Agenda

Return

C.155

To:	Board of Supervisors
From:	LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Date:	June 11, 2019

Contra

Costa

County

Subject:

State Advocacy Services Contract

APPROVE	OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR	RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE

Action of Board On: 06/11/2019

APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED

OTHER

Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:

John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor
Diane Burgis, District III Supervisor
Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor

Contact:

L. DeLaney, 925-335-1097

I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: June 11, 2019
David Twa,

BY:	, Deputy

RECOMMENDATION(S):

APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the County Administrator, or designee, to execute a contract, approved as to form by County Counsel, with Nossaman LLP in an amount not to exceed $630,000 for state advocacy services for the period July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2022, as recommended by the Legislation Committee at their May 13, 2019 meeting.

The Legislation Committee directed that the procurement process be conducted to secure state legislative advocacy services for a three-year contract with two (2) single year options to renew to the successful responder.

FISCAL IMPACT:

This contract provides a monthly retainer of $17,500 for an annual cost of $210,000 for three fiscal years. The appropriations for this contract will be budgeted in the County Administrator's Office.

BACKGROUND:

At its August 13, 2018 meeting, the Legislation Committee directed CAO staff to conduct a procurement process for the State and Federal Advocacy Services contracts for the period FY 2019/20 through FY 21/22 with two single year options to renew to the successful responder. Pursuant to this direction, CAO staff prepared and distributed the Request for Qualifications (Attachment B), which was issued on March 27, 2019 for the State Legislative Advocacy Services. The RFQ was posted on BidSync and distributed to all advocates serving CSAC and UCC counties.

RFQ Results

A total of three responses were received in the County Administrator's Office by the deadline. Responses were received from the following firms:

1. Nielsen Merksamer Parrinello Gross & Leoni LLP
2. Nossaman LLP
3. Quintana, Watts & Hartmann

Following the requirements of the RFQ and standard procurement processes, a County Selection Committee (CSC) was convened to review and rate the responses.

The CSC was composed of the following individuals:

Supervisor Diane Burgis, District II, Chair of the Legislation Committee
Chief Assistant County Administrator, Timothy Ewell
Employment and Human Services Director Kathy Gallagher
Health Services Administrator Joshua Sullivan
Water Agency Manager Ryan Hernandez

The CSC convened on May 1, 2019 to score the received responses and select firms for interview. Two of the responding firms for the State Advocacy Services were invited to interview: Nielsen Merksamer and Nossaman LLP.

Upon conclusion of the interview process, the CSC recommended that the contract award be made to the following:

State Legislative Advocacy Services: Nossaman LLP

The CSC recognized the excellent service provided by the incumbent firm, Nielsen Merksamer, with primary service from Cathy Christian and Ben Palmer. However, the service model proposed by Nossaman, with two lead representatives, and the experience and expertise of the proposed staff, made Nossaman the consensus choice of the County Selection Committee.

The Legislation Committee considered this matter at its May 13, 2019 meeting and voted to support the recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. The RFQ response from Nossaman LLP is Attachment A. A contract for services is in development.