1999 AGN DEC 07 I26 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OF COLTON AGENDA REPORT Council Meeting of December 7, 1999 TO: `Honorable Mayor and Council Members APPROVAL: Henry T. Garc"a, City Manager FROM: Daryl J. Parrish, Assistant City Manager t SUBJECT: Approval of Agreement Regarding the Lease and Management of the Hermosa Gardens Cemetery Between the City of Colton and Inland Memorial, Cremational, and Burial Society and Adopt the Attached Resolution [?ATE: December 1, 1999 BACKGROUND: The City of Colton presently owns and operates the Hermosa Gardens Cemetery ("Hermosa") as a municipal cemetery located at 900 North Meridian Avenue. Hermosa consists of approximately seventeen (17) acres of developed property and approximately fifteen (15) acres of undeveloped property for a total of approximately thirty-two (32) acres. The City presently owns (the real estate), operates, sells internment rights, prepares and maintains internment sites, maintains cemetery records, performs general landscape maintenance and rodent control and sells cemetery merchandise. The RFP In recent years the Cemetery Fund has performed poorly and has required assistance in the form of subsidies from other funds. The position of the Cemetery Fund reflected a deficit balance of $312,467.80 as of June 30, 1999. That balance actually distorts reality somewhat (the deficit should actually be larger) as two full time staff maintenance workers assigned to Hermosa are funded by the Parks Division (General Fund). In addition, approximately $155,000 in revenue has been received and accounted for from pre -need sales, however, the liability has not been accounted fore as funds must be expendedto purchase cemetery merchandise for the customer when the time of need arises. On March 2, 1999, the City Council authorized the release of a Request for Proposals to Manage, Operate, Maintain, Develop and Sell Internment Rights and Cemetery Merchandise at Hermosa. The RFP focused on'four (4) distinct scopes of service and six (6) distinct review criteria. The scopes of service included management services, marketing services, development services and maintenance services. The review criteria included responsiveness and completeness, experience, technical feasibility, business risk, cost evaluation and economic impact. The fundamentals of the RFP were based on the 16 "Core Value" (Financial Strength) adopted by the City Council in 1998. Essentially this core value extenuates our commitment to manage financial resources prudently and to use taxpayer dollars wisely on programs that provide the maximum benefit to the community. Typically, such programs consist of public safety, streets, and parks. Based on the fact that the Cemetery Fund is performing poorly (operating at a deficit) and that Hermosa is subsidized by other funds, it truly is operating at the expense of other programs, primarily parks and streets. The RFP was Item #26