City Manager Authorized to Amend AIDS Housing Contract As Council Approves Monday’s Consent Calendar Items

The City Council on Monday authorized City Manager Miguel Márquez to amend a contract with the City of Los Angeles to add $298,830.50 to support the continued provision of Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)-funded rental assistance.  

On September 20, 2021, the City Council authorized a contract with the City of Los Angeles to sustain the City’s HOPWA program. Amendment of this contract will provide an additional $298,830.50 for a not-to-exceed total of $878,330.50 of HOPWA , tenant-based rental assistance (TBRA) funding for approximately nineteen new and ongoing very low-income households living with HIV/AIDS.

The contract term would be extended through June 30, 2024.

The HOPWA program strategy is to allow states and metropolitan areas that have a high incidence of AIDS cases to design long-term comprehensive strategies to meet the housing needs of persons with AIDS. HUD awards HOPWA funds to one government entity in each metropolitan area.

The HOPWA program provides twelve months of rental assistance via a housing voucher to very low-income persons, both individuals and in families, diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Applicants are referred by the Foothill AIDS Project. After the initial twelve months of assistance, program participants typically transition to the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) for ongoing rental assistance. The Department of Housing has administered the HOPWA tenant-based rental assistance program since 1995. 

This item is one of several on Monday’s consent calendar.

A consent calendar is a tool used by government bodies to streamline meeting procedures by grouping routine, non-controversial items into a single agenda item that can be approved in one vote. Items on the consent calendar are generally non-controversial and do not require much, if any, discussion.

Here are the other items that were approved on Monday’s consent calendar:

• A contract amendment with Bitfocus, Inc. to increase the total contract value by $400,940.35, through November 30, 2028, for a not-to-exceed amount of $912,387.35, for the provision of the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) software services. The City of Pasadena, as the administrative entity for the Pasadena Continuum of Care, is a member of the Los Angeles Homeless ‘Management Information System (HMIS) Collaborative. On May 16, 2017, Contract No. 30848 with Bitfocus, Inc. was approved in the amount of $67,660. The contract was subsequently amended annually and currently has a not-to exceed amount of $511,477.00 and is set to expire on November 30. Staff recommends amending the contract to extend the term five years with an additional $400,940.35 of funding ($80,188.07 for each year) for a total not-to-exceed amount of $912,387.35. The contract is funded by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) CoC HMIS grant funds, which are awarded annually. The City will retain the ability to cancel the contract at any time should the grant funds become unavailable.

•  An amendment to contract 30455 with Cellco Partnership (dba Verizon Wireless) to increase the contract amount by $3,230,000 thereby increasing the total not-to-exceed amount from $2,620,000 to $5,850,000 and to extend the term of the contract through August 11, 2029 for City departments that rely on wireless services to meet the operational needs will be heard at a future meeting. 

• An amendment to the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY 2024) Adopted Operating Budget as detailed in the following report; and authorize the City Manager to enter into an agreement with the State of California Office of Traffic Safety for acceptance of the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) and the Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant funds. Throughout the fiscal year, budget amendments are necessary to account for unanticipated changes to the adopted budget. These revenue and appropriation amendments are presented to the City Council for consideration. This agenda report includes proposed amendments to the FY 2024 Operating Budget as adopted by the City Council on June 12.

• A purchase order contract with Alpha Data Technologies to furnish and deliver cohesity C2500 backup appliance hardware end of life (EOL) refresh and C6045 renewal for the Water and Power Department. Pasadena Water and Power (“PWP”) operates and maintains two Data Centers supporting over 250 virtual and physical servers that sustain mission-critical files, printers, and key applications such as the Outage Management System, Geographic Information System, Energy Trading and Risk Management System, and building surveillance and access control. The Cohesity C2500 backup system that is used to backup and protect over 250 servers has reached the hardware End of Life” (“EOL”). To ensure continuity in operating functionality and data security and to. avoid downtime-related application failure, it is necessary to complete·a hardware lifecycle refresh, which includes onsite removal, installation, and testing of the equipment and software. The bid was for a product and service bundle that includes a product warranty and 36 months of Cohesity premium support and maintenance ·service. 

• The City Manager was authorized to increase a purchase order with End Homelessness California dba The Shower of Hope with State of California Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Round 3 (“HHAP-3”) funding in the amount of $15,184 for a revised total not-to-exceed amount of $31,804 and to extend the term through December 30. Authorize the City Manager to approve an additional increase to Purchase Order 1240955 such that, subject to available funding, the total purchase order may be increased by $15,184 for a total not-to-exceed amount of $46,988 and extend the term through June 30  Shortly after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, the Department procured a mobile shower operator, End Homelessness California dba The Shower of Hope to ensure access to low-barrier basic hygiene services. The showers have operated every Monday morning on the property of All Saints Church with federal Emergency Solutions Grant CARES (ESG-CV) funding since April 2022. These federal grant funds recently expired on September 30, 2023. As such, the Department recommends authorizing the addition of $15,184 of State of California Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Round 3 (“HHAP-3”) funds to Purchase Order No. 1240955 for a revised total not-to-exceed amount of $31,804 and extending the term through December 30 to maintain shower services once a week at All Saints Church. While the new not-to-exceed total is less than $75,000, the City has funded Shower of Hope since April 2022 across three separate purchase orders totaling $125,512. Subject to the availability of additional HHAP-3 funds, staff recommends a second increase of $15,184 of HHAP funds to Purchase Order No. 1240955 for a total not-to-exceed amount of $46,988 and extending the term through June 30. The provision of showers is a critical ongoing preventative measure to reduce the transmission of infectious diseases, including those beyond COVID-19, and is necessary to maintain the health and hygiene of this particularly vulnerable population. This purchase order was granted exemption from competitive bidding for services available from only one vendor as well as exemption from competitive selection for contracts in which the City’s best interests are served. The Shower of Hope is the only vendor in the Southern California region that offers full-service mobile shower services, which includes the round-trip cost of transporting the mobile shower trailers, management and coordination of staff and volunteers, provision of towels and hygiene supplies, and operating the showers for 4 to 5-hour time slots, which is highly cost effective. It is in the City’s best interests to ensure continuity of services with this vendor who has built a relationship with the church where the services are provided and who has built a rapport with Pasadena’s unhoused residents over the past three years. 

• Acceptance of a bid dated September 14, 2023 submitted by ABM Industries dba ABM Electrical & Lighting Solutions, Inc. for electrical infrastructure upgrades for field lighting at Brookside Park Fields 2 & 3 and authorize the City Manager to enter into a contract for an amount not-to-exceed $296,280 which includes the base contract amount of $246,900 and a contingency of $49,380 to provide for any necessary change orders. Located at 360 North Arroyo Boulevard, Brookside Park encompasses 85.5 acres within the Central Arroyo north of the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center. The park’s features include three lighted athletic fields adjacent to Lot I. Fields 2 and 3 are the southernmost fields and are primarily used for recreational softball. As part of the Citywide Park Asset Assessment completed in 2019, condition and photometric studies of the lighted ballfields at Brookside Park were performed utilizing Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) guidelines. The assessment concluded the average foot-candle (illumination per square foot) measurements did not meet the IESNA recommended minimum standards for Fields 2 and 3. On June 12, 2023, City Council awarded a purchase order contract to Musco Sports Lighting, LLC for the removal of the existing light poles and the purchase and installation of 11 new poles and foundations at Fields 2 and 3. As noted in that staff report, a separate contract would be needed to upgrade the electrical infrastructure to support the new sports lighting system and should include installation of new conduits, wiring, switchgear, and a control cabinet. This proposed contract would complete said work and will allow the new sports lighting to be energized and ready for operational use.

• An amendment to attorney services with Goldfarb &Lipman, LLP to provide legal services to the Pasadena Rental Housing Board, increasing the contract by $175,000 to $225,000.  The PRHB, at its meeting on June 7, approved a contract with Goldfarb to provide general interim legal services related to the implementation of Charter Article XVIII, the Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing Charter Amendment, in an amount not to exceed $50,000. At its meeting held on September 13, the PRHB approved an increase to the contract amount by $175,000, for a cumulative amount not to exceed $225,000, for expenses associated with advice and assistance provided to the Board during this start-up phase of the Board. Inasmuch as the original $50,000 authorization was meant to address legal expenses incurred to address urgent start-up issues from June through August, the PRHB requests approval of this amendment due to the heavy workload required to draft necessary rules, regulations and resolutions for the administration of Charter Article XVIII, while continuing to advise the Board, its committees and consultants over the next several months regarding numerous legal issues involving time-sensitive matters such as setting up a rental registry, establishing a structure to administer hearings on petitions for rent adjustments and the hiring of hearing officers, advising on various contract, labor and employment issues, providing continuing advice on public records and open meetings issues, and advising the Board on potentially integrating into the City’s municipal structure, among other matters. To ensure that there is no question regarding compliance with the City Charter and the City’s contracting provisions, the PRHB is submitting this action for City Council approval.