May 16, 2000

Staff recommends that the City Council, representing the six consortium cities forming NOVA, concur with the NOVA Private Industry Council and accept a $55,000 increase to NOVA's Rapid Response Grant and authorize the City Manager to execute a sole source, performance based contract, for an amount not to exceed $50,000 for the provision of this project. It is further recommended that Council approve Budget Modification No. 28 to add the additional funds to the City budget.

In early April of this year, NOVA received a request from the State of California, Employment Development Department to consider partnering with them and Skillsnet to continue the development of the web site. With additional financial support from the State, skillsnet.net would add an on-line internship clearinghouse and a Virtual Industry Panel (VIP). With these additions Skillsnet will fulfill its principal objective--to be an interactive, virtual one-stop for multimedia career development.

At an April meeting, the State requested NOVA consider acting as the primary grantee for this project and that NOVA staff provide overall project management. The State proposed augmenting one of NOVA's existing Title III grants to provide funding for the project. The work would be conducted by the Bay Area Multimedia Partnership (BAMP), a project of the Bay Area Economic Forum (BAEF), one of the original members of Skillsnet and the developer of skillsnet.net.

At its meeting of April 26, 2000, the NOVA Private Industry Council/Workforce Board authorized staff to negotiate a grant with the State of California and to negotiate a sole source agreement with Bay Area Multimedia Partnership to conduct the project.

The proposed activities are consistent with the City of Sunnyvale’s Socio-Economic Goal 5.1F: Provide job training and employment services within constraints of operative, federal regulations and available federal funding, to address the locally-determined employment and training needs of economically disadvantaged residents and others with special needs.

As an outgrowth of the LMI+ Multimedia and E-Careers projects, Skillsnet is our most significant ongoing project. The current opportunity to continue the development of the project appears to have a number of benefits. First and foremost, Skillsnet is specifically designed to meet the NOVA Workforce Board's goal of growing our own workforce. As an interactive meeting place for business, education and job seekers, Skillsnet fosters the exchange of information needed to effectively develop our workforce. Additional benefits include the opportunity to further our understanding of the process of developing internships and solidify NOVA's reputation as both an innovator and effective partner.

The majority of the project would need to be contracted out to the Bay Area Multimedia Partnership (BAMP), the original developer of the site. The continued use of BAMP as the contractor for this project is justified not only for reasons of continuity but also for their unique ability to engage the business community. Formed as a public/private venture to support the growth of the multimedia industry in the Bay Area, BAMP has direct access to corporate management--a critical component for the success of both the internship clearinghouse and VIP. BAMP and NOVA have partnered on several successful projects including both of our LMI+ multimedia studies. It is anticipated that the project will cost approximately $50,000 to complete, with NOVA receiving an additional 10% for administrative costs. The State has notified staff that they are prepared to fund the entire $55,000 the project would require.

Funds for this agreement would be made available to the City by the State through a modification to NOVA’s JTPA Title III Rapid Response grant. This budget modification adds the additional grant funds to the City budget. There will be no fiscal impact to the City because funds received will offset program expenditures.