City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: May 28, 2024
Agenda Item: 5.H
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Sarkis Metspakyan, Acting Chief Information Officer, Information Services Department
Subject: Approval of Second Modification to Agreement with TruePoint Solutions, LLC for Accela Civic Platform Support
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a second modification to agreement # 4756 in the amount of $173,734 (including a 10% contingency) with TruePoint Solutions, LLC for Accela Civic Platform support for the Information Services Department. This will result in a 9-year amended agreement with a new total amount not to exceed $385,384, with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval.
2. 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 has used Accela as a permitting system since 2011 to enter and store permit records. The Information Services Department (ISD) uses TruePoint technical support services for Accella server/processing support, updates to fees and workflows, and implementation of new functionality requested by user departments. The current agreement with TruePoint is set to expire June 30, 2024. The City recently completed an RFP for a new permitting and land management system to replace Accela that will take at least two years to implement. To complete the migration of all City permits from Accela to a new permitting system, and to continue to maintain the Accela permitting system until that migration is complete, staff recommends a second modification to the agreement with TruePoint for a two-year extension with three (3) additional one-year 2 of 6
options. This second modification will increase the contract by $173,734 resulting in a nine-year amended agreement in an amount not to exceed $385,384. The increased costs of the contract include 1,000 supplementary hours of technical support. This modification will consequently increase the contract authority above the City’s $250,000 procurement threshold, requiring that staff seek City Council approval to execute this second modification of the agreement.
Discussion
The City uses Accela for permitting operations in the Community Development Department, the Fire Department, the Public Works Department, and the Mobility Division of the Santa Monica Department of Transportation. In addition, the City Clerk’s Office uses Accela to enter and store Point of Sale records, and Rent Control uses Accela to enter and store property inventory records. ISD staff are responsible for maintenance and support of these Accela systems and engage TruePoint support as a supplemental resource to mitigate surges in service needs due to implementation of new systems or features and when advanced specialist Accela technical support is required.
In May 2021, City Council consulted Moss Adams LLP (Moss Adams) for a Permitting System Efficiency Study. Moss Adams staff recommended the City invest in an up-todate, comprehensive permitting system that guides customers through the permit application process, and creates efficiencies for City staff with automatic workflows and reduced manual and duplicative data entry. As a result of this recommendation, the City posted a Request for Proposals (RFP) in May 2023 to identify and procure a modern, flexible, configurable, and customer-friendly system to support the City’s diverse and specialized permitting and land management services. Based on the proposals received, City staff anticipate making a recommendation to award a contract for a new permitting system in the Summer of 2024.
Regardless of the outcome of the RFP process, the current permit processes and data in Accela will need to be transferred to a new system. In August 2023, Accela announced their decision to discontinue maintenance of the On-Premise Accela Civic 3 of 6
Platform on June 30, 2025. Accela will no longer develop and distribute updates, service packs, or enhancement patches to the platform beyond June 30, 2025, and Accela technical support of the platform will cease on December 31, 2025. Accela recommends that customers migrate to a different platform to ensure uninterrupted functionality.
As of March 31, 2024, the City has spent $137,700 of the current TruePoint agreement NTE of $211,650, leaving $73,950 remaining unspent. This remaining amount, supplemented by the $173,734 modified amount, covers the cost of 1,568 hours of TruePoint technical support to assist City staff with the migration to a new permitting system, ongoing systems maintenance until the migration is complete, and a reasonable contingency for unexpected delays or surges in demand for technical support.
The current agreement with TruePoint expires this June. A second modification extending the agreement is necessary to complete the migration of City permitting operations from Accela to a new permitting system, as well as to continue technical support to ISD and City staff running permitting operations. The full migration of the permitting systems may take only 2-3 years to complete, in which case the City would not need to exercise all additional one-year renewal options. However, staff recommends a modification up to five years to account for unforeseen circumstances that could delay this timeframe. TruePoint services are available to the City at a competitive price. Furthermore, TruePoint has extensive knowledge about the City’s permitting systems having installed and implemented the system initially and having provided supplemental technical support to the City since July 2020.
Vendor Selection
In June 2020, ISD staff requested quotes from three (3) vendors for 500 hours of technical support of the Accela platform.
2020 Accela Technical Support Quotes
Vendor Name Hours Hourly Rate Total
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(Quantity) (Unit Price) (Extended Amount)
TruePoint Solutions, LLC 500 $150.00 $75,000.00
Silver Lining Solutions, LLC 500 $150.00 $75,000.00
Accela 500 $250.00 $125,000.00
In 2020, TruePoint was recommended as the best bidder based on:
• Price – two (2) vendors offered the same lowest rate of $150 per hour. • Expertise – TruePoint was a larger company with more staff trained to work on the Accela platform.
• Value Added/Breadth of Service – TruePoint had extensive knowledge about the operating systems that the platform runs on and the server and database support that is needed behind the scenes to keep the platform running. • Prior Experience - TruePoint brought the added value of direct knowledge of the City’s Accela environment having installed and implemented the system initially.
As a result of this recommendation, the City executed contract # 4756 with TruePoint on July 24, 2020, in the amount of $75,000 to provide on-demand expert support and general maintenance of Accela. That agreement was modified on September 8, 2022, to increase the not-to-exceed (NTE) amount to $211,650 and extend the term of the agreement through June 30, 2024. In anticipation of the City’s need to migrate from Accela to a new platform, and to continue Accela maintenance until that migration is complete, staff recommends extending the contract with TruePoint as an exception to the competitive bidding process, at an hourly rate of $157.94, which is only 5% higher than the original competitive $150.00 hourly rate quoted in 2020. The $157.94 hourly rate is the result of a State of California competitive procurement process California Multiple Award Schedule (CMAS) from a State of California competitive procurement process for the purchase and warranty of Information Technology (IT) consulting services.
Environmental Review
The proposed contract modification is exempt from the provision of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the CEQA 5 of 6
Guidelines (common sense exemption). The proposal 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 modification would not result in any adverse physical environmental effects as it encompasses software systems and services. Therefore, the modification to the agreement is exempt from CEQA and no further environmental review under CEQA is required.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve funding from the General Fund to increase the amount of agreement with TruePoint Solutions, LLC. for Accela Civic Platform support and migration of the current permitting system, until all City permitting operations are migrated to a new permitting system. Future year funding is contingent on Council budget approval.
Contract Modification Request
Agreement
#
Current
Authorized
Amount
FY 2024-25
Requested
Amount
Future
Year(s)
Amount Dept Account #
Total
Revised
Contract
Amount
4756 $211,650 $83,392 $90,342 01140004.529230 $385,384
Prepared By: Sandye Amshen, Customer Experience and Support Manager Approved Forwarded to Council
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Attachments:
A. Original Contract with TruePoint executed 07.24.2020 B. First Modification with TurePoint executed 09.08.2022 C. TruePoint - FY23-24 OAKS INITIATIVE FORM
D. TruePoint - FY23-24 Levine Act Disclosure Form