City Council Strategic Plan

The City of Watsonville, California is requesting proposals from qualified firms to facilitate the creation of a two-year City Council Strategic Plan, with proposals due September 25, 2026 before 11:55 p.m. via the City's OpenGov Procurement portal. This is an RFQ; the due date listed in the metadata (September 26) conflicts with the RFQ document, which specifies September 25.

The scope encompasses background review and environmental scanning; executive team engagement through pre-retreat survey and all-day workshop (January or February); City Council priority-setting via pre-retreat surveys, interviews, and all-day retreat (February or March); development of draft priorities, strategies, and implementation timelines; support for 11 departments in creating aligned two-year action plans; and delivery of final strategic plan documents. Optional services include Council adoption presentation materials and workplan tracking software recommendations.

Evaluation criteria (100 points total) emphasize firm reputation and experience with similar agencies (20 points), quality of assigned personnel and management support (20 points), quality and demonstrated capability of the planned approach (40 points), and documented results with client references (20 points).

Compensation is negotiated based on submitted cost proposals including estimated personnel hours and hourly billing rates for key staff. Contracts exceeding $100,000 require City Council approval. Selected firms must accept the City's standard consultant agreement without modification, including hold harmless indemnity and commercial general liability insurance of $1,000,000, business automobile liability of $1,000,000, and statutory workers' compensation. Respondents must certify no conflicts of interest with other City work and comply with equal opportunity and nondiscrimination requirements.

Questions are due September 11, 2026 at 11:55 p.m., with responses issued by September 16. The City expects to issue a selection notice by October 9, 2026. The City reserves the right to reject any or all proposals and hire multiple contractors.