Community Engagement Consultant Contracts

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names and details may be misheard.

• What: contracts of up to $100,000 combined with two outside firms (Mercer Planning Associates and the Tara Dowdell Group) for community engagement.
• Where it stands: approved 5-4 on October 7.

Sources

• 2026-10-07 - Municipal Council (video and minutes of the October 7 regular meeting)

Log

• 2026-10-07 - Municipal Council - Approved 5-4. Zuppa, Gilmore, Griffin and Lavarro voted no, citing in-house capacity, lack of measurable outreach and spending. A public speaker argued the city has staff for engagement and objected to hourly consultant rates.
• 2026-10-05 - Municipal Caucus - Caucus: rates, bilingual capacity and participation metrics for the on-call contracts were questioned.