RFP: State Legislative Advocacy Services

The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA), a $73 billion public pension fund, is seeking proposals from qualified firms to provide state legislative advocacy services to LACERA and its Board of Retirement concerning its areas of interest, including but not limited to pension and healthcare benefits, plan administration and governance, and other pension and retirement-related matters.

Scope of Work

LACERA seeks to hire an external state legislative advocate (Consultant) to perform the following services with respect to potential, proposed, and actual legislation, regulations, trends, discussion, and debate among decision makers, stakeholders, and other interested parties, relating to health and pension benefit and plan administration issues that may impact LACERA and its active or retired members (State Issues). Examples of State Issues include but are not limited to CERL, PEPRA, the Ralph M. Brown Act, the Public Records Act, public pension service retirement benefits, disability retirement benefits, retiree healthcare benefits, pension reform legislation and initiatives, information and data privacy and protection, fiduciary duties of the Board, pension-related provisions of the California Constitution, public pension plan operations, plan administration and transparency, and the Political Reform Act and other conflicts of interest and ethics legislation and regulations.

Monitoring. Consultant shall monitor State Issues with all appropriate sources, including members of the Legislature, committees, legislators’ and committee staffs, state agencies, and interest groups aligned with or adverse to LACERA’s interests. In monitoring, the Consultant shall be aware of relevant time periods associated with legislative or regulatory proposals so that LACERA can be informed and take timely action, if it elects to do so. Consultant shall regularly communicate, verbally and in writing, as appropriate, with LACERA staff on an ongoing basis with respect to relevant matters. Monitoring shall also include an assessment of the impact of a proposal or issue on LACERA and its members.
Bill/Regulation Tracking. Consultant shall obtain copies of proposed and actual legislation and regulations relating to the State Issues and shall track the progress of such legislation and regulations and other relevant information, including applicable deadlines.
Regular Bill/Regulation Report to the IBLC; Other Reports. Consultant shall prepare written reports for the IBLC based on a frequency and format to be agreed upon with the Legislative Affairs Officer, concerning proposed and actual legislation regulations and other activity relevant to the State Issues, including an explanation of the relevance and impact on LACERA and its members. Consultant shall prepare such other written reports as LACERA may request from time to time with respect to State Issues. All such reports shall be delivered in strict adherence to the schedule provided by LACERA so that each report can be included in the Board packet distributed to trustees in advance of their meetings.
Development of Strategy. Consultant shall work with the Board, the IBLC, and LACERA staff to determine the desired degree of engagement on State Issues and then develop a strategy of legislative advocacy to further LACERA’s objectives and interests. Consultant shall assist in the development or revision of internal principles, policies, and procedures relating to LACERA’s desired level of activism on legislative issues at the state level.
Communication with the Board, the IBLC, and Staff. Consultant shall communicate as needed with LACERA, including at least two personal appearances per year before the Board or the IBLC, so that LACERA is informed and can engage directly with the Consultant regarding State Issues, the implementation of each strategy, and other activities pursued by the Consultant.
Communication with Interested Parties. Consultant shall communicate as appropriate with all interested parties, including parties supportive of and/or adverse to LACERA’s positions, regarding LACERA’s strategies and priorities and to learn the strategies and priorities of other parties. Consultant shall consider, when appropriate, coordination of communication and action with LACERA stakeholder groups, including the plan sponsor and member organizations.
Legislative Advocacy. Consultant shall advocate Board-approved positions on legislation and regulations, including direct personal communications with legislators and regulators, correspondence, meetings, testimony, and reports, to the relevant decision makers. The Consultant shall locate bill sponsors when necessary and manage sponsored legislation through the legislative process. These services shall also include distribution of letters and management of other forms of communication, such as personal meetings, with regard to official positions the Board may take on specific legislation. The Consultant shall use other legislative advocacy strategies as needed.
Establish an Active Presence for LACERA. Consultant shall conduct itself at all times in a manner and shall take such steps as are appropriate within the approved strategy to raise awareness of LACERA’s issues and interests and establish an active, credible presence for LACERA on State Issues with legislators, regulators, and other relevant parties.
Special Projects. Consultant shall perform special projects, with LACERA’s advance written approval, relating to State Issues.

Submission Requirements

If you are interested in responding, please submit your Intent to Respond (Attachment E) to blew@lacera.com by 5:00 PM, PDT, Wednesday, December 7, 2022.

The completed proposal must be delivered to blew@lacera.com by 5:00 PM, PDT, Friday, January 20, 2023. Any proposal delivered after the proposal deadline will not be considered.

If Respondent requires any confidential information to be exempt from public disclosure, then submissions should also include one unbound copy, and one electronic copy, each marked “REDACTED.” The redacted copies should redact all material from the proposal that the respondent believes in good faith is exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act, (California Government Code section 6250 et seq. the “Act”). Individual redactions should appear as blacked out material. Large sections, tables, or entire blank page(s) shall include the word “REDACTED” or “PROPRIETARY” inserted. Each respondent must indicate the basis for each redaction under the Act (defined below) with a citation to the code section and subsection relied upon. LACERA cannot guarantee that redacted information will not be publicly available. Please see the Section 5 below “Notice to Respondents Regarding the Public Records Act AND RALPH M. BROWN ACT” for further information. An electronic copy of both the original and the redacted response in PDF format saved on separate DVDs, each labeled accordingly.

Questions Related to This RFP

All questions, inquiries, and requests for additional information concerning this RFP should be received no later than 5:00 PM, PDT, Wednesday December 21, 2022, and should be emailed to Barry Lew at blew@lacera.com. All questions received and responses thereto will be posted on LACERA’s website (www.lacera.com) under the “Business Opportunities” section that relates to this RFP on or about 5:00 PM, PDT, Monday, January 9, 2023.