TO: Mayor and Members of City Council
THRU: Telly C. Whitfield, Ph.D., Assistant City Manager
FROM: Christopher L. Cauley, MPA, Acting Economic and Community Development Director
DATE: April 15, 2021
RE:
Title
Award of Contract with Innovative Emergency Management, Inc. for Administration of the Emergency Rental Assistance Grant Program
end
COUNCIL DISTRICT(S):
Council District(s)
All
b
Relationship To Strategic Plan:
Goal4: Desirable Place to Live, Work and Recreate
Strategic Objective 4.6: Reduce poverty and homelessness
Executive Summary:
Council is asked to approve award of, and authorize the execution of, a contract with Innovative Emergency Management, Inc. to administer a $6,343,864 grant from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to administer an Emergency Rental Assistance Program benefiting low and moderate income households within the City of Fayetteville. The requested action is necessary due to the previous awarded contract administrator notifying staff that they would not be prepared to move forward in a timely manner due to unforeseen circumstances internally. The City Manager notified Council of this change during the April 6, 2021 Work Session.
Background:
On December 27, 2020 Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act and on January 6, 2021 the City was notified that it would receive a direct award of an unspecified amount, contingent upon applying for the award by January 12, 2021. The City applied for and received $6,383,863.50 by the deadline and Department of Treasury deposited the funds on January 20, 2021.
This is a significant amount of funding for the City and can be best conceptualized as three times our annual Housing and Urban Development allocations (Community Development Block Grant and HOME funds). Based on the City’s prior experience with rental programs, it was imperative that staff bring forward a solution built upon timely expenditure and high quality customer service. Both City and County leaders decided to move forward with an expedited procurement to find a third party administrator with the appropriate resources and expertise to execute this program. There are multiple vendors that work in the disaster recovery field and are capable of scaling up to staff a call center, provide a payment process and sound record keeping software, demonstrate ability to manage a screening process, and staff locally for intake of individuals who do not have access to technology. Five responsive and responsible bids were received from a Request for Proposal process.
City Council adopted Special Revenue Project Ordinance 2021-14 to appropriate the funds and originally awarded the contract to EXCEL Contractors, LLC on March 22, 2021 and the City began implementation with a goal to launch the program by the end of April. On April 5, 2021 the contractor notified the City that due to changing circumstances involving subcontractors, EXCEL would not be able to move forward with the contract. As a result of this information the City recommends awarding the contract to the next highest scoring bid, Innovative Emergency Management, Inc. of Morrisville, NC.
Issues/Analysis:
Innovative Emergency Management, Inc. has committed to a soft launch approximately eighteen days from contract execution. The contract, if awarded, will be executed on April 16, 2021 which enables the City to beginning offering the web portal and phone line on roughly the same timeline as before the cancellation. It is expected that funds would be expended by the September “soft deadline” that would enable the City to receive unexpended funds from other jurisdiction in a federal process yet to be determined. If the County elects to award a contract to the same vendor, County residents will be able to utilize the same infrastructure for a uniform experience.
Budget Impact:
There is no impact to the General Fund as the grant does not require cost sharing or a local match. Additionally, the grant terms allow for up to 10% of the total award to fund direct costs to administer the grant program. Innovative Emergency Management, Inc. has agreed to deliver the program with 8.31 percent going to administration. This means that the contract would be for a total of $6,383,863.50 with $530,188.09 of that being Administration and $5,853,675.41 being direct services.
Options:
1. Authorize the execution of the contract with Innovative Emergency Management, Inc. to administer the Emergency Rental Assistance Program.
2. Provide direction for changes to the contract and authorize staff to move forward with execution.
3. Do not approve the contract and direct staff to another direction.
Recommended Action:
Staff recommends that Council move to authorize the City Manager to execute a contract with Innovative Emergency Management, Inc. to administer the program.
Attachments:
SRO 2021 - 14 Emergency Rental Assistance Program
ERAP Proposal Scoring Tabulation
Emergency Rental Assistance Program