TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager to execute all necessary documents to receive and expend grant funding from the Knight Foundation and the Long Beach Community Foundation in the amount of $50,000, for the express purpose of participation in the Knight Foundation Citymart Partnership, of which Long Beach is a Partner City;
Authorize City Manager to execute all documents necessary to enter into a contract with Citymart, a non-profit corporation of New York, NY, for the provision of capacity building and professional services to allow the City to complete the Knight Foundation Citymart Partnership, in an amount not to exceed $132,000 for a period of two years, with one two-year extension option; and
Increase appropriations in the General Grants Fund (SR 120) in the City Manager Department (CM) by $50,000. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
The City was recently selected to become a Knight Foundation Citymart Partner City. The Knight Foundation (Foundation) invests in civic innovators who help cities attract and keep talented people, expand economic opportunity and create a culture of engagement. One key initiative of the Foundation is the Engaged Communities Strategy that funds innovative approaches to problem-solving and the procurement of goods and services.
As a Partner City, Long Beach will collaborate with Citymart to pilot a new procurement process for City-purchased goods and services. The Citymart process is known as “problem-based procurement.” Instead of posting bid specifications developed internally by City staff, the Citymart process asks Partner Cities to craft open-ended “challenges” to the community and service providers to identify innovative ways to provide goods and services. Examples from other cities that have used the Citymart approach include a unified wireless control device for street lighting and other urban systems piloted in San Francisco, a way to address 10,000 sunken or raised manhole covers in Boston, and a way to cut exc...
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