SR 06-28-2016 3L
City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: June 28, 2016
Agenda Item: 3.L
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Karen Ginsberg, Director, Community & Cultural Services
Subject: Fourth modification to agreement with RAND Corporation to complete second
Local Wellbeing Index including conducting survey and other data analysis
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and
execute a fourth modification to agreement No. 9837(CCS) in the amount of $175,000
with RAND Corporation, a California-based company, for the production of the second
Local Wellbeing Index, including survey fielding and data analysis. This will result in a 4
year amended agreement with a new total amount not to exceed $915,000, with future
year funding contingent on Council budget approval.
Executive Summary
What is the cumulative purpose and impact of the services performed by City
government? How can we better measure and target those services to produce the
greatest public value? Governments around the world are starting to recognize that
economic growth alone
progress take into account the wellbeing of people. By measuring wellbeing, the City of
Santa Monica is able to move beyond the traditional measures capturing the conditions
of the social, physical, and economic environments, and gaining a qualitative
understanding of the cumulative impact of all that our city does.
In 2013, Santa Monica was one of five winning cities in the United States awarded a
one million dollar prize from the Bloomberg Phil
competition for local government innovation. The Wellbeing Project was selected as a
model for establishing and measuring the factors that impact individual and community
wellbeing in localities. In November 2013, Council approved a professional services
agreement with RAND Corporation (RAND) in the amount of $650,000 for the
development of the Local Wellbeing Index, a dynamic measurement tool combining
quantitative and qualitative data to provide a multidimensional understanding of
community wellbeing. A subsequent amendment was made in the amount of $90,000
to provide additional services to finalize The Wellbeing Index framework and
communication platform. The first iteration of the Local Wellbeing Index was released in
April 2015.
An agreement modification in the amount of $175,000 is necessary now to complete a
second Local Wellbeing Index. Key deliverables will include: fielding of an online
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resident survey; administrative data collection and analysis; identification of alternative
non-city data sources; incorporation of youth wellbeing data into the Index; aggregation
of all data sources and dimensional scoring for better communication and tracking over
time; and development of written content to support the Index, bringing the total amount
of the amended agreement to $915,000.
Background
On November 12, 2013, Council approved Agreement No. 9837 (CCS) for the
development of The Local Wellbeing Index
(Attachment A). The Index is a core deliverable of The Wellbeing Project, an effort to
measure and actively improve community wellbeing. The RAND team was selected as
the most qualified candidate from ten proposals received in response to a Request for
Proposals (RFP). RAND engaged the expertise of the London-based, New Economics
Foundation (nef) as a sub-contractor on the team. nef is well regarded as a research
and policy development institution with a specialization in wellbeing measurement and
action, with a focus on partnerships with government. Over the past two and half years,
RAND and nef worked with City staff to develop the Index. This included conducting
research with internal and external stakeholders; convening a panel of 19
interdisciplinary experts in the fields of behavioral science, psychology, economics,
sustainability, public policy, public health, and technology; creation of a framework for
the Index; extensive data collection and analysis; report writing and in the past year,
developing a scoring rubric for the Index. agreement
($90,000) in May 27, 2014 (Attachment B) to fund additional services which were
required in the area of user experience design and development, technical
documentation and implementation, as well as end-user research and testing. Two
subsequent modifications were made to the contract with the approval of the City
The Wellbeing Project has been described as having three key phases: define,
measure and act to improve wellbeing in Santa Monica. Over the past two years, the
RAND/nef
Define: The first 18 months of the project were spent using the emerging science
of wellbeing and via the engagement of an international and interdisciplinary
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panel of experts, to create a six dimension framework for the Index. These
dimensions include: Community, Place, Learning, Health, Economic Opportunity
and Outlook, and provide the architecture for the Index. Key activities of this
phase included a horizon scan and synthesis of existing literature and activities
The What, Why & How of Measuring Community Wellbeing); three convenings of
the panel of experts; a series of workshops with City staff; and focus groups with
key partner organizations.
Measure: The measurement phase consisted of a range of activities including
data identification, collection and analysis over a 24 month period. The data
collection process included data discovery, during which RAND staff met with
representatives of all city departments to assess and review the potential City
data sources for the Index. In addition, RAND worked to source non-City,
external data to complement City administrative data. RAND further developed
data. nef led the creation of the online resident survey about wellbeing behaviors
and perceptions. RAND administered the survey for the city. RAND and nef
worked together to analyze and integrate the survey data with administrative
data. In addition, RAND and nef worked closely with City staff and a website
development team to make all data avai
to develop data visualization and related work. The final Index, released in April
2015, included a 160 page report. Over the past year, the RAND/nef team have
worked on a new scoring rubric, and identified processes and examples of new
data sources to further strengthen the Index going forward.
Act: The Act phase of the project involves using the baseline metric of wellbeing
provided by the first Index to inform policies, focus resources, and catalyze
partnerships with the goal of helping all individuals and groups achieve positive
progress more quickly. This includes:
launching an online platform to disseminate the Index
o
presenting the findings to the City Council to inform the upcoming budget
o
staff workshops to analyze findings and develop city policy and program
o
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responses
communicating to community, neighborhood, business and civic groups about
o
the Index
refining the data collection process to further develop the Wellbeing Index
o
sharing the work with other cities to both contribute to emerging knowledge
o
about wellbeing and to encourage replication to increase our ability to
The work from the Define and Measure phases culminated in the release of findings
from the first Wellbeing Index April, 2015. Given that the Index was created with the
intent of being a dynamic tool based on the most pertinent and timely data available, it
is now time to repeat the Indexing process. An agreement modification with RAND in
the amount of $175,000 is necessary to retain their services to build on their prior work
product and produce the second Local Wellbeing Index.
Discussion
Although there is increasingly influential work at the national and international levels on
seeking alternatives to traditional measures such as the growth of Gross National
Product, there is no recognized local model for identifying and measuring the unifying
purpose and outcomes of government and community action. Do our residents feel
empowered to make change? Are they happy, healthy, and connected to the
community? Are they able access lifelong learning? Does the built and natural
environment support health, safety, and community cohesion? These questions underlie
s nationally pioneering work in developing a Wellbeing Index. Without these
measures, governments are challenged to manage for better results. As a widely
Local Wellbeing Indexs
development has been a careful balance of needs assessment, resource management,
and efficiency. Over the course of development, the Office of Wellbeing and RAND has
spent additional time engaging and educating city staff about the Index findings and
their relevance to departmental work, as well as engaging with the community to
generate collaborative efforts between community organizations and the city to improve
community wellbeing. RAND, with nef, has demonstrated its dedication to advancing the
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work of The Wellbeing Project by engaging with these additional aspects of the project
without increasing the cost for services.
The cost to produce the second Index is substantially lower than the first iteration, due
to the significant investment made towards the creation of the Wellbeing framework and
the original data discovery work to surface relevant city data. The second iteration of the
Index will build on the research and development of the first Index in a number of ways.
The Index will incorporate additional city data surfaced via meetings with staff and
RAND, and new non-city data identified by RAND as information that can contextualize
with the expectation of increasing the response rate to surpass the 2200 responses
received in the first survey, and RAND will analyze the results through demographic and
geographic lenses, along with assessing citywide wellbeing. From this data each
wellbeing dimension will be scored, and compared to year one wellbeing results to
determine where Santa Monica is progressing in improving community wellbeing and
where challenges remain.
Partnering with RAND to complete this work is the most cost efficient means of
replicating the Index at this time, due to their familiarity with city data, staff, and the
Wellbeing framework. In addition, RAND is partnering with the City on the
aforementioned Transferability Playbook, a key Bloomberg Philanthropies grant
deliverable, and as such has maintained close relations with project staff since the
completion of the first Local Wellbeing Index. As a result, the transition to beginning
work on the second iteration of the Index will be seamless.
Vendor/Consultant Selection
On September 10, 2013, the City of Santa Monica issued a Request for Proposals
online bidding site. 901 vendors were notified, 42 vendors downloaded the RFP. 10
firms responded. Responses to the RFP were reviewed by an interdepartmental
selection panel of staff.
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Evaluation was based on the following selection criteria: understanding of the project
and compatibility with project goals; experience with successful development of similar
measurement tools using a panel of experts process; track record for innovative
solutions; and recommended approach to index development, including partnerships
and deliverables. Staff then interviewed 3 shortlisted firms:
USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research
Applied Survey Research
RAND Corporation
Based on these criteria and criteria in SMMC 2.24.073, staff recommended RAND
Corporation as the best qualified firm to provide development of the Local Wellbeing
Index based on completeness of scope and corresponding budget.
RAND Corporation has partnered with the New Economics Foundation (nef) on
research and analysis components of The Wellbeing Project. These two nonprofit
research organizations together bring a great depth of knowledge in wellbeing analysis,
measurement development, city planning, research, and policy development and built a
solid foundation for The Wellbeing Project.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
The agreement modification to be awarded to RAND Corporation is $175,000, for an
amended agreement total not to exceed $915,000. Funds are available in the FY 2015-
16 budget in the Community and Cultural Services Department. The agreement will be
charged to account 01501.555060.90578W. Future year funding is contingent on
Council budget approval.
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Prepared By:
Lisa Parson, Wellbeing Project Manager
Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. November 12, 2013 Staff Report (web link)
B. May 27, 2014 Staff Report (web link)
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