Response provided by Kelsee Jordan Lee, Economic and Business Development Manager:
1. It looks as though they’ve incorporated all of our suggestions, were any left out and if so why? City Staff worked with GSMP leadership to address the items requested by City Council. A request was made by City Council to have all outward facing materials translated into Spanish. This was not viable at this time; however, GSMP leadership has committed to including more outward facing items in Spanish and will explore the use of a plug-in online for digital materials to be translated moving forward.
2. The cost for each ESG report shall be submitted by the Partnership to the City for reimbursement of the actual cost of the report (i.e., without mark-up or added fees or charges), including supporting documentation. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in the event the cost of a single report would exceed $1,500 or the total annual costs for ESG reports hereunder – A. please explain what an ESG report is as I wasn’t able to find a definition that seems applicable to this contract. B. How many times per year one is needed. C. Why is the city reimbursing these expenses when we pay in $400K per year? A. The City Council requested GSMP to provide more information on a company’s sustainability, wages, environmental impact, and legal actions. An Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report provides qualitative and quantitative information on a company’s impacts to the environment and society, as well as information about how the company is governed. For large companies, GSMP can requisition a report from an independent vendor to provide additional information that the City Council has requested. B. The number of times a report is requisitioned will be determined by how many prospects come before the City Council requesting incentives and how many of those companies are large enough to have information available to create an ESG Report. C. This is an additional resource being provided above what has been requested in the past. Should the City Council not wish to reimburse GSMP, GSMP may not provide the ESG Report or may reduce services in another area of the agreement to account for this cost.
3. the Partnership shall not provide the report unless it receives written authorization from the City Manager to do so. Any ESG report provided shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the third-party report provider. A. Please explain – does the city manager determine not to authorize these at times and if so why? A. This agreement is the first time that an ESG Report may be provided so there is no history of the City Manager previously having determined to not authorize the report. Item iii was provided as a guard against open-ended spending for reports. The City Manager would have the option to not authorize a report if it would cost more than $1,500, or if the total annual costs for the reports exceeded $10,500.
