Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten announced at a Council meeting tonight that the City had received zero bids in response to their listing seeking a $186,758 “Community Safety Review”.
A Request for Qualifications (RFQ), titled “Community Safety Review Through the Lens of Racial Equity and Social Justice”, was posted to the City’s website by the City Management Analyst William Kolschowsky on February 23rd, 2022. Proposals were due by the end of March, but apparently no one was interested.
To source the funds for this review, on June 28th, 2021 the Council voted unanimously to redirect $92,500 from the failed “One Door” program and $94,258 allocated in the FY2022 budget for an alternate response model. The $92,500 had been allocated by the Council in June of 2020, so those funds have already been stagnant for a long time. Now months of additional delay seems likely.
It is not clear if the Urbana City Council will be consulted in any way in regards to the firm selection process. When Urbana last hired a consulting firm for a review of police policies and a violent arrest that occurred in April of 2020, the Mayor made all selection decisions unilaterally.
The City of Urbana Request for Qualifications: “Community Safety Review Through the Lens of Racial Equity and Social Justice (Solicitation #2122-45) can be viewed here (click image for full 10-page PDF):
