Chair Stevens on steps to release RFP before contract extension expires
Stevens asks what steps DYCD is taking to ensure the RFP is released before current extensions expire. Escamilla-Davies explains DYCD is conducting needs assessments, utilization analysis, and cost evaluations across all programs, proposing a larger strategy RFP rather than single-program procurements.
What are the steps the agency is taking to ensure the RFP is released and contracts are awarded before the current extension expires?
Yeah.
So we currently, and I think in my broader hearing at the beginning of the year, we currently were doing an analysis of all of our contracts, specifically thinking about them in relationship to utilization and need in the field.
So right now we are trying to determine across New York City what does each community need and whether our programs are being responsive to that need.
Because I'll give you a perfect example, is that we had a provider who was awarded a contract and gave it back to us, not in RHI, but for another procurement.
And they said,
This is not the need of our neighborhood.
We need actually services for our older youth.
And so we are going to be doing a needs assessment and a utilization threshold, as well as doing an analysis of what the current...
cost of doing work is.
And when I say current costs, I mean the current costs at the point of service for the provider, right?
Especially with RHI, that is really important, given the complexity that is needed to address the myriad of needs of the population.
We're also doing a cost analysis of what it takes for DYCD to run this program effectively.
I think you've heard me say, Chair Stevens, that we have grown from a $250 million organization to a $1.6 billion organization in the last 10 years without the same pace in terms of infrastructure.
And so we are deep in that analysis.
And then based on that, we are really proposing a strategy, an RFP that in the interim, we're trying to raise the base of some of our contracts, again, in consultation and in coordination with OMB and the mayor's office.
We're going to see where we land.
But also a path forward is also to figure out, are there things that we could do in the immediate steps to do that?
And then in the long term, is there an RFP that is about a larger strategy as opposed to one intervention or one program?