The City of Allen has been working closely with the Cities of Frisco and McKinney to identify a Third-Party Administrator (TPA) to process, score and document grant applications for a small business grant program.  The EDC directors for each city interviewed several potential TPAs, and all agreed that the most competitive proposal was provided by the National Development Council (NDC). The NDC has a strong reputation and is currently working with various counties in Texas (including Dallas County), as well as the Cities of Richardson and Dallas to serve as a TPA for similar programs.

The TPA will determine eligibility and score companies based on the attached scoring sheet. Once the TPA has processed all of the grant applications, they will provide the City of Allen with a list of eligible companies and their respective scores, ordered from highest to lowest scoring. They will also process the required documentation and underwrite the grant application. The City of Allen will then approve the grants for the companies that score the highest.

A working draft of the contract is attached to this correspondence.  While it is close to a finalized document, our City Attorney is still working out details with the vendor.  As such, the final document may vary slightly from the attached draft.  Additionally, we have attached the RFQ that Frisco sent out on behalf of all three cities, as well as the response from the selected vendor.  

The total cost will not exceed $236,000.  This is based on a 7% administration fee for any grants actually awarded by the City of Allen (up to $3,000,000 of total funds granted), plus 1/3 of the flat fee being charged by the TPA ($78,000 total, of which Allen will pay $26,000 for data management).  

Staff recommends authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with National Development Council, for third-party administrator services related to the Business Recovery Program.

I make a motion to authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with National Development Council for third-party administrator services related to the Business Recovery Program.