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. 27 separate initiative equity index scores. The crux of many state and local agencies revolves around optimizing funds. Grant Thornton’s analytics team would apply an optimization model to maximize equity indices by the proper allocation of funds. Bringing equity full circle, our Performance Management initiatives tie directly back to community engagement to demonstrate progress and transparency. 2.4.3 Assist in calculating revenue loss per ARPA (SLFRF) requirements As discussed in the October 28, 2021 interview, the Grant Thornton Team understands, and acknowledges, that the City does not require assistance with the calculation of revenue loss per ARPA (SLFRF) requirements and methods. To demonstrate our understanding, we have made the following updates to our technical approach regarding this subject. 2.4.4 Provide technical assistance to City staff regarding ARPA (SLFRF) compliance and reporting requirements, including, but not limited to, recommendations for activities allowed, eligibility, procurement, and reporting As discussed in Section 2.4.1, our approach will be tailored to identify and implement the unique compliance strategies needed for each project funded by the City’s payment from the SLFRF and tasked to the Grant Thornton Team. Each member of our team has experience working with varying levels of knowledge and experience with the federal government’s uniform guidance for grant awards. Our team will collaborate closely with each project manager to develop a communications strategy that makes sense for their understanding of guidance and compliance principles as well as the meeting within the project’s timeline. Our team includes many former state and local government officials, who understand the pressures that project managers are under and will focus on adding value by viewing every interaction with a project manager as an opportunity to not only provide an administrative service, but to educate the project manager on the necessity of the administrative actions that need to be taken. This focus on education is deliberate. As a project manager’s understanding of the program guidance and federal compliance requirements increases, the efficiency of our team’s ability to extract and communicate information necessary to report and demonstrate compliance also increases. As discussed in the October 28, 2021 interview, our team has the capability of organizing and delivering more formal technical assistance training that has been accredited for CPE credits. The City’s overarching goals for its administration of ARPA (SLFRF) funding seeks to maximize grant performance, outcomes, and impacts while reducing financial, audit, and compliance risk. Maximizing grant performance involves proactive technical assistance capable of identifying eligible costs to fully use available grant funding, matching eligible costs to multiple grant programs, and justifying that grant funding is used to accomplish for the purpose it was intended. Reducing risk to the City involves systematically and methodically assessing and monitoring the use of grant funding. To accomplish this, we draw from approaches which have proven effective on similar engagements. We tailor these approaches to the City to address needs or issues most efficiently as they arise. We provide support to the City with management, oversight, compliance, reporting responsibilities, and any additional services as outlined in the scope of work. Within our approach, we propose to work collaboratively with the City to assist in achieving and maintaining short and long-term goals that are consistent with the City’s Revive Santa Ana Spending Plan utilizing the SLFRF award by establishing internal controls related to the federal funding programs. In Florida, Grant Thornton has worked with 135 subrecipients of FEMA funding managing their Hurricane Irma recovery. This work involves the review of claimed costs for eligibility, confirmation that the work was properly procured and the subrecipient provide the necessary financial reporting documentation.