It is recommended that the Mayor and City Commission approve the Resolution accepting the City Manager's recommendation, pursuant to ITN 2023-014-DF for a police off-duty scheduling system (for the software-only option), to negotiate with PowerDetails, LLC., as the top-ranked proposer. The Resolution also authorizes the Administration, if negotiations are not successful with PowerDetails, LLC, to negotiate with Visual Computer Solutions, Inc., as the second-ranked proposer, and RollKall Technologies, LLC, as the third-ranked proposer, in order of rank. Further, the Resolution authorizes the City Manager and City Clerk to execute an agreement upon the conclusion of successful negotiations.

The City's Police Department frequently receives requests from local businesses and other private entities to provide hourly police services or off-duty detail. The off-duty detail services provide a stream of revenue funds for the City and an extra source of income for the assigned police officers. The Department offers four (4) off-duty detail options, which include:

1. Temporary Off-Duty Details for short-term and non-repetitive events, which usually occur on short notice.
2. Permanent Off-Duty Details for repetitive events involving the same entity.
3. Special Event Off-Duty Details for infrequent, one-time, or annual events, which require a City permit and may involve a large number of people and the use of City property, streets, and parks.
4. Still Photography/Film requests.

In 2019, the City entered into a three (3) year contract with PowerDetails through a competitive quote process. PowerDetails worked closely with the Department to create a tailored solution meeting its off-duty scheduling and payroll needs; however, due to an imminent upgrade of the Police/Fire/Ocean Rescue staffing and payroll solution (Kronos), a decision to delay implementation in order to integrate the two systems occurred and the contract with PowerDetails since expired.  The Department, therefore, reverted to using an in-house, custom-written platform in Paradox which was developed by the MB IT Department to track officer hours and pay rates for off-duty work. For over 20 years, the Department has relied on the antiquated Paradox platform supplemented by significant manual documentation processes done by the Off Duty Office, job coordinators, and special events commanders. All billing, invoicing, tracking of pay slips, K-9 unit coordination and fees for use of equipment, among others, are tasks that were and continue to be carried out by hand. 

Accordingly, the Administration developed Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) 2023-014-DF to seek proposals from qualified firms that can provide an off-duty management system.

The off-duty program is multi-faceted and not controlled by a single management system, but rather by multiple processes. The Paradox platform is outdated and limited, only allowing for the tracking of hours worked by off-duty personnel and their pay rate. Everything else related to off-duty details is managed via paper forms filled out by job coordinators and through special event workbooks completed on Microsoft Excel. Through a modern program, The Department would be better able to expand current operations into one single platform to include invoicing and payments from the vendors themselves. The management and control of the off-duty job, however, remains the responsibility of the job coordinator.

The Department isn’t in need of a full management solution because the issues it is facing are not managerial in nature but rather recordkeeping and administrative issues created by a paper-based system instead of a digital one. While the Paradox solution is now obsolete, a software-only solution continues to be a better fit. A full system model would be detrimental for various reasons, including eliminating direct communication between the Department and the businesses served. Additionally, the centralization of control and oversight with regards to departmental SOPs, the officer compliance with exception policies (i.e., injury service-connected, marking out sick, etc.,) as well as the loss of the day-to-day vetting of contracted business, job expectation, and permitted assignments carried out by the program currently would be greatly affected if not eliminated altogether.

On March 27, 2023, the Mayor and City Commission authorized the issuance of ITN 2023-014-DF for a police off-duty scheduling system. On March 30, 2023, the ITN was issued. A voluntary pre-proposal conference was held to provide information to proposers submitting a response on April 12, 2023. One (1) addendum was issued, and 57 prospective bidders accessed the advertised solicitation. ITN responses were due and received on May 22, 2023. The City received a total of seven (7) proposals from the following firms:

Holmes Technology Inc.

The proposal submitted by Holmes Technology Inc. was deemed non-responsive to the ITN for failure to meet the minimum experience requirement of the ITN. Therefore, its submittal received no further consideration.

On July 10, 2023, the City Manager appointed the Evaluation Committee via LTC # 309-2023. On August 2, 2023, the City Manager updated the Evaluation Committee via LTC # 347-2023 to assign a Police Department representative more experienced with these services. The Evaluation Committee convened on August 22, 2023, to consider the proposals received. The Committee was comprised of Gabriel Donoso, Finance Analyst III, Finance Department; Lazaro Guerra, Public Safety Communications Division Administrator, Fire Department; Diane McRea, Senior Human Resources Specialist, Human Resources Department; Antonio Montes de Oca, Chief Data Officer, Information Technology Department; and Alejandro Mouro, Police Officer, Technical Services Division, Police Department.

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 and rank each proposal pursuant to the evaluation criteria established in the ITN. Additionally, the ITN stipulated that proposals for software solutions would be evaluated against other proposals for software solutions and proposals for fully managed programs would be evaluated against other proposals for fully managed programs. Therefore, the Evaluation Committee completed two independent evaluations of the proposals received – one for software-only proposals and another for fully managed proposals.

For the software-only option, the results of the Evaluation Committee’s review of proposals resulted in the following rankings:

1^st ranked - PowerDetails, LLC.

2^nd ranked - Visual Computer Solutions, Inc

3^rd ranked - RollKall Technologies, LLC

4^th ranked - Hart Halsey, LLC dba Extra Duty Solutions

5^th ranked - Illuno, Inc.

6^th ranked - Off Duty Management, Inc.

For the fully managed options, the results of the Evaluation Committee’s review of proposals resulted in the following rankings:

1^st ranked (tied) - RollKall Technologies, LLC.

1^st ranked (tied) - Visual Computer Solutions, Inc

3^rd ranked - Hart Halsey, LLC dba Extra Duty Solutions

4^th ranked - Off Duty Management, Inc.

Upon consideration of the proposals and the Evaluation Committee process for both options, the Administration believes it is in the City’s best interest to proceed with the software option proposed by PowerDetails LLC.

Because the needs of the Department are not managerial in nature but rather process-based, a fully managed option wouldn’t result in cost benefits.  The fully managed option would not reduce the Department headcount since the Department model would still require the tracking and approval of staffing, compliance, and payments.  The cost, on the contrary, would be absorbed by clients via a substantial cost increase without a significant reduction in internal costs. Fully managed solutions are structured so all costs are passed to our customers, while software-only solutions are a one-time or annual cost paid by the city. 

Unlike other agencies that have recently switched to a full-service solution, Miami Beach Police Department personnel are not paid directly by vendors and have not been paid in this manner for over 15 years. In addition, all Department off-duty work is coordinated through the Off-Duty Office and will continue to require job coordinators to ensure that the detail requested is properly staffed. Every detail must have oversight from either the Off Duty Office or a job coordinator who is directly responsible for the staffing, invoicing and all officer work documentation. Passing off this responsibility to an outside vendor could result in issues with accountability and invite safety concerns. The Department needs to retain internal accountability for every individual job and event as the costs of incorrect or improper staffing may result in some or all of the following: significant disruptions to operational efficiency, possible loss of administrative fees collected, and the potential of substantial overtime costs if on-duty resources are required.  Operational efficiency suffers when the City must correct the mistakes of unaccountable vendors, which is often a consequence in third-party, fully-managed solutions.

According to a 2022 Community Satisfaction Survey conducted by ETC Institute, with more than 38% of resident survey respondents and 58% of local businesses indicating that the quality of police services is most important to them, it is paramount that public safety measures, such as off-duty police services, remain accessible to create a better-protected community for residents, businesses, and visitors alike.

The Police Department estimates $50,000.00 annually for these services. Fees will be established through the negotiation process. Services pursuant to the award of this RFQ shall be subject to funds availability approved through the City's budgeting process. Grant funds are not anticipated to be utilized for these services. 

For the reasons stated herein, it is recommended that the Mayor and City Commission approve the Resolution accepting the City Manager's recommendation, pursuant to ITN 2023-014-DF for a police off-duty scheduling system (for the software only option), to negotiate with PowerDetails, LLC., as the top-ranked proposer. The Resolution also authorizes the Administration, if negotiations are not successful with PowerDetails, LLC, to negotiate (for the software only option) with Visual Computer Solutions, Inc., as the second-ranked proposer, and RollKall Technologies, LLC, as the third-ranked proposer, in order of rank. Further, the Resolution authorizes the City Manager and City Clerk to execute an agreement upon the conclusion of successful negotiations.