Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, October 06, 2020
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER AMENDMENT NO. 2 TO THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH INTERWEST CONSULTING GROUP IN THE AMOUNT OF $50,000 TO CONDUCT PUBLIC OUTREACH, COORDINATE THE COMMUNITY DESIGN PROCESS AND PERFORM TURNKEY GRANT WRITING FOR FOISIA PARK AND CARRIAGE CREST PARK APPLICATIONS (CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
In 2018, California voters passed Proposition 68 (Parks and Water Bond Act of 2018), which established a Statewide Program to issue bonds for, among other types of projects, new and improved parks statewide. Though a portion of this money was distributed on a per capita basis to jurisdictions in California, the majority is being distributed through a competitive grant process.
The current grant cycle (called Round 4) is intended by the State to be the last round of opportunities for cities to access these bond proceeds. The State intends to award $395.3 Million dollars in funding. This is a very competitive process that requires significant effort and strict adherence to State criteria to present a viable project. Part of the criteria is that the proposed projects themselves go through an exhaustive public participation process to be considered "bottom up" projects, i.e. designed based on the desires of the park's stakeholders, not just the City. This requirement makes Prop 68 applications significantly different than others that the City has applied for in the past.
Staff believes that there are two parks in the City that may produce competitive projects and recommends City Council consider moving forward with applications on each park. The City does not have the in-house expertise or staff time to conduct the proper public outreach or the intense grant writing effort to be able to submit a competitive grant and believes that outside expertise is required.
Interwest Consulting Group (ICG) is already under contract with the City to provide management and advisory service...
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