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CC - CONSENT ITEM: Approval of an Amendment to the City’s Existing Service Agreement with ClearGov, Inc. to Provide Online Budgeting, Fiscal Transparency and Permitting Software as a Service (SaaS) Solution for a New Total Amount Not to Exceed $280,400 over Five Years.
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Meeting Date: October 14, 2024
Contact Person/Dept: Michael Towler/Finance Department
Phone Number: 310-253-5865
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [X] No []
Attachments: [] No [X]
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - City Council (10/09/2024)
Department Approval: Lisa Soghor, Chief Financial Officer (10/03/2024)
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RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council approve an amendment to the City’s existing service agreement with ClearGov, Inc. for an online subscription-based budgeting, fiscal transparency, and permitting Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. The recommended amendment would extend the current agreement for a new total amount not to exceed $280,400 (including a 10% contingency) over a total five-year term pursuant to CCMC Section 3.07.055 (e).
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
The Finance Department has been working to increase public participation and promote fiscal transparency throughout the budget process in accordance with the Department’s Adopted Work Plan Priorities. As part of this effort, in Fiscal Year 2023-2024, staff purchased a software program from ClearGov to launch a new online capital improvements project protocol and develop a new, more robust budget book for the City’s capital improvement program. Culver City Municipal Code Section 3.07.055(e) exempts purchases of software and software maintenance from competitive procurement requirements. However, to better understand software programs available and make an informed decision, staff conducted an informal request for proposal process to procure a new software system that would streamline the capital improvement project budgeting process and create an online portal for capital improvement projects. Staff received responses from three potential software service providers. Finance staff reviewed the proposals, received software demonstrations, conducted interviews, and ranked the proposals. Based on this review, staff selected ClearGov to provide the service based on their experience with providing similar solutions to comparable cities, ability to timely implement the program as part of the City’s Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Budget process, and reasonable cost structure in comparison to the other proposals. In January 2024, staff entered into an agreement Cleargov for one year for an amount not to exceed $47,000 under the City Manager’s Purchasing Authority.
ClearGov delivered a robust budgeting and long-range forecasting tool that streamlined the Fiscal Year 2024-2025 CIP Budget development process. The new platform facilitated enhanced inter-departmental collaboration as well as improved communication and public access to the final Adopted Fiscal Year 2024-2025 CIP Budget. The online module provided built-in templates to easily create customized capital request forms; automated workflows that collected, organized, presented, and reviewed requests in an intuitive dashboard; allowed for scoring and ranking capabilities that were aligned to Council adopted priorities; and communicated projects internally and externally to key stakeholders including a public facing transparency website for capital improvement projects.
At this time, staff is seeking to build upon the success of the CIP Budget process and expand the City’s use of the ClearGov software to include the development of the City’s annual operating budget book. For the last several years, the City has been using a software program that is not particularly user friendly and does not lend itself to easy customization and enhanced visual presentation. Based on staff’s review of ClearGov software offerings and the City’s experience with the CIP Budget process with ClearGov, staff believes that ClearGov will enable the City to generate a professionally formatted digital and physical budget book that better aligns with Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and California Society of Municipal Finance Officers (CSMFO) requirements for award winning budgets.
ClearGov has proven to be a leading provider of online budgeting and communications software for local governments. The ClearGov project management and support team have become familiar with the City’s budgeting process, have extensive experience serving public sector clients throughout the country that operate on the Tyler Munis Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System, and provide high quality technical support and reporting at a reasonable cost. As part of the budgeting software solution, ClearGov also includes an optional built-in online permitting solution, that if utilized, would enable staff to automate the interdepartmental workflow for the special event permitting process, improve operational efficiency, reduce the time it takes staff to issue the permit, and eliminate the outdated process that currently requires customers to come into the City to get in-person sign offs from multiple departments in order to obtain a permit. Customers will now be able to apply, pay, and receive their permits all online with the ClearGov solution. Staff recommends including this online permitting solution into the agreement.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
The initial cost of $33,000 for the ClearGov CIP module was covered by CIP Project PZ636 (Finance System Replacement) which can be found in the Capital Improvements section of the Adopted Budget book on page 479.
The additional amount for the operating budget book, the online permitting software and contingency for initial implementation of those new modules will total $27,000 for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. The Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 includes $56,000 for the CIP book, the operating budget book, and the online permitting software in Account No. 10124100.600200 (Information Technology - R&M Equipment) as part of the adopted enhancements for Information Technology found on page 41 of the budget book. As this enhancement was approved as ongoing, funding for future years will be included in the base budget in future fiscal years. The amended five-year agreement will be an amount not to exceed $280,400.
ATTACHMENTS
None.
MOTIONS
That the City Council:
1. Approve an amendment to the City’s service agreement with ClearGov in an amount not to exceed $280,400 over a five-year term,
2. Authorize the City Attorney to review/prepare the necessary documents; and,
3. Authorize the City Manager to execute such documents on behalf of the City.