
2. Equity – The reach and minimal cost to access the proposed workforce programs at the Northside Agriculture Innovation Center benefit the entire community by enhancing placed-based programs for underrepresented individuals, and the project itself is in an underserved community.
3. Fiscal Responsibility – The proposal for the agriculture workforce programs by Five Keys demonstrate a path forward to achieving sustainable stewardship of the amenities at the Northside Agriculture Innovation Center.
4. Innovation – The Northside Agriculture Innovation Center will be a regional flagship urban center demonstrating climate-smart technologies in agriculture. The training programs demonstrate how private, public, and non-profit collaboration brings about innovation with outside-the-box approaches to address a multitude of concurrent challenges and opportunities in the region’s food ecosystem resiliency and related workforce development efforts.
5. Sustainability & Resiliency – The project transforms over eight acres of open space into an urban greening project with multiple benefits to achieve a triple bottom line: spurring economic opportunities by providing workforce training and new farmer and ag tech incubation; increasing food access and community resources in an underserved community; and the responsible stewardship of natural resources demonstrating multiple benefits.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The total fiscal impact of the Five Keys agreement is $503,310. There are sufficient funds budgeted and available to cover the cost of the agreement in the Grants & Restricted Programs Fund, Economic Development, Federal Operating Grants account number 8811200-440110 for the Five Keys agreement.
Prepared by: Denise Hamet, Project Manager Approved By: Jennifer A. Lilley, Community & Economic Development Director Certified as to
availability of funds: Kristie Thomas, Finance Director/Assistant Chief Financial Officer Approved by: Rafael Guzman, Assistant City Manager
Approved as to form: Jack Liu, Interim City Attorney
Attachments:
American Rescue Plan Subrecipient Agreement
Five Keys Schools and Programs Proposal
Bid Award Recommendation
Five Keys Agreement for Northside Agriculture Innovation Center