Item B21
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY
Meeting Date: April 20. 2000
Bulk Item: Yes X No_
Division: Growth Management
Department: Planning Department
AGENDA ITEM WORDING: Approval of additional funding for UM tourism survey researcher.
ITEM BACKGROUND: The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) and the Tourist Development Council
(TDC) created a committee to oversee the tourism resident survey. This committee then appointed a
subcommittee to review proposals for the contracts associated with the survey. One of these contracts was with
Manoj Shivlani from the University of Miami, who put in the lowest bid for services and demonstrated a strong
background in survey data collection, management and analysis. All other bids for this project were at least
$8000 more than the UM bid of $6,100. There was an unprecedented high return rate for the mail back survey
that amounted to the UM researcher processing an additional 2, 419 surveys. Mr. Shivlani provided all of the
deliverables that were requested of him on time and they were of the highest quality. Therefore, the Planning
Department recommends approval of his request for $2,854 in addition to the $6000 that he has already received
for his work.
PREVIOUS RELEVANT BOARD ACTION: At the joint BOCC and TDC BOCC meeting in Key Largo, the
BOCC and the TDC agreed to split the costs of the tourism resident survey. The BOCC and TDC did not set a
limit or a price range for the amounts paid to the consultants who would assist with the survey.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION: APPROVAL
TOTAL COST:
N/A
BUDGETED: Yes N/A NO
COST TO COUNTY:
AMOUNT PER MONTH
N/A
N/A
PER YEAR NI A
APPROVED BY: County Attorney N/A
Risk Management NI A
DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR APPROVAL:
DIVISION DIRECTOR APPROVAL:
DOCUMENTATION: Included
X
To follow
~d
DISPOSITION:
Agenda Item #:
TO:
James L. erts
County A inistrat~or
K. Marlene onawfy. ~
Planning Directo~ U
FROM:
RE:
DATE:
Additional Funding for UM Tourism Survey Researcher
February 24, 2000
Timothy J. McGarry, Growth Management Dirr
Lisa Cherry, Purchasing Coordinator
Ann Murphy, Comprehensive Planner
c.c.
At the November 10, 1999 Board of County Commissioners meeting in Key Largo the
Board created a tourism resident survey committee. This committee then appointed a
sub-committee to review and recommend the hiring of an independent consultant to
ensure unbiased data analysis and expertise in reviewing and reporting on the survey
results.
The sub-committee sent out a call for proposals, which were consequently reviewed on
November 30, 1999. Applicants were reviewed according to their database development
and management skills, expertise in survey design, reporting capabilities and costs for
services. At this November meeting Manoj Shivlani was the top applicant due to his
strengths in all of the criteria and that his cost estimate was the lowest by far. Manoj
estimated that his services would cost $4,500 for a 12 % response rate (a maximum of
6000 surveys), while other researcher's cost estimates were grouped around $20,000.
Due to the low response rate to this initial request for proposal, the subcommittee's
revised the time line for the survey and sent out a second call for proposals. While a few
more researchers' expressed an interest, once again Manoj stood out as the most
reasonably priced applicant. Manoj was then asked by the subcommittee to provide an
estimate of services for a 20% response rate. Manoj reported back to the subcommittee
on December 7, 1999 that for up to a 20% response rate, (a maximum of 9000 surveys)
his costs would be $6,100. A purchase order not to exceed $6,000 was then drawn up by
the County for Manoj' s services.
Since the response rate to this survey (11, 419 usable surveys) exceedfd~xpect~J!~~_
the amount of resources (staff, computers, and personal time) that Mapoj neede~ to ~ ,':: i \,' ,:: ;:-
devote to completing his tourism survey tasks greatly increased. Due to tHe hIgh quaii'ty---~_ ...
of Manoj's work and the County's requests that he perform services ~eyo~d those stated
in his purchase order (i.e. presenting the survey results at the joint TDC/BOCC meeting),
we recommend that Manoj's request for an additional $2, 854 be ap#roved by the County.
L COIJ~IT\' ~ r"" " ~ --- -