Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

TO:	Mike Wildgen City Manager
FROM:	Debbie Van Saun Asst. City Manager
CC:	Dave Corliss Asst. City Manager
Date:	February 2, 2006
RE:	Agenda item

Please place the following item on the City Commission consent agenda for consideration at their February 7, 2006 meeting:

Development Process Review Project – Contract Negotiations

Project Description:  The project involves a review and analysis by an outside consultant of the City’s development process.  This is a project that was submitted with the Planning Department’s 2006 budget proposal and approved by the City Commission.

Project Status:  On November 15, 2005, staff received City Commission approval to issue a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to qualified consultants to begin the screening process for this project.  RFQ’s were sent to eleven (11) consultants and we received responses from the following firms:

· Management Partners, Incorporated

· Zucker Systems

· Matrix Consulting Group

Per the attached summary of responses, staff recommended that Management Partners and Matrix Consulting be invited to interview with a panel of interested parties in order to complete the selection process.

On January 17^th, representatives from the City Manager’s Office, the Planning Department, County Commission, City Commission, the County Administrator’s Office, the Planning Commission, and the development community met with Management Partners and Matrix Consulting to interview the consultants on their project approach, related experience, qualifications, schedule, etc.  During the discussion by the interview panel after the interviews, it appeared that although both firms had experience in this type of project, a majority of those members of the panel who voiced a preference, preferred Matrix Consultants.

Project Funding:  This project was originally budgeted in the Planning Department’s 2006 operating budget.  Since this budget has financial contributions from Douglas County (one-sixth of the Planning Department budget is paid for by the County), some review of the County development process is anticipated to be part of the project scope.

Commission Action.  Staff is recommending that the City Commission authorize the City Manager to begin contract negotiations with Matrix Consulting Group for a project involving a review of the City of Lawrence development process, as well as some portion of the Douglas County development process.  References for the Matrix Consulting Group have been contacted and responses are pending.

c:       Craig Weinaugh, County Administrator