Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, December 07, 2021
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER AWARDING A CONTRACT TO AMERICAN SOCCER COMPANY INC., NEXGEN SALES, AND PROTIME SPORTS FOR ON-CALL PURCHASE OF YOUTH SPORTS UNIFORMS AS NEEDED (CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
The Community Services Department recently completed a Request for Proposal (RFP) 21-042 process to recommend vendors that can furnish youth sports uniforms for baseball, softball, flag football, soccer, basketball and track.
Staff is recommending the approval of three-year on-call contract service agreements (with two one-year City options to extend thereafter) pursuant to the RFP, with (1) American Soccer Company Inc. for an amount not to exceed $200,000 annually, (2) NexGen Sales for an amount not to exceed $150,000 annually and (3) ProTime Sports for an amount not to exceed $150,000 annually over the course of the three-year contract. Staff has recommended a higher not to exceed contract amount for American Soccer Company as the vendor has wider variety of uniform options for multiple sports. Staff anticipates that the park Volunteer Associations may select this vendor’s uniforms more frequently than the others.
If the recommendation is approved by City Council, the previously approved budget expenditure allocations will be distributed among the three vendors in Purchase Orders for future fiscal year budgets in Community Services. The contract amounts will allow flexibility, contingent upon which vendors are selected to purchase uniforms from during the sports season. Furthermore, the registration fees collected from the Youth Sports programs will fully reimburse the City within the fiscal year; with the increased revenue fully offsetting the anticipated expenditure for these tasks.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
1. WAIVE any irregularities in the proposals received, pursuant to CMC 2611(b)(4); and
2. AWARD and APPROVE a three-year on-call contract services agreement, with two (2) one-year extensions at the City’s discretion, to AMERICAN SOCCER COMPANY INC., dba Score Sports, for the provision of youth sports uniforms, at a not-to-exceed contract sum of $600,000.00 for the initial three-year contract term (Exhibit No. 7; the “ASC Contract”); and
3. AWARD and APPROVE a three-year on-call contract services agreement, with two (2) one-year extensions at the City’s discretion, to NEXGEN SALES for the provision of youth sports uniforms, at a not-to-exceed contract sum of $450,000.00 for the for the initial three-year contract term (Exhibit No. 8; the “NexGen Contract”); and
4. AWARD and APPROVE a three-year on-call contract services agreement, with two (2) one-year extensions at the City’s discretion, to PROTIME SPORTS, INC. for the provision of youth sports uniforms, at a not-to-exceed contract sum of $500,00.00 for the for the initial three-year contract term (Exhibit No. 9; the “ProTime Sports Contract”); and
5. AUTHORIZE the Mayor to execute the ASC Contract, the NexGen Contract, and the ProTime Sports contract, following approval as to form by the City Attorney.
Body
III. ALTERNATIVES
1. REJECT all bids/proposals and DIRECT staff to initiate a new RFP Process.
2. TAKE another action the City Council deems appropriate.
IV. BACKGROUND
The City of Carson’s Youth Sports program offers many opportunities for young people to participate in organized team sports. Current offerings include baseball, softball, basketball, flag football, and soccer, with different divisions within each sport. Games are scheduled during specific optimum “seasons,” and played at most of the City’s 12 parks. In addition, track and field is also offered once a year as a community engagement for youth in the local schools.
The Community Services Department has traditionally operated youth sports leagues with staff coordinating aspects of league management, player/team assignments, officiating, and game scheduling. Registration fees for each sport season have been capped at $25 per participant as the City Council has approved a substantial subsidy to ensure lower income youth residents can participate. This model has omitted the cost of uniforms, trophies, and player pictures from the registration package. Instead, park volunteer associations have been involved in facilitating these transactions outside of the City managed league registration process. Over time, City staff at the park sites have helped the volunteer associations with the collection of fees for uniforms, trophies, and pictures as well as sizing participants and placing orders with vendors for these functions. Families were required to submit two or more separate fees for league registration, uniforms, trophies, etc. The league fee was remitted to the City and the other fees to the respective volunteer associations; albeit collected often by City staff.
Although well intentioned, City staff collection of fees for services and items not officially part of an approved fee schedule or program component is not authorized by the City. Specifically, City Standard Management Procedure (SMP) 3.4 sets regulations on Cash Receipts to ensure that “all funds collected be properly receipted and recorded to the City’s general ledger”. Additionally, “City funds are not to be co-mingled with non-city funds. The collection or safekeeping of non-city funds by City employees is strictly prohibited”.
During the Fiscal Year 2021-2022 budget workshops, City Council reviewed the Community Services Department’s Budget Increase Proposal (BIP) for a supplemental expenditure allocation to accommodate in-house purchasing and management of Youth Sports League amenities for participants. The City Council declined the request at that time and encouraged staff to recruit additional volunteers to assist with the operations in the upcoming year.
Two volunteer associations approached Community Services staff with a proposal for City managed uniforms, trophies, and pictures procurement and operations as a part of the Youth Sports league programs. The proposal recommended that the City manage all youth sports league components under one general registration fee and collaborate with volunteer associations on the selection of uniforms, trophies, and picture vendors and specifications.
City staff met multiple times with the volunteer associations and the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Ad-hoc Committee on Youth Sports to discuss the proposal and received feedback. As an outcome of these discussion, the associations were asked to vote on two options as follows:
Option 1: City staff full operations
• City to assume all tasks and responsibilities associated with the management of youth sports programs, to include collection of all fees essential to core operations (league registration, uniforms, pictures, trophies)
• Volunteer Associations (VAs) to fundraise for enhancements to sports season experience for youth (amenities for banquets, scholarships for low-income players, etc.)
• City to host end of season banquets in park (use of facilities and existing city equipment)
• City to procure vendor for goods and services related to all materials and supplies in a formal bidding process consistent with municipal procurement policies
• City to consult with VAs in the selection of trophies, uniforms, and pictures for consensus on base packages with emphasis on quality of product and responsiveness of vendor
• City to assume responsibilities with the launch of the Winter sports season (Basketball/January) to allow time for bidding procurement and selections with VAs’ input
• City to utilize new registration platform (ActiveNet) to accept payments online or in-person at any city facility
Option 2: Hybrid Operations
• City to collect only league registration fee ($25)
• City staff to manage league operations only (officials, player/team assignments, etc.)
• Volunteer Associations to collect fees for uniforms, trophies, and pictures • City staff are not authorized to collect store or deposit fees for uniforms, trophies, and pictures
• Volunteer associations to place orders for uniforms, trophies, and pictures
• Volunteer associations to store, sort, and distribute uniforms, trophies, and pictures
• City to host end of season banquets in park (use of facilities and existing city equipment)
Voting was conducted via email yielding the following results from all 12 staffed park sites:
Vote |
Option 1 |
Option 2 |
Yes |
10 |
0 |
No |
1 |
11 |
Non-Responsive |
1 |
1 |
Total |
12 |
12 |
Mills Park was the only non-responsive vote as the park does not currently have an active volunteer association.
On August 26, 2021, the Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Arts Commission considered these proposals and unanimously recommended City Council approve the in-house management of Youth Sports uniforms, trophies, and pictures.
At the October 5, 2021, City Council approved Resolution No. 21-131 amending the Youth Sports operations budget and increased the expenditure allocation by an additional $200,000. The additional $200,000 along with the existing fiscal year allocations in Youth Sports budget is sufficient enough to cover the remaining youth sports uniform costs for basketball and baseball in Fiscal Year 2021-22.
In response to this direction, staff prepared RFP No. 21-042 Youth Sports Uniforms (Exhibit 2); accounting for feedback received from Recreation Center Supervisors, Volunteer Park Association members, and the City Attorney. The RFP requested written proposals from qualified vendors interested in being an on-call contractor for the purchase of youth sports uniforms for baseball, basketball, flag football, soccer, softball, and track, with the aim of establishing an on-call panel capable of providing the capacity and flexibility necessary to meet the City’s needs. The estimated number of youth sports participants that are expected to be serviced in a calendar year is 4,700. RFP 21-042 was posted on October 28, 2021 and three proposals were received, on November 10, 2021.
Proposals were evaluated pursuant to CMC 2610(i) and 2611(b), and evaluation criteria included bid pricing, quality of uniform samples, and capacity to deliver services (Exhibits 2-3). The American Soccer Company Inc. proposal included reasonable priced uniforms for all sports specified (Exhibit 4). NexGen Sales generally proposed higher prices than the other two proposers and did not propose for soccer or track, but was the only vendor that proposed sublimated uniforms (Exhibit 5). ProTime Sports also proposed reasonable priced uniforms for all specified sports (prices were generally comparable to ASC, but were higher for some items and lower for others); however ProTime Sports is located in Seattle, Washington, is new to the City, and has a turnaround time of 10 business days after an order is placed (Exhibit 6).
Should the City Council award and approve three-year contracts for uniform procurement with American Soccer Company Inc., NexGen Sales, and ProTime Sports, the previously approved budget amendment of $200,000 to include uniforms, photos, and trophies will cover these costs for this fiscal year. There are also sufficient funds in the Youth Sports expenditure account to cover any additional uniform costs this fiscal year. Expenditures for youth sports uniforms is anticipated not to exceed $236,100 per fiscal year as demonstrated in the chart below.
Sport |
Number of Players |
Max Cost per player |
Total Max Expenditure Amount |
Min Cost per player |
Total Min Expenditure Amount |
Baseball/Softball |
2,000 |
$66 |
$132,000 |
$50 |
$100,000 |
Soccer |
1,160 |
$30 |
$34,800 |
$30 |
$34,800 |
Football |
340 |
$45 |
$15,300 |
$30 |
$10,200 |
Basketball |
1,200 |
$45 |
$54,000 |
$30 |
$36,000 |
Totals |
4,700 |
|
$236,100 |
|
$181,000 |
The $236,100 estimated expenditures will be distributed among the three vendors in Purchase Orders for each fiscal year as deemed necessary by the Recreation Division. The recommended contract sums are designed to allow for flexibility in spending as between the on-call panelists, and the contracts do not commit the City to spend the total contract sum or any amount as to any given vendor or collectively. The RFP did not commit the City to award any amount in total or to any particular vendor, and staff has determined that the recommended award amounts stated above will best meet the City’s needs. As noted above, Youth Sports registration fees collected by City will fully reimburse the City for these expenditures within the fiscal year; with the increased revenue fully offsetting the anticipated expenditure for these tasks.
V. FISCAL IMPACT
No impact. Funds currently budgeted in Youth Sports account for this Fiscal Year 21/22.
VI. EXHIBITS
1. Bid Register (pg. 7)
2. RFP 21-042 Youth Sports Uniforms (pgs. 8-37)
3. Youth Sports Bids Comparison (pgs. 38-40)
4. American Soccer Company Bid Proposal RFP 21-042 (pgs. 41-58)
5. NexGen Bid Proposal RFP 21-042 (pg. 59)
6. ProTime Sports Bid Proposal RFP 21-042 (pgs. 60-92)
7. Contract for American Soccer Company Inc. (pgs. 93-130)
8. Contract for NextGen Sales (pgs. 131-164)
9. Contract for ProTime Sports (pgs. 165-201)
Prepared by: Gloria Marroquin, Recreation Program Manager, and Robert Lennox, Community Services Director