Explanation
BACKGROUND: This legislation authorizes the Director of the Department of Development to enter into a not-for-profit contract with the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District of Columbus, Inc. (SID) in an amount up to $15,000.00 to provide funding for the “Welcome Back Downtown” Marketing Campaign within the Special Improvement District boundaries and to allow for payment of expenses starting June 1, 2021.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many downtown businesses had many of their workers work remotely for the past 16 months. As a result of the development of vaccines and increasing numbers of vaccinations, downtown businesses are starting to return their workers to the office. The “Welcome Back Downtown” Marketing Campaign includes banners on downtown streetlights, digital advertising, window clings for downtown businesses, physical buttons to be worn by front-line workers, and short videos with downtown business owners and boosters to be shared online.
The Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District of Columbus, Inc. (SID), a non-profit organization, established since 2002, provides cleaning, safety, marketing, and beautification and advocacy services in the core area of downtown Columbus. The Capital Crossroad Special Improvement District, Inc. (SID) also provides business recruitment to attract and retain new retail businesses to downtown Columbus.
The services included in this non-for-profit service contract cannot be provided by existing city employees because these services are beyond the City’s current staffing capacity to provide.
Emergency action is requested to allow the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District to begin the “Welcome Back Downtown” Marketing Campaign to continue the services provided without interruption.
FISCAL IMPACT: The funding of $15,000.00 has been allocated from the Department of Development’s Economic Development 2021 General Fund Budget.
CONTRACT COMPLIANCE: The vendor’s contract complian...
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