CITY OF SAN ANTONIO
FINANCE DEPARTMENT
INTERDEPARTMENTAL CORRESPONDENCE
TO: Erik Walsh, City Manager
FROM: Troy Elliott, CPA, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Finance Department
COPY: Audit and Accountability Committee; Ben Gorzell, Jr., CPA, Chief Financial Officer; Kevin Barthold, City Auditor
SUBJECT: FY 2020 Biannual High Profile Report and High Profile Process Changes
DATE: September 17, 2019
The Finance Department has compiled a list of high profile projects anticipated to be issued during Fiscal Year 2020. In addition, staff will present changes to the high profile procurement process to improve communication and transparency with the Mayor and Council.
The Finance Department will present the Biannual High Profile Forecasting Report detailing discretionary contracting initiatives that are considered to be high profile and anticipated to be released during the first half of Fiscal Year 2020 (October 2019 - March 2020). As a reminder, discretionary contracting initiatives are identified as “High Profile” if they meet at least one of the following conditions:
• Estimated value over $1 million;
• High level of community interest or other exceptional interest; or
• Highly complex or technical in nature, or contract terms & conditions that are non-standard or complex.
Low bid procurements are excluded from the definition as the award is based primarily on the following two factors: compliance with bid specifications and price.
High profile projects will be identified as either consent, individual or select for FY 2020. Consent items are projects that are routine in nature with minimal policy impacts. For consent items, a summary memorandum detailing pre-solicitation and post-solicitation information is provided to the Audit & Accountability Committee. Those projects with more significant dollar values, policy issues and/or community interest will be listed as individual items. Individual items require both a pre-solicitation and post-solicitation briefing to the Committee.
Committee members may request projects identified on the Biannual High Profile Report be reclassified as consent, individual or select upon further review.
The following changes to the high profile procurement process are being implemented for FY 2020.
• Establish a “Select” high profile procurement category based on the following criteria:
o Financial impact (value over $25 million)
o Contract term (over 10 years)
o Policy/public safety implications
o Community/stakeholder impact or interest
o Professional judgement
• Present a High Profile Forecast to City Council in B-Session twice a year. The forecast will include a staff recommendation on which high profile procurements should be designated in the newly created category of “Select” high profile procurements.
• The standard solicitation advertising period for high profile solicitations will be increased from 30 to 45 days.
• For “Select” procurements, the pre-solicitation and post-solicitation briefings will occur in B Session with the full City Council. Respondents’ names will be included in the score matrices in the post-solicitation briefing for “Select"
• Include the initial and final score matrices in post-solicitation presentations made to the Committee and to the full City Council in B-Session.
• For post-solicitation briefings to the Committee, respondent names will continue to not be reflected in the score matrices. After each Committee meeting, staff will prepare a memo summarizing the high profile solicitations approved by the Committee to move forward to the full City Council for consideration. This memo will include the respondent names, score matrices, and anticipated City Council consideration date.
It is important to note that the proposed changes do not modify the criteria used to define high profile solicitations or affect the application of the City’s preference programs. These changes also do not impact the City’s Ethics Code, Restrictions on Communication, Prohibited Political Contributions period or current reporting provided to the Mayor, City Council, City staff or the public.