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. 31 The goal of communications is for all stakeholders involved in and affected by the project to receive and understand the information they need. With this goal in mind, Grant Thornton tailors its communication to two main groups: our internal team, and our client. Communication tactics specific to each group are described below. Internal Team: Grant Thornton recognizes the importance of communication in accomplishing accurate, complete, and efficient service delivery. We have implemented horizontal and vertical team communication channels to allow information to flow freely throughout all levels and sub-teams. Our Supervisors perform daily standup calls with their sub-teams to discuss the work accomplished, work planned for the day ahead, and any barriers or challenges to be addressed. Supervisors leverage the information gathered in these standups to gauge risks and issues and escalate them to management as needed. Our entire ARPA funds management team also participates in weekly touchpoints that include any big picture updates, policy and procedure changes, and training opportunities. Our Client: At Grant Thornton, we pride ourselves on prioritizing and being responsive to client needs. An important component of our responsiveness is communicating early and often with our client. Our ARPA funds management team will establish regular client checkpoints to confirm mutual understanding of needs and expectations. Client checkpoints include weekly status meetings, and ad hoc meetings. We will also communicate frequently via email, phone, and within provided platforms to provide the City of Santa Ana with access to all the knowledge we’ve gathered throughout our interactions with Federal and State agencies, including communications, best practices and compliance playbooks that have been tested against regulatory frameworks such as 2.CFR.200. These resources are constantly updated by our Subject Matter Experts who are supported by dedicated policy analysts. 2.5 Data Requirements from City According to the City’s response to Question #14 of Addendum 2: Q&A, the City would like to know what types of data/information will be required from the City’s staff to complete the project. While responding to and recovering from the COVID-19 public health emergency is understandably a high priority for the City, as experienced managers of grants related to crisis response and recovery, we are sensitive to the fact that the City’s staff have many other high priorities and demands for their attention that may not be related to the projects contained within the City’s Revive Santa Ana Spending Plan. Our team’s focus in providing these services to the City will be to act as a partner and stakeholder in the City’s recovery and share in the responsibility of its administration. As partners in the City’s response and recovery we will do our share, and play our part, so that the City’s staff can focus on other high priorities with confidence that the project’s that the City has identified as critical to the City’s response and recovery from COVID-19 will not be delayed. This process will begin in the General Planning and Reporting Meeting as detailed in the RFQ. In this meeting our team will obtain the information it needs to understand the City’s operations and clearly define the responsibilities and expectations of Team Grant Thornton. Promptly after this meeting our team will tailor its requests for information and data to specifically achieve the tasks and responsibilities that were assigned. Generally, to properly assess projects and expenditures for compliance with ARPA guidance and federal uniform administrative requirements we anticipate that some of the information and data that our team will request will include: • Policies and procedures related to procurement, contracting, human resources, and employee compensation • Budgetary data including general ledgers, previous audits, and general revenue collections • Procurement and use of funds information including invoices, purchase orders, and contracts In its response to Questions #1 and #11 of Addendum 2: Q&A, the City indicated that the it is tracking ARPA and other COVID-19 relief funding using the City’s Lawson Infor financial accounting system. Grant Thornton is a strategic implementation partner for Infor and maintains a strategic practice within GT to At Metrolink Grant Thornton developed web-based dashboard to report the transit authority’s COVID-19 (FTA and FEMA) spending for both internal executive staff and well as a public communication.