City of Boynton Beach
Agenda Item Request Form

Staff recommends approval of Proposed Resolution No. R26-177.

On November 18, 2025, the City Commission adopted Ordinance No. 25-036 on second and final reading, creating Section 2-60 of the City Code of Ordinances, entitled “Public-Private Partnerships.” The ordinance establishes the City’s procedures for receiving and acting on P3 unsolicited proposals, aligns the City Code with Section 255.065, Florida Statutes, and supersedes the City’s prior framework adopted in 2015 under Resolution No. R15-020. The ordinance took effect immediately upon passage. Since its adoption, the City has begun to receive P3 proposals from private entities.

Public-private partnership delivery is a fairly new undertaking for the City of Boynton Beach. The volume and complexity of the proposals now coming in are driven by the private sector rather than by the City, and the City must be positioned to evaluate them competently as they arrive. Section 255.065, Florida Statutes, authorizes a responsible public entity to receive and consider both solicited and unsolicited P3 proposals, but it also obligates the City to independently evaluate the financial merits of any such proposal before proceeding and to determine that the project serves a public purpose and is financially sound. These obligations attach once a proposal is received, whether or not the City ultimately elects to pursue it.

A P3 transaction requires specialized financial analysis — value-for-money and public sector comparator analysis, lifecycle cost modeling, risk identification and allocation, validation of a private proposer’s financial assumptions, and financial due diligence on development teams. The City has determined that this analysis is more appropriately performed by an outside firm engaged for that specific purpose than by City staff, particularly as the City enters this area without prior transactional experience of its own. An external advisor brings transactional experience drawn from comparable public-sector engagements that the City does not otherwise have available, and because the firm has no role in developing, sponsoring, or administering the projects it reviews, its conclusions carry a degree of independence that internally prepared analysis cannot provide.

Retaining an outside advisor also insulates the City’s evaluation of a P3 proposal from any perception that the analysis was shaped by the same staff advancing the project. That separation protects both the integrity of the City’s decision-making and the confidence of the Commission and the public in the result. The advisor is retained by and reports solely to the City, and serves as a counterweight to the financial advisors retained by private proposers, who are engaged to advance their own clients’ interests. To preserve that independence, the solicitation imposes strict communication restrictions that bar the Consultant from advising or communicating with any P3 proposer, developer, investor, lender, or operator, except as expressly authorized in writing by the City.

RFP No. 26-053R, Strategic P3 Financial Advisory Services, was advertised April 6, 2026, and closed April 29, 2026, with one addendum issued April 22, 2026. Three proposals were received — Altus Group Limited, PFM Financial Advisors LLC, and Taft Infrastructure Advisors — and all three passed compliance review. A three-member evaluation committee reviewed and scored the proposals at publicly noticed meetings held June 16, 2026, and June 26, 2026; the scoring was as follows:

No proposer qualified for the Local Business Preference, and presentations were not requested. Staff conducted a publicly noticed negotiation meeting on August 7, 2026, which was open to the public and recorded, and requested a Best and Final Offer, which PFM submitted the same day. Based on the negotiations, Procurement Services and Financial Services were able to save an additional 10% off the original submission pricing. 

Staff recommends approval of an annual not-to-exceed expenditure authority of $600,000 for services under RFP No. 26-053R. This figure is a ceiling rather than a spending plan, and staff does not anticipate expending the full amount.

On-call, task-order access to independent P3 analysis: feasibility, financial modeling, risk allocation, value-for-money, due diligence, and negotiation support. Staff can begin review when a proposal lands rather than waiting on separate authorization.

Section 2-60(c) requires a $25,000 application fee from unsolicited proposers, plus additional payment if City costs exceed it. Advisory cost on unsolicited proposals is therefore recovered largely from the applicant, not the General Fund. Funds are encumbered by task order against available appropriation.

This service will be funded from various account numbers.

A $600,000 annual ceiling — capacity, not a spending plan. One P3 project runs $160,000 in negotiated phase fees through financial close; the ceiling absorbs an influx.