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Title:
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Consideration of a Resolution Approving a Three-Year Agreement with ClearGov Inc for Digital Budget Book and Capital Budgeting Software at a Cost Not-to-Exceed $77,751.80 (Budgeted) (Finance Director Bretthauer).
ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 25-0105
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TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Talyn Mirzakhanian, City Manager
FROM:
Libby Bretthauer, Finance Director
Emy-Rose Hanna, Budget & Financial Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Consideration of a Resolution Approving a Three-Year Agreement with ClearGov Inc for Digital Budget Book and Capital Budgeting Software at a Cost Not-to-Exceed $77,751.80 (Budgeted) (Finance Director Bretthauer).
ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 25-0105
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RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Resolution No. 25-0105 approving a three-year agreement with ClearGov Inc for digital budget book and capital budgeting software services.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Sufficient funds are available in the General Fund budget. The cost of the three-year agreement is based on an annual fee of $25,155.07, plus a fixed 3% annual increase thereafter.
BACKGROUND:
In 2022, the City contracted with ClearGov Inc to utilize their digital budget book and capital budget software to streamline the budget preparation process. Prior to this contract, staff would manually prepare and format the 400+ page budget book through a process of converting various file types, tables, narratives and images into PDF format, then combine the PDFs into the sections of the book. The Capital Improvement Plan was also assembled in a similar manner. This previous process was cumbersome, inefficient and increased the likelihood of errors, which in turn required correction.
In the past three years, the City has realized greater efficiencies and productivity by utilizing the ClearGov Inc software and services further described in the discussion below.
DISCUSSION:
Founded in 2015, ClearGov Inc is a leading provider of budget management software, focused on helping local governments and department staff streamline the annual budgeting process by automating workflow, increasing collaboration, modernizing procedures and centralizing data for the budget book. The ClearGov Inc team consists of experienced professionals who are familiar with local government budgeting needs, including GFOA and CSMFO Budget Award criteria and understand the requirements of building a budget book and Capital Improvement Plan. The scope of the agreement with ClearGov Inc is comprised of two main services:
1. ClearGov Digital Budget Book
o Offers an easy and fast way to build an award-winning budget book.
o Provides a seamless way to update budget totals based on numbers in our Tyler Munis financial software.
o Provides department budget leads the ability to update all narratives, objectives and accomplishments directly into the ClearGov system used to generate the budget book.
o Automatically generates a professionally formatted template that is pre-populated with the City's ?nancials, capital request data, charts, and more.
o Enables the budget team to work collaboratively to ?ll in details.
o The software platform was built based on GFOA Budget Award guidelines, optimized to ADA standards and designed to be mobile-friendly.
2. ClearGov Capital Budgeting
o Provides an easy way to create a new capital budget with just a few clicks, automatically carrying forward all historical request information.
o Automates work?ows to collect, organize and present capital requests in an intuitive dashboard with the ability to ?lter by department, funding source, request type and more.
o Offers capital request template forms and ability to create custom forms.
o Creates unlimited multi-year scenario plans to optimize capital utilization.
o Score and ranks capital requests based on custom criteria to prioritize requests.
o Offers other tools to streamline capital budget process, including:
o Historical CIP Data Integration
o Dashboard Customization
o Strategic Plan & Policy Alignment
o Robust Request Documentation and Audit Trail
o Scenario Export and Reporting Tools
o Integration with Budget Book
Additionally, ClearGov Inc offers periodic and as-needed training, mapping support, and data review throughout the contract period to further support the City's budget process.
Staff recommends the City Council renew a three-year professional services agreement with ClearGov Inc. This recommendation is based on the excellent service and efficient budgeting tools they have provided to the City over the past three years and the unique and specialized services offered.
If approved, the agreement will be in effect through September 20, 2028. Professional services are exempt from the City's bidding requirements.
PUBLIC OUTREACH:
After analysis, staff determined that public outreach was not required for this issue.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
The City has reviewed the proposed activity for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and has determined that the activity is not a "Project" as defined under Section 15378 of the State CEQA Guidelines; therefore, pursuant to Section 15060(c)(3) of the State CEQA Guidelines the activity is not subject to CEQA. Thus, no environmental review is necessary.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney has approved the agreement as to form.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Resolution No. 25-0105
2. Agreement - ClearGov