Council committee sends Creative Day amendment for Board of Review audio/visual services to formal amid cost and contingency concerns

The Detroit City Council Committee of the Whole voted to forward an amendment to Creative Day Technologies’ contract for audio and video production services related to the assessor’s Board of Review hearings to the full council without recommendation after extended questioning about costs and alternatives.

Director Vicky Thomas of Communications and Media Services and Leonard Jones from the Office of Contracting and Procurement explained the request: the assessor’s office will hold 22 community Board of Review sessions this cycle, some running into the evening, and the city contracted Creative Day to provide audio/visual production for those hearings. OCP told the committee it solicited quotes and that Creative Day’s price for the scope was about $98,000; a competing vendor, IPTV, quoted roughly $106,000 and required a $30,000 deposit that the city’s procurement rules would not allow.

Committee members pressed staff about the contract’s total amendment amount ($120,000 in the meeting materials) and a roughly $20,000 contingency included in the request. Council member Mary Waters and others questioned whether the city’s existing media-equipment purchase (discussed during the meeting as roughly $100,000 in prior acquisitions for Media Services) could be leveraged across two community centers, or whether the city could hire temporary staff or otherwise reduce outside spending. Media Services said its current staff and equipment are in day-to-day use and that Board of Review hearings require long hours and technically specialized setups (draping for privacy, extended setup/tear-down, late-night sessions), which is why an outside vendor was used.

OCP said if the committee required new procurement (an RFP) the timeline would not meet the March 5 start of hearings. Committee members asked Communications, OCP and the assessor’s office to pursue smaller local vendors for future procurement and suggested that a longer-term solution could be investment in upgraded equipment at community sites so future hearings could be staffed more cheaply.

The chair recorded the committee decision to send the amendment to formal without recommendation; committee members asked staff to return with additional detail on bids, rate breakdowns and options to reduce future outside spending.