City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: January 23, 2024
Agenda Item: 5.H
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Oscar Santiago, Director, Finance Department, Procurement Subject: Award Request For Proposal #357 to BBC Research & Consulting for a Procurement Study to Explore Barriers to Equity and Inclusion Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Award RFP# 357 to BBC Research & Consulting for a Procurement Study to explore barriers to equity and inclusion in the City’s procurement and contracting practices for the Finance Department.
2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with BBC Research & Consulting, for a total not to exceed $175,000 over a two year period with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval.
3. Adopt a finding of no possibility of significant effect pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines.
Summary
The City of Santa Monica is committed to ensuring that diversity, equity and inclusion is present in everything we do, including providing equitable opportunities and accessibility for all vendors and service providers including those owned by under-represented groups. In March 2023, the City issued a Request for Proposals for professional services to conduct a study to examine what barriers exist to equity and inclusion in the City’s procurement and contracting practices. The study will include an extensive review of our current policies and procedures as well as the development of a plan to implement changes responding to any findings. Staff recommends approval of an agreement with BBC Research & Consulting (BBC) to conduct this procurement study in an amount not to exceed $175,000. Staff anticipates having the findings from the study and the associated roadmap completed by the end of 2024. 2 of 6
Discussion
As reflected in City Council’s priorities; Racial Justice, Equity & Social Diversity and Economic Recovery for all, the City is committed to advance diversity, equity and inclusion within and throughout the City. The City continues to make progress on its efforts to address equity gaps and identify the challenges associated with those efforts towards creating a city that is inclusive, equitable and diverse in all aspects. In 2020 the City created the Equity Racial Committee with representatives from every City department, focusing their efforts to embed equity into daily operations through modified policies, inclusive community engagement and opening new pathways to our workforce.
As part of these efforts, the Finance Department, with support from the City’s Diversity Equity & Inclusion team, focused on an internal equity assessment identifying opportunities to study the department’s programs and policies for unconscious bias. The need to conduct a disparity study to explore any current barriers to equity and inclusion in the City’s procurement and contracting practices was identified through this assessment.
The Procurement Division in the Finance Department is responsible for developing and implementing procurement policies and procedures and for providing procurement and contract administration guidance and support to City departments. To ensure that all vendors and service providers have equitable opportunities to compete for and participate in the City’s procurement of goods and services, staff proposes to retain the services of BBC to conduct a procurement study, with the end goal of identifying implementable changes that could be made to the City’s procurement policies and procedures to further the City’s equity and inclusion efforts.
The proposed scope of work for the study, which includes project management support, would focus on the following:
• Policy and Program Review to understand the City’s contracting policies, operating practices, statutes, and rules, as well as the measures it uses to encourage the participation of underrepresented businesses. The review will 3 of 6
include an analysis of the City’s vendor requirements such as business license and business insurance, paperwork and forms required to be completed by service providers, the City’s online competitive bidding process, advertising of bidding opportunities, vendor selection and evaluation criteria, vendor communication and resources, and contract execution.
• Econometric analyses of the marketplace through collection and analysis of data to assess conditions for businesses to determine what barriers or discrimination exist within the local public and private sectors and whether the City acts as a passive participant in that discrimination. The analyses would inform whether there is evidence that barriers or discrimination in the local marketplace may have affected the ability of local small and under-represented businesses to form, grow, and successfully compete for project work, including for City work.
• Availability analysis through data assessment and collection of City contract, procurement, and vendor data. BBC would use a custom census approach to estimate the availability of local small and underrepresented businesses for City contracts and procurements. The availability analysis would survey hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses that perform relevant types of work and have locations in the geographic area to which the City awards most of its contracting and procurement dollars to, which may extend beyond Santa Monica and into Los Angeles County. Results from the availability analysis would provide the City with an understanding of the availability of local small and underrepresented businesses for its work, future networking and outreach efforts, and overall aspirational goals for the City’s diversity efforts. BBC would also utilize and integrate, into the City’s study, survey information from a recent similar project with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority that gathered information from thousands of businesses in the region, including businesses directly relevant to projects the City awards and from businesses that have locations in the City’s relevant geographic market area. It is the intent that this study capture information beyond our City boundaries so we have an accurate understanding of the marketplace directly relevant to how the City spends its 4 of 6
procurement dollars, the vendors that could participate in City work, and any barriers that might exist for relevant small and presumptively disadvantaged businesses.
• Evaluate successful initiatives in the areas of equity and inclusion in procurement by other agencies. BBC will evaluate procurement and contracting initiatives and practices observed by neighboring cities and Los Angeles County to determine potential alignment in this area.
• Analysis of the relevant product markets and geographic market to calculate the percentages of total dollars the City spent in each industry to determine which product markets are most relevant to the City’s contracting and procurement activity, as well as identify the relevant geographic market area in which the City spends most of its contract and procurement dollars. • Development of actionable recommendations relying on quantitative and qualitative evidence gathered through this study. The recommendations would seek to refine the City’s contracting procedures and policies; refine measures that the City currently uses to encourage the participation by all businesses in its work; and develop new measures the City could consider to further encourage the participation of local small and under-represented businesses. The recommendations provided would be in accordance with federal and state regulations to ensure the City is in compliance with the legal requirements around focused efforts for small and under-represented businesses. Although state law may be restrictive on preferential treatment based on identity, these recommendations will explore other methods so the City is more accessible to a broader range of service providers.
At this time, staff seeks approval to enter into a services agreement to move forward with the procurement study, which would help staff understand how the city’s current policies and procedures may impact and create unconscious barriers to specific groups and to ensure that our current policies and procedures uplift and support all members of 5 of 6
our diverse community through implementation of changes to current procurement processes and procedures.
Vendor Selection
Bidder Recommendation
Best Qualified Firm BBC Research & Consulting
Evaluation Criteria
(include all that apply)
Proposed approach, references, training/credentials/experience, competence/skill, capacity/ability to perform services promptly, sufficiency of financial/other resources, character/reputation, ability to provide future services as needed and price.
Municipal Code SMMC 2.24.190
RFPs Received
BBC Research &
Consulting
MGT of America Consulting,
LLC
Tribesy Consulting
RFP Data
Posted On Posted On Advertised In
(City Charter & SMMC)
Vendors
Downloaded
Date Publicly
Opened
3/29/2023 City's Online
Bidding Site Santa Monica Daily Press 39 05/18/2023
Justification to Award
An evaluation panel of representatives from Finance and City Manager’s office, including an Equity and Inclusion Officer and the Equity and Inclusion Manager reviewed and ranked all the proposals using the criteria set out in the RFP. Based on these criteria, and criteria in SMMC 2.24.190, staff recommends BBC Research and Consulting as the best qualified firm to conduct a Procurement Study based on their proposed approach, references, cost and experience in preparing similar studies for other public agencies including Los Angeles Metro, CA Department of Transportation, and the City of San Diego. BBC Research & Consulting has been conducting disparity studies since 1989 and completed over 140 disparity studies for various types of government organizations including cities, counties, states, many of which are located in California. With their extensive experience refining and developing policies and programs that encourage the participation of small and under-represented businesses, staff recommends BBC as the best qualified firm to conduct the City’s Procurement Study. The combination of their experience in municipal disparity studies, research and 6 of 6
data analysis and recent experience working with local agencies best meets the City’s requirements for the procurement study work.
Environmental Review
The award agreement is exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the CEQA Guidelines. The award agreement is covered by the common-sense exemption which states that CEQA does not apply, “where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment.” The award agreement will explore barriers to equity and inclusion in the City’s procurement and contracting practices. Therefore, it can be seen with certainty that the agreement would not result in adverse physical impacts on the environment, and as such, is exempt from CEQA.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve the use of available funding from the General Fund to award a contract with BBC Research & Consulting for a procurement study to explore barriers to equity and inclusion.
Contract/Agreement/Purchase Order Request
FY 2023-24 Budget
Request Amount Department/CIP Account # Total Contract Amount $175,000 01300009.552010 $175,000
Prepared By: Adriana Franco, Administrative Analyst
Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Oaks Initiative Form