To: Sonoma County Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): County Administrator’s Office
Staff Name and Phone Number: Yvonne Shu, 565-1739
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Consulting Agreement for Procurement Assessment
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Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Authorize the Chair to execute an Agreement for Procurement Assessment Services with Civic Initiatives LLC for a comprehensive review of the County’s procurement system and processes, in an amount not to exceed $250,000 and with a term ending on October 31, 2024.
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Executive Summary:
The County’s procurement system is an integral part of the County’s overall operations. As part of the Organizational Excellence pillar of the County of Sonoma’s 5-Year Strategic Plan, staff recommended that an outside consultant conduct a comprehensive review of the County’s procurement system, including review of the discretionary grant award processes. After a competitive procurement and evaluation process, Civic Initiatives LLC was selected to conduct the procurement assessment. Approval of this agenda item will authorize the Chair of the Board of Supervisors to execute an agreement for consulting services with Civic Initiatives LLC, in an amount not to exceed $250,000 and with a term ending on October 31, 2024.
Discussion:
Identified as a key deliverable under the County’s Five-Year Strategic Plan under the Organizational Excellence pillar <https://socostrategicplan.org/organizational-excellence/> (Goal 1, Objective 5), Goal 1, a comprehensive review of the County’s procurement system and policies will provide recommendations for improving current processes and internal/external customer satisfaction.
Request for Proposals
Staff issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a procurement assessment consultant in July 2022, based on the proposed elements approved by the Board on May 10, 2022. Proposers were asked to organize their response into three major phases: assessment, recommendations, and implementation, outlined as follows:
• Assessment of current procurement policies and procedures in the County, including best practices, recommendations, and comparative analysis on elements, such as data reporting, purchasing cards, small and local businesses, and green purchasing.
• Recommendations on feasibility, cost and staffing of potential policy, programmatic or organizational structure changes.
• Implementation of yet-to-be determined recommendations selected by the County, but with confirmed inclusion of a procurement handbook based on proposed and accepted recommendations.
The County sought proposers who had in-depth knowledge of government procurement and experience with sustainable and socially responsible procurement.
The County received proposals from the following entities:
• Calyptus Consulting Group - Cambridge, MA
• Civic Initiatives - Austin, TX
• Cogent Infotech - Pittsburgh, PA
• Crowe - Sacramento, CA
• Guidehouse - McLean, VA
• Keen Independent Research - Phoenix, AZ
• Macias Gini & O-Connell - Sacramento, CA
• Moss Adams - Santa Rosa, CA
• WSC Consulting - Chico, CA (two proposals received)
The proposals were reviewed and narrowed down to four finalists, by an evaluation committee comprised of staff from the County Administrator’s Office, Procurement, Office of Equity and the Sheriff’s Office. The four finalists were interviewed in late September by the same panel and references were checked by County Administrator Office staff.
Civic Initiatives
The County has selected Civic Initiatives LLC to be the consultant for this project. Civic Initiatives LLC specializes is staffed with public procurement practitioners and has worked with a variety of state and local governments, including the city of Stockton and the State of California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). They presented a thorough yet succinct approach to the procurement review, including a spend and reporting analysis.
Overview of workplan
Civic Initiatives proposed an assessment divided into four phases:
1. Current state discovery
2. Gap analysis and needs assessment
3. Transformation roadmap development
4. Implementation of proposed and accepted recommendations
The consultant will assess and examine the interaction between people, policy, process and technology to deploy funds to do productive work and support effective delivery of community services. The end goal is to provide a prioritized list of projects and an associated implementation schedule for Sonoma County to develop procurement and discretionary grant award programs that support the County’s strategic goal pillars of Climate Action & Resiliency and Racial Equity & Social Justice. The project list will include best practice recommendations for increasing opportunities for local suppliers, green purchasing, minority and women-owned contracting, and collaborative procurement with local cities and special districts. The County has preliminarily informed local cities about this effort and will solicit their input at the appropriate time. Additionally, data and process recommendations from the assessment will support other procurement-related policies, including the County’s living wage program.
Civic Initiatives will also produce a Spend and Reporting Analysis that will support an empirical assessment of the County’s procurement practices. This analysis includes an assessment of current spend patterns and the current state of procurement data integrity. This analysis will also support the data needs of understanding the impacts of the living wage ordinance,
A detailed outline of Civic Initiative’s scope of work can be found in Exhibit A of Attachment 1 of this item. The estimated timeline for the scope of work is 10 months from project commencement.
Strategic Plan:
This item directly supports the County’s Five-year Strategic Plan and is aligned with the following pillar, goal, and objective.
Pillar: Organizational Excellence
Goal: Goal 1: Strengthen operational effectiveness, fiscal reliability, and accountability
Objective: Objective 5: Align procurement and grant guidelines with strategic priorities and racial equity principles.
The procurement assessment will result in recommendations for improvements in the County’s procurement system and will help to support the strategic plan pillars of Climate Action & Resiliency and Racial Equity & Social Justice, by including best practice recommendations for increasing opportunities for local suppliers, green purchasing, minority and women-owned contracting, and collaborative procurement with local cities and other public entities.
Prior Board Actions:
5/10/22 Approved scope of work for the procurement assessment
Fiscal Summary
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Expenditures |
FY 22-23 Adopted |
FY23-24 Projected |
FY 24-25 Projected |
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Budgeted Expenses |
$250,000 |
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Additional Appropriation Requested |
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Total Expenditures |
$250,000 |
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Funding Sources |
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General Fund/WA GF |
$250,000 |
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State/Federal |
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Fees/Other |
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Use of Fund Balance |
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Contingencies |
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Total Sources |
$250,000 |
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Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
CAO budget staff has identified remaining, one-time balance from the constituent management system and homeless services review that can be redirected to the procurement assessment. This project is included in the non-departmental budget.
Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
N/A
Attachments:
1-Draft consulting agreement
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
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