SR 09-24-2019 3F
City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: September 24, 2019
Agenda Item: 3.F
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Katie Lichtig, Assistant City Manager, City Manager's Office
Subject: Approval of Contract Modification with Akido Labs, Inc. for data -sharing app
for homeless service providers
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and
execute a first modification to agreement # 10522 in the amount of $8 2,000 with Akido
Labs, Inc., a California based company, for the ongoing development of Project
Connect, a data-sharing mobile app deployed as part of the City’s strategy to reduce
homelessness. The modification will result in an amended agreement with a new total
amount not to exceed $167,000, with future year funding contingent on Council budget
approval.
Summary
Curbing homelessness is one of the City’s Framework Priorities. In 2017, the City of
Santa Monica partnered with Aikido Labs, Inc, a California based nonprofit (“Akido
Labs”), to develop a data-sharing technology platform to enable communication
between homeless service providers and first responders to better coordinate care for
vulnerable residents experiencing homelessness. The first iteration was aimed at
sharing information on frequent users of emergency police and fire services.
The City’s contract with Akido Labs provides for three phases: Phase 1-Customer
Discovery, to identify City needs and develop mobile application solution; Phase 2 -
Solution-Pilot, to allow City use of the mobile application solution for a three -month pilot
period; and Phase 3-Solution-Production, providing for City licensing and use of the
mobile application for three years. The contract calls for Akido Labs to provide the
services in Phases 1 and 2 at no charge, allows the City to elect not to proceed beyond
Phase 2, and calls for the City to pay Akido Labs an annual licensing fee in Phase 3.
Phases 1 and 2 were originally scheduled to be completed by May 2018.
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Development took longer than expected, however, and in February 2019, a small group
of pilot users were given access to the mobile application, Connect, as a solution to
meet the City’s needs for improved collaboration. Connect has been modified several
times as a result of usage during the pilot period, and additional changes are being
sought by staff. Staff recommends a modification to the agreement with Akido Labs to
extend the Phase 2 pilot period through December 2019 and allow a payment to Akido
Labs for its performance of additional work requested by staff and usage of Connect
during the extended Phase 2 pilot period. The Phase 3 Production period, if elected,
would then extend from January 2020 to the end of the agreement’s current term, May
2021. The City would retain the option to extend the agreement for an additional three
years from May 2021 on terms mutually agreeable to the parties.
Discussion
Addressing the needs of vulnerable people experiencing homelessness is one of the
four pillars supporting the City’s strategy to reduce homelessness. According to the
2019 Annual Homeless Count results, there were 985 people experiencing
homelessness within the City, of which 654 were unsheltered. Persons experiencing
unsheltered homelessness and living with severe mental illness, alcohol dependency, or
substance use disorders are particularly at-risk of dying on the streets due to
victimization of violence, exacerbation of chronic medical conditions, and repeat
exposure to the elements. These residents are also high utilizers of emergency services
including police, paramedic transports, and hospital emergency room utilization. RAND
recently completed a study of frequent users of emergency services that found that out
of a cohort of 25 people, each person had an average of 22 police encounters, 5
arrests, 3 fire encounters, and 3.5 emergency department visits, accruing sign ificant
public costs without coordination to appropriate housing or services to end
homelessness. Instead they were cycling on and off the streets.
The Connect app provides two-way communication between first responders and
homeless case managers, which enables case managers to learn in near-real-time
when their clients have interacted with emergency services to increase pre-discharge
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engagement when evidence demonstrates vulnerable persons are more likely to accept
offers for service over returning to the streets.
In 2016, in partnership with Supervisor Kuehl and the County of Los Angeles, the City
launched the Homeless Multidisciplinary Street Outreach Team (HMST) to provide
ongoing case management services to high utilizers of local emergency medica l and
police systems. Since its launch in 2016, this team has placed 25 people into interim
housing and 16 into permanent housing. In 2018, the team had 1,331 engagements
with individuals from this highly vulnerable cohort.
The HMST team is just one vehicle through which the City engages its most vulnerable
residents. The City deploys additional homeless outreach teams including the Santa
Monica C3 Multidisciplinary Team and the Santa Monica Police Department Homeless
Liaison Program (HLP) Team. The City has also embedded homelessness services into
the Library system including two part-time social workers and a homeless outreach
specialist. These teams work with community partners including the Downtown Santa
Monica Ambassadors and West Coast Care to create a multiplier effect in outreaching
to people experiencing homelessness. Vulnerable persons, including those that
generate many public safety calls out of concern for their vulnerabilities or display of
anti-social behaviors, are prioritized for service connection to ensure their wellbeing and
that of the surrounding communities.
The Akido Labs’ Connect app was designed to increase communication between all of
these outreach efforts to streamline the coordination of care in near-real-time. The City’s
relationship with Akido Labs began in March 2017 when an introduction was made
through the Milken Institute at an annual conference. Akido Labs staff expressed an
interest in working with the City to develop a data-sharing app to better inform first
responders during encounters on the needs and care management of vulnerable
residents, including reconnecting back to assigned case managers. After a scan of the
landscape to identify other potential software developers, the City entered into a
contract with Akido Labs to develop a mobile application to meet the City’s need for
improved collaboration and communication in serving persons experiencing
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homelessness. The contract was entered into as a sole-source contract as an
exception to the competitive bidding process pursuant to the SMMC Section 2.24.080
(d) (now SMMC Section 2.24.250(b)) given the proprietary nature of the product and its
specificity to Santa Monica. See August 8, 2017 Council Action in Appendix A.
The initial agreement with Akido Labs was executed in 2017 with a termination date of
May 5, 2021, and included three phases: Phase 1, anticipated to be completed
December 31, 2017, included services to conduct customer discovery and solution
development; Phase 2, anticipated to be completed April 5, 2018, was a three-month
pilot of the Connect app; and Phase 3, anticipated to begin May 5, 2018, was three
years of licensing for use by the City once the mobile application was put into
production. Akido Labs agreed to complete Phases 1 and 2 (anticipated to be
completed by May 2018), the discovery, initial development, and piloting of Connect at
no cost to the City. The City could then elect whether to proceed to Phase 3, and, if it
made the election to proceed, would pay Akido Labs an annual licensing fee for use of
the mobile application during the production phase. Council authorized up to $85,000
over the anticipated three-year production phase to pay the annual licensing fee.
The discovery and development phase (Phase 1) took longer than expected and was
not completed until approximately February 2019. The City began to pilot the Connect
mobile application in February 2019. The pilot allows City staff and homeless service
providers to track information on a limited cohort of persons identified as frequent users
of City emergency services. Data privacy and confidentiality is of the utmost concern
and the app is programed with security measures and controlled access based on user -
roles. Additionally, all users receive training from Akido Labs and the Santa Monica City
Attorney’s Office, and each user must sign a data-governance agreement outlining the
policies and limitations governing data usage.
The original concept of the Connect app, which was the subject of the original
agreement with Akido Labs, was that the app would draw data from existing databases
(HMIS, SMPD, and Fire) and make this data available as a shared resource in real time
through the app. During the pilot period (which has already extended beyond its
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anticipated three months), staff learned that this original concept was insufficient to
accomplish the goals of the project. As a result, staff has worked with Akido Labs to
add additional features that enable users of the app to build on the shared data drawn
from existing databases, primarily in two ways: by enabling users to communicate
directly one-on-one through the app and by enabling users to input data directly into the
app that is then available for sharing by others. Before putting Connect into full
production, staff would like Akido to add the requested additional features that are
expected to increase the usefulness of the app (particularly its usefulness to Police and
Fire first responders), over what was the original scope of the project. The cost of these
added features is approximately $51,200. Additional staff training and app modifications
are expected as the user base expands. The remaining $30,800 will be set-aside for
these purposes. Staff would also like to extend the pilot phase for additional time
(through December 2019) to provide an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of these
additional features and the usefulness of the Connect app in its entirety. Once
production begins, as more case managers and first responders gain experience with
the app, staff anticipates that it will identify additional features it will want added to the
app.
Staff therefore recommends a modification to the current Akido Labs agreement to: 1)
extend the pilot phase through December 31, 2019, 2) modify the payment terms to
allow initial payments to Akido Labs during the extended pilot phase for both use of the
app during the extended pilot phase and Akido Labs’ ongoing and partially completed
work in adding features beyond the originally conceived scope of the project; and 3)
increase the funding authorization from $85,000 to a total of $167,000 to provide an
additional $82,000 to account for identified change orders ($51,200) and future training
and enhancements ($30,800). . Akido Labs has been responsive to the City’s requests
for changes to Connect during the pilot phase. Should the City elect to move Connect
into production, the additional funds may be used over the course of the life of the
contract to provide feature development, reporting, and other functionality deemed
necessary by the City.
Past Council Actions
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Meeting Date Description
08/08/17
(attachment A)
Authorized the City Manager to negotiate and execute a Software
Licensing and Professional Services Agreement with Akido Labs.
03/26.2019
(attachment B)
Council approval of four-pillar strategy to address homelessness.
Staff recommends that the City Council:
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve funding from the General Fund and Citizen’s Option for
Public Safety (COPS) Fund to increase the amount of the contract with Akido Labs, Inc.
Contract Modification Request
Current Authorized
Amount
FY 2019-20
Request
Future Year
Funding
Account # Total Revised
Contract Amount
$85,000 - - SO019301.689000 $85,000
- $8,000 $16,000 01190001.529230 $24,000
- $3,333 $6,667 01200001.552010 $10,000
- $8,000 $16,000 01400001.552010 $24,000
- $8,000 $16,000 22180001.525260 $24,000
$85,000 $27,333 $54,667 Total $167,000
Future year funding is contingent on Council budget approval.
Prepared By: Alisa Orduna, Senior Advisor to the City Manager on
Homelessness
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Akido Labs OAKS INITIATIVE FORM Signed Sept 17 2019
CITY OF SANTA MONICA
OAKS INITI ATIVE NOTICE
NOTICE TO APPLICANTS, BIDDERS, PROPOSERS
AND OTHERS SEEKING DISCRETIONARY PERMITS, CONTRACTS,
OR OTHER BENEFITS FROM THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
Santa Monica’s voters adopted a City Charter amendment commonly known as
the Oaks Initiative. The Oaks Initiative requires the City to provide this notice and
information about the Initiative’s requirements. You may obtain a full copy of the Initiative’s
text from the City Clerk.
This information is required by City Charter Article XXII—Taxpayer Protection. It
prohibits a public off icial from receiving, and a person or entity from conferring, specified
personal benef its or campaign advantages from a person or entity after the official votes,
or otherwise takes official action, to award a “public benefit” to that person or entity. The
prohibition applies within and outside of the geographical boundaries of Santa Monica.
All persons or entities applying or receiving public benefits from the City of Santa
Monica shall provide the names of trustees, directors, partners, and officers, and names
of persons with more than a 10% equity, participation or revenue interest. An exception
exists f or persons serving in those capacities as volunteers, without compensation, for
organizations exempt from income taxes under Section 501(c)(3), (4), or (6), of the
Internal Revenue Code. However, this exception does not apply if the organization is a
political committee or controls political committees. Examples of a “public benefit” include
public contracts to provide goods or services worth more than $25,000 or a land use
approval worth more than $25,000 over a 12-month period.
In order to facilitate compliance with the requirements of the Oaks Initiative, the City
compiles and maintains certain information. That information includes the name of any
person or persons who is seeking a “public benefit.” If the “public benefit” is sought by an
entity, rather than an individual person, the information includes the name of every person
who is: (a) trustee, (b) director, (c) partner, (d) officer, or has (e) more than a ten percent
interest in the entity. Therefore, if you are seeking a “public benefit” covered by the Oaks
Initiative, you must supply that information on the Oaks Initiative Disclosure Form. This
inf ormation must be updated and supplied every 12 months.
CITY OF SANTA MONICA
OAKS INITI ATIVE DISCLOSURE FORM
In order to facilitate compliance with the requirements of the Oaks Initiative, the City
compiles and maintains certain information. That information includes the name of any
person or persons who is seeking a “public benefit.” If the “public benefit” is sought by
an entity, rather than an individual person, the information includes the name of every
person who is: (a) trustee, (b) director, (c) partner, (d) officer, or has (e) more than a ten
percent interest in the entity.
Public benef its include:
1. Personal services contracts in excess of $25,000 over any 12-month period;
2. Sale of material, equipment or supplies to the City in excess of $25,000 over a 12-
month period;
3. Purchase, sale or lease of real property to or from the City in excess of $25,000
over a 12- month period;
4. Non-competitive franchise awards with gross revenue of $50,000 or more in any
12-month period;
5. Land use variance, special use permit, or other exception to an established land
use plan, where the decision has a value in excess of $25,000;
6. Tax “abatement, exception, or benefit” of a value in excess of $5,000 in any 12-
month period; or
7. Payment of “cash or specie” of a net value to the recipient of $10,000 in any 12-
month period.
Name(s) of persons or entities receiving public benefit:
Name(s) of trustees, directors, partners, and officers:
Name(s) of persons with more than a 10% equity, participation, or revenue interest:
Prepared by: ____________________________Title: __________________________
Signature: ______________________________________ Date: ________________
Email: ____________________________________ Phone: ____________________
FOR CITY USE ONLY:
Bid/PO/Contract # ____________________________ Permit # ___________________________
Jared Goodner Chief Product Officer
09/17/2019
jared@akidolabs.com 213 550 5302
Akido Labs
Prashant Samant, Jared Goodner, Hugh Gordon
Prashant Samant, Jared Goodner, Hugh Gordon
REFERENCE:
Modified No. 10522
(CCS)