Approve contract with Farallon Strategies, LLC through June 30, 2026 to develop the Yolo County Regional Resilience Collaborative, not to exceed $299,665. (No general fund impact) (Lindbo/Olsen)

Approve contract with Farallon Strategies, LLC through June 30, 2026 to develop the Yolo County Regional Resilience Collaborative (YRRC), not to exceed $299,665.

From April 2023 to August 2024, Sustainability Division staff, Yolo County Climate Action Commission members, and volunteers coordinated an extensive outreach process—which included thirty-seven community tabling events, a series of bilingual public workshops, dozens of presentations to local community groups and advisory boards, and the analysis of more than one-thousand survey responses—to inform the priorities of the updated Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP). When asked about individual concern regarding climate change, ninety-five percent of respondents expressed concern about climate change, yet only twenty-eight percent felt prepared to respond to climate risks. Throughout this outreach process, County staff heard that community members want local jurisdictions to collaborate and align priorities, as well as strengthen leadership, knowledge, and access to resources in vulnerable communities to increase their ability to receive funding and implement projects that improve resilience. While local governments and other community-based organizations in Yolo County have long collaborated on climate resilience efforts, there is no formal structure, funding, or staffing to support this effort. Existing regional collaboratives are large (i.e., at a six-county scale) and do not provide the local lens needed in a rural, under-resourced County like Yolo.

To address this need, local partners, including Yolo County, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, University of California at Davis (UC Davis), the Cities of Davis and Woodland, Cool Davis, and Valley Vision (together, "Regional Partners") worked together to submit a grant application for the Regional Resilience Grant Program (RRGP) to form a Yolo County Regional Resilience Collaborative (YRRC). On December 21, 2023, the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (LCI) (formerly OPR), notified Yolo County of their award for being selected as a Round 1 RRGP Grantee in the amount of $598,420. With this funding, the Regional Partners aim to establish the Yolo County Regional Resilience Collaborative (YRRC), which will build not only on recent CAAP outreach, but also on more than fifteen years of conversations with the Yolo Climate Compact, the Yolo Resiliency Collaborative, the Yolo County Climate Action Commission, and recently developed County and City CAAPs.

Yolo County and Regional Partners will engage the community to:

On July 8, 2024, the Department of Community Services released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the development of the YRRC. After a competitive selection process, Farallon Strategies, LLC was selected as the highest-ranked firm. Staff are now requesting Board approval of a contract with Farallon Strategies (Att. A.) for the development of the YRRC with a one and a half-year term through June 30, 2026, not to exceed $299,665.

A Request for Proposals for consultants/consulting firms to provide Regional Resilience Planning Services in Yolo County was issued on July 8, 2024 and posted until September 20, 2024. Seven proposals were received and evaluated. After evaluation of the seven proposals, it was determined that Farallon Strategies should be awarded the contract. Additional information regarding the competitive bid process is included below, including the evaluation criteria and scoring breakdown of the four proposals received. No protests concerning the contract award were received.

Evaluation Criteria Included in RFP