Honorable Mayor and Members of the Hermosa Beach City Council Regular Meeting of March 12, 2019
Title
APPROVAL OF AGREEMENT WITH GRANICUS, INC. TO
CONTINUE PROVIDING MEETING AND AGENDA MANAGEMENT,
VIDEO STREAMING, AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION SERVICES;
AND TO PROVIDE A NEW CLOSED CAPTIONING SERVICE FOR
CITY MEETINGS FROM MARCH 12, 2019 - JUNE 30, 2022
(Assistant to the City Manager Nico De Anda-Scaia)
Body
Recommended Action:
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the City Council approve a three-year plus one quarter contract with Granicus, Inc. from March 12, 2019 to June 30, 2022 for:
1. meeting and agenda management, video streaming, and citizen participation services, at a total cost of $142,535.40; and
2. closed captioning for City meetings at a total cost of $110,334.25.
Body
Background:
The City of Hermosa Beach first entered into an agreement with Granicus in 2007 to provide meeting and agenda management, citizen participation services, and video streaming services for all televised City meetings.
In February 2018, Granicus announced its acquisition of Vision Internet, the City’s website development and hosting contractor since 2010. Staff believes the merger can be beneficial to the City because the combined companies can provide more effective service as a single integrated provider as staff works on updating the City website and community engagement platforms.
Discussion:
Granicus approached the City earlier this year to propose a three-year contract agreement for continued meeting and agenda management, citizen participation suite, and video streaming services. The City’s IT staff and staff from the City Manager’s Office have worked with Granicus to conduct a review of the services provided and services needed, evaluate the rates proposed, and adjusted the proposed contract period and rate change dates to align with the City’s fiscal year budget.
Services Provided
Below is a brief summary of the existing and proposed key services provided by Granicus through this contract:
• Government Transparency Suite-this feature consists of the live in-meeting functions including streaming, indexing for playback, and retention of associated documents for playback.
• Meeting Efficiency Suite-this feature is the software tool used by the City Clerk’s Office and Commission Liaisons to record roll call, motions, votes, and speakers during the meeting and helps to streamline meeting data capture and minutes production, reducing staff efforts and decreasing time to get minutes published.
• Legistar-this is the software used by staff to prepare templates for staff reports, agendas, and manage and automate the entire staff report review process for Council and Commission meetings.
• Citizen Participation Suite-this is the web platform, Speak Up Hermosa, which provides surveys, forums, and allows constituents to provide comments on agenda items.
• Closed Captioning (New Service)-this would be a new feature that would provide live closed captioning of all televised meetings with 98% accuracy of readability and would comply with ADA accessibility standards. This feature is also intended to assist with preparation of minutes, provide the public with another method for searching archived meeting records, and allow citizens to subscribe to receive notifications based on keywords. Closed captioning would be provided live during meetings and as a text file after meetings have ended. Closed captioning costs are based on an estimate of 250 meeting hours per year for City Council, Commission, and City-sponsored televised meetings. An example of City of Manhattan Beach’s February 19, 2019 meeting captions is provided as Attachment 1. If approved by City Council, closed captioning would begin with the March 19, 2019 Planning Commission meeting.
Rates Proposed
Staff has worked with Granicus to negotiate prorated rates for the remainder of the 2018-19 Fiscal Year for renewing and new services, rates for the first full contract year (07/1/19-06/30/20), and modest annual rate increases of 2.8% for future contract years. A summary of the Granicus proposal (Attachment 2) is shown below.
For a comparison of the renewing services, the City paid an average annual cost of $42,752.55 in Fiscal Years 2016-17 and 2017-18. Staff was successful in negotiating rates with Granicus from its initial proposal to slightly decrease the costs of the existing service for the first year and accept a modest increase of 2.8% for future contract years.
Staff has experienced some issues with the volume of spam comments on the Citizen Participation Suite. While Granicus is working on improving the platform, it has agreed to reduce the cost of that suite from approximately $6,300 annually in FY17-18 to a cost of $5,000 annually for the next three contract years and has added a term to the contract that would allow the City to terminate that subscription from its contract after June 30, 2020. Continuing with the citizen participation portion of the service for the next 15 months would continue to provide the community with access to the platform for surveys, ideas, and eComments, while Granicus works on improvements to the platform and allows staff to evaluate its needs for the platform and other tools available after launching a new website and continue to increase the City’s presence and communications on social media platforms.
Contract Length
City staff has worked with Granicus to prepare a prorated cost for the remainder of the 2018-19 Fiscal Year and then align any future contract terms and rates to begin and end in alignment with the City’s fiscal year. This shift of the term dates provides the City with consistent rates and services from year to year ensuring appropriate funds have been budgeted and that services will not change mid-year.
General Plan Consistency:
The Governance Element of PLAN Hermosa speaks to the desire to support community involvement and investment, and ensure decision-making and leadership is conducted in an ethical, transparent, and innovative manner that reflects community values. The services provided by Granicus are essential to the City’s efforts to provide the community with convenient options for viewing and participating in City Council, Commission, and other City televised meetings. Additionally, these services provided by Granicus are integral to the efficient work of staff in every department of the City as staff work on a weekly basis to prepare staff reports, manage commission meetings, prepare minutes and re-watch previous meetings using these tools. The Governance Element includes the following policies that are relevant to this action:
• 1.1 Open meetings. Maintain the community’s trust by holding meetings in which decisions are being made, that are open and available for all community members to attend, participate, or view remotely.
• 1.10 Record systems and technology. Maintain record systems and utilize technology that promotes public access.
• 3.3 Online materials. As feasible, continue to expand the City’s website with data and materials for residents and people doing business with the City, including City Council and Commission agenda packets, permit application forms, web-based geographic information systems (GIS), and use of new technologies as appropriate.
Fiscal Impact:
Funds for agenda management, video streaming, and citizen participation services for the remainder of FY 2018-19 are budgeted. Additional funds of $10,000 for closed captioning for the remainder of FY 2018-19 were requested as part of 2018-19 Midyear Budget appropriations. Funds for FY 2019-20 to 2021-22 would be budgeted each year.
Attachments:
1. Example of meeting captions from City of Manhattan Beach
2. Granicus proposal for March 12, 2019 - June 30, 2022
3. Professional Services Agreement between City and Granicus, Inc. for March 12, 2019 - June 30, 2022 (to be added as a supplemental)
Respectfully Submitted by: Ann Yang, Executive Assistant
Concur: Nico De Anda-Scaia, Assistant to the City Manager
Noted for Fiscal Impact: Viki Copeland, Finance Director
Legal Review: Mike Jenkins, City Attorney
Approved: Suja Lowenthal, City Manager