ORDINANCE No. 176422

* Authorize Agreement for Lloyd Business District License Fee Billing and Collection Services (Ordinance)

The City of Portland ordains:

Section 1.  The Council finds:

1.  Pursuant to Chapter 6.06 of the City Code, the City has established a business property management license fee within the Lloyd Business District. The purpose of the license fee is to provide revenues to fund supplemental transportation management, District Attorney prosecution, Fareless Square transit, and job development services within the District. The property management license fee for the Lloyd Business District is currently scheduled to terminate as of January 31, 2004. Portland City Code 6.06.280.

2.  Lloyd B.I.D., Inc. (“Lloyd BID”) represents the owners and managers of a large portion of the property within the District. Lloyd BID initiated the establishment of the license fee. Lloyd BID also represents the business property managers who will be responsible for paying most of the license fee revenues.

3.  In 2001, the City entered into a contract with Lloyd BID for the provision of certain billing and collection services relating to the license fee. City Contract No. 51480, approved by Ordinance No. 175219. The contract provided that if the parties were unable to agree on compensation under the contract on or before October 31, 2001, that the contract would terminate and the parties would be required to renegotiate the contract terms and conditions.

4.  Under the proposed agreement, the Bureau of Licenses (“BOL”) will provide collection services to Lloyd BID for a fee of 1% of the total collected license fees. In addition, City costs related to District License Fee collection litigation will be billed separately to Lloyd BID. The proposed 1% cap on the BOL collection fee is a departure from prior billing practice whereby BOL has billed actual costs for its services consistent with a cost of service billing model. Both Lloyd BID and the City acknowledge that setting the collection services fee at 1% is at a level below the Bureau of Licenses’ actual cost of providing collection services. In recognition of the value that the District provides to Portland’s livability, the City has agreed to a billing formula that is under the BOL’s actual costs. In addition, the City has agreed to this billing formula with other Business Improvement Districts for whom the Bureau of Licenses provides collection services, such as the Downtown BID. Consistent with this change in system billing practice, the City acknowledges the need to provide the Bureau of Licenses with sufficient appropriation to cover its actual costs of providing Business Improvement District collection services. Accordingly, consistent with the directives contained in the City Council’s prior approval of Ordinance No. 176263 in authorizing an agreement with Portland Downtown Services, Inc. regarding Downtown Business District Management Services, a technical adjustment to the Bureau of Licenses’ FY 2002-03 General Fund target totaling $32,000 has been made to provide the Bureau of Licenses with sufficient appropriation to carry out its collection duties.

5.  The services provided by the District, throughout the term of the agreement, are part of a unique and coordinated personal services program that Lloyd BID has developed and provided, and there is no other potential provider of the services with the experience, expertise, and capability of Lloyd BID. It therefore is appropriate for the City to enter into an agreement with Lloyd BID for such services, and Lloyd BID is willing to contract to provide the services.

6.  The proposed contract with Lloyd BID requires Lloyd BID to provide services that might have to be competitively bid. However, given the unique and special relationship between the City and Lloyd BID, the City Council, acting in its capacity as the Local Contract Review Board, hereby finds that the City will experience substantial cost savings if the contract were awarded to Lloyd BID. These cost savings will occur for a variety of reasons. The award of a contract to Lloyd BID is inexorably linked with the imposition of City’s License Fee, as shown by the entire contract attached to this ordinance. If Lloyd BID were not awarded the contract, it is possible that written objections from the current District licensees would automatically terminate the fee. Moreover, Lloyd BID is a nonprofit organization, and this means that the City is probably receiving a lower price for its services than from a comparable vendor in the private sector. Finally, Lloyd BID is dedicated to serving the District and thus has a heightened motivation to provide good quality service at an affordable price.

7.  In addition, an exemption from the competitive bidding process will not encourage favoritism in the awarding of public contractors or substantially diminish competition for public contracts. Lloyd BID is a nonprofit corporation that is focused on the District and the award of a contract to it does not make it more likely that they will seek or obtain other public contracts from the City. In addition, the contract with Lloyd BID requires competitive bidding when selecting subcontractors unless it is documented that it is necessary or desirable to award a subcontractor on a negotiated basis in order to assure the provision of adequate services at the most advantageous cost.

8.  To the extent that any of the services provided by Lloyd BID would be considered professional, technical or expert services, this contract should be exempt from the City’s standard contracting requirements.

NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:

a.  The Mayor and the City Auditor are authorized to execute an agreement with Lloyd B.I.D., Inc. for Lloyd Business District License Fee billing and collection services, in substantially the form attached to this Ordinance as Exhibit A.

b.  To the extent that any of the services to be provided by Lloyd BID would otherwise have to be bid pursuant to ORS Chapter 279, the City Council, acting in its capacity as the Local Contract Review Board, hereby declares this contract to be exempt.

c.  To the extent that any of the services to be provided by Lloyd BID would be considered as professional, technical or expert services governed by PCC 5.68, this contract is exempt from those provisions.

Section 2. The Council declares that an emergency exists because any delay in proceeding with the execution of the Agreement will cause disruption in the billing and collection of the Lloyd Business District property management license fee; therefore, this Ordinance shall be in force and effect from and after its passage by the Council.

BACKING SHEET INFORMATION

AGENDA NO. 415-2002

ORDINANCE/RESOLUTION/COUNCIL DOCUMENT NO. 176422