The City Council on Monday, Jan. 22, received and filed the quarterly report for contracts approved by the city manager or Seal Beach department heads for the period from October 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023.
This was a Consent Calendar item. Consent items are voted on collectively, without discussion, unless pulled for individual consideration.
However, District Three Councilwoman Lisa Landau pulled this item because she had questions about the communications support contract with Tripepi Smith. (For more information, see “City manager hires Tripepi Smith for ‘communications support’” at sunnews.org.)
District Three Councilwoman Lisa Landau said she wanted more information because she had received “quite a few” phone calls and emails from residents about the Tripepi Smith contract.
“I just want to give them a little more information about this,” Landau said.
“Did we get quotes from other social media companies?”
“We did not,” said City Manager Jill Ingram. “And they’re technically not a social media company. They do provide social media outreach and support for agencies that’s one of their responsibilities,” Ingram said.
She said Tripepi Smith was generally working with the city on general community outreach because of all the projects the city has going.
“I think it also bears repeating that City Hall in and of itself was the only part of our city that was not active on social media and primarily that’s a result of the fact that we just don’t have the capacity to be able to hire someone,” Ingram said.
Ingram said the Seal Beach Police Department has an officer who focuses on their public outreach, but the city in and of itself did not.
She reminded District Four Council Member/Mayor Schelly Sustarsic that community outreach is one of the objectives in the city’s strategic plan. “A lot of the criticisms that I’ve heard from each of you actually are complaints from residents that they don’t know about things,” Ingram said.
“You heard a comment tonight about more transparency and not knowing that the city was undertaking a water and sewer rate update and yet we’ve done several different efforts to try to get that message out for the past several months,” Ingram said.
She said the city was trying to step up their outreach.
She said Tripepi Smith was going far above and beyond social media. In addition to helping staff set policies for marketing and branding.
“This is a limited term contract for this fiscal year and we’ll make a determination during the budget process based on the work effort that they’ve set up for us if it’s something that we recommend to continue in the next budget,” Ingram said. According to the quarterly report, the contract expires in April. (See below.)
Background
“In an effort to further increase transparency, the City Manager provides a quarterly report to the City Council that identifies all contracts executed by the City Manager,” according to the staff report prepared by Interim Deputy City Clerk Brandon DeCriscio.
“The City Manager has the authority to approve and execute contracts up to the amount of $40,232,” DeCriscio wrote.
The Municipal Code allows the city manager to delegate spending authority to the heads of various city departments, according to DeCriscio’s report. “For departments other than the Director of Public Works and the Director of Finance/City Treasurer, this authority shall not exceed $15,000 per purchase or contract,” DeCriscio wrote.
“For the Director of Public Works, the limit is established per the City’s Charter Section 1010,” DeCriscio wrote. There is enough money in the 2023-2024 budget, according to DeCriscio’s report.
The contracts
The following is the list of the contracts for last quarter of last year:
• Agreement date: 10/02/2023—Department: Public Works—Vendor: Local Agency
Engineering Associates, Inc. (LAE, Inc.)—Amount: $25,000—Purpose Interagency
Support & Program Management Services—Expiration date: 06/30/2025
• Agreement date: 10/02/2023—Department: Public Works—Vendor: Nichols Consulting
Engineers, CHTD—Amount: $27,900.00 2024—Purpose: Pavement Management Report—Expiration date: 09/10/2024
• Agreement date: 10/02/2023—Department: Public Works—Vendor: W.G. Zimmerman Engineering, Inc.—Amount: $12,000—Purpose: Development Review Professional Services—Expiration date:
07/31/2026
• Agreement date: 10/02/2023—Department: Public Works—Vendor: JCL Traffic Services—Amount:
$23,515—Purpose: FY23/24 Special Events Traffic Management Services—Expiration date: 10/02/2024
Agreement Date:10/02/2023—Department: Community Development—Vendor: 4Leaf, Inc.—Amount: $24,000—Purpose Interim Code Enforcement Staffing—Expiration date: 04/02/2024
• Agreement date: 10/02/2023—Department: City Manager—Vendor: Tripepi Smith—Amount: $39,150—Purpose: Communications Support/Public Outreach—Expiration date: 04/02/2024.
• Agreement date: 10/26/2023—Department: City Manager—Vendor: Baker Tilly—Amount: $16,900—Purpose: Facilitate 2024 Strategic Planning Workshop—Expiration date: 02/28/2024. (Baker Tilly facilitated the 2023 Strategic Planning Workshop.)
• Agreement date: 11/01/2023—Department: Public Works—Vendor: Silsby Strategic Advisors, Inc.—Amount: $26,000.00 Fleet Modernization Analysis—Expiration date: 12/31/2024
• Agreement date: 11/01/2023—Department: Community Development—Vendor: Holistic Systems
Integration Solutions—Amount: $24,000—Purpose Configuration and Implementation of
Solar App—Expiration date: 12/31/2024
• Agreement date: 11/13/2023—Department: Public Works—Vendor: PlanetBids (PBY
System) Support Service Agreement—Amount: $7,477.32—Purpose: Vendor and Bid Management—Expiration date: 6/20/2026
Agreement date: 11/14/2023—Department: Finance—Vendor: Sherry Johnson—Amount: $25,500—Purpose: Enterprise Resource Planning System Implementation—Expiration date: Until Completion
• Agreement date: 11/17/2023—Department: Public Works—Vendor Tyler Technologies My Civic Suite—Amount: Free for First Year—Purpose Citizen Engagement Software—Expiration date: 11/17/2024
