Explanation
BACKGROUND
The need exists to enter into a new contract with The Research Foundation of the City University of New York on behalf of the National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC) at John Jay College to work directly with the Mayor's Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) team and other Columbus officials and community leaders to advance the Group Violence Intervention (GVI) implementation and strengthen police legitimacy.
Through regular strategic advising, NNSC will support Columbus' efforts to increase the number and regularity of custom notifications to get the GVI message out and effectively decrease group violence.
NNSC staff will provide:
1. Strategic advising: NNSC will continue to provide strategic advising to guide key Columbus partners and stakeholders; including the city administration, law enforcement partners (e.g., police, probation and parole, and prosecutors), social service providers, and community leaders, in shifting the way they share information, work toward the common goal of public safety, deliver antiviolence messaging, follow through with services as promised, and execute formal or informal sanctions as needed to reduce violence. This strategic advising will be structured with the specific intention of developing accountability processes and mechanisms that empower the project manager and other local operational partners to ultimately own fidelity of the implementation.
2. Site visits to Columbus: NNSC will conduct one site visit to Columbus (in addition to the above-mentioned executive site visit) to meet local stakeholders and support a group audit refresh, including training local partners to conduct group audits going forward. This visit will include two NNSC staff members and will last for approximately three days.
3. Peer support and collaborative learning opportunities: The experience of the NNSC team indicates that practitioners are more likely to embrace innovation when they learn about it from their peers. As such, we will promote and conduct virtual and on-site working sessions between Columbus and other site teams to enhance understanding of GVI and strengthen implementation capacity. NNSC will support Columbus in participating in virtual peer exchanges with other NNSC sites.
4. Access to management and development tools: NNSC’s decades of experience have shown that jurisdictions implementing GVI invariably benefit from ongoing development opportunities for key stakeholders. Moreover, it is equally important that jurisdictions, and project managers in particular, are equipped with a core set of tools designed to support rigorous implementation and management of their own ongoing training needs with regard to the core strategy.
Emergency Designation: Emergency legislation is requested so that a contract can be entered into immediately and project activities can begin without delay. The previous contract expired June 4, 2025.
Bid Waiver: A bid waiver is requested due to unique qualifications of the vendor and their past experience working with the City of Columbus on this initiative.
Fiscal Impact: $105,000 is available within the Department of Public Safety's 2025 General Fund Budget for this purpose.
2024 Expenditures: $29,850
2023 Expenditures: $50,000
Title
To authorize the Director of the Department of Public Safety to enter into a contract with The Research Foundation of the City University of New York on behalf of the National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC) at John Jay College to assist the City of Columbus in its efforts to advance the Group Violence Intervention implementation, strengthen police legitimacy, and decrease incidences of group violence; To authorize the expenditure of $105,000.00 from the General Fund; to waive competitive bidding, and to declare an emergency. ($105,000.00)
Body
WHEREAS, the City has a need to reduce violence and improve public safety, minimize arrest and incarceration, strengthen communities, and improve relationships between law enforcement and the communities it serves; and,
WHEREAS, the City of Columbus has identified the National Network for Safe Communities, a project of John Jay College of Criminal Justice as a group that supports cities implementing proven strategic interventions to reduce violence; and,
WHEREAS, The National Network’s operational approach includes working with cities to identify serious violent crime problems; assembling partnerships of law enforcement, community leaders, and social service providers; conducting crime analyses to identify the conditions driving the majority of serious offending; and devising a response that uses enforcement strategically to reduce collateral consequences; and,
WHEREAS, a waiver of the competitive bidding provisions of the Columbus City Code is necessary, as the National Network for Safe Communities, a project of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, is uniquely well-suited to serve as consultants to Columbus' law enforcement and community partners in their implementation efforts; and,
WHEREAS, an emergency exists in the usual daily operation of the Department of Public Safety in that it is immediately necessary to authorize the Director to enter into contract with The Research Foundation of the City University of New York on behalf of the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College to support a comprehensive analysis of serious violence in the City of Columbus, so that project activities can begin without delay and the previous contract expired June 4, 2025, all for the immediate preservation of the public health, peace, property, welfare, and safety; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
SECTION 1. That the Director of the Department of Public Safety is hereby authorized to enter into contract with The Research Foundation of the City University of New York on behalf of the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College to support a comprehensive analysis of serious violence in the City of Columbus.
SECTION 2. That this Council finds it is in the best interests of the City to waive the competitive bidding provisions of Chapter 329 of the Columbus City Codes to enter into this contract, and hereby waives such provisions.
SECTION 3. That the expenditure of up to $105,000.00, or so much thereof as may be needed pursuant to the action authorized in SECTION 1, is hereby authorized in the General Fund 1000, in Object Class 03 - Contractual Services, per the accounting codes in the attachment to this ordinance.
SECTION 4. That the funds necessary to carry out the purpose of this ordinance are hereby deemed appropriated, and the City Auditor shall establish such accounting codes as necessary.
SECTION 5. That the monies appropriated in the foregoing sections shall be paid upon the order of the Director of the Department of Public Safety, and that no order shall be drawn or money paid except by voucher, the form of which shall be approved by the City Auditor.
SECTION 6. That the City Auditor is authorized to make any accounting changes to revise the funding source for all contracts or contract modifications associated with this ordinance.
SECTION 7. That for the reasons stated in the preamble hereto, which is hereby made a part thereof, this ordinance is hereby declared to be an emergency measure and shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval by the Mayor, or ten days after passage if the Mayor neither approves nor vetoes the same.