Brief

The Mayor initiated a first amended and restated contract for on-call consultant services covering programming and information technology work from vendors including 3Di, 22nd Century Technologies, Abacus Service Corporation, and others. The contract extends through July 2028. The City Administrative Officer submitted the underlying report on July 2, 2026. The file is currently pending in the Planning and Land Use Management Committee as of July 20, 2026.

Full summary

The Department of City Planning is seeking Council authorization to extend and expand its roster of on-call IT and programming contractors. The original contracts with 21 firms ran from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2026, with a combined ceiling of $7 million. The proposed amendment extends all contracts by 24 months through June 30, 2028 and raises the total compensation ceiling by $6.5 million to $13.5 million. The contractors provide technology services across categories including database management, geographic information systems, software and application development, mobile platform development, website design, document management, infrastructure and cloud solutions, and project management. The extension is driven by several active workloads. The Department of City Planning needs continued contractor support for BuildLA, a technology modernization initiative; the ZIMAS Wildfire Recovery Enhancement Module, funded through a Recovery Planning Grant tied to the January 2025 wildfires; and implementation changes required by Senate Bill 79. These contractors maintain and develop core planning systems including the Online Application System, the Planning Case Tracking System, and the Zone Information and Map Access System, which are essential to the city's development services operations. The Community Investment Department has already used this contractor pool, and the Department of Transportation has inquired about doing the same. As of the CAO report date, the city had already encumbered $8.5 million of the original $7 million ceiling, reflecting spending beyond the original cap that the amendment would retroactively cover. Anticipated additional spending over the two-year extension is approximately $5 million, with the remaining $1.5 million in headroom providing a buffer. During the CAO's compliance review, two of the original 21 firms, 3Insys and Zeek, were found to be non-responsive and are excluded from the amended contracts. The remaining 19 firms were cleared. The Personnel Department determined under Charter Section 1022 that City employees lack the expertise to perform this work. Because the contracts have now run beyond three years without a new competitive process and annual payments exceed $200,130, Council approval is legally required under Administrative Code Section 10.5(b)(2). Funding comes from the Systems Development Trust Fund, the Recovery Planning Grant, and BuildLA funding from the Development Services Trust Fund, with no additional General Fund impact. The CAO recommends that the Director of City Planning be authorized to execute the amended contracts, subject to City Attorney approval as to form. The file was referred to the Planning and Land Use Management Committee on July 20, 2026, where it remains pending.

Activity (2)

• 2026-07-20 City Administrative Officer document(s) referred to Planning and Land Use Management Committee.
• 2026-07-17 Document submitted by the Mayor, City Administrative Officer report dated July 2, 2026.

Documents (1)

• 2026-07-02 Report from City Administrative Officer · report