A global pandemic brought on by a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has wreaked considerable economic damage on the country, state and region. One of the many symptoms of this distress is residential leases falling into default resulting in threat of eviction. The governor imposed a state-wide moratorium on residential evictions until October 15, 2020, but a process by which defaulted leases are remedied is necessary to aid both renters and landlords. One tool that may be successful in resolving this type of conflict is mediation to aid all affected parties in restructuring residential leases to avoid eviction of renters.

A proposal to coordinate a renter mediation program was recieved from Imperium Consulting, LLC, a company with real estate leasing and brokerage experience. The city agreed to allocate $85,000 of the $19.2M CARES Act funding to this program, half of the allocation will be distributed up front to cover start-up expenses and billed against for the first 51 cases handled (at a rate of $827/case). The remainder will be distributed through monthly billing by case at the same rate.

The City Manager authorized the research agreement for the following reasons:

• The terms and conditions of the professional services agreement and scope of work have been reviewed by staff and deemed acceptable.
• The goals stated in the scope of work and professional services agreement will provide data and predictive tools to better manage the pandemic that are in the best interest of the health and safety of our citizens.
• The use of CARES Act funds are appropriate to pay the cost included in the professional services agreement; the program is a necessary expenditure due to the public health emergency, the costs were not accounted for in the City’s FY20 or FY21 budgets, the costs will be incurred during the period of March 1, 2020 and December 30, 2020, and the use of CARES Act funds are not being used to offset a revenue shortfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. The City Council may ratify the agreement with Imperium Consulting, LLC as recommended.

2. The City Council may reject the agreement and provide direction to the City Manager. 

I move to ratify the agreement AC-5688 for services between Imperium Consulting, LLC and the City of Sparks for the provision of renter mediation services to renters and/or landlords in the City of Sparks in an amount up to, but not to exceed, $85,000.00.