Watsonville City Council · Tuesday, September 22, 2026, 4:30 PM · Item 10.d · CONSENT AGENDA
$135,600 contract to evaluate Prop 64 grant-funded police program
In plain English
The City Council is asked to approve a contract with Applied Survey Research, Inc., for up to $135,600 to write a Local Evaluation Plan and a Local Evaluation Report for the Watsonville Police Department's Proposition 64 Public Health and Safety Grant. The plan sets out ahead of time what data will be collected to measure the grant project's goals, and the report later documents whether those goals were met — both are required by the state grant. The firm would be hired as a "sole source" vendor, meaning the city selected it directly rather than through competing bids. A yes vote authorizes the City Manager to sign the contract, which staff say is needed before the police department can begin grant-funded activities.
The evaluation work is a condition of a $2,712,053 state grant that pays for a Watsonville police task force targeting illegal cannabis activity, so the contract affects whether and when that enforcement and outreach work can start. The $135,600 comes out of the grant rather than the city's general funds.
Key facts
- Contract with Applied Survey Research, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $135,600, paid from grant budget account 260-336-7361-10101.
- Funds come from the Proposition 64 Cohort 4, Public Health and Safety Grant Program, awarded to the Watsonville Police Department on Thursday, June 25, 2026, in an amount of $2,712,053; the Council accepted the grant on July 7, 2026 (Resolution No. 159-26).
- The grant requires both a Local Evaluation Plan, to be developed before services or activities begin, and a Local Evaluation Report documenting whether goals were achieved.
- The grant project creates a dedicated task force focused on illicit cannabis enforcement, with goals of increasing compliance with cannabis laws, disrupting illicit cannabis activity, and running an outreach campaign on the safety risks of illicit cannabis products.
- The staff report describes the grant term as July 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026, including a 5-year service delivery period and six (6) months for evaluation and audit.
Reasons to support
- The state grant will not allow program activities to proceed without a Local Evaluation Plan, so approving the contract lets the police department start using the $2,712,053 award.
- Applied Survey Research has already done related work for Watsonville — reports for the Committee on Policing and Social Equity, an assessment of the Police Department's Multi-Disciplinary Team, and surveys for the Caminos hacia el Éxito juvenile diversion program — and is described as the only local research team in the city with over 40 years of experience.
- Using an outside evaluator rather than the department itself is presented as a way to ensure objective and impartial evaluation of the task force's results.
- The cost is covered entirely by grant funds, not city general revenue.
Reasons to oppose or change it
- The contract is awarded sole source, without competitive proposals, so the city cannot show whether another evaluator would have done the same work for less than $135,600.
- The staff report lists the firm's prior contracts with the City of Watsonville and the Police Department as the reason to pick it; a critic could argue that ongoing business relationship sits uneasily with the claim that the evaluation will be impartial.
- The $135,600 spent on evaluation is money from the $2,712,053 grant that is not spent on enforcement or community outreach, and staff state no reasonable alternatives are known.
Official wording
APPROVE CONTRACT WITH APPLIED SURVEY RESEARCH, INC. FOR A LOCAL EVALUATION PLAN (LEP) & A LOCAL EVALUATION REPORT (LER) (Recommended by Police Chief Shab) 1.Report - Contract with Applied Survey Research .pdf 2.Resolution - Award Contract ASR Sole Source.pdf 3.Contract - Applied Survey Research Inc.pdf RESOLUTION APPROVING A CONTRACT WITH APPLIED SURVEY RESEARCH, INC., FOR A LOCAL EVALUATION PLAN (LEP) & A LOCAL EVALUATION REPORT (LER) FOR THE PROPOSITION 64 PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY GRANT PROGRAM, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $135,600
Summary written by claude-opus-5 from the agenda and the Report - Contract with Applied Survey Research .pdf. It can contain mistakes. The official documents govern.