S33-T28754.A2 – Approve an amending ordinance to Ordinance No. 2019-350 approved on May, 8, 2019 (as amended by Ordinance No. 2019-917 on November 20, 2019) to increase the maximum contract amount from $1,277,586.00 to $1,452,586.00 for the contract (4600015489) between the City of Houston and Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc. for the “2020” Census Engagement Initiative for the Planning and Development Department.
Specific Explanation:
The Director of the Planning and Development Department and the Chief Procurement Officer recommend that City Council approve an amending ordinance to increase the maximum contract amount from $1,277,586.00 to $1,452,586.00 for the contract between the City of Houston and Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc. for the "2020" Census Engagement Initiative for the Planning and Development Department.
The contract was awarded on May 8, 2019, by Ordinance No. 2019-350 as work to completion term for the total amount of $650,000.00. On November 20, 2019 by Ordinance No. 2019-917 Council approved a first amendment to increase the maximum contract amount from $650,000.00 to $1,277,586.00 and to revise the fee schedule and scope of work for the “2020” Census Engagement Initiative.
The initial contract Scope of work included: 1) message development for city-wide and hard-to-count populations; 2) communication support for maximum message penetration; 3) data analysis for up to the minute instructions on where to focus the face-to-face operations. In addition, we partnered at no cost, with Houston in Action, a non-profit funded by Houston Endowment, to provide the lion’s share of volunteers to implement this high-touch campaign. Because of Covid-19, the volunteer effort has not been possible and the ongoing engagement has not been effective. This additional money will purchase services not originally contracted for such as paid media, digital and otherwise, and databases acquisition for text messaging, phone banks and email communications. Additionally, it also provides support for continued data analytics through the entire census period, which was initially scheduled to end on August 30, and will now end on September 30 due to the COVID virus.
Funds will be used to increase the city-wide response rate, which on August 13 was 54.4%, nearly 10 percentage points behind the national average. Census-derived data are used to annually distribute approximately $900 billion to states, counties, cities, and households. For every Houstonian not counted, the community could lose as much as $1,578 for ten years. Additional emphasis to be placed on areas where the current response rate is significantly lower. For example, seventeen Super Neighborhoods, located across the city, currently have response rates below 50%.
The scope of work requires the contractor to provide all supervision, labor, materials, necessary to carry out the remaining multi-level census campaign that will reach Houstonians of all socio-economic levels. The City of Houston continues to benefit from a $425,000 cost savings through a coordinated effort with Harris County.
MWBE Participation:
The contract was awarded with a 24% M/WBE participation level. Currently, Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc. is achieving 26.43%.
Disaster Note:
This item is related to the impact of COVID-19 and it is the City's intent to use other federal funding sources for eligible expenditures, namely the Corona virus Relief Fund dollars.
__________________________________ ___________________________________
Jerry Adams, Chief Procurement Officer Department Approval Authority
Finance/Strategic Procurement Division
|
Estimated Spending Authority
|
|
Department Name
|
FY2021
|
Out-Years
|
Total
|
|
Planning Department
|
$175,000.00
|
$0.00
|
$175,000.00
|