Request for Proposals
for
Comprehensive Evaluation of the Development Review Process
PROPOSALS DUE NO LATER THAN:
5:00 P.M. PST
FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2016
Submit Proposals to:
City of Vallejo
Community & Economic Development Department
ATTN: Alea Gage
555 Santa Clara Street, 2
ndFloor
Vallejo, CA 94590
[email protected]
I. Invitation & Objective
The City of Vallejo (“City”) hereby solicits proposals for professional services to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the City’s development review process (“Comprehensive Evaluation”) that is comprised of two main components:
1. Evaluation of the City’s development process to document inefficiencies and inconsistencies and identify their root causes.
2. Outlining specific, actionable recommendations to address and overcome the identified issues. Recognizing that a timely, efficient and straight-forward development review process has tremendous impact on Vallejo’s ability to attract investment and attract, retain and expand business activity, the City is seeking to better understand the factors contributing to recommendations for improving and optimizing its development process.
This Request for Proposals (RFP) describes the City’s impetus for dedicating resources to improvement of the development process, the general rules for preparing and submitting proposals and the City’s criteria for selecting among the proposals.
Proposers shall submit a written proposal, which presents the Proposer’s qualifications and outlines their approach to undertaking a wide-ranging evaluation of the City’s current process and identifies areas of improvements. The proposal will demonstrate: 1) knowledge of best practices in development services, 2) familiarity with organizational development in a customer service oriented, multi-disciplinary public sector setting, 3) latest technological and organizational tools and practices and 4) ability to tailor an approach to match an informed understanding of the City’s capacity and resources.
II. Inquiries
If any proposers have questions regarding the meaning of any part of this RFP, or finds discrepancies in or omission from this RFP, the proposer shall submit a written request via e-mail for an interpretation or clarification to the City contact:
Alea Gage, Economic Development Project Manager Community & Economic Development Department [email protected]
707-649-5454
City responses to questions will be included in an Addendum to this RFP, if necessary, which will be issued and posted to the City’s website.
III. Background/Problem Statement
Vallejo is a dynamic waterfront community located in southern Solano County within the San Francisco Bay Area. Its strategic location, midway between San Francisco and Sacramento, at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the San Francisco Bay, and at the entrance to the Napa Wine Country, has not only shaped Vallejo's history but provides it with great potential as an employment center and community that attracts and sustains diverse residents. Vallejo's location is further enhanced by its transportation infrastructure, offering freeway and ferry access to other regional centers of employment and recreational attractions. Furthermore, Vallejo’s relatively low cost of labor and real estate values make it an affordable place to do business.1 Yet, Vallejo has struggled to garner its share of region’s economic growth during good economic times and has been perceived as not business friendly in the
local business and real estate development community. Many cite an onerous, costly, time-consuming and inconsistent development review process as a major impediment to investing in Vallejo.
The City’s Economic Development Strategic Plan, completed in 2012, identified “operating City
government in a way that prioritizes economic development” as one of ten overarching goals. The Plan outlined two associated objectives in order to achieve this goal:
1. Ensure consistent, understandable and predictable regulatory framework. 2. Continuously improve the efficiency of City government services to businesses.2
The City is pursuing this Comprehensive Evaluation as part of a larger effort to identify and address the problems that discourage investment and limit business growth. Addressing inadequacies or
inefficiencies in the City’s development process may also allow staff to be more productive, provide a better customer service experience, and contribute to the City’s capacity to attract development and investment as well as fund city services.
Current Organizational Structure:
Development services are not currently concentrated under one department, but are generally directed by the Community & Economic Development Department (ED Department). The ED Department is comprised of three divisions: Planning, Building and Economic Development. Development engineers are currently situated in the Public Works Department. As part of the City’s concerted efforts to improve its development review process, the City intends to move Development Engineering to the ED Department in FY2016-17.
Related efforts the City has undertaken:
1. Central Permit Center:
In 2011, the City reorganized its various permitting functions into a “one-stop shop” Central Permit Center. This action was intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the permitting process in order to attract investment opportunities and develop a business-friendly culture. Along one counter, an applicant can access the following development or permitting services: Business Licenses, New Construction, Remodel, Zoning & General Plan Implementation, Processing of Permit and Map Applications, Signs, Events, Utility Permits, Trees & Landscape, and Special Use Permits. Altogether the following five departments/divisions are represented: Planning, Building, Finance, Public Works-Engineering, and Fire Prevention.
As part of the Central Permit Center’s purview, the City, led by the Building Division, has also made an effort to improve service by increasing the use of technology. The Building Division webpage offers a user-friendly interface that allows customers to purchase online basic permits, schedule inspections, view inspection schedule, fee estimator and track their permits. The web site also provides informational handouts and documents in English and Spanish. Enhancing these offerings, especially interactive and responsive tools, is viewed as an area of opportunity.
The Building Division and Public Works-Engineering Division also coordinate with other entities involved in the development review process, including the Vallejo Sanitation & Flood Control District, Public Works-Waste Management, Public Works-Water and the Solano County Health Department.
2. Software & Technological Tools:
CRW TRAKiT: The City uses “CRW TRAKiT” Land Management Software from the vendor Sungard for permitting, managing inspections, regulating land use, and tracking projects. It has been an important tool to facilitate interdepartmental coordination and review, but could be even better utilized and
integrated. For example, the Public Works Department uses TRAKiT for permitting, inspections and application tracking, although they apply a different permit numbering system than the Building Division. In addition, Code Enforcement, which is currently under the auspices of the Vallejo Police Department, uses TRAKiT to coordinate and track code enforcement complaints and inspections. While the City has subscribed to the software since 1999, use of CRW’s various functionalities is inconsistent across divisions. The Building Division coordinates with the vendor on behalf of the City. In 2015, the Building Division coordinated trainings for staff who use TRAKiT to develop their skills, understanding and utilization of the software.
3. Geographic Information System (GIS) Functionality & Capabilities:
The City lacks an accurate and up-to-date zoning map (either in electronic or hard copy formats) and a comprehensive, single repository of shape files. This prevents the City from tying parcel-level information to information important to reviewing a permit or entitlement application, such as zoning or General Plan designations, soil conditions, permit records, conditions of approval, utility easements or special districts. The City aims to implement a new GIS system before its Zoning Code Update is adopted in December 2016.
4. Digital file management and retention:
The Planning and Building Divisions have put an increased emphasis on scanning applications and plans upon submission. As a result, both Divisions are undertaking a process to redesign their electronic file storage files. The Planning Division is currently undergoing a redesign of the hard copy filing system by converting files from a project-number based format to an address-based format.
5. Development Process Enhancement:
The City held two half-day workshops, in May and October 2014 respectively, with all staff involved in the development review process to foster cross-departmental dialogue, teamwork and problem solving. The City also launched an internal Development Process Task Force in 2014. This team of eight employees created an action plan with tasks and activities to be performed in 2014 and 2015. While some progress was made, including efforts to increase utilization of CRW TRAKiT, equipment to improve digital file management and the workshops described above, the group has not remained active.
6. Propel Vallejo:
The City had not updated its major planning policy documents comprehensively in many decades, resulting in a lack of a well-articulated community vision for the physical development of Vallejo. The City is currently undertaking a significant long-range planning initiative known as Propel Vallejo. The major components of Propel Vallejo are: A comprehensive update of the City’s General Plan and
Zoning Code, Sonoma Boulevard Specific Plan and a programmatic Environmental Impact Report. The three-year project is expected to culminate at the end of 2016, providing a roadmap for investment that provides clear direction to the development community and results in quality, focused development that is feasible and is consistent with the community’s vision.
7. Fee Structure
The Finance Department will commence a comprehensive update of the City’s Master Fee Schedule in FY 16-17, as well as a review of the City’s business license fees.
Areas of Improvement:
Despite these efforts, funding and staffing issues (both understaffing and frequent changes in management positions) have been impediments to keeping up-to-date systems, while implementing and effectuating long-term sustained problem-solving practices and improvements. In particular, the ED Department requests that a proposal include, but not be limited to, addressing the following areas that need improvement:
Coordination between Development Services staff, with particular attention to the anticipated integration of Development Engineering into the ED Department in FY16-17;
Integrated or streamlining reviews for projects that are receiving several approvals and permits from different disciplines;
Standardization in typical conditions of approval;
The consistent application and calculation of fees;
Unification and standardization of property records and information, and integration into a comprehensive Geographic Information System (GIS);
Online tools for the public to access information on property records and zoning regulations, fees, required permits or approvals; and,
Overall customer service experience, including transparent communication with applicants, timely and responsive service and accurate and sufficient information, including establishment of benchmarks and reportable metrics to measure results over time.
IV. Anticipated Scope of Work
The City will retain a consultant or consultant team (selected consultant) to conduct a Comprehensive Evaluation of the City’s development review process in its entirety, including, but not limited to:
Analysis of all current development review procedures which result in a permit issued, entitlement granted or fee collected to include, at a minimum:
o Identification of procedures or practices that are working well; and,
o Identification of procedures or practices that are inefficient or otherwise problematic, including conflicts between procedures as written and as practiced
Record keeping
Organizational and staffing structure, including:
o How functions are centralized and decentralized and the implications therein;
o An analysis of whether key roles are adequately staffed; and,
o Staff performance.
The calculation and application of existing fees with a focus on accuracy and consistency. A review of the fee structure or adequacy of fees is beyond the scope of the Comprehensive Evaluation.
Bonding practices (i.e. Public Works Surety Bond Civil Code Section 9550-9566).
Comparison of the City of Vallejo’s development review process and other cities with high-functioning development review processes
After a comprehensive assessment of the challenges and barriers, the selected consultant shall also include a set of recommendations to address the challenges and barriers they have identified in order to meet the public’s expectations, maximize process efficiencies, promote economic and business development and maintain the high City standards for customer service. Recommendations should seek to accomplish the following, as appropriate:
Identify streamlining opportunities with a focus on removing redundancy and increasing transparency and access for staff and the public alike, such as:
o Introduction of new or enhanced technological tools or systems; and,
o Steps to make the process more user-friendly and efficient.
Highlight best practices for the development review process, including alternative to current procedures
Address staff levels, structures and training
Identify performance measures to track improvement and outcomes
Provide a plan for implementing recommendations, including options for phased implementation The Comprehensive Evaluation should accurately reflect the challenges and barriers impeding the efficiency and overall customer service experience of the Development Process grounded in an understanding of the local context and the City of Vallejo’s practices and methods of operating and/or organizational culture. The resources, including time, funding and staff, needed to implement each recommendation should be detailed.
V. Proposal Requirements
A. Design of the Comprehensive Evaluation in the Response the Anticipated Scope of Work A proposal should clearly describe the approach the selected consultant will take to complete the Anticipated Scope of Work. This includes outlining a methodology or methodologies and the steps involved in the Comprehensive Evaluation. The RFP is intentional in not prescribing an approach, so that proposers can respond in the manner they deem most appropriate. This portion of the proposal should not exceed 15 pages.
B. Other Requirements
i. Full-cost estimate of the budget needed to conduct a Comprehensive Evaluation of the City’s development process
ii. Schedule to conduct a Comprehensive Evaluation of the City’s development process, including a period of time at the outset to work with the City to finalize the scope of work iii. Description of the proposer’s qualifications with regard to the scope of work
iv. Resumes and related experience of all proposed personnel that will play a substantial role in the Comprehensive Evaluation, if selected
v. Links to similar assignments/projects completed by the proposer(s) (maximum of three) The total proposal package should not exceed 30 pages. Failure to comply with the requirements or to provide the requested information may result in rejection of a proposal.
VI. Submission of Proposals
DUE: Friday, May 20, 2016 @ 5:00 p.m. PST
Proposer shall prepare and submit an electronic copy in PDF format to: Alea Gage, Economic Development Project Manager Community & Economic Development Department [email protected]
Time is of the essence, and any proposal received after the announced time and date for submittal, whether by mail or otherwise will not be considered. However, nothing in this bid request precludes the City from requesting additional information at any time while the City is reviewing proposals.
VII. Qualifications
The successful proposal shall substantially demonstrate the ability to design and undertake an evaluation of the City’s Development Process that provides a concrete diagnosis and makes recommendations that are evidence-based and have a clear implementation strategy. The proposer must also demonstrate in their proposal the qualifications of their organization and that they have sufficient resources (personnel and otherwise) to successfully complete the Scope of Work.
The City will accept proposals from individuals, teams from a common firm or teams from more than one firm,and will evaluated proposals according to the process and criteria described below.
VIII. Review and Evaluation of Proposals
After proposals are received by the City, an ad-hoc selection team of City staff will screen proposals, reviewing them for responsiveness to the RFP in order to determine whether the proposer possesses the qualifications necessary for the satisfactory performance of the services required. The City may also investigate qualifications of all proposers to whom the award is contemplated, and the City may request clarifications of proposals directly from one or more proposers.
The ad-hoc selection team will use the following criteria to evaluate the submittals received in response to this RFP:
Criteria Descriptions Points
(out of 100) Sound
Proposal
A proposal that demonstrates a sound and comprehensive approach to the assessment and
developing evidence-based recommendations based on best practices.
40
Design/Fit A proposal that displays a creative approach that best meets the City of Vallejo’s unique needs and requirements.
15
Qualifications
A proposal that shows proficiency in the areas of development services, organizational development and technology.
Qualifications could include but are not limited to: education, certifications, capacity, and experience of the proposers and its agents, employees and sub-consultants/contractors with a goal of showing subject matter expertise across the technical and organizational aspects of the Scope of Work.
Specific examples of similar assignments or projects will be considered.
30
Cost
Overall budget provides good value for the proposed scope.
Hourly rates are competitive (if applicable).
The proposers with the highest ranking based on the criteria may be invited for interviews. The proposed project manager and personnel will be requested to represent the firm at the interviews. IX. Scoring Guidelines
Consideration of a prospective consultant’s proposal will be made only if the prospective consultant meets all the minimum requirements of this RFP. The City reserves the right to adjust, increase, limit, suspend or rescind the rating based on subsequently learned information. The City reserves the right to award a contract to the consultants that present the best qualifications and which will best accomplish the desired results for the City.
X. Cost of Preparation of Proposal
The City will not pay costs incurred by the proposer in the proposal preparation, printing or negotiation process. All such costs shall be borne by the proposer.
XI. Notification of Withdrawal of Proposal
Proposals may be modified or withdrawn at any time prior to the date and time specified for proposal submission by an authorized representative of the proposal and by formal written notice. Proposals submitted will become the property of the City of Vallejo after the proposal submission deadline.
XII. Public Record and Non-Disclosure Agreements
Each proposer is hereby informed that, upon submittal of its proposal to the City in accordance with this bid request, the proposal is the property of the City.
Unless otherwise compelled by a court order, the City will not disclose any proposal while the City conducts its deliberative process in accordance with the procedures identified in this bid request. However, after the City either awards an agreement to a successful proposer, or the City rejects all proposals, the City shall consider each proposal subject to the public disclosure requirements of the California Public Records Act (California Government Code Sections 6250, et seq.,) unless there is a legal exception to public disclosure.
XIII. Award of Agreement
The City reserves the right to negotiate the terms of the Agreement for this project with one or more proposers. Upon completion of the review/evaluation, the City shall notify those proposers who will be considered for further evaluation and negotiation. All proposers so notified shall negotiate in good faith in accordance with direction from the City. Any delay caused by proposer’s failure to respond to direction from the City may lead to rejection of the proposal.
If the City determines, after further evaluation and negotiation, to award the Agreement, a Written Service Agreement shall be sent to the successful proposer for the proposer’s signature. No proposal shall be binding upon the City until the Agreement is signed by duly authorized representatives of the selected proposer and the City.
XIV. Right of the City to Reject Proposals
The City of Vallejo reserves the right to reject any or all proposals based on its sole discretion, or to waive any minor defects or irregularities in any proposal or in the proposal process, or to solicit new proposals on the same project or on a modified project which may include portions of the original proposed project as in the best interest of the City.
XV. Written Agreement
The selected proposer will be required to enter into a written agreement with the City under which the proposer will undertake the obligations described in this bid request. The written agreement shall be in
the form of the City’s standard Consultant and Professional Services Agreement (Attachment A), and shall not be modified except as it pertains to the scope of work to the written agreement or compensation (Attachment A, Exhibit B).
XVI. Conflict of Interest
Proposers should disclose any past, ongoing or potential conflicts of interest which the proposer may have as a result of performing the work described in this bid request.
XVII. Insurance
The proposer shall obtain, at its own expense and from an admitted insurer authorized to operate in California, the insurance coverage detailed in the City’s standard Consultant and Professional Services Agreement (Attachment A, Exhibit C). A current copy of an insurance certificate, or a letter of intent to provide insurance from the issuing company (including a description of types of coverage and dollar amount limits) shall be submitted with the proposal.
The successful proposer shall submit a Certificate of Insurance (with endorsements) that names the City of Vallejo as additional insured to the City concurrently with the execution of the written agreement and prior to the commencement of any services.
XVIII. Business License
The successful proposer must either possess a current, valid Vallejo business license or must have submitted a Vallejo business license application and fee at the time of agreement award.
ATTACHMENTS
