R82 lobbying services contract to Corcoran

1:22:35R eighty two, R eighty two, internal services, Mr. Breitenbach.

1:22:42Morning, Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen of the board. R eighty-two is a recommendation to approve the award of a lobbying contract, as I was, Eric Breitenbach, Assistant County Administrator of Internal Services. R eighty two is a recommendation to approve the award of a lobbying services contract to Corcoran Associates. On your Monday, 21 September meeting, the board requested that we uh solicit for an outside lobbyist to work with our internal governmental affairs staff on Pasco County focused issue issues. That

1:23:12process is complete. A four-member committee evaluated the responses that we received. We did receive three responses to our solicitation. They were Corcoran partners, Sean Foster LLC, doing business at Sunrise Consulting Group, and Shoemaker Advisors of Florida. After the four-member committee met and evaluated all the proposals. They scored the Corcoran partners proposal as the highest. And with that, purchasing recommends the approval of the award

1:23:42to the contract to Corcoran partners in the annual not-to-exceed amount of $60,000 per year for fiscal year 2021 for a one-year term with up to three one-year renewal options. and also to designate, recommend designating the county administrator the authority to renew the annual renewal options as needed up to the annual amount, not to exceed amount designated. And standing by for questions from members of the board.

1:24:07Mr. Chairman M

1:24:08um Commissioner Starkey.

1:24:10So I'm not happy with the the way this was done. When we picked our last lobbyist, we had presentations and the board. Selected the lobbyist, and and so I'm not comfortable with the way this went down, and I would like to make a motion that we. Do not pick a lobbyist today, but we ask for presentations at our next board meeting and at that board meeting select the lobbyist.

1:24:39Okay, I have a motion on the floor of discussion.

1:24:42I can say.

1:24:43Oh I so there's a second on that one. Okay, any more any further discussion? Mr. Chairman Mariano. Uh Commissioner Mariano.

1:24:50Yeah. Um and I think they're matter of fact the state electors getting sworn in today. Uh so they're starting their committee meets right away. Commissioner Starkey you comfortable if we m we're gonna miss a couple of weeks, you're okay with that?

1:25:03Yeah, that was my th I was gonna bring that up. The reason I

1:25:06I know time is of the essence, but I think this is

1:25:11Did you hear the presentations? None of us was there a presentation? I I don't know, but I think it's our I think it's not staff's lobbyists. I think we're the policymakers and I think it's more appropriate that we hear the presentations. And so I'm disappointed the the process we set in place last time was changed. I think we should have been asked about the process. Maybe we were and I missed it. But you know, that's why I say at December 8th, we we listen

1:25:41and we pick and get them to work right away. I'm sure any lobbyist that we we would pick at our next board meeting, I mean between now and then is Thanksgiving, not a whole lot's gonna get done. They'll get to work right away.

1:25:52Yeah, I think they actually did the process based on us. give them direction to go reach out to uh lobbyists. for this. Uh maybe we're not as clear as we should have been and said we wanted presentations. I don't remember us talking about that. So but I think that's how we went through the

1:26:10that's correct, Mr or Mr. Oakley. We we follow the normal R SQ or request for statement of qualifications for um having a consultant or a lobbyist or any other we follow our normal standard process in the county with uh So in this case, I didn't read the members of the committee. There were Mr. Biles, Ms. Kathy Pearson, Ms. Baracaldo, and Ralph Lair. So those were the folks that evaluated the responses and our recommendations based on their findings from the res from the proposals.

1:26:39Well I just the way I hear it, uh our board would be better suited if if we heard their presentations and chose from listening to their presentations. So I think that's what the board's asking we do now.

1:26:56So I I have a yeah, I ha so I have a motion and the floor. Now I I mean I'll just make a statement and that I'm a I'm aware of of of these firms and I know they're they're all very admirable and they do um I know we've probably all had dealings and work with each and every one of them, so they're all great firms and I know two of them actually are based in Pasco County in their home office. So that's great that we obviously have folks that are based in in Pasco County. I think the other one was in Hillsborough, so it wasn't far away. Right. Okay. So close

1:27:26by. So it's nice to see the people that um that apply. But I do with but but with that, I mean I do have a motion in a second on the floor. um to ask for um presentations to be given to the board. Um

1:27:42please go ahead and

1:27:46Yeah. The motion that's on the floor would would have uh presentations from all three of these vendors, correct? That

1:27:54would have

1:27:55yeah. You're not you're not shortlisting, you're taking the three that the three that are there and asking for and asking for presentations from all three.

1:28:04I think that's to be fair for everybody.

1:28:07Should wait, should we clarify how long a presentation should be? Or is that maybe we should be specific?

1:28:15You well, you do, I think you're gonna have to do that 'cause so let's go let's back up a little bit. His in in the past, the presentations we're giving. to the to the board at a like you mentioned that uh there was a certain time limit as well as now the board ranked those Applicants or

1:28:35Yeah. So I think that you know

1:28:37how we that's what we did previously.

1:28:39Ten minutes? I don't know. Five minutes ten minutes? Five minutes?

1:28:42Well five's too short. It's pretty important. Yeah. I I would ask I would I would go revert back to the team and ask them how long the presentations were that were given um to to your so for this

1:28:57solicitation the committee did not receive presentations. They evaluated uh solely off of the responses that were provided in response to the RFP. And and so in in Having sat on many committees, historically presentations run anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five minutes. It just depends on the on that particular solicitation. In this case, my recommendation to the board would be ten minutes, but that's clearly the discretion of the board.

1:29:19Ten minutes. I think ten minutes. That sounds good. Okay.

1:29:24Any other discussion to Commissioner Mariano?

1:29:28Okay. I agree. Okay. So I have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

1:29:36District 1, Commissioner Oakley.

1:29:37Aye.

1:29:38District 3, Commissioner Starkey. Aye. District 4, Commissioner Fitzpatrick. Aye. District 5, Commissioner Mariano. District two, Chairman More.

1:29:47Aye. Motion passes. Five zero. Moving on.