Councilmember Banks questions concentration of Compass contracts among large providers
Banks raises concerns about one provider managing 80+ school sites. Officials say the provider makes up 10% of awards and was not selected for everything proposed. Banks questions how providers get contracts in areas without community track records.
Thank you.
Great.
Councilmember Banks.
Thank you, Chair.
Good to see you again, Commissioner, and to your team.
One of the, obviously, topics of discussion and contention has been the COMPAS program, or RFP.
One of the major concerns raised...
Following the most recent Compass RFP process involves the concentration of contracts amongst a smaller number of large providers.
In some instances, a single organization reportedly oversees north of 80 schools or sites under the DYCD-funded Compass program.
What is the agency's rationale for allowing one provider to manage such a large portfolio of school-based contracts?
So at time of award selection, we really did take that into consideration.
The provider that you're referencing, they did submit a lot of proposals across the entire procurement and weren't selected for everything that they proposed for, and they do make up only 10% of all the awards that were made.
We did not award them in multiple competitions just to ensure that we were reaching other providers.
That's a large concentration of contracts to one organization.
They are an existing provider, and when we were making rewards, we wanted to ensure that we were making them thoughtful and not overgrowing the system.
And we really did make an effort to ensure that we were reaching other providers within the different competitions.
Well, that particular provider is actually, they received contracts in, I mean, areas that they have no track record in as far as community relations.
So how do you rationalize that?
Yeah, within their response for the RFP, they demonstrated to be the highest proposer within those competitions.
Okay.