Subcommittee forwards $44 million JobsNow contract modification with Acumen to full board

Supervisor John Avalos, chair of the Budget and Finance Subcommittee, said the panel would recommend that the full Board of Supervisors consider an emergency resolution to modify a JobsNow contract with Acumen.

The clerk, Andrea Asbury, read the item as a "resolution approving the emergency declaration to modify the contract between the city and county of San Francisco and Acumen fiscal agent to provide private employer based wage subsidy reimbursements under the city's JobsNow program for qualified JobsNow participants during the period of 03/25/2010 to 10/31/2010, and the additional amount of $44,000,000 for a total modified contract amount of $53,000,995," according to the committee transcript.

Avalos said the measure had appeared before the full board previously and that the committee had recently amended the "not to exceed" amount to about $44 million and shortened the contract term so the contract would end Oct. 31, 2010. "If it does happen, we can move forward with, going through the RFP process," he said, describing the contract's future as contingent on whether Congress authorizes a new federal jobs bill.

Avalos also said there may be other interested parties besides Acumen and that some work could be done in-house, a recommendation that came from several full-board members. The transcript records no formal vote in the subcommittee; instead, Avalos said the committee would send a committee report and the item would appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda that day, May 18.

Public comment was opened and closed with no speakers present.

Next steps: the committee recommended forwarding the resolution to the full Board of Supervisors for consideration. The transcript does not record a subcommittee vote tally, and no mover or seconder is recorded in the committee proceedings.