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UPDATE ON YOUTH PILOT PROGRAM
recommended action
RECOMMENDATION
This is an informational item to provide an update regarding a youth pilot program.
There is no action to be taken.
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Summary
During the September 13, 2022 Council meeting, new business item 15.7, Discussion on Youth Pilot Program, invited the Hollywood Unlocked, Hollywood Cares Foundation (“Hollywood Cares”), to provide to Council an introductory presentation on their proposed youth pilot program, I Am Ready.
At the conclusion of the presentation, while no official motion was made, Council directed the City Manager to follow up with Hollywood Cares regarding the I Am Ready program to discuss potential for a partnership and alliance with the City, for staff to explore similar youth programs in the City, and to bring an update to Council within a target range of forty-five (45) days.
A summary of correspondence between the City and Hollywood Cares is as follows:
• September 13, 2022: The Hollywood Unlocked, Hollywood Cares team came to introduce a pilot concept for their I Am Ready Program. The initial presentation is included as Attachment A.
• On September 21 & 22, 2022 City staff began providing the Hollywood Cares team information on conducting business in the City of Stockton, information on business licenses, and other funding opportunities. More specifically, City staff included information on the Community Support NOFA and encouraged the Hollywood Cares team to prepare and submit an application. For more, please see Attachment B.
• During the week of September 26th, the City worked with the Hollywood Cares team to gather documents needed to submit an application for a business license. The City Manager’s Office walked the final application packet to Business License on October 5th and the license was issued that afternoon. See Attachments C, D & E for more information.
• On September 30th, City staff met with the Hollywood Cares team to provide another review of their continued efforts towards program development. At this time, the Hollywood Cares team also expressed interest in learning more about the City, it’s facilities, and existing programs.
• On October 6th, City staff met again with the Hollywood Cares team. The purpose of this meeting was to provide Hollywood Cares with information on City facilities, locations, programs, and services the City currently provides through our Libraries and Community Centers. At that time, the Hollywood Cares team was continuing to work on programming and implementation plans.
• On November 2nd, and at the request of Hollywood Cares, City staff met again with their team to discuss progress on their plan design (see attachment F). While progress had been made, staff identified gaps and continued to ask questions of how this program would interact with City programs, how the City could support the program, and how the Hollywood Cares team planned to implement their plan. Most importantly, the program did not have a budget or financial component available. City staff reminded the Hollywood Cares team that while the City can provide general input, it is not able to co-design a program with them, as that would be in conflict with the City’s competitive procurement practices.
• The Hollywood Cares team asked that the updated program be presented to Council for consideration for funding, and during the evening of October 6th, sent a revised presentation which included a program budget of $2 million. See attachment G.
• On November 3rd, the updated presentation and budget for I Am Ready, presented by Hollywood Cares, was shared with the City Council. Hollywood Cares was de facto requesting that the City provide it with a multi-million dollar sole source award for funding. See attachment H.
• On November 8th, the City shared with the Hollywood Cares team that their proposal was considered to be incomplete, encouraged them to review program guidelines for direction on formatting, and reminded them to apply for the next available opportunity for grant funding, in that the City does not give out sole source grant awards. Please see attachment J.
• During this period of internal review, the City discovered a comment on Mr. Lee’s account noting an unresolved balance from 2013 related to hosting a Youth Conference using City facilities and resources. See attachment I. The Hollywood Cares team was provided contact information to address the comment as part of their application process. Information is also included in attachment J.
• This update in communication was provided to Council on November 8th. See Attachment K.
• Between November 7 - 28th, City staff and the Hollywood Cares team worked together to review the debt noted on Mr. Lee’s file and determined it to be uncollectable due to the Statute of Limitations. The City acknowledged as such and confirmed the debt as a write off. See attachment L. The Hollywood Cares team also acknowledged confirmation of this conversation with the City, and all parties agreed that this is now “case closed.” See attachment M.
• On November 15th, the City’s Economic Development Department presented for Council approval the contract awards to fund the Community Support NOFA. An application from Hollywood Cares was never received. See attachment N.
• The evening of December 2nd, the Hollywood Cares team emailed another I Am Ready proposal, this time formatted as an application to receive City grant funds. The City Manager responded, reminding the Hollywood Cares team that the City cannot qualify a sole source award and recommended they apply for the next available funding opportunity. See attachment O.
• Between December 7 - 9th, Mr. Lee and his attorney began contacting City offices insisting that the City continues to demand payment for the old debt and this attorney would be following up with the City. See attachment P.
• On December 9th the City received an email and letter from Mr. Lee’s attorney regarding the previously written off balance. See attachment Q.
• Between December 9 - 14th, the City Attorney was able to confirm with Mr. Lee’s attorney that the debt was in fact previously written off and that the City is not demanding or requiring payment. If Mr. Lee wished to make a payment, it would be voluntary.
• On December 12th Mr. Lee’s Attorney confirmed that he in fact wished to revive and settle the previously written off debt. See attachment R.
• On December 14th, the City received a cashier’s check from Mr. Lee, reversed the debt, applied the payment, and sent confirmation of the transaction back to Mr. Lee’s attorney. See attachments P & R.
• On December 14th, the City’s Economic Development Department opened the application period for the Community Service Grants through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. The application period closed on January 25th, 2023. The City had encouraged Hollywood Cares to submit an application, however, after preliminary review of applications received, it appears as though Hollywood Cares did not apply.
DISCUSSION
Background
During the September 13, 2022 Council meeting, the Mayor’s Office invited Hollywood Unlocked, Hollywood Cares Foundation, to provide an introductory presentation on their proposed youth pilot program, I Am Ready. A copy of the initial presentation is included as Attachment A. Staff was able to connect with the Hollywood Cares team after the Council meeting begin dialogue regarding next steps.
On September 21, 2022, City staff began providing the Hollywood Cares team with general information on conducting business in the City including weblinks to the business license application page, a copy of the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) packet for the Community Support Grant, as well as direction to find additional information on other funding opportunities through the City’s Economic Development Department (Attachment B). The Community Support NOFA packet was shared both as a potential funding opportunity as well as helpful tool to demonstrate what an applicant would need to provide to the City to be considered for a request for funding. A quick follow-up phone call took place the following morning, on September 22nd, to discuss the information that was provided the day before and a follow-up meeting was scheduled for Friday, September 30th.
The virtual call on September 30th was spent reviewing and discussing updates from the Hollywood Cares team related to progress on their program concept, design, and development as well as status of their application for a business license. During this call, Hollywood Cares expressed an interest in learning more about the City, it’s facilities and current operations, and programs available to youth. The group agreed to plan a follow-up discussion for the following week.
On Monday, October 3rd, the follow-up meeting was confirmed for Thursday, October 6th.
On Tuesday, October 4th, the Hollywood Cares teams emailed to the City Manager’s Office their application to receive a business license (Attachment C). The initial application did not include any of the required attachments for the entity to demonstrate non-profit status. A request to provide the required documentation went back to the Hollywood Cares team while the City continued to provide concurrent review of the application. Once the additional documents were received, the City noted a discrepancy in registered addresses and officers. The Hollywood Cares team chose to submit a revised application for a business license during the evening of Tuesday, October 4th (Attachment D). All materials were reviewed the morning of Wednesday, October 5th, and a business license was issued that same day. The Hollywood Cares team was notified of this issuance (Attachment E).
The City’s Director of Community Services joined the October 6th meeting with the Hollywood Cares team to provide information on current programs being offered by the City. At the conclusion of this meeting, the Hollywood Cares team indicated that they would continue their internal meetings to work on their program and plans. There was no request to reconvene at this time, however City staff indicated that they would be available to answer additional questions as needed.
On October 26th, the Hollywood Cares team reached out to the City to schedule an update call for November 2nd, at which point an updated slide presentation was provided (Attachment F). The Hollywood Cares team was able to demonstrate progress with their program development, however several gaps were identified--there was not a budget or finance component included, there was not a clear plan on how or who would implement the program, and the team could not demonstrate local presence, or any plans to establish local presence-which the City indicated would need to be addressed as part of a formal request for funding. The City also advised the Hollywood Cares team of additional funding opportunities that would be coming available via Federal Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) through the Economic Development Department.
At the conclusion of the November 2nd meeting, the Hollywood Cares team requested to be placed on the November 15th Council agenda, allowing time to present their updated plan and make a request for funding to the City Council. City staff reiterated concerns that the proposal was incomplete but would provide the information to the City Council for direction as requested. Later that night, the Hollywood Cares team provided a single page budget document and request for $2,000,000 in funding (Attachment G). The updated plans and funding request were shared with Council on November 3rd (Attachment H).
On November 7th, the City communicated to Hollywood Cares that their proposal and request for funding was incomplete, per standard guidelines (Attachment J). Hollywood Cares was again provided with information on how to prepare an appropriate request for funding, along with information on upcoming opportunities for funding that would be available to them, should they choose to submit an application for an appropriate program. In addition, the City added multiple email contacts for the Hollywood Cares teams to its Economic Development email communications distribution list and reminded the Hollywood Cares team that applications for funding under CDBG would be opening soon (Attachment L, Nov 21st communication).
During the City’s review of Hollywood Cares’ November 2nd proposal, the City also discovered a flag in its financial system associated with Mr. Jason Lee of the Hollywood Cares organization, under a different non-profit name of I Am Ready Foundation. The note in Mr. Lee’s file indicated failure to pay fees due to the City for hosting a youth conference around 2013. The unpaid debt was eventually turned over to collections and was noted as unresolved (Attachment I). This information was also shared with the Hollywood Cares team as part of the November 7th communication (Attachment J), indicating that the issue would need to be addressed prior to consideration of funding. Between the 7th and 28th of November, City staff and the Hollywood Cares team worked to review records and determined the debt to be uncollectable due to the Statute of Limitations (Attachment L), the City confirmed the debt as written off, and the Hollywood team confirmed their acknowledgement as such on November 28th (Attachment M).
On December 2nd, the City received an email from the Hollywood Cares team which included a revised proposal, or request for funding, in a format more consistent with what would be acceptable as part of the City’s standard grants process. The City Manager acknowledged receipt of the reformatted proposal and reminded the Hollywood Cares team to apply for the next available funding opportunity (Attachment O).
On or around December 7th, 2022, Mr. Lee and his attorney began contacting City departments, stating that the City was illegally demanding payment on the past due balance (Attachment P & Q). Over the following days, the City Attorney’s Office was able to communicate with Mr. Lee’s attorney to confirm that the debt was previously written off and the City is not demanding payment. If Mr. Lee chose to submit payment towards the 2013 debt, it would be a voluntary action of Mr. Lee, and confirmed that the City could reverse the write off and apply payment. Mr. Lee’s attorney confirmed this to be Mr. Lee’s wish and indicated that he would be submitting payment towards the already written off debt (Attachment R).
On December 12th, the City received a cashier’s check from Mr. Lee in the amount of $3,424.39 to cover the principal debt owed, not including the additional $2,914.95 in accrued interest that had previously been applied through the collections process. This payment was applied to the previous debt incurred by Mr. Lee and evidence of this transaction was sent back to Mr. Lee’s attorney (Attachment R).
On December 14, 2022, the City’s Economic Development Department released guidelines and opened the application period for community service providers to apply for CDBG funds. The application period closed on January 25, 2023. Upon initial review of the applications, it appears that Hollywood Cares elected not to apply and participate in the City’s process to receive an award for funding.
Present Situation
City Charter, Section 2000, states that the City Council by ordinance shall provide for a competitive method of awarding contracts for public works, services, and the purchase of materials and supplies. Section 2001 continues clarifying that the ordinance shall permit the award of contracts without competitive bidding in cases where the City Council has approved findings which support and justify exceptions to the competitive bidding process. Those circumstances may include, but are not limited to, cases of emergency, negotiated contracts following a solicitation of competitive proposals (such as a Request for Proposals) instead of sealed bids, and sole source vendors.
Stockton Municipal Code (SMC), Title 3, Chapter 3.68, provides controls, set by Council ordinance, with which the City is required to adhere to when awarding contracts. SMC 3.68.040 states except as otherwise provided in this chapter (SMC 3.68), all contracts for supplies or services involving and expenditure of more than $100,000 shall be awarded by the City Council and shall be let to the lowest and best regular responsible bidder.
Section 3.68.070 provides exceptions to the competitive bidding requirements for contracts over $100,000 in cases where the City Council has approved findings which support and justify exceptions to the competitive bidding process. Such circumstances may include, but are not limited to, cases of emergency, public works construction contracts for design-build projects, negotiated contracts following a solicitation of competitive proposals, sole source vendors, cooperative purchasing agreements, and when no valid bids are received after an advertising for bids.
When considering a request for funding, such as the one presented by the Hollywood Cares team, the City, as stewards of public funds, is limited to the following pathways:
Opportunities for Grant Funding:
When issuing contracts for grant awards, the City relies on the exception to competitive bids related to negotiated contracts following a solicitation of competitive proposals. With grant programs, the City generally develops guidelines for the specific grant program, which are compliant with the requirements of the grant funding source, and outlines services to be provided to the community and qualifications required of the service provider. These guidelines are posted for public response so that interested services providers can develop a responsive proposal and apply for funding during an establish period of time. Once the application period closes, proposals are collected, reviewed and ranked by panel, sometimes including Council appointees (as the Community Development Committee) and members of the public. Once all applications are reviewed for completeness and responsiveness, a final recommendation to fund qualified applications is prepared for Council review and approval.
This process has been accepted as an industry best practice to meet the requirements of soliciting competitive proposals in terms of grant awards issued by the City. This process is also, often, a requirement of the grant funding source to ensure appropriate competition among applicants.
Grant awards are the most flexible mechanism for funding a proposal such as Hollywood’s I Am Ready pilot program. The City has provided the Hollywood Cares team with two available grant opportunities to date, both of which have not been responded to.
City-Issued Request for Proposals:
Outside of a grant process, the City has the ability to identify a need for services to be provided to the community, identify funding to implement such a project, develop a scope of work that service providers would be able to respond to, and issue a Request for Proposals (RFP). Just as with the grants process outlined above, service providers have the ability to prepare a responsive proposal and apply to receive a contract award. All proposals received are reviewed for completeness, responsibility, and responsiveness, which includes qualifying the vendor as a competent member in their field of work, and may include a local preference component.
To meet the threshold of completeness, a proposal must conform to the solicitation in all material respects. To meet the threshold for responsiveness, consideration must be given to the overall proposal evaluating the quality, price, and the various elements of the required services. A responsible proposer is one who has the capacity, resources, competency, and qualifications to fully perform the contract requirements.
The City does not have the designated funding or ability to proficiently develop and lead a program of this nature. It instead leans on developing and maintaining partnerships with our Community Based Organizations (CBOs), who are leaders in their fields of work, providing support to their initiatives through our grant programs and other opportunities.
Budget to fund a program such as this from the City’s general fund, or any other fund, does not exist. If City funds were to be made available and the City were to develop and issue an RFP, it is likely that multiple CBOs would respond, and multiple proposals would be determined to be responsible and responsive.
Sole Source Award:
A Sole Source Award occurs when an item or service that is one of a kind, has no equivalent, and is only available from one source. Qualification as a sole source requires research documenting why the acquisition is unique to the specific supplier, what evaluation of other similar items was conducted to substantiate the inability for other vendors/suppliers to compete, how the price was determined to be fair and reasonable and document any cost savings or costs avoided by acquiring the goods or services. City staff are responsible for documenting this evaluation process on all Sole Source purchases and are also required to document findings to support Sole Source contract awards when presenting contracts for Council approval. Because the Hollywood Cares team does not have documented history in this field, as the I Am Ready initiative is a proposed pilot program, findings to support a Sole Source Award cannot be made.
In summary, City staff cannot justify findings to qualify Hollywood Cares’ I Am Ready Youth Pilot Program, as a valid Sole Source provider at this time. The City also is not readily able to develop and issue an RFP for Hollywood Cares to respond to. Also, there is no guarantee that if an RFP were issued, Hollywood Cares would be identified as the most qualified responder.
To help meet the City Council goals of prioritizing youth, the City has focused heavily on awarding grant funds to youth centered programs, such as the Community Support NOFA (Attachment N), and will continue to make opportunities available as funding becomes available.
To date, Hollywood Unlocked, Hollywood Cares has not submitted an application to request funds for their I Am Ready youth pilot program under any grant programs offered by the City.
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
This is an informational item only. As such, there is no financial impact to the City directly related to this item as presented today.
Attachment A - Sept 13 2022 Council Presentation
Attachment B - Sept 22 2022 Email - Meeting Follow-Up
Attachment C - Oct 4 2022 Email - Business License Application
Attachment D - Oct 4 2022 Email - Revised Business License Application
Attachment E - Oct 5 2022 Email - Issuance of Business License
Attachment F - Nov 2 2022 Email - I Am Ready Updated Presentation
Attachment G - Nov 2 2022 Email - I Am Ready Updated Presentation w Budget
Attachment H - Nov 3 2022 Email - Council Communication
Attachment I - Nov 2022 - City Inquiry into I Am Ready
Attachment J - Nov 8 2022 Email - City Communication to Hollywood Cares
Attachment K - Nov 8 2022 Email - Council Communication
Attachment L - Nov 28 2022 Email - City Confirmation of Write Off
Attachment M - Nov 28 2022 Email - I Am Ready acknowledgment of Write Off
Attachment N - Nov 15 2022 - Community Support Funding Approval 2022-11-15-1205
Attachment O - Dec 2 2022 Email - I Am Ready Reformatted Proposal with City Manager Response
Attachment P - Dec 7 2022 Email - J. Lee to City regarding Debt
Attachment Q - Dec 9 2022 Email - Letter from I Am Ready Attorney
Attachment R - Dec 14 2022 Email - Attorney Correspondence and City Confirmation of I Am Ready Payment