Item 31 - Contract to Grant Thornton Public Sector LLC for American Rescue Plan Act

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Grant Thornton Public Sector LLC City of Santa Ana | RFQ 21- 093 Revised Proposal Use or disclosure of data contained on this sheet is subject to the restriction on the title page of this proposal or quotation. 24 performed under Government Accountability Office (GAO) “Yellow Book” auditing standards, American Institute of Public Accountants (AICPA) auditing standards, and OMB Circular A-133/uniform guidance. Rachel will be available to the GT Team and the City’s team to provide insight and guidance on the compliance risk for decisions ranging from procurement of services, management of subawards (contractors or subrecipients), cost reasonableness standards, and documentation compliance. The Grant Thornton’s team expertise and experience in providing guidance on grant compliance is critical to the City’s smooth implementation and management of ARPA (SLFRF) funds. Grant Thornton collaborates with City stakeholders to understand the goals and objectives of the Revive Santa Ana Spending Plan’s (Plan) expenditure categories and confirm the alignment of those goals and objectives of ARPA SLFRF. Our team conducts a review of the Plan’s proposed programs, services, and infrastructure projects for their eligibility as ARPA-funded projects. We have provided similar or identical eligibility reviews and compliance validation services for several entities seeking to maximize their CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF) and funding criteria of other federal agencies and non-government entities. For example, we currently support New Castle County, Delaware government in screening nearly 2,000 proposed teacher projects, which were to be processed through a vendor contractor, for their eligibility per CRF requirements as outlined in U.S. Treasury guidance and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Subsequent reviews were performed on the specific items proposed within each project for their eligibility. Where appropriate, Grant Thornton diligently worked with our client to document the logic for accepting materials based on inferences drawn from Treasury guidance for items that may not have been explicitly referenced as examples of eligible costs. Thus, we are able to help our client maximize their use of CRF while maintaining eligibility and compliance requirements. In addition to the teachers’ program, additional eligibility and compliance reviews and recommendations are provided for this client’s paid administrative leave expenditures. The transfer of CRF from the County to multiple state programs include many that are comparable to the programs in the Revive Santa Ana Spending Plan (e.g., business assistance, child daycare, adult technical training program), and fire and municipality costs. Other clients for whom we have conducted expenditure eligibility reviews include: • Berkshire Health Systems, Inc. (April 2020-present) - Grant Thornton is providing a COVID- 19 eligibility and strategy program to Berkshire Health Systems by identifying where additional eligibility and/or separate claims are appropriate given the services and/or organizational ownership and structure of these organizations. Our role includes providing Berkshire Health tailored project activities, phasing recommendations, and outlined activities and work streams. • State of Florida, Division of Emergency Management (March 2018-present) – Grant Thornton is providing comprehensive grants management services to the State of Florida associated with their administration of FEMA’s Public Assistance Programs. Our work involves reviewing Project Worksheets in Grants Portal before providing recommendations to the state to approve or return to FEMA for amendments. This review includes identifying documentation necessary to support claimed costs and reconciling those costs to the total eligible amount. With a 100% validation requirement, we reaffirm that our client meets this requirement by auditing subrecipients for compliance with applicable laws, rules, regulations, and policies, including 2 CFR 200, the FEMA Public Assistance Program and Guide (Version 4), and other sources of grants governance. Our compliance program is designed to verify expense eligibility by confirming that all claimed costs qualify as allocable, allowable, and reasonable. Grant Thornton enables our client to comply with federal laws governing pass-through entity responsibilities by managing the subaward and grant agreement process, reconciling eligible costs in their grants management system, and guiding subgrantees through validation to closeout by being a liaison between them and the State of Florida. • State of Texas, Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) (October 2011-June 2018) – Grant Thornton provided support for program management of FEMA subgrants to local governments in Texas impacted by the presidentially declared flooding disasters in 2015 and 2016. Our work involved review and approval, on behalf of local governments (FEMA