191189

The City of Portland ordains:

Section 1. The Council finds:

1. In July 2015, the United States District Court for the District of Oregon entered the Order Entering Settlement Agreement between the City and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the matter of The United States of America v. The City of Portland, Case No. 12-cv-02265-SI (“Agreement”).
    
2. Through this Agreement, the City is responsible for hiring a Compliance Officer and Community Liaison (COCL) with expertise in police practices, community engagement, and crisis intervention methods, to perform duties identified in the Agreement.
    
3. The COCL is responsible for collecting, reviewing and reporting on data related to the Portland Police Bureau's (PPB) interactions with persons experiencing a mental health crisis, use of force, PPB supervision and management of use of force, accountability processes, and training.
    
4. The COCL independently examines and synthesizes the data for the purposes of reporting to the City Council, the United States Department of Justice and the public on the City's compliance with the Agreement.
    
5. The Agreement requires that the City publicly identify three potential candidates to serve as COCL and take public comments for 30 days, following which the City Council shall make the selection.
    
6. Ordinance No. 186170, unanimously passed by the Council in 2013, committed the City to providing early and ongoing opportunity for the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform and other community stakeholder groups to participate in the process för selecting candidates for the COCL. More recently, the Mental Health Alliance was added as an amicus to the court, and will also have opportunity to participate in the selection process.
    
7. In accordance with the Agreement, under Ordinance No. 186966, the City Council authorized a contract with Rosenbaum & Watson, LLP, as independent Compliance Officer Community Liaison (COCL). Contract No. 30004378.
    
8. Since January 15, 2020, Rosenbaum & Associates, LLP, including Dr. Dennis Rosenbaum and other key personnel on the COCL team, has performed such services under Contract No. 30007128. The contract has been amended four times: 1) to extend the term to March 31, 2021 and amend the not-to-exceed amount to $499,526.55; 2) to extend the term to June 30, 2022 and amend the not-to-exceed amount to $1,016,412.04; 3) to identify three additional key personnel on the COCL team and to move the contract management function to the City Attorney’s Office; and 4) to extend the term through June 30, 2023, increase compensation, revise the Statement of Work to be more specific, identify additional key personnel and provide for further one-year extensions.
    
9. Exhibit C to Contract No. 30007128 is a Statement of Work incorporating the COCL duties required by the Agreement. Attachment A.
    
10. Dr. Rosenbaum has notified the City that he intends to retire on June 30, 2023, although he has expressed his willingness to work through August 31, 2023, to ease the transition to the next consultant who will provide these services.
     
11. The City is currently in mediation with the DOJ on the question of whether an independent monitor might perform assessment and monitoring duties required by the Agreement, including those now performed by the COCL. Should the Agreement be amended to transition from the COCL model to an independent monitor, the City would terminate the services of the COCL. Participation in this COCL procurement process will not preclude any party from later being a candidate for independent monitor.
     
12. The City remains under the terms of the Settlement Agreement and must continue to contract for services with the COCL. Because of the specifics laid out in the Agreement, a Request for Proposals process is not the appropriate avenue for selection of the COCL. An alternative selection process is suitable in this instance and a waiver of the solicitation requirements of City Code 5.68 is appropriate.
     
13. Awarding the contract for COCL services as a Contract-Specific Special Procurement is unlikely to encourage favoritism in the award of public contracts or to substantially diminish competition for public contracts, and substantially promotes the public interest in a manner that could not otherwise practicably be realized by complying with the solicitation requirements under Portland City Code 5.68.

NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:

1. The solicitation requirements of City Code 5.68 are waived, and the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) is authorized to use a Contract-Specific Special Procurement such as a Request for Resumes for determination of the Compliance Officer and Community Liaison contract.
2. The CPO shall report to City Council summarizing the results of the solicitation and the public comments received on the finalists (“Report”), and identifying the candidate deemed most qualified and appropriate to the City’s requirements.
3. Upon Council acceptance of the CPO’s Report, Procurement Services is authorized to negotiate and execute a contract with the candidate, provided the contract has been approved as to form by the City Attorney’s Office.

Section 2.  The Council declares that an emergency exists because a delay would create substantial risk that the City would be deemed out of compliance with the Settlement Agreement; therefore, this Ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage by the Council.