Government Operations Committee - 11/22/24

e we're starting a little late let's um quick call the rooll council Pia president council member Hernandez council member Hut here three members and a quum and chair okay so good morning everyone and members of the public we are the government operations committee I'm M Pia council member for the sixth district and today is Friday November 22nd 2024 starting this meeting at 8:37 um now let's move forward with taking public comment on individual agenda items multiple agenda items and general public comment our goal is to get to as many speakers as possible we will then move through the agenda one item at a time listen to staff presentations and vote on the items accordingly can you please uh read the rules to public comment members of the public wishing to speak on only one item shall be given an opportunity to speak on that item for for up to 1 minute members of the public speaking on more than one agenda item shall be allowed to speak for up to 1 minute per item up to a total of 2 minutes per meeting uh anyone on the que no ma'am okay then um Can wee com yes do you have to formally say something okay so it's closed okay good so great uh so colleagues I ask that we hear presentations for item 9 and 11 and take the following items on consent items 1 through eight 9 and 14 13 oh did I say 14 9 and 13 right and uh on consent is items 1 through 8 7- 12 14 and 17 and I would like to specify that for item four I'm going to approve the mfc's recommendation and declare the properties listed in exhibit B of the MFC report as an exempt Surplus land pursuing to the California Surplus Land Act any objections okay um can you please call the vote council member Pia yes council member Hernandez yes council member Hut yes three eyes these eyes are approved okay very good could we uh start the presentation for item 13 name again Mr Lopez can you please read the item into the record ITA report relative to the to utilization of artificial intelligence in the city and related matters good morning te Ross general manager with the information technology agency certainly as we all know we live in a highly Digital World our work our Recreation even our relationships with each other have been influenced by digital technology and the city of Los Angeles recognizes the importance of digital technology and has even received various prestigious Awards however digital Innovation is not enough as Americans become increasingly digital they've also become increasingly distrustful of digital technology and honestly often for good reason as the government for the people of Los Angeles we believe the city of Los Angeles and I know with the leadership of this committee that the city of Los Angeles needs Digital Services that aren't just Innovative but also ethical that's why we've drafted in a collaborative manner this 35-page digital code of ethics the principles in this code were shaped by input from Los Angeles residents business business coalitions elected officials and academic experts this collaborative approach ensures that the code aligns with the community's expectations and needs the digital code of ethics is built on five foundational values that will guide the city of Los Angeles in its use of Technology number one technology must be human Centric which means it's designed to benefit residents businesses and visitors and ensures that digital Solutions enhance the quality of life for all angelinas number two our technology needs to be Equitable public Digital Services must be fair must be inclusive and must be accessible to all communities avoiding discriminatory practices in both design and implementation number three it needs to be transparent the city commits to openness by avoiding blackbox systems which are systems in which you don't know what you're built and when you get results you can't even explain how you got them those are unacceptable we need to disclose the use of sensitive data we need to Implement technology in a way that the public can understand number here as stewards of digital assets for residents the city needs to prioritize the protection of sensitive data so when data is required to perform a service and we should only require as much data as is only necessary we to make sure we took great steps to cyber secure that data so it doesn't end up in the wrong hands and number five our fifth value in the document is sustainable technology decisions need to to consider the environmental impact and the long-term viability ensuring that Solutions are cost effective scalable and eco-friendly these values are intended to help us align our values with the people of Los Angeles also in the document we go beyond that to include 10 principles and I'm not going to go through all the different principles but a few of the key ones would be for example functionality and usability one of our principles is that our digital solution should be both effective and user friendly ensuring that people can access it and perform the services they need to do another key one is equity and accessibility our services must be inclusive addressing the diverse needs of Los Angeles diverse communities a third one I thought that was key was Data privacy we are have commitment in this document that personal data collected by the city and as I mentioned before we would only collect what's absolutely necessary to effectively perform that service it would never be sold and it will be securely managed and then of course like any good document we get into some very specific items around emerging Technologies so while values and principles are important and we know our city departments can work to adhere to them both with technology they already have and as well as new technology and Technology decisions really it's emerging technologies that are probably the biggest area of risk and those are new technologies that come in that maybe we don't fully understand or maybe Industries don't fully understand and so the use of those Technologies probably Bears the greatest risk there are a whole key list of Technologies in there that often show up in the who's who of technology news but I thought a few key ones first and foremost on that list is artificial intelligence right the city will require that AI systems be explainable and free from bias prohibit using sensitive resident data in public AI tools and ensure that transparency and fairness and model development and deployment we also have a section on Technologies like blockchain section on Internet of Things on drones facial recognition just a whole list of items it doesn't even say the city is using or will even choose to use some of these Technologies but if we did we put safeguards and practices in place to ensure that the right people are vetting and validating before those Technologies would even be developed I think the intent of this is to highlight the city's Progressive stance on technology governance so that we can actually codify and work very closely as technology departments anyone who's implementing technology as well as to let the public know where we stand when it comes to how we use technology and that we sign ourselves up for public accountability along that vein that's the digital code of ethics along that vein we also included in our recent submission to this committee items specifically around AI so we included the AI request form as well as the the AI safety checklist so Madam chair yeah so Madam chair if you like to I can give a little verbal on that one too or if you want to I could simply take questions okay absolutely absolutely and so you're right towards the end you'll have something that we call the AI request form and in addition to that we have a checklist called an AI safety checklist right at the end right here oh this thank you and that one's I know it's a lot of documents you know us technologists we're always going to give you a lot sorry about that reest and really what it does is it represents a holistic approach that's our intent the digital code of ethics that we were just discussing that's meant for us to communicate we publish it we work with City departments we train to it every year we review and we update it right as new technologies come out it finds a place in a lot of ways that digital code of ethics is about training humans and establishing standards for the AI request form that's a very specific document which is intended for us to say new AI applications need to have completed this form so that we can go through a process right and to be clear these are intended to be done before development before build to start that conversation if a department wants to build a website there's only so much risk associated with the website we as a city have been building websites for 20 plus years but if we're going to undertake and step into emerging Technologies like AI we have to have multiple conversations before we even get started and for subject matter experts myself and many others we have a good understanding and good insight as to where regulations are and really where issues can be uh AI is an awfully big topic I think for the average person and a very sensitive topic you know mind you but not a not all AI is the same right and so a lot of us have been using AI with things like language translation for years and we didn't know a lot of us have been using AI on things like spell check for years and we didn't really realize that that was artificial intelligence but there's only so much damage spell check can do right the reality is if we were then to translate it to very sensitive Services clearly AI needs to be under a much bigger scope related to it so the points of the AI request form is for City departments before they were to undertake an AI project is to go ahead and complete the request form to create a structured review by the information technology agency as well as a a collaborative riew with other technology departments because we do it through what we call the it policy committee which meets every other month and the intent is to ensure that what's being proposed complies with the ethical guidelines that the eyes are are dotted and the tees are crossed that conversations are had that consequences are thought through if any and the intent is to collect the tools purpose and the scope it's to help understand data how would the data what data is required does it align with our privacy and our security policies it discusses things like ethical implications what could be potential risks is there a potential for bias and misuse in regards to how it's being used if so what are the mitigation strategies these are very well documented practices in Industries but quite often especially governments in a rush to judgment they may Implement tools without fully understanding what they're implementing or how it describes the importance of human oversight we're clearly in a world right now where if I'm using a tool to make a decision let's say I'm writing a letter or writing an email and I'm asking an AI tool to help me write that email clearly I'm going to review that email before I send it we have to ensure that there's always human oversight to regardless of how the tools being used as well as there's elements of the request form around compliance the intent is that we have a comprehensive document that allows departments to start a conversation before they enter into looking at AI tools and to be very clear AI tools are increasingly being embedded in existing tools this isn't the kind of thing where we're always say I'm going to go do AI the reality is most existing tools are already starting to see components of AI implemented in them when you say that do you mean like we already have a vendor a software that's being used and before you know it they upgrade to the newest levels and it has AI embedded yeah so we're using an email client and then the email client starts to add additional features and for the average person they don't realize that there's AI That's powering those types of features and so all the major vendors are all introducing AI components and features and if we were to fast forward five years increasingly we'll be doing things that whether we realize it or not have ai powering it in the background so so with that being said um how do you you know as the ITA leading agency kind of stay on top of that as it pertains to all departments because when I look at this form it looks more like they're looking into something new and want to start a conversation it it's it's a great question and the reality is it makes itself known so certainly for the time being many of these AI components have an extra cost even associate with them so you know when you're entering into it at this point fast forward 10 years from now where will we be we will see and we'll have a healthy dialogue I think the power of conversation is really important the risk that we have mostly in the city is that someone does something off on the side without collaboration and it creates unintended consequences we have a lot of really intelligent people at the city of Los Angeles when we work together on something we get great things done it's when someone does something individually or group does something individually where they don't even have our cyber security expertise they don't have our Network understanding they don't have a good eye or appreciation on data what's being captured they don't look at the contracts associated with it these are all the kinds of dotting of the eyes and crossing of the tees that really make a huge difference in the conversation and that's really the intent of the form it's to be able to do things together as a city family not to slow everyone down but to ensure that we're all walking into these items with eyes wide open well I know I have a few questions sure but I want to open it up to my colleagues first for all three components yeah I have so many questions sure please I do um I actually lived through a a technology breach um down at the Port you know when the when the port was held that but yes and and they they had to you know bring ships in with the paper manifest and all those things what what kind of assessment tool will we have on any breaches if we're using AI That's embedded from a vendor and you may know or may not know time the first step is to ensure that our cyber security team is a part of the conversation before we Implement those tools so we have cyber security staff who are extremely knowledgeable and they'll look at let's say system architectures every piece of software has access to some kind of data access to some portion of the network Etc some pieces of software have tremendous access which means they could be tremendous risk some have very limited access so they're limited risk and so before as we're implementing or before we implement we ensure that we've assessed all those items and then we can put safeguards in place right so there's certain kinds of data that you could forbid an application to have and that's kind of part of that black box conversation and so have you made those determinations has your team determined what is should be accessible what should not yes I I I could say in succinctly yes there's a lot of applications at the city of Los Angeles every week we run through things like vulnerability assessments and we have a good understanding of the existing footprint the key is as new technologies are being discussed we need to be a part of those conversations so that we can reassess as new items come in again you can see the issue if we move rapidly and start adopting a lot of different Technologies we don't understand we're opening ourselves up to risks because we're not F we're not walking with eyes wide open we need to be Eyes Wide Open on the AI conversation thank you for that sure on this form you have the AI request form yep is it only for departments to use or sure departments including myself yeah okay I think one of the aspects are you saying like as opposed to elected offices or others or the ITA is the IT team for the elected offices and so it's for all departments so if elected offices are moving into these tools if ITA is moving into these tools we'll fill out our own form we'll make sure that our whole itpc sees it we'll discuss it as a group as well as another department is involved we'll all hold ourselves accountable for this time to go ahead and utilize these forms and then I I um earlier this year when we first had a discussion about AI maybe it wasn't the first one but a discussion sure um we also talked about the use of otter and how staff should not be using correct so so now I'm seeing like every other commercial because I watch regular TV it's crazy thing every every other commercial is on Otter use otter it sure so so where are we in that place and oversight do we have we forbid it not only do we forbid it we take proactive steps on the network to find it and pardon the term to find it and kill it because it's an unauthorized tool one of the greatest issues with tools like otter and there's many others AI has been driving the the NASDAQ it's been driving the technology Market it is such an impactful type of Technologies and for some who's seen it in some ways it looks almost magical what it could accomplish it's not magic it's not intelligence but it is a very sophisticated set of tools the problem we have with tools like otter and others it's unauthorized which means if I'm loading data into it I have no idea where it's going they have no contractual responsibility to me and I am pushing data and effectively disclosing it to a public company so if it's recording a sensitive conversation or if I'm loading information into it I have no control however we do have contracts with Google with Salesforce with workday with others and if we were to use tools in which AI is a component of that we can ensure that the eyes are dotted the te's are crossed what data does it have access to what safeguards do we have in place so our biggest issue with these tools that they're unauthorized and you're touching on a very important topic the city of Los Angeles like every other government almost doesn't have a choice if we don't make tools available to our employees they will go other places and get tools and the tools that they use we will have no control Safeguard or oversight of and so we need to as a city be very mindful of the fact that people can swipe a credit card or download something on the side you see the commercials they see the commercials we'll tell them not to we'll take steps to try to prevent it but it's we'll be in a much better place if if they're trying to do something to create a meeting transcription let's say they have a disability and they need meeting transcription tools we want them to have an authorized version of a tool to use as opposed to going into an unauthorized world that that makes so much sense um I I have just one more question do do you have uh employee oversights uh a plan in place oversights in the sense of like system controls to prevent something just like you just gave a great example would you say that that's part of what you created this checklist yes we we created the checklist to ensure that oversights are in place for new tools but you're right for unauthorized tools yeah we take proactive steps to identify and get rid of them um again the it GC is that a team within your department that kind of go through this checklist it's the it policy committee it represents about 150 it managers across the city so it's well represented by ITA but it's also represented by engineering building and safety LAPD La fire Etc where you guys check in and just that's right exactly very good and that and the intent is to create collaboration I want building and safety to have excellent technology I want engineering to have excellent technology we just all want to work together to ensure that none of us step on any landmines and we do these things together they can leverage my cyber security team which is the best in the city I can leverage their insight into their business and what they understand there's a lot to be said regarding us all working together on these types of things again they don't need we don't have to have a huge powow to deploy a website they have that pretty well in hand but when it comes to emerging Technologies and AI is the big one of the day clearly we need to do these things as a group because I could see something they don't they could see something I don't and we should do this we should always have extra sets of eyes um and again importantly these types of tools will increasingly show up in the Technologies we already have have so we need to as a city really understand what we're doing and at times say no to things because they're not the right move or at the right time thank you I I know AI is saving California right now so if we've seen our deficit and our number and what's filling the Gap so yep thank you for that you had a question yes yes joman my question is how can we use uh this technology to get a 311 app that meets the 2024 landscape 2025 that we're going into sure well well I'll say this that app you're using as much as it gets enhanced and everything was originally designed in 2015 right and it feels 2015 2015 um but at the same time in all fairness 311 is handling two and a half million requests a year so it's a it's a Workhorse it's getting it's getting a lot done but we want we are modernizing it and so we are currently in the process of of building and deploying it to a Salesforce platform so very modern very robust platform with new designs and everything and that's looking at a launch in February of this next year if we'd love to have your team take a look at early prototypes and make sure that you're weighing in on okay good and that is an app that will have tools like you can take a photo and it will say that's graffiti that's on a brick wall that's at the corner of Virgil and Third Street so we have to put in all that it'll prefill it for you right and that's using AI right that's a that's an AI technology it's a lowrisk AI technology because worst case scenario it says that's graffiti and it says it's on a brick wall but it's really something different and then you just change it before you submit it but it is AI technology that's coming out of AWS as a part of that partnership so yes we are across all fronts looking to improve how we deliver services to your point wonderful thank you we'd love to follow up on that you got it we'll follow up with your office absolutely thank you so along these great questions I do have a few things that I've noticed on here um I'm looking at the tool request form and I noticed that within questions six seven and eight um there's a lot on combined on there and I was wondering if maybe where it says for example in s um is a proof a concept ofel to demo at the information technology policy committee self-explanatory right but then where me I know you have one hyperlink to see the it policies and guideline link but there's no like hyperlink to understand the information security policy sure or the web policy and standards policy and standards so either we could hyperlink that as well absolutely or you can embed additional questions that they can also say yes and no clarify to clarify yeah or else you're just gonna this I know this is to start the conversation but I feel like if it's too basic um stuff is going to slide um before fully vetted as an appropriate vendor so to speak Y and then same thing goes for number8 um it looks like it says link but I don't I it didn't come up blue in my copy so I don't know if it's really hyperlink yet or not um you got and then at the end where it says is an ethical transp human standard and secure uh and secure processes possible kind of the same thing maybe like some some additional questions related to how we Define those things um off of the the safe safety checklist yep um and then so yeah is that possible absolutely it's possible okay and um I know the folks who wrote it okay so I know their boss it's me absolutely it's possible I'm taking notes as we speak okay great so I'm curious um you know you did mention that you guys have this monthly or whatever you have a meeting where multiple it we've been doing it for years we have it manag like I said we got about 150 participants every other month and we discuss a whole variety of topics in fact we just had one yesterday and so it's it's the it's the Gathering of the Geeks for lack of a better term um but it's a way to ensure right it's a way to ensure that any technology leadership across the city whether it's it or other department we're talking we're working together we're all seeing the same thing and we're giving an outlet for people to ask questions it's a great group that group already review the digital code of ethics that's a group that looks at other policies and so it's that's a way for us to lock arms to use a mayor's analogy when we're doing things like technology great um I did want to ask a little bit about some of I I can appreciate that in the um code of the whole digital code of ethics that you have a a breakdown by the um emerging Technologies yes um I know we're talking a lot about AI yep but within all of these subsections of blockchain uh predictive an analytics chat boxes um I'll get into drones you'll see me get into drones in the next couple of months y um facial recognition healthc care data social media virtual and augment augmented reality and facial recognition where do you feel it's the Emerging Market in which we are least prepared for we as a city are least prepared for as a city uh right now ai um we're taking a lot of steps we're working to prepare ourselves but that one will have the biggest impact that we're rapidly getting people to understand and work through there's tremendous pressure on departments for lack of a better term to show off right every department wants to show off every department wants to say I believe you right I'm I'm leading I'm ahead we saw this with mobile apps everyone kept hiring interns to build their own mobile app when in a lot of ways the services they were doing belonged in 311 right so we consumed these mobile apps but they wanted to show their boss that they've got a mobile app it was cool at the time right and so AI is probably the top one but in some of these other areas you see the way these industries are I would say a few years ago blockchain fit that category but in a lot of ways it's leveled off in demand not a lot of people are buying into blockchain especially in government so that's an area where While most people don't quite understand it we're not getting a lot of pressure from departments and from employees to implement tools like that um let's see what about facial recognition that's an area right now we don't have anyone pursuing it okay um but it's an area that I think is extremely important to cover it I would say that's the topic that's probably top of my list to be concerned with um it there's just a lot of there's a lot of bad to to it um and a lot of bad opportunities to it now can I objectively sit down and think of some really useful use cases for facial recognition yeah there are but the reality is it is fr it's a nest of bees that if you're going to touch something like that you really have to fully understand why you're doing what you're doing and all the implications of it and I think a lot of angelinos would look at that and immediately become concerned hence the reason why we added it into this document and you'll see that in the facial recognition it has very strong controls before someone's even allowed to do it including City attorney approval right you don't see saying well we need to do City attorney approval before we you know deploy an iot sensor but certainly in facial recognition Okay and then I have to learn more about what internet of things and sensors means to be very honest sure um and my question I have two questions one is would it be worth our while to look into creating a safety checklist by topic um because we've been so focused more on the AI stuff a lot of these topics have been around for some years and so I don't think it would necessarily require that and so what about a code of ethics a code of ethics for all of them for each for each well we can take another examination at it so we included Healthcare data and social media we know a lot of our users are really robust at this point on social media so while that's actually the one that I was thinking about in particular mhm um when I was at the county at the CEO's office um within a very small section it almost became like there was a yearning on behalf of all departments for the CEO's office because they happen to be where the communications team was housed that they have some kind of guidelines on social media related to when do you respond when do you not respond what do you say what do you not say what should you erase should you not erase so um we we actually have that and so we have some items maybe maybe what you're thinking are are some items that may exist but outside of this maybe we should do a better job linking to them so several years ago we our social media folks gathered other social media folks so we run this kind of Citywide social media community in which public information officers get together and we establish basic guidelines we established ways to share content with each other because you know if something great coming out related to Earth Day from sanitation I want to make sure our folks are broadcasting that Etc so we do have some items that maybe aren't in this document but are are certainly related okay um that gives me some stuff to think about so appreciate the answer sure okay um with that I'm done with questions anything else good with that no thank you okay well uh my last question was what action do you need from us today as it pertains to to this item uh we plan we intended on this for for conversation and for we don't necessarily need the city council to formally adopt these items and we will continue to upload update and publish but we wanted to make sure we had this conversation and any conversation but once Council let's say carries this through we'll go ahead and publish and we'll get into the conversation exactly as we described so I think my intent as much as anything was to hear your all feedback hear your input and from any other council members before we proceed okay then I make a motion that we note and file this um with the recommend that you elaborate questions six seven and 8 um to have the appropriate hyperlinks um for the topics that are brought up within those questions and um that we continue the conversation great thank you so much look forward to having this be distributed to the whole city so now we have it uh can you please call the V Mr Lopez council member Adia yes council member Hernandez yes council member Hut yes these items are noted and file this item is noted and file okay so thank you very much uh general manager Ted Ross um Now we move on colleagues to a presentation for item 13 no item nine um do we have someone in the audience for item nine come on up can you Mr L read item nine for the record CAO report relative to community level Contracting and small inclusive procurement okay go ahead please say your name and your department for the record yes my name is Daniel Cho from the uh City administrative officer's office uh and I am the senior manage management analyst too that oversees the procurement strategy and policy group with me here today is Lea Chu our Deputy City procurement officer who will also be here to answer any questions you may have and with that said before you today uh the office of procurement submits our report back regarding creating a city-wide inclusive procurement program pilot our city has our office has recommended the following two recommendations for this committee's approval one instruct the office of procurement to launch the inclusive procurement program pilot and two direct departments to post all Contracting opportunities inclusive of all Soul Source service contracts regardless of whether it was in writing or not on the regional Alliance Marketplace for procurement ramp um and so council members um yeah once again good morning honorable chair and committee members uh the heart of this motion is the city's commitment to creating procurement opportunities for a small local and diverse businesses the recommendations as written on this report detail the office of Chairman's recommendations towards piloting this inclusive procurement pilot which includes the utilization of community level Contracting and small inclusive procurements these opportunities can be excellent first contracts for businesses such as Mom and Pop shops um that have not done procurement before with the city and can be a pathway to Growing their businesses through governmental Contracting our vision for the inclusive procurement program pilot is to have all departments have a mindset shift to identify and hold inclusive procurement opportunities and for the city to have a portfolio of projects that are tailored for our small local and diverse businesses the office of procurment would also recommend for Council to instruct departments to post uh all opportunities regardless of size and if the contract was require if the contract was required to be in writing or not many of these opportunities that are not in writing or Soul Source are are under $225,000 which can be prime candidates for firsttime Contracting opportunities um the recent uh Los Angeles Administrative Code Section 105 10.15 change uh allowed the city to Soul Source or effectively Soul Source procurements under the $225,000 threshold uh and so this is why we are making that second uh recommendation as well um and if it would be helpful I can go uh quickly give a summary of what uh Community level Contracting and small inclusive procurements are yeah please that was actually one of my questions that would help awesome thank you so much um so Community level Contracting as a summary is uh is a method that has been used by the Board of Public Works and the Bureau of contract Administration to unbundle various contracts in uh the Department of Public Works you say unbundle correct so yes the uh the act of UN bundling contracts is to take large scale procurements and identify the entire contract or sections of uh the contracts that can be set apart to make Contracting opportunities more easily accessible for uh smaller or more diverse or you know our local uh business populations and so let me see if I understand what you mean by that so instead of having going to like a big contractor where you buy multiple supplies it's like you know of these five items that we're buying there's a better vendor for this one therefore they reduce it and then go somewhere else right so a good way to maybe uh for example the Bureau of engineering has a uh that $30 million a year sidewalk program that they essentially look to smaller contractors to fulfill uh sidewalk concrete projects and so it's looking at this $30 million project and saying hey instead of just releasing a $30 million procurement why don't we break this apart and make it into like you know $100,000 $200,000 packages so that we can have our small businesses actually go compete for these and it's a lot easier to win and compete for a $200,000 contract versus a $30 million one where a large company would be uh probably best or not best but probably and the ramp program is helping unpackage this so it uh all of our opportunities are on ramp uh the process of which these Community level Contracting programs uh work through is a um pre-qualified list so they are uh pre-qualified list contracts rfqs and sorry if you want to jump into but uh they are pre-qualified lists uh they're not necessarily bench contracts and that's a point that I can get to later um but they use ramp to find those lists uh participate get qualified and they will be on this short list to participate there so ramp is um the holder of those uh Community level contracts as well you know what would be really helpful sure if you guys can maybe put on like your like an ITA hat and break down for this committee the pro the the chicken and egg process of what exactly R is right because it sounds like I've never been on it but I know that I've referred a lot of people to it right because I know that it's the opportunity for the folks that want to know how do I Som day get a you know City of La contract and I've had people from construction to party planners ask for those opportunities right absolutely um but every time I hear more about it it sounds like there's a very chicken and egg process to it right there's the city list opportunities there's departments trying to figure out how to break down big dollars to smaller dollars but then there's also like it almost sounds like they have to go through a vetting process um that makes them eligible and then it almost sounds like they have to be Savvy enough to understand the key words related to what they do versus matching it to what's available so how do you break that down Madame chair um Leu from the office of procurement and so can you speak more into the microphone sorry um if I may rap is really more a website so it's a tool where people can be informed of procurement opportunities what we're trying to Pilot today and what we're requesting for Authority for is to launch this pilot program where our office would work with different departments to find these small um opportuni ities that would be accessible for these small local businesses so you're going to do the unpackaging for them yes so ramp is just a place if you know what you're doing you want to look for opportunities catering construction all of our procurement opportunities they're required to be advertised through ramp but it it's really the city folks who are doing the work to unbundle and also to hopefully market and what we're trying to push through through this pilot is to integrate a lot of the resources that are already available in the city whether it be through BCA their Outreach and marketing through ewdd and their business source centers and hopefully through our team working with all the different departments to identify these opportunities and helping them be be the manpower to help them consider oh maybe you we can break this out would you be able to elaborate a little bit on your work plan are you going to go are what departments you going to focus on First and what's your timeline right so um more or less we are going to in summary we're going to ask and have a secondary uh survey for the Departments to pull about 12 uh CLC or small inclusive procurement opportunities and we would effectively administer 12 of those one every month so that we can begin the initial uh pilot of a inclusive procurement program and that will be our initial portfolio so um one thing I would like to get into as well is um we had an initial survey to the Departments asking uh them to also help identify potential CLC or small inclusive procurements uh that yeah how did they respond yeah so uh 36 departments responded to the survey uh there were about 51 opportunities uh 21% of those opportunities were construction related 79 were Professional Services and um the re the overwhelming I guess uh notion was over 50 or 55% of the department state that they do not have the current resources nor Personnel to handle their additional workload for CLC opportunities and so as we mentioned the unbundling aspect uh taking a large scale one single contract uh and to breaking it up into potentially tens of different contracts is a lot of administrative work that the Departments have uh so this is for you guys to take that on then so for this initials uh inclusive procurement program pilot yes we would be uh tackling that how long do you think this pilot will take um I think about a year over the course of a year one a month as is what we're we're looking at um it's for staff to more or less release these procurements do the evaluations make the recommendations for the Departments and then that's when they would take over the contract okay so I know that my colleagues have questions but I don't want to forget the actions that I want to sure bring about um it would be great if you guys came and gave us a quarterly reports on how this is going um because I uh my prediction is resistance um from the Departments to kind of talk to to you guys about what could happen it reminds me a lot of um the transition to workday and getting the data into work workday right so um I want to do this for the sake of being able to um be helpful because I know that this is something that the public would appreciate um so that's my what I would like to ask do we have to vote on that can I get a second second and call a vote after the questions okay thank you so much Madam chair I I have a question about unbundling uh when these opportunities come about which are smaller contracts do do we have a way to to Define somewhere in the pilot that it's local hire so that we don't have folks from Arizona and Nevada trying to come and get our smaller contracts is it is that legal can we make it a local hire piece in there targeted local hire may be difficult unless but I think what you're asking for is to ensure local businesses yeah correct the contracts right certainly we cannot require that only local businesses respond however the city already has a local business preference program and so uh local meaning County and City have up to 12% preference so if we they were bidding get a up to 12% leg up there's a lot of other criteria but they go somewhere from between 6 to 8% all the way up to 12% that they can have a leg of and in that way that's how we can provide a preference but we cannot close the door from for businesses outside of um local businesses from sponding and something I would like to add is currently the unbundling process um and the way the local business preference program and the ordinance is written in the rules and procedures is that we can only more or less uh or at least the way that Community level Contracting works as well is that we put people onto lists rotating lists or pre-qualified lists but those are not necessarily contracts and so uh something that we've identified is that um in order to maybe streamline uh maybe getting people onto these bench contracts because all of the administrative workload is done upfront and people would be sitting ready for these Contracting opportunities it would be helpful of maybe uh the lpppp would be inclusive of bench Contracting as well currently it is not and so that is an area in which we feel um yeah or that uh has been identified as a potential um kind of yeah um yeah so potential change to that um and another one item that I would like to bring up in this uh report is the small inclusive procurement um which is a a a term that we've recently coined um it's the category of procurement opportunities that can be marketed for small local diverse business communities uh it does not actually take uh the act of unbundling it's actually more of the identification within the Departments uh to find $150,000 in under opportunities that could be marketed towards our small local inclus our local businesses and so how does that Outreach that was my next question how's that Outreach happen we're probably all thinking the same thing yes so currently want to lift our small businesses absolutely we hear that yes um currently the all of these opportunities would be posted onto ramp but something our office is also thinking about is creating a dedicated page onto the ramp uh where we would have a you know inclusive procurement tab I guess if you will where we can amass all of these um you know portfolio Pro or projects into a single place to give uh the the vendors an opportunity to find it all in a single location and so I think that would be an excellent way to U Market our opportunities right now it's very filter heavy we can just get into the system and say I I want to look for this is and that but if we can just simplify that by putting it all into one place 150 and Below yeah and also with the CLC maybe together um it would be good to just have all of these opportunities in a single place and so that's why with the uh inclusive procurement Pilot We would like to kind of amass the initial 12 and then as we get better at this and help the Departments understand this is how you do it this is what it looks like um we would like for them to more or less have a portfolio going forward so we can start small and then we will start uh increasing the amount of uh inclusive procurement opportunities that our city holds so I have one more question Madam chair one more question if we are marketing to small businesses to take this unbundled contract piece are they going to get paid different faster is my real word faster than the big contractors who who have the wherewithal to wait months and months in our small business businesses down right so that is a uh paino that we have heard loud and clear um currently the controller has stated we do have like a 30 uh 30-day payment policy however you know we know that there's a lot of in between before that 30-day hits um and so one thing our office is actually currently piloting with uh the Board of Public Works uh is the we're trying to create a centralized invoice management system to help at least have uh a tracking system on our invoices to ensure that by the time we get emailed we have eyes and more less unless it's transparent for the vendors to see where their invoice would be in the uh you know in the in the system itself but uh we have not built that out yet it's uh it's probably next year it's been funded by The Innovation fund um we're currently we've already gone out to bid and made a recommendation for an award but we're still negotiating with the contractor but we are hopeful that we are we would be able to complete the pilot before the end of this fiscal year that's all goodness is thank you thank you madam chair very any questions no chairwoman thank you I just one last question um do you work in any way what are you working in any way on this pilot with the economic workforce and development department so in our report we've made a recommendation to utilize the procure La program which is a new mayoral program and that is held by Pace um and another thing I would like to mention about Community level Contracting unbundling there are a lot of wraparound services that need to happen as you've all mentioned there's Outreach there's training there's education of how to do business with the city of La and so that's the department to do that with right yes and uh we were we are working with ewdd we just had a call with them last week about the picture La program uh we are getting involved we will be helping them set up a curriculum for the preure LA program accelerator um and yeah this we acknowledge that this is not just the effort of our office alone but with uh ewdd the Bureau of contract Administration as well as you know the partnering departments that are um you know that will be having one of these 12 opportunities themselves okay you should do some site visits maybe there too sure yeah we would love to actually go to pace and sit in kind of see how they're training people and so forth so yeah I think that would be very good yes we will do that okay the stuff AI can't do for you we you know ITA may be the um the technology Geeks but we are the procurement nerds as we'd like to say so so yeah but it's what but while they're very useful to the workers of the city of Los Angeles you guys are the procurement is a way for folks to feel like they're part of it absolutely you know and this is the city's way that we're really committing to that so we're excited for this and we do have a big vision for it as well so go for it if I just may add one thing that I'm really excited about this pilot though is that we're finally Bridging the training with the actual procurement because there's what's the point of all the training when you can't hand an award and have people practice what they've just learned and so I think this is where we are thinking that we can marry all of that using all the training that both and the Outreach that BCA is doing the training that ewdd will be doing and then finally when we can all collaborate we can use that training and make these small businesses practice and get the experience they need to be proficient in being able to first work on these small business opportunities and hopefully graduate to bigger ones yeah I think ideally the goal would be that the same way our constituents identify 311 as like a branded space for um you know getting your streets and your neighborhood clean the business Community the locals Community will know that ramp is that household kind of Icon name for working um on City contracts it can get there yeah absolutely we believe it too okay okay so with that um very good um no more questions looks like we're done I move that we approve the cao's recommendation um cao's recommendations on item nine so Mr Lopez can you please call the role council member P yes council member hernandz yes council member Hut enthusiastic yes three eyes this item is approved as amended as amended okay and U so what is next on the agenda that we need to formally vote on thank you uh good luck item 10 11 12 item 10 Information Technology agency report relative to the renewal application uh of the Kaiser Foundation hospitals LC Information Technology systems franchise sorry so it's 11 sorry 10 11 and 12 are the next items on the desk oh well those are can we how do I go back to mentioning those on consent just call the vote okay can we call the vote to put those on those on consent 11 through 12 11 through 12 sorry 10 through 12 10 through 12 12 okay council member viia yes Council M Hernandez yes council member Hut yes the these items are approved all right um does that clear the table take your time we're good on time the desk is clear thank you very much thank you have a good meeting for the weekend

2024-11-25 16:18

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