SR 01-23-2024 5H
City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: January 23, 2024
Agenda Item: 5.H
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Oscar Santiago, Director, Finance Department, Procurement
Subject: Award Request For Proposal #357 to BBC Research & Consulting for a
Procurement Study to Explore Barriers to Equity and Inclusion
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Award RFP# 357 to BBC Research & Consulting for a Procurement Study to
explore barriers to equity and inclusion in the City’s procurement and contracting
practices for the Finance Department.
2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with BBC
Research & Consulting, for a total not to exceed $175,000 over a two year period
with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval.
3. Adopt a finding of no possibility of significant effect pursuant to Section
15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption) of the California Environmental Quality
Act (CEQA) Guidelines.
Summary
The City of Santa Monica is committed to ensuring that diversity, equity and inclusion is
present in everything we do, including providing equitable opportunities and accessibility
for all vendors and service providers including those owned by under-represented
groups. In March 2023, the City issued a Request for Proposals for professional
services to conduct a study to examine what barriers exist to equity and inclusion in the
City’s procurement and contracting practices. The study will include an extensive review
of our current policies and procedures as well as the development of a plan to
implement changes responding to any findings. Staff recommends approval of an
agreement with BBC Research & Consulting (BBC) to conduct this procurement study
in an amount not to exceed $175,000. Staff anticipates having the findings from the
study and the associated roadmap completed by the end of 2024.
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Discussion
As reflected in City Council’s priorities; Racial Justice, Equity & Social Diversity and
Economic Recovery for all, the City is committed to advance diversity, equity and
inclusion within and throughout the City. The City continues to make progress on its
efforts to address equity gaps and identify the challenges associated with those efforts
towards creating a city that is inclusive, equitable and diverse in all aspects. In 2020 the
City created the Equity Racial Committee with representatives from every City
department, focusing their efforts to embed equity into daily operations through modified
policies, inclusive community engagement and opening new pathways to our workforce.
As part of these efforts, the Finance Department, with support from the City’s Diversity
Equity & Inclusion team, focused on an internal equity assessment identifying
opportunities to study the department’s programs and policies for unconscious bias. The
need to conduct a disparity study to explore any current barriers to equity and inclusion
in the City’s procurement and contracting practices was identified through this
assessment.
The Procurement Division in the Finance Department is responsible for developing and
implementing procurement policies and procedures and for providing procurement and
contract administration guidance and support to City departments. To ensure that all
vendors and service providers have equitable opportunities to compete for and
participate in the City’s procurement of goods and services, staff proposes to retain the
services of BBC to conduct a procurement study, with the end goal of identifying
implementable changes that could be made to the City’s procurement policies and
procedures to further the City’s equity and inclusion efforts.
The proposed scope of work for the study, which includes project management support,
would focus on the following:
• Policy and Program Review to understand the City’s contracting policies,
operating practices, statutes, and rules, as well as the measures it uses to
encourage the participation of underrepresented businesses. The review will
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include an analysis of the City’s vendor requirements such as business license
and business insurance, paperwork and forms required to be completed by
service providers, the City’s online competitive bidding process, advertising of
bidding opportunities, vendor selection and evaluation criteria, vendor
communication and resources, and contract execution.
• Econometric analyses of the marketplace through collection and analysis of
data to assess conditions for businesses to determine what barriers or
discrimination exist within the local public and private sectors and whether the
City acts as a passive participant in that discrimination. The analyses would
inform whether there is evidence that barriers or discrimination in the local
marketplace may have affected the ability of local small and under-represented
businesses to form, grow, and successfully compete for project work, including
for City work.
• Availability analysis through data assessment and collection of City contract,
procurement, and vendor data. BBC would use a custom census approach to
estimate the availability of local small and underrepresented businesses for City
contracts and procurements. The availability analysis would survey hundreds, if
not thousands, of businesses that perform relevant types of work and have
locations in the geographic area to which the City awards most of its contracting
and procurement dollars to, which may extend beyond Santa Monica and into
Los Angeles County. Results from the availability analysis would provide the City
with an understanding of the availability of local small and underrepresented
businesses for its work, future networking and outreach efforts, and overall
aspirational goals for the City’s diversity efforts. BBC would also utilize and
integrate, into the City’s study, survey information from a recent similar project
with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority that gathered
information from thousands of businesses in the region, including businesses
directly relevant to projects the City awards and from businesses that have
locations in the City’s relevant geographic market area. It is the intent that this
study capture information beyond our City boundaries so we have an accurate
understanding of the marketplace directly relevant to how the City spends its
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procurement dollars, the vendors that could participate in City work, and any
barriers that might exist for relevant small and presumptively disadvantaged
businesses.
• Evaluate successful initiatives in the areas of equity and inclusion in
procurement by other agencies. BBC will evaluate procurement and contracting
initiatives and practices observed by neighboring cities and Los Angeles County
to determine potential alignment in this area.
• Analysis of the relevant product markets and geographic market to calculate
the percentages of total dollars the City spent in each industry to determine
which product markets are most relevant to the City’s contracting and
procurement activity, as well as identify the relevant geographic market area in
which the City spends most of its contract and procurement dollars.
• Development of actionable recommendations relying on quantitative and
qualitative evidence gathered through this study. The recommendations would
seek to refine the City’s contracting procedures and policies; refine measures
that the City currently uses to encourage the participation by all businesses in its
work; and develop new measures the City could consider to further encourage
the participation of local small and under-represented businesses. The
recommendations provided would be in accordance with federal and state
regulations to ensure the City is in compliance with the legal requirements
around focused efforts for small and under-represented businesses. Although
state law may be restrictive on preferential treatment based on identity, these
recommendations will explore other methods so the City is more accessible to a
broader range of service providers.
At this time, staff seeks approval to enter into a services agreement to move forward
with the procurement study, which would help staff understand how the city’s current
policies and procedures may impact and create unconscious barriers to specific groups
and to ensure that our current policies and procedures uplift and support all members of
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our diverse community through implementation of changes to current procurement
processes and procedures.
Vendor Selection
Bidder Recommendation
Best Qualified Firm BBC Research & Consulting
Evaluation Criteria
(include all that apply)
Proposed approach, references, training/credentials/experience,
competence/skill, capacity/ability to perform services promptly,
sufficiency of financial/other resources, character/reputation,
ability to provide future services as needed and price.
Municipal Code SMMC 2.24.190
RFPs Received
BBC Research &
Consulting
MGT of America Consulting,
LLC
Tribesy Consulting
RFP Data
Posted On Posted On Advertised In
(City Charter & SMMC)
Vendors
Downloaded
Date Publicly
Opened
3/29/2023 City's Online
Bidding Site Santa Monica Daily Press 39 05/18/2023
Justification to Award
An evaluation panel of representatives from Finance and City Manager’s office,
including an Equity and Inclusion Officer and the Equity and Inclusion Manager
reviewed and ranked all the proposals using the criteria set out in the RFP. Based on
these criteria, and criteria in SMMC 2.24.190, staff recommends BBC Research and
Consulting as the best qualified firm to conduct a Procurement Study based on their
proposed approach, references, cost and experience in preparing similar studies for
other public agencies including Los Angeles Metro, CA Department of Transportation,
and the City of San Diego. BBC Research & Consulting has been conducting disparity
studies since 1989 and completed over 140 disparity studies for various types of
government organizations including cities, counties, states, many of which are located
in California. With their extensive experience refining and developing policies and
programs that encourage the participation of small and under-represented businesses,
staff recommends BBC as the best qualified firm to conduct the City’s Procurement
Study. The combination of their experience in municipal disparity studies, research and
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data analysis and recent experience working with local agencies best meets the City’s
requirements for the procurement study work.
Environmental Review
The award agreement is exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the
CEQA Guidelines. The award agreement is covered by the common-sense exemption
which states that CEQA does not apply, “where it can be seen with certainty that there
is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the
environment.” The award agreement will explore barriers to equity and inclusion in the
City’s procurement and contracting practices. Therefore, it can be seen with certainty
that the agreement would not result in adverse physical impacts on the environment,
and as such, is exempt from CEQA.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve the use of available funding from the General Fund to
award a contract with BBC Research & Consulting for a procurement study to explore
barriers to equity and inclusion.
Contract/Agreement/Purchase Order Request
FY 2023-24 Budget
Request Amount Department/CIP Account # Total Contract
Amount
$175,000 01300009.552010 $175,000
Prepared By: Adriana Franco, Administrative Analyst
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Oaks Initiative Form
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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.
5.H.a
Packet Pg. 178 Attachment: Oaks Initiative Form (6194 : Award RFP #357 to BBC Research & Consulting)
CITY OF SANTA MONICA
OAKS INITIATIVE 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 benefits 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 # ___________________________
5.H.a
Packet Pg. 179 Attachment: Oaks Initiative Form (6194 : Award RFP #357 to BBC Research & Consulting)