Explanation
1. BACKGROUND
This ordinance authorizes the Columbus Partnership, as a sub-recipient of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation Vulcan grant for the Smart City Program, to enter into a contract with CivitasNow relative to the implementation of the Smart Columbus Ride and Drive Road Show Plan.
In 2016, the City of Columbus pursued and won the Vulcan grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation with the goal of laying a practical path to replacing carbon-based fuel consumption through critical system improvements that increase safety, reduce carbon emissions, and enhance mobility.
The grant agreement with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation allows the use of sub-recipients with City Council approval and approval by the Foundation. To that end the Department of Public Service, through Ordinance 1212-2017 approved by Council on 6/5/17, requested to make the Columbus Partnership a grant sub-recipient to lead initiatives aimed at encouraging electric vehicle adoption by individuals, public entities, and private employers and increasing charging infrastructure locally.
The intent of this contract is to provide the Columbus Partnership with continuing, contractual access to additional resources that are necessary to perform various professional services, as well as provide technical expertise to perform creative development, communications, event coordination and related tasks for the deployment of the Smart Columbus Ride and Drive Road Show Plan. The selected Provider shall be readily available to perform such tasks when requested by the Columbus Partnership. Services on request and detailed scopes for individual deployment projects will be developed as requested and work will be authorized as individual scopes are developed.
The project was advertised on the Columbus Partnership web site from June 29, 2017, to July 12, 2017. The Columbus Partnership received five (5) responses. All proposals were deemed responsive and were fully evaluated when the Evaluation Committee met on July 19, 2017. The responding firms were:
Company Name City/State Majority/MBE/FBE/ASN/PHC
CivitasNow Columbus, Ohio Unknown
IBM iX Columbus, Ohio Unknown
Event Marketing Strategies Columbus, Ohio MAJ
Jackson Dawson Dearborn, Michigan MAJ
PMM Agency Columbus, Ohio MBE
2. CONTRACT COMPLIANCE
CivitasNow currently does not have a contract compliance number with the City and will be required to become contract compliant prior to executing the aforementioned agreement.
3. BID WAIVER
Columbus Partnership is required to follow City Code in their procurement efforts. While the bid was publicly posted and open for any company to submit a bid, the Partnership did not understand this also meant working with Public Service to ensure all bid opportunities are posted in the City Bulletin as required by City Code section 329.28(c). Rebidding would require a two month delay in the start of this phase of the project, putting the deliverables required by the grant award behind and jeopardizing the continuation of the Vulcan grant funding. A waiver of City Code Section 329 is requested to allow the project to proceed without delay.
4. FISCAL IMPACT
There is no immediate fiscal impact to the City. ACPO001861 was established per Ordinance 1212-2017 to allow reimbursement of project costs to the Columbus Partnership within Fund 7768 Smart City Private Grant Fund. If Columbus Partnership should seek reimbursement for these costs, reimbursement would be done through the Auditor’s Certificate previously established.
4. EMERGENCY DESIGNATION
Emergency action is requested to provide for the timely execution of the contract so the deliverables required by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation grant award can be met, avoiding delays which could jeopardize future funding of the Vulcan project.
Title
To authorize the Columbus Partnership to enter into a contract with CivitasNow relative to the implementation of the Smart Columbus Ride and Drive Road Show Plan; to waive the competitive bidding requirements of Columbus City Code; and to declare an emergency. ($0.00)
Body
WHEREAS, in 2016 the City of Columbus pursued and won a grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation with the goal of laying a practical path to replacing carbon-based fuel consumption through critical system improvements that increase safety, reduce carbon emissions, and enhance mobility; and
WHEREAS, the grant agreement with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation allows the use of sub-recipients with City Council approval and approval by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation; and
WHEREAS, the Department of Public Service and Smart Columbus made the Columbus Partnership a sub-recipient of this grant to lead initiatives aimed at encouraging and supporting electric vehicle adoption by individuals, public entities, and private employers and increasing charging infrastructure locally per Ordinance 1212-2017; and
WHEREAS, the Columbus Partnership will be directly responsible for accomplishing the initiatives while operating under the terms and conditions of the grant agreement and for operating under the same procurement conditions as the Department of Public Service and Smart Columbus; and
WHEREAS, the bid for the contract for the Smart Columbus Ride and Drive Road Show Plan was publicly posted but was not posted on the City Bulletin as City Code requires, a bidding waiver is requested to prevent delays caused by rebidding the project to the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation grant deliverable schedule which could jeopardize future funding for the Vulcan project; and
WHEREAS, CivitasNow was selected by the evaluation committee to be awarded the Smart Columbus Ride and Drive Road Show Plan contract and the contract award was approved by the City’s Chief Innovation Officer; and
WHEREAS, an emergency exists in the usual daily operation of Smart Columbus in that it is immediately necessary to authorize the Columbus Partnership to execute a contract with CivitasNow so as to facilitate the provision of services necessary to achieve the deliverables schedule of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation Vulcan grant, thereby preserving the public health, peace, property, safety, and welfare; now therefore,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
SECTION 1. That the Columbus Partnership be and is hereby authorized to execute a contract with CivitasNow, 536 South Wall Street, #100, Columbus, Ohio 43215, relative to the implementation of the Smart Columbus Ride and Drive Road Show Plan.
SECTION 2. That this Council has determined it is in the best interest of the City that the requirements of Chapter 329 relating to formal competitive bidding be waived to enable the Columbus Partnership to enter into contract with CivitasNow so the deliverable schedule of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation Vulcan grant can be met.
SECTION 3. That for the reasons stated in the preamble hereto, which is hereby made a part hereof, 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 10 days after passage if the Mayor neither approves nor vetoes the same.