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SR 11-28-2017 3D City Council Report City Council Meeting: November 28, 2017 Agenda Item: 3.D 1 of 5 To: Mayor and City Council From: Susan Cline, Director, Public Works, Office of Sustainability & the Environment Subject: Award Contract for Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE) Public Outreach and Engagement Services Recommended Action Staff recommends that the City Council: 1. Award RFP #114 to GOOD Worldwide Inc., a California-based company, for public outreach and engagement services. 2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with GOOD Worldwide Inc., in an amount not to exceed $245,000 (for one year, with two- additional one-year renewal options in the amount of $245,000, on the same terms and conditions) for a total amount not to exceed $735,000 over a three- year period, with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval. Executive Summary Staff recommends entering into a contract with GOOD Worldwide Inc., to develop and implement an engaging community-based campaign that would direct residents, businesses, visitors, and students towards measurable actions that help the Office of Sustainability and the Environment (OSE) in achieving the City’s overall sustainability goals including water self-sufficiency by 2020, zero waste by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner. Staff recommends entering into a one-year agreement with GOOD Worldwide Inc., with two additional one-year renewal options, for a total not to exceed $735,000. The activities covered in this approach to comprehensive public outreach and engagement include developing, producing, implementing and reporting on digital and grassroots community engagement efforts. This contract does not increase OSE’s overall budget for public outreach. Rather, it combines OSE’s various public outreach efforts and budgets into one contract, facilitating the City’s ability to develop strategic community-based communications and outreach efforts that support its sustainability policies and programs. Additionally, this is an efficiency measure in that staff will be 2 of 5 responsible for contract management, oversight and administration of one contractor versus multiple contractors implementing a series of smaller contracts. Background The Office of Sustainability and the Environment (OSE) has successfully applied community-based campaigns along with various other innovative communication techniques and strategies to engage a diverse group of stakeholders around sustainability related policies and initiatives. Examples include the implementation of the Sustainable City Plan, the Non-Recyclable Polystyrene Food Service Container Ban, and the Single Use Plastic Bag Ban. All of these campaigns were successful in enacting change throughout the community. In early 2015, OSE developed a campaign to support the Water Shortage Response Plan (WSRP), which called for a mandatory 20% reduction in water use by residents and business. While successful, these campaigns required tremendous amounts of coordination amongst various marketing consultants, graphic artists, web developers, advertisers, content creators, and City staff. Achieving the complex and challenging goals of water self-sufficiency, zero waste and carbon neutrality will require unprecedented levels of coordination and participation throughout the residential, commercial, civic, and institutional community. It is with these efforts in mind that staff is moving to integrate its communication, public outreach, and engagement efforts towards a more concise message that encourages Santa Monica residents, businesses, visitors, and students to take action. Discussion Executing a single contract that consolidates the communication, public outreach, and engagement needs of OSE will enable the City to directly customize content for specific audiences with a more targeted call to action, while saving the City the additional time and resources necessary when managing multiple contracts. This approach will unify messaging and efforts across all major OSE projects – climate and energy, green building, sustainability, water conservation, zero waste and watershed management – to make it easier for the public to understand and support citywide sustainability goals. It will also allow the City to reach the public in an effective, integrated, and actionable 3 of 5 way. These collective efforts do not increase OSE’s overall budget for public outreach and engagement. Consultant Selection On April 10, 2017, the City issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for marketing and community outreach services. The RFP was posted on the City's on-line bidding site, and notices were advertised in the Santa Monica Daily Press in accordance with City Charter and Municipal Code provisions. A total of 101 firms downloaded the RFP, and 13 vendors responded. Responses to the RFP were reviewed by a selection panel of staff from the Office of Sustainability and the Environment. Proposals were submitted by:  Allegra Consulting  California Marketing Concepts  Dash Two  ETA Agency  GOOD Worldwide Inc.  Green Media Creations  Hershey Cause Communications  Message.  Nemoi Advertising and Design  Pollack PR Marketing Group  Salter Mitchell  S. Groner Associates  Verdin Marketing The Office of Communications and the Office of Sustainability and the Environment developed the Request for Proposals. The proposals were evaluated based upon the selection criteria set forth in SMMC 2.24.073. Staff recommends GOOD Worldwide Inc. as the best qualified firm based on its expertise with community-based social marketing 4 of 5 behavior change campaigns, experience executing work plans, creative approach to developing materials and history of producing effective work for the City. GOOD Worldwide Inc. is the contracted partner for the GoSaMo campaign as well as the Strategic Goals public outreach effort. Based on GOOD Worldwide Inc.’s past work experience and the team's well-versed understanding of the City with their experience with the GoSaMo campaign and the Straegic Goals efforts, GOOD Worldwide Inc. has been able to extend competitive rates for communication services. The firm also brings a fun spirit to the design of public outreach efforts and that spirit translates into results as seen with the GoSaMo campaign. Future Public Outreach Contracts The Office of Communications is preparing to develop a pre-qualified list of contractors that can support public outreach efforts citywide. While work on this pre-qualified list of contractors is being developed, the Office of Communications recommended that OSE move forward with developing and implementing an engaging community-based campaign that will direct residents, businesses, visitors, and students towards measurable actions that help the City in achieving its overall sustainability goals including water self-sufficiency by 2020, zero waste by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner. For this reason, City staff recommends City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with GOOD Worldwide Inc., for one year, with two additional one-year renewal options for a total amount not to exceed $735,000. Financial Impacts and Budget Actions The agreement to be awarded to GOOD Worldwide Inc. is for an amount not to exceed $735,000. Funds of $245,000 are available in the FY 2017-18 budget in the Public Works Department. The agreement will be charged to account 014261.555060, with the exception of work related to water self-sufficiency, which will be charged to 014262.555060. Future year funding is contingent on Council budget approval. 5 of 5 Prepared By: Shannon Parry, Sustainability Administrator Approved Forwarded to Council Attachments: A. Good Inc. Oaks B. Written Comments GOOD Worldwide Inc Ben Goldhirsh, C. Max Schorr, Jeff Dossett, Rob Campanile Ben Goldhirsh Rob Campanile Controller rob@goodinc.com (323) 556-6790 5/16/2017 1 Vernice Hankins From:Tricia Crane <1triciacrane@gmail.com> Sent:Tuesday, November 28, 2017 9:09 AM To:councilmtgitems; Ted Winterer; Kevin McKeown Fwd; Gleam Davis; Terry O’Day; Pam OConnor; Tony Vazquez; Sue Himmelrich; Clerk Mailbox; Rick Cole; Denise Anderson- Warren Subject:City Council Agenda Item 3D: Sustainability Contract Dear City Council: Please do not approve the contract with GOOD Worldwide proposed by staff in Agenda Item 3D. According to the staff proposal, the work of this firm is being sought to assist in "facilitating the City’s ability to develop strategic community-based communications and outreach efforts that support its sustainability policies and programs." Why can't the existing staff promote programs and policies that you have already approved? You recently received a letter from the boards of three neighborhood associations objecting to the manipulative nature of the City questionnaire Your City, Your Voice, which is included below for your reference. That survey is still live on the City website and it continues to be ridiculed in the community for its obvious attempt to manipulate public opinion rather than elicit honest input. Such campaigns insult the intelligence of Santa Monicans and create distrust in our elected officials. When he first arrived in Santa Monica, City Manager Rick Cole added four additional publicity/communication staff. Why are these staffers not adequate to do the information gathering and dissemination that his office seeks? It is indicated in the Staff Report that the cost of this contract is covered for the first year, but not for the following two. Rick Cole has stated that "The Wolf is at the Door." It's time to be fiscally responsible and close that door. Rely on existing talented staff. Please do not approve the contract with GOOD Worldwide Inc. Sincerely, Tricia Crane *** Email sent to Council on Nov. 20, 2017: City Council: The City of Santa Monica “survey” of residents and workers titled Your City, Your Voice is a manipulation, not a measurement of public opinion and should not be used to inform policy-making. Item 3-D 11/28/17 1 of 3 Item 3-D 11/28/17 2 The questionnaire begins by telling residents and workers that it's about “what’s important to you personally and how we can make Santa Monica even better,” but what follows is a series of leading questions that appear designed more to shape opinions than to elicit them. For example, there is not one question concerning rising crime, despite the recent news report that Santa Monica is #1 in property crime among California cities of similar size . And nowhere is the word “development” mentioned even though a recent ballot measure illustrated widespread concern about this very issue. “Traffic congestion” – a top challenge citywide for residents and workers alike - only appears once as a possible response (#8). Instead of seeking honest responses about real conditions in our small city, the questionnaire appears bent on reframing public thinking. It asks those surveyed to rate Santa Monica in glowing terms such as “caring, inclusive, diverse, thriving, equitable, neighborly, affordable, supportive, innovative, forward thinking.” A survey should ask those who take it to express what they think instead of telling them how they should think. It is notable that the word “homeless" appears more than 24 times, suggesting the data gathered will be used to support new public funding for homeless programs or to support promotion of a new bond measure to address homelessness. One is left to wonder why the City chose not to state up front that homelessness is the real topic. Besides being deeply concerned about the content of this survey, we are also concerned about its methodology. As the Pew Research Center notes: “Surveys of the general population that rely only on the internet can be subject to significant biases resulting from under-coverage and non-response. Not everyone in the U.S. has access to the internet, and there are significant demographic differences between those who do have access and those who do not. People with lower incomes, less education, living in rural areas or ages 65 and older are underrepresented among internet users and those with high-speed internet access.” (http://www.people-press.org/methodology/collecting-survey-data/internet- surveys/) In other words, this survey runs the risk of under-representing Santa Monica seniors and people with lower incomes and less education. Also underrepresented will be those who are professionally too busy to pay attention to bulk announcements from City staff and requests for participation in online surveys. (The same can be said for phone surveys). As far as technology is concerned, it should be noted that online surveys are notoriously susceptible to cheating and manipulation in multiple ways. Those initiating the survey could manipulate the results by promoting the survey to specific targets groups expected to give the desired replies, by using targeted direct email or targeted social media promotion methods. There is no reliable way to restrict the survey to Santa Monica residents and workers, or to prevent someone from taking the survey multiple times. While technology can be used to collect IP address data pinpointing the approximate location of respondents, such data gathering is easily fooled. Respondents can mask their IP addresses, take the survey multiple times using several Internet Service Providers and computing devices to access the web, reset their dynamic IP addresses, use a VPN or proxy server or actively spoof their IP address. Sophisticated cheaters could even use automated software to skew the results. Finally, there is no way to verify the answers given by respondents. For instance, they are asked if they are residents. But this does not prevent someone who is not a Santa Monica resident from skewing the results by simply putting in false answers. Online surveys can be useful tools when designed and implemented properly and used for casual tasks. However, given the many vulnerabilities, this kind of survey should not be used to inform public policy. The City "survey" Your City, Your Voice is an offensive and blatant effort to manipulate public opinion, a waste of time and tax dollars. We ask City Council to disregard the results of this effort because it lacks credibility as a measurement of public opinion in Santa Monica. Item 3-D 11/28/17 2 of 3 Item 3-D 11/28/17 3 Sincerely, Friends of Sunset Park, Executive Board Northeast Neighbors, Executive Board Wilshire Montana Neighborhood Coalition, Executive Committee Item 3-D 11/28/17 3 of 3 Item 3-D 11/28/17 REFERENCE – AGREEMENT NO. 10586 (CCS)