Placement: Proclamations and Special presentations
Action Requested: Discussion
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Special Presentation on the City’s Participation in the Bloomberg/Harvard Leading City Procurement Reform Program.
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Submitted By: Nathaniel Rubel, Procurement Assistant Director, Procurement Management Division.
Strategic Plan Link: The City's Goal of a high-performing city government organization.
Executive Summary (General Business): The City of Port St. Lucie participated in the Bloomberg Harvard Leading City Procurement Reform (LCPR) program October 2025 cohort. The LCPR program was designed to equip senior city leaders with the tools, knowledge, and networks needed to help lead their agency’s efforts to innovate, adapt, and drive impact as well as assist them with a current procurement priority. The presentation will discuss the procurement challenge identified, the planned approach to strategic procurement, and identify measures of success.
Presentation Information: 5-minute presentation by City staff.
Staff Recommendation: Request that the Council hear the presentation about the City’s participation in the October 2025 Bloomberg/Harvard Leading City Procurement Reform Program.
Background: As an alumni city of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, The City of Port St. Lucie was encouraged to apply for their Leading City Procurement Reform (LCPR) program. Port St. Lucie was one of 16 cities accepted from the U.S., Canada, and abroad to the program’s October 2025 cohort. Presented by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, in collaboration with Partners for Public Good, the program offered an intensive classroom experience featuring case studies, simulations, and working sessions taught by Harvard faculty and other experts. Virtual learning sessions and coaching calls complemented the five-day in-person program at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. The curriculum aimed to enhance knowledge and skills in the following areas:
• Leadership challenges while working to transform the procurement function within city governments.
• Understanding the importance of making the procurement function in government more efficient, fair, results-driven, and strategic.
• Building the innovation and analytical capacity to accurately diagnose problems and articulate the public value in addressing them.
• Strengthening the capacity to collaborate across organizational boundaries, overcome resistance to change, and solve problems.
• Enhancing team performance and creating conditions for staff success.
• Increasing performance in negotiations with internal stakeholders and vendors through techniques to increase bargaining power.
As part of participation in the LCPR program, teams are required to brief their Mayors and elected officials on their challenge statements and plan of action.
Issues/Analysis: During the program the City was required to describe a specific narrowly defined challenge to workshop that was procurement-related, specific with measurable outcomes, and could show significant progress within 6-9 months of the program. Due to recent population increases that have put significant pressure on the city’s traffic system causing congestion and straining infrastructure, the team chose to workshop the California Corridor Improvements Project.
Assessment of this challenge with the tools provided in the LCPR program and through the virtual and in-person coaching and working sessions resulted in the following actionable Challenge Statement:
“Refine the City of Port St. Lucie procurement process to effectively foster early collaboration with key internal and external stakeholders to prioritize pre-marketing and project needs identification to effectively deliver the California Corridor Improvements Project to our residents.”
The project team strives to increase traffic capacity in the California Corridor through the use of Results Driven Contracting measures and increased stakeholder collaboration. The goal of reforming the procurement processes utilized on this project is to make them scalable and to replicate this model with other projects for efficient use of taxpayer dollars and enhance staff’s ability to manage complex infrastructure projects.
Financial Information: N/A.
Special Consideration: the LCPR program will conclude with a final virtual session on December 11, 2025.
Location of Project: N/A.
Attachments: 1. LCPR Presentation.
NOTE: All of the listed items in the “Attachment” section above are in the custody of the City Clerk. Any item(s) not provided in City Council packets are available upon request from the City Clerk.
Internal Reference Number: N/A.
Legal Sufficiency Review:
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