DEPARTMENT: Finance
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Troy Elliott, Deputy Chief Financial Officer
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Briefing on the Biannual High Profile Report for Fiscal Year 2020
SUMMARY:
Staff presentation on the FY 2020 Biannual High Profile Report and proposed high profile process changes.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Staff has been reviewing the process for high profile procurements and is implementing changes to the process to improve communication and transparency with the Mayor & City Council. The definition of a high profile procurement is one that has a total contract value of over $1 million, high level of community interest or other exceptional interest, and/or highly complex or technical in nature, and/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.
Annually, the Audit and Accountability Committee (“Committee”) is provided a forecast of High Profile solicitations scheduled to be issued throughout the year. For context, there have been approximately 40 to 46 high profile procurements per year for the last four fiscal years. All high profile solicitations are presented to the Committee prior to release of the solicitation and again upon completion of the solicitation process for a review of the procurement process.
In order to increase transparency and further enhance communication on high profile procurements, Staff provided recommended changes to the high profile contract process to the Committee. With input from the Committee, the following changes to the high profile procurement process are being implemented effective 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 (10 years or more)
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 that includes all high profile procurements anticipated to be released in the upcoming six months. The forecast will include a staff recommendation on which high profile procurements should be designated as “Select” high profile procurements.
• For procurements designated as “Select”, the pre-solicitation and post-solicitation briefings will occur in B-Session with the full City Council. The respondent names will be included in the score matrices in the post-solicitation briefing for “Select” high profile procurements.
• 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.
• The standard solicitation advertising period for high profile solicitations will be increased from 30 to 45 days.
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.
Based on the proposed change for high profile procurements, 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) during B-Session on September 18th. The presentation will include projected high profile procurements and City staff’s recommendation on which of these procurements should be designated as “Select” high profile procurements. These “Select” high profile procurements would follow the process outlined above.
ISSUE:
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).
ALTERNATIVES:
This item is for briefing purposes only.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This item is for briefing purposes only.
RECOMMENDATION:
This item is for briefing purposes only.