TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Bruce Moe, City Manager
FROM:
Terry Hackelman, Information Technology Director
Tatyana Roujenova-Peltekova, Senior Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Consideration of a Resolution Approving Amendment No. 1 to the Agreement with Pegasus for Broadcast Professional Services Increasing the Annual Amount to $90,000 or an Estimated Three-Year Contract Total of up to $240,000 (Information Technology Director Hackelman).
ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 23-0042
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council:
a) Adopt Resolution No. 23-0042 approving an Amendment to the Agreement with Pegasus for broadcast professional services increasing the annual amount to $90,000 or an estimated three-year contract total of up to $240,000; and
b) If the City exercises the option to extend the contract for up to two years as stipulated in the contract, the updated estimated total agreement amount will be up to $420,000.
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FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
There are sufficient funds in the Information Technology Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-2023 budget and will be included in future budgets.
BACKGROUND:
The City broadcasts live and re-broadcasts the City Council and Planning Commission meetings through government cable TV (Channel 8/Spectrum and Channel 35/Frontier) and webcast (the City’s website www.manhattanbeach.gov/MBtv). The City is the broadcast programming authority with the same content presented concurrently across all channels. The programming may also include other City events, activities, and updates such as public safety community meetings.
From 2007 to 2017, the Information Technology (IT) Department staff supported every aspect of the broadcast and re-broadcast of City meetings and special events. During that time, all the broadcasting activities were solely performed by the IT staff in addition to their daily technical responsibilities. To allow more proper use of the IT staff and to reduce the broadcast-related overtime charges, in January 2017, the City Council awarded Pegasus Studios a three-year contract with two-year term extension options. Since then, PEGasus Studios has been augmenting the IT staff in providing broadcast services. The vendor contract was renewed in December 2021 for three more years with the option to extend the term for up to two more years.
DISCUSSION:
COVID-19 changed the City’s broadcast landscape by introducing new rules of engagement in the space of public meeting participation and transparency. Since 2021, the City Council and Planning Commission meetings have been in a hybrid mode - Zoom and onsite broadcast. This model increases the complexity of the broadcast and requires significantly more effort to support involving expansion in the utilization of PEGasus services and IT staff. Starting in July 2022, the use of PEGasus support has been steadily expanding in other directions given the professionalism and synergy with the City team when performing their responsibilities.
In the last months, PEGasus audio-video services have extended further to include the Cultural Arts, Library, Parks and Recreation, and Parking and Public Improvements Commissions. The added meetings accounted for about 148 hours/$11,800 in vendor cost for the period from October 15, 2022, to February 28, 2023. Their services have also been used for Public Service Announcements (PSA), social media, and other City events such as Elections, the Annual Veterans Day Ceremony, Kick Off CommUNITY Event and Rainbow Pathway Unveiling Ceremony, State of the City, and more. As an extension of the City IT support, PEGasus can accommodate the increase in the number of serviced events since this is their core competency - providing quality broadcast/audio-visual professional services
As a result of the swell in the range of the contractor services utilization, the estimated current FY2022-2023 broadcast services cost is projected to be higher by 30-40% in comparison with the pre-COVID-19 broadcast services amount (FY2017-2018). Even though efforts have been made to optimize the PEGasus performance by modifying the vendor’s support hours and personnel coverage, it is anticipated that the use of their broadcast/audio-visual services will likely continue to grow. After careful consideration and analysis, an update of the annual maximum compensation from $60,000 to $90,000 is required to ensure all the City's current and future broadcast/recording/audio-video needs are met. The proposed amendment plans more appropriately for the expanded PEGasus involvement by increasing the yearly contract amount to $30,000. Since the City only pays for actual services provided, the costs will incur only if PEGasus professional services are used.
Thus, staff recommends that the City Council: a) adopt Resolution No. 23-0042 approving the Amendment to the Agreement with PEGasus for broadcast professional services increasing the annual amount to $90,000 or an estimated three-year contract total of up to $240,000; and b) If the City exercises the option to extend the contract for up to two years as stipulated in the contract, the updated estimated total five-year agreement amount will be up to $420,000.
PUBLIC OUTREACH:
After analysis, staff determined that public outreach was not required for this issue.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
The City Council’s consideration of an amendment to the existing agreement with Pegasus for broadcast services has been determined to be exempt from CEQA pursuant to State CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3), the common sense exemption (formerly the “general rule”) that CEQA applies only to projects which have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question can have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA, as is the case with this item.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney has approved the agreement as to form.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Resolution No. 23-0042
2. Amendment No. 1 - Pegasus
3. Agreement - Pegasus