Committee approves series of contracts, amendments and property actions; several items forwarded to council

The Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee on Wednesday approved or recommended a slate of administrative and procurement actions, forwarding most for City Council consideration or authorizing staff to proceed with negotiations.

Key votes included: approval to negotiate a real-estate contract to sell remnant property adjacent to 4702 (to Chapman 3 LLC); first- and sixth-amendments to development agreements that extend performance milestone deadlines for Gallery 115 and City Place; an extension to resolution No. 4802A connected to an EDRB expiration; authorization to proceed with a municipal addendum to TIPS cooperative purchasing contract No. 241001 for HVAC replacement at a state building data center; authorization to negotiate a three-year extension to a security vulnerability monitoring contract with Yellow Dog Networks; authorization to negotiate a five-year amendment with CivicPlus LLC for a hosted website and related services; a waiver of the bid process to negotiate a construction-manager agreement with Monarch Build for a Convention Center restroom remodel; and approval of committee minutes.

Most motions passed by unanimous voice vote. Committee members and staff provided brief presentations or explanations for each item:

- Remnant property (Chapman 3 LLC): Jack Messer (assistant city manager) said the city acquired a narrow remnant parcel during highway-related right-of-way work; neighboring owner Chapman 3 LLC proposed to survey, close and assume maintenance for an estimated cost to the buyer of roughly $3,840. Staff recommended the sale because the remnant parcel is not needed for city operations and is functionally undevelopable. The committee approved directing the city manager to close the sale and return the contract for final council action.

- Development agreement amendments (Gallery 115 and City Place): Curtis Holland, legal counsel for Block Real Estate Services, asked the committee to extend milestone completion dates by about two years for two long-term, phased development projects. Holland described the request as driven by persistent market challenges — supply delays, higher materials and labor costs, and higher interest rates — and said the developer remains committed to the projects. City staff said the requests are customary and that incentive windows and earned-credit features in the agreements continue to motivate timely build-out. The committee recommended the resolutions extending the agreements to the City Council.

- EDRB extension (Resolution No. 4802A): Staff requested an amendment to extend the expiration date for an Economic Development Revenue Bond (EDRB)-related item tied to City Place; the committee recommended Council authorization to extend the resolution.

- HVAC replacement (TIPS cooperative contract No. 241001): Mike Joseph of Facilities Management summarized a $345,718 contract to replace end-of-life HVAC units at a city data center (Myers State building). The units serve critical IT cooling needs. Stone Sage (CIO) explained the city is continuing a hybrid approach to on-premises infrastructure for life-safety and low-latency systems even as some workloads migrate to cloud services. The committee recommended City Council approval of the municipal addendum for HVAC services with the Fagan Company.

- Cybersecurity monitoring (Yellow Dog Networks): City IT staff requested authorization to negotiate a first amendment for continued security vulnerability monitoring for an additional three years in an amount not to exceed $361,775. Staff described the platform as a continuous monitoring service that identifies vulnerabilities and supports patch/mitigation workflows. The committee approved staff authorization to negotiate and recommended the agreement to the council.

- CivicPlus website platform: City staff presented a request to negotiate a five-year hosted software-as-a-service agreement with CivicPlus for a new external website and related modules (resident service requests/311, records request management, venue-specific microsites, ADA services, and translation). Staff said they negotiated a substantial discount (staff cited a 61.24% overall discount across the five-year term) and proposed funding the first-year costs from CIP funds that had been set aside for an intranet replacement. The committee authorized staff to negotiate and recommended council approval to proceed.

- Convention Center restroom remodel (Monarch Build): Facilities staff reported no qualified proposals were received from the formal RFP process for construction manager services. Staff proposed waiving the bid process and negotiating directly with Monarch Build — a local firm — to deliver a $350,000 restroom renovation project (upper-level prefunction restrooms). The committee approved the waiver and directed staff to negotiate a construction-manager agreement and follow-up task orders.

- Minutes: The committee approved the minutes from Oct. 16, 2024 and Feb. 19, 2025.

Committee members and staff said they will return final contracts, resolutions or agreements to the City Council as required. The committee discussion emphasized project readiness, vendor selection, vendor risk management (for hosted services), and preserving incentive accountability for development agreements.