title
CC - Approval of Revised Draft Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the General Plan Update (GPU).
body
Meeting Date: August 30, 2017
Contact Person/Dept: Ashley Hefner/CDD
Phone Number: (310) 253-5744
Fiscal Impact: Yes [] No [X] General Fund: Yes [] No [X]
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [] Attachments: [X]
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No [X] Date:
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - City Council (08/21/17)
Department Approval: Sol Blumenfeld, Community Development Director (08/28/17)
_____________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council approve the revised Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the General Plan Update (GPU) for issuance.
BACKGROUND
On July 10, 2017, City Council received a presentation on the potential ways to organize the GPU with respect to content, public outreach and documentation and the methods to solicit consulting services through a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and Request for Proposals (RFP) process. The Council directed the City Manager to return to the August 14, 2017 City Council meeting with a draft RFQ and an outline for the Request for Proposals (RFP) for consultant services. On August 14, City Council received a presentation from staff on the draft RFQ, outline RFP, and Summary Matrix of Best Practices and further directed that the RFQ and include the following direction:
• Combine parking and transportation to be covered by a single disciplinary specialist;
• Address how concurrent and recent planning work will be incorporated into the GPU process and document;
• Integrate the concept of health, equity, and age friendliness in all policies into the consultant request;
• Maintain Council involvement in the entire consultant selection process to ensure the City obtained the most qualified consultant for the multi-year project;
• Allow time to further identify and address opportunities for enhancing the quality of the RFQ document and process by working through a City Council subcommittee consisting of Councilmembers Small and Sahli-Wells; and
• Refine the RFQ and bring it back to Council at a special meeting to be held on August 30, 2017.
DISCUSSION
On August 21, 2017, City Council Subcommittee Member Small met with staff and discussed the following:
• General revision of the RFQ language to more directly and boldly communicate the opportunities the GPU presents to potential consultants
• Clearly enumerate that:
- Culver City is an extraordinary place with extraordinary opportunities and challenges;
- The GPU, and the city itself, warrant the highest possible level of aspiration;
- Culver City invites innovative responses to the ongoing processes of change that are the history and future of the city and metropolitan region;
- The GPU is worthy of an experienced consulting team of the highest caliber that brings global best practices and world-class insight to the project;
- Consultants should consider including independent experts, academic institutions, artists and designers, the nonprofit sector, community partners, and any others whose work adds value to the process.
• Utilize strategies to ensure wide distribution to the best possible firms through: Releases to media outlets; e.g., NPR, KCRW, KPCC, KOCE-TV, the Los Angeles Times, Next City and other potential media outlets and resources:
- LA Weekly, Curbed, urbanize.LA, CityLab
- Releases to industry websites and newsletters; e.g., Urban Land Institute, American Planning Association, Planetizen
- Announcements on social media outlets; e.g., Facebook and Twitter
- Announcements on the city’s notification system
- Direct outreach to firms and through professional networks
• Consider various models for assembling advisory committees that provide expert and community participation, emphasizing the formation and use of advisory committees early in the process, around the time the RFP is issued. Models vary by size, start date and meeting recurrence, purpose, and composition.
• Consider potential federal, state, and regional grant funding sources; noting that program-level planning sources are limited, but other opportunities may surface as the work plan and goals become more specific and funding cycles change and present opportunities later in the process and present opportunities later in the process.
• Utilize updated and recently released General Plan Guidelines (GPG), which provide a rich resource for the GPU, and for which the state’s Office of Planning and Research has offered further assistance to directly support Culver City’s GPU process.
• Prepare limited text revisions in the RFQ to more directly note the City’s quality of life attributes, to more specifically highlight particular professional disciplinary needs, and to clarify how certain aspects of the process are flexible to encourage respondent creativity.
Next Steps
As discussed during the August 14, 2017 meeting, staff indicated it would prepare a detailed work plan, including critical information on key dates, length of time required for tasks, and responsibilities (attached). The revised schedule indicates that the consultant selection cannot realistically occur until July 2018. The below summarizes next steps which are detailed in the attachment
• Issue RFQ
• Receive and evaluate statements of qualifications
• Create qualified consultants list
• RFP visioning session with City Council
• Approve and issue RFP
• Receive and evaluate proposals
• Create list of finalist teams
• Meet, interview, and evaluate finalist teams
• Select consultant(s) and award contract(s)
• Commence project
FISCAL ANALYSIS
There is no fiscal impact associated with these discussion items.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Revised RFQ
2. RFQ/RFP Schedule
MOTION
That the City Council:
1. Authorize issuance of the RFQ or direct the City Manager as deemed appropriate.