City Non-Profit Contracting Task Force
May 14, 2003
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Minutes
Present:
Representing Non-Profit Community:
Jim Illig, Project Open Hand
Tony Michelini, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco
Judith Stevenson, Baker Places, Inc. (representing Tiffany Mock-Goeman, Continuum)
Sandy Mori, Kimochi, Inc.
Debbi Lerman, Huckleberry Youth (representing Nancy Rubin, Edgewood Center)
Representing City Departments:
Rich Waller (representing Judith Blackwell, Office of Contract Administration)
Gene Coleman, Mayor’s Office of Community Development
Pauson Yun (representing David Curto, Dept. of Human Services)
Winna Davis, Dept. of Children, Youth & Their Families
John Haskell (representing Ed Harrington, Controller)
Anne Okubo, Dept. of Public Health
David Newcomer (representing Larry Ross, Dept of Aging & Adult Svcs
Others:
Michelle Long Dixon, Dept. of Public Health
Jimmy Loyce, Dept. of Public Health
Michelle Ruggels, Dept. of Public Health
Winnie Xie, Dept. on the Status of Women
Staff:
Angela Karikas, City Attorney
Bob Davis, Dept. of Administrative Services
Henny Lee, Dept. of Administrative Services
The meeting was call to order at 10:10 a.m.
Consent Calendar:
Motioned, seconded, and approved as amended the May 7 Meeting Minutes – see attached
Report of the Co-Chairs:
The Co-Chair had nothing to report.
The Deputy City Attorney was asked to provide guidance on circulating draft reports for discussion by Task Force members and if the drafts are required to be posted under the Sunshine Ordinance. The Deputy City Attorney advised that drafts longer than one page in length do not have to be posted. However, copies shall be provided if requested by the general public.
Discussion & Possible Action Items:
Agenda Item 5, Recommendation #1: Implementation Plan – Report to the Board of Supervisors, Report from the Implementation Plan Report Committee:
The Committee met Thursday, May 8. In attendance were Gene Colemen – Mayor’s Office of Community Development, Tiffany Mock-Goeman – Continuum, Jim Illig – Projet Open Hand, Anne Okubo – Dept. of Public Health, and Judith Stevenson – Baker Places. A working draft of some recommendations the Committee had worked on during their meeting was distributed for comments – see Attachment A. The following summarizes their report and discussion with the full Task Force:
- Tiffany Mock-Goeman was elected to chair the Committee.
- With regard to Recommendation #4, establish accounting principles for non-profits, the Controller representative indicated that while the Controller can and will develop a document to assist non-profit contractors but it is still up to those contractors to operate and ensure that their accounting systems and practices are sufficient. Also, while the Controller’ s Office does conduct audits of selected non-profit contractors, it would be unrealistic to expect the Controller’s Office to audit every City non-profit contractor.
- The Committee will work with the Controller’s Office to develop milestones for Recommendation #4.
- It was suggested that the Board of Supervisors establish a process to monitor City departments on the implementation of Task Force’s recommendations.
- There was a suggestion that the final draft should be distributed to all City departments for comment.
- Others suggested that departments will have the opportunity to comment on the report when the Board of Supervisors hold hearings on the document.
Agenda Item 6.1, Recommendation #11: Whenever possible, coordinate one joint program monitoring visit per year per contract by a lead City department. Departments will provide timely written notice of 14 days as well as a timely written report back within 30 days, if possible, but not beyond 90 days. Fiscal site visits should utilize other City department visits within a twelve-month period.
As part of the Implementation Plan Report Committee’s report, the Task Force asked the Dept. of Aging and Adult Services to review and report on their practice of auditing non-profit contractors who have completed a recent independent audit as being duplicative or unnecessary – see May 21 Meeting Agenda Item 6.1.
Agenda Item 6.5, Recommendation #4: Establish accounting principles for non-profits.
The following summarizes the Task Force’s discussion regarding standards or guidelines for reimbursable items covered under indirect cost:
- Currently the definition and percentage of what is covered by indirect cost varies by funding source and by department.
- The general fund component of contract funding often times is used to cover indirect costs.
- Non-profits would like guidelines as to what are acceptable indirect costs.
- Departments feel that developing such standards will cause less flexibility for both departments and non-profit contractors.
- Non-profits need an appeals process to question what charges are covered under indirect costs.
Agenda Item 7.1, Recommendation #6: Consolidate contracts, where appropriate, from various Departments into a primary or lead department to administer the overall contract for a nonprofit.
- Report on Dept of Public Heath’s internal contract consolidation - AIDS Office.
The following summarizes the report and discussions with the representative from the Dept. of Public Health’s AIDS Office regarding their plans to consolidate contracts within their office:
- The AIDS Office intends to adhere to Public Health’s plan for contract consolidation and implementation schedule.
- However, these changes must be consistent with funding source requirements.
- Contract standardization, and program and funding consolidation are scheduled for completion over the next two years. [Refer to the March 12 Meeting Minutes and Attachments A & B of same]
Agenda Item 8.2, Recommendation #16: Develop electronic submission for all reporting functions (programmatic and fiscal) to include electronic fund transfers.
- Report by Controller’s representative regarding automated invoicing, including; electronic signature, and the default method when contracts are silent on original signatures requirements.
The following summarizes the Controller’s representative report:
- The Controller has not established a policy on electronic documents between the departments and contractors because current City technology does not support it.
- The process used by the Dept. of Children, Youth and their Families is acceptable since its completely electronic.
- The difficulty is where departments use a mixture of manual and electronic documents.
- The baseline for the Controller is that both departments and contractors are willing to certify the originality of the documents.
Agenda Item 8.4, Recommendation #18. Create a standard and simplified set of forms that: a) do not duplicate data from one section to another; b) are consistent, simplified, and non-duplicative; c) allows contractors to provide all needed data in a standardized format for all departments; and d) reflects the minimum requirements of the funding source.
The lead Public Health representative engaged in consolidating and standardizing Public Health contracting documents reviewed the status of the project with Task Force members and attendees from Dept. of Children, Youth and their Families, Dept. of Human Services, Dept. on the Status of Women, and the Mayor’s Office of Community Development on Tuesday, May 13. The following summarizes their discussions at the Task Force meeting:
- While standardize forms are important it is just one of many interrelated components that must be addressed as part of the whole.
- Requirements, systems and processes must first be reviewed in order to consolidate and standardize forms.
- Standard forms developed by large departments may not necessarily work for small departments that may have fewer reporting requirements.
- Too much standardization of forms may result in the use of standardized forms with many attachments.
Agenda Items: See May 21 Agenda
Public Comment:
The representative from the Department on the Status of Women reminded the Task Force that Co-Chair Blackwell had volunteered to issue a memo to all City departments informing them of the Task Force’s work, the impact that it may have on how the City contracts with non-profit service providers, the importance of departments keeping abreast with the Task Force’s discussions and referring them to the Task Force’s web page for meeting agendas and minutes.
Adjournment: 12:05 p.m.
A. Implementation Plan Committee Report, Recommendations Nos. 12, 4, 6 & 10.
