A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, ACCEPTING THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE CITY MANAGER AUTHORIZING THE ADMINISTRATION TO ENTER INTO NEGOTIATIONS, PURSUANT TO REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) NO. 2020-131-JC, FOR TENANT AND GRANT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE, WITH BENEVATE INC. DBA NEIGHBORLY SOFTWARE, THE TOP RANKED PROPOSER FOR BOTH TENANT MANAGEMENT AND GRANT MANAGEMENT CATEGORIES OF THE RFP; FURTHER, AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY CLERK TO EXECUTE THE AGREEMENT, UPON CONCLUSION OF SUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATIONS BY THE ADMINISTRATION.

The Administration recommends that the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Miami Beach, Florida approve the resolution accepting the City Manager’s recommendation pertaining to bids received, pursuant to Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 2020-131-JC, for Comprehensive Enterprise Property, Tenant, and Grant Management Software.

The Housing and Community Services Department (“HCSD”) currently utilizes various spreadsheets and arcane data management methods to manage its housing applicant, asset inventory and grants tracking efforts.

HCSD determined that an improved solution is required. Therefore, by way of the RFP, HCSD seeks a modern and efficient software solution in order to better manage its property, tenant, and grants management operations. The purpose of the RFP is to select a software solution for the Office of HCSD that will assist in managing its affordable housing units and allow the Department to achieve compliance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) Code of Federal Regulations.

HCSD requires that the proposed software solution(s) streamlines its information collection and workflow management for the following two (2) main areas of functionality: 1) Tenant Management, and 2) Federal Housing Grants Management. The resulting solution(s) will optimize City staff productivity by automating current manual processes.

In addition, applications must integrate with the City’s MUNIS ERP system. The software application(s) will deliver the following two (2) solutions:

1. Tenant Management: The City of Miami Beach must adhere to the HOME rental program guidelines while admitting new tenants and recertifying existing households on an annual basis. The incomes of households in the HOME program must not exceed eighty (80) percent of the area median (High HOME units). In rental projects with five or more assisted units, at least 20% of the units must be occupied by families with incomes that do not exceed 50% of the HUD-adjusted median (Low HOME units.) HOME income limits are published each year by HUD.

The application must capture the income limit table with a corresponding effective date. Transactions must pick the correct income limit table base on the transaction effective date. The application should let the administrator enter new income limit tables with a future date without affecting current calculation. While the 80% rule is currently set to 80% of the income limit, the rule should not be hard coded in the application. The administrator should be able to change the threshold in the future if HUD changes the rule.

For application development purposes, rents are determined based on the HOME rent limits and utility allowances determined by a specific HUD methodology.The application will offer the following capabilities:

• Asset Management;
• Resident Processing and management tool to track tenant information and historical data;
• Resident re-exam capability to manage the tenant certification and eligibility processes; and
• Financial capability to keep track of tenant rent and fees.

2. Grants Management:  The City receives federal and state allocations through HUD and Florida Housing Finance Corporation for HOME, CDBG and SHIP. The respective program allocations are distributed annually and must be expended on eligible activities delineated in the City’s five-year City’s Consolidated Plan.  Every year, the City releases a Request for Proposal (RFP) to solicit eligible affordable housing, capital and public service projects within the City that will be funded by HOME and CDBG. After the City reviews and approves eligible applications, sub-recipients must provide a monthly progress report of their expenditures and project accomplishments. Below are requirements of the proposed software application that must be included, at a minimum, in the RFP response in order to allow for adequate tracking of allocated grants funding:

Administrators should have access to the following information:

• Intake and assessment of eligible participants;
• Uploading supporting documentation;
• Scope management;
• Procurement documents;
• Contractor information;
• Project timeline;
• Project budget; and
• Pending tasks;

Sub-recipients should have access to the following:

• Contractor information;
• Project timelines;
• Project budget;
• Ability to upload draw requests; and
• Ability to upload Section 3 reports and certified payroll.

On March 18, 2020, the City Commission approved the issuance of Request for Proposals (RFP)2020-131-JC, for Comprehensive Enterprise Property, Tenant, and Grant Management Software (“the RFP”). On April 16, 2020, the RFP was issued. The Procurement Department issued solicitation notices to 12,961 firms utilizing www.BidSync.com. 113 prospective proposers accessed the advertised solicitation. A non-mandatory pre-proposal conference to provide information to prospective proposers was held on April 30, 2020. RFP responses were due and received on June 11, 2020. The City received proposals from the following proposers.

Tenant Management Functionality:

• Benevate Inc. dba Neighborly Software
• CPI Solutions
• Houston Technology LLC
• Information Consultants Inc.

Grants Management Functionality:

• Benevate Inc. dba Neighborly Software

• Dulles Technology Partners Inc.

• Ciber Global

• Houston Technology LLC

• Information Consultants Inc

The Procurement Department performed its due diligence and determined that all of the proposals received were deemed responsive and responsible.  On February 21, 2020, via LTC # 100-2020, the City Manager appointed the Evaluation Committee (the “Evaluation Committee”), which convened on August 24, 2020, to consider the proposals submitted. The Committee was comprised of the following individuals:  Cristina Cabrera, CDBG Projects Coordinator, Office of Housing & Community Services, City of Miami Beach, Ralph Lavaud, IT Business Analyst, Information Technology Department, City of Miami Beach, Nelson Martinez, Tenant Services Coordinator, Office of Housing & Community Services, City of Miami Beach, and Alice Waters, Controller, Office of Housing & Community Services, City of Miami Beach.

The Committee was provided an overview of the project, information relative to the City’s Cone of Silence Ordinance and the Government Sunshine Law. The Committee was also provided with general information on the scope of services and a copy of each proposal. The Committee was instructed to score each proposal pursuant to the evaluation criteria established in the RFP. Cost was not considered by the Committee in the evaluation process as the RFP required that the cost be considered by the City Manager in making his award recommendation. The evaluation process resulted in the ranking of proposers, on qualitative factors, as indicated in Attachments A1 (Tenant Management Software) and A2 (Grants Management Software), in the following order:

Application 1, Tenant Management Software:

1st – Benevate Inc. dba Neighborly Software

2nd – Houston Technology LLC

3rd – CPI Solutions

4th – Information Consultants Inc. 

Application 2, Grant Management Software:

1st – Benevate Inc. dba Neighborly Software

2nd – Dulles Technology Partners Inc.

3rd – Ciber Global

4th – Houston Technology LLC

5th – Information Consultants Inc.

The following is a brief summary of the qualifications of the top ranked proposer, as noted in its response to the RFP.

Benevate Inc. dba Neighborly Software.

According to its proposal, Benevate Inc. dba Neighborly Software, is software solutions firm whose suite of products is specifically built for, and used by, public sector housing and community development professionals. This enables Neighborly Software to incorporate deep HUD functionality in its respective solutions. Housing, Economic and Community Development is core to the Neighborly Software mission - in fact, it is the only market they serve.

Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, Neighborly Software was founded in 2016 on the belief that the administration of housing, economic and community development programs is evolving. Forward thinking communities want their staff to spend more time maximizing community investment outcomes and less time on administration, compliance and reporting. This requires addressing the administrative inefficiencies and financial waste associated with their paper-based files, manual processes and outdated technology solutions (e.g. Excel spreadsheets or homegrown technology).

Neighborly Software is a Microsoft partner and leverages the Microsoft Azure FedRAMP Cloud for secure encryption, hosting, redundancy, and disaster recovery. Its modern software is intuitive to use and leads to rapid adoption by both grantees and grantors. Its current clients include, the City of Pompano Beach, FL, Manatee County, FL, Lee County, FL, Orange County, FL, Pinellas County, FL, City of West Palm Beach, FL, City of Hialeah, FL, City of Dallas, TX, and City of Anaheim, CA.

In reviewing the responses received, the results of the evaluation committee process and the process submitted by the firms, I find as follows. I believe that the City is fortunate to have received six (6) responses to the RFP from well qualified firms. It is important to note that Benevate unanimously received first place ranking for all committee members. ed appear to have the qualifications and background to assist the City with a robust software solution to its tenant and grant management tracking.

In considering the Evaluation Committee's comments and the unanimous first place scores, Benevate has clearly demonstrated that its proposed software solution, industry expertise, past, government experience, and approach to the City’s required scope of services, is exceptional among other competitors. Further, when considering cost as required by the RFP, not only has Benevate provided the top-ranked proposal on qualifications and proposed solution, it also offered significantly more cost effective solutions for both areas of functionality (tenant management and grant management) than the second-ranked firm for tenant management, Houston Technology, and the second-ranked firm for grant management, Dulles Technology Partners, as indicated in the tables below.

Since Benevate has provided the best combination of qualifications, functionality and cost, I recommend that the Mayor and City Commission approve the Resolution authorizing the Administration to enter into negotiations, pursuant to Request for Proposals (RFP) NO. 2020-131-JC, for a tenant management and grant management solution, with Benevate Inc. dba Neighborly Software, as the top ranked proposer for both tenant management and grant management functionalities; and authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute the agreement upon conclusion of successful negotiations by the Administration.