TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to report back to the City Council within 60 days regarding what procedural changes the City is developing to address the following issues:
• Develop a training program for project managers
(both employees and consultants) on managing projects,
preparing scope of work, and reviewing proposals.
• Develop a training program on contract administration best
practices.
• Establish policies and procedures for overseeing
standardized citywide contracts.
• Develop a policy to ensure project managers are certified
and certifications are current.
DISCUSSION
The City of Long Beach is the 7th largest City in the state of California, covering over 50 square miles. Long Beach provides a wide variety of public services including our own police and fire departments, parks, recreation, and marina department, libraries, public works, and many other public amenities. These public amenities are provided with the assistance of 6,000 skilled City employees. However in order to empower City staff to provide exceptional service levels and to assist with being good stewards of our limited resources it is important for City employees who directly work with Request for Proposals or City contracts to be thoroughly trained.
Recently City Auditor Laura Doud produced two audit reports; Job Order Contract (JOC) and Graffiti Protective Coating. The JOC audit found that the program does not provide training for project managers to ensure they maintain sufficient controls necessary for the program to operate, which in tum impacts the City paying a fair price for projects. Furthermore agencies surveyed during the JOl= audit recognize the importance of the project manager and developed specific training academies in order to provide the necessary skills for managing JOC projects. In the management response and action plan both audits provided deliverable actions items to address the lack of training provided to City em...
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