Portsmouth staff outline CVI consultant plan; procurement may begin in November with task‑force support to follow

Miss Matthews, task‑force staff, briefed members on the planned consultant engagement to support Portsmouth’s community violence interruption (CVI) work and to provide technical assistance for the task force.

She said the city separated the CVI component from the broader task‑force consulting work to allow clearer timelines and deliverables. "So what we decided was to, hash out the CVI component of that proposal first," Matthews said. The CVI contract proposal described a two‑year plan and included embedded technical assistance, bimonthly site visits, weekly coaching calls, support for a case‑management system and quarterly progress reporting. Matthews said she requested an increase in embedded technical assistance from four weeks to six weeks because the city is building the program from near scratch.

Staff described a tentative procurement and implementation schedule: begin the CVI consultant engagement in November 2025 if procurement proceeds smoothly and start the task‑force consulting piece in January 2026. The city manager explained the administration is preparing a master services agreement so the city can add task orders without repeating full procurement for follow‑on work.

Members asked detailed questions about scaling, staffing and vetting. Matthews said funding limits mean the initial rollout will be four sites rather than an originally planned eight and that the consultant will conduct on‑the‑ground vetting to confirm candidates’ community rapport. "We're gonna have another colleague ... come down and do on the ground vetting," she said, describing neighborhood observation and community background checks. Members raised concerns about timely communication to applicants who expected contracts and recommended contingency steps to re‑open vetting if necessary.

Staff said the consultant will also help design program metrics so the city can measure participant risk changes and program effectiveness. Deliverables discussed include mission/vision/value statements, a standard operating procedures manual, a case‑management system and public‑education/marketing support.

Next steps: complete procurement materials, finalize the statement of work and negotiate contractual language that allows follow‑on task orders; staff will return with procurement updates and candidate vetting procedures. The task force asked staff to maintain timely communications with applicants and to include community‑based perspectives in the vetting process.