Lee's Summit council reviews options, costs for federal lobbying; asks staff for firm overviews

The Lee's Summit City Council continued a discussion about whether to secure federal lobbying services and how to pay for them, reviewing a dataset showing municipalities in the region spend roughly $40,000 to more than $280,000 annually for federal lobbying services. "So that's just really not feasible. But what I would like to see, is if maybe we could contact these 2 firms that are in their memorandum, and just get a, like, a if they have a sample contract or some kind of overview of what they do so we can have an idea," said Brian (staff member) as councilors discussed next steps.

Staff said data in the meeting packet included every city in the country that hires a federal lobbyist and was sourced from public House of Representatives records. Brian summarized regional examples; Kansas cities tended to pay about $40,000 to $80,000 annually while several Missouri entities paid from about $120,000 up to about $280,000 per year depending on scope. Staff also reported that the city's current state lobbyist firm, Versa, and two named lobbyists, John Hensley and Zach Pollock, are exploring expanding into federal work and might partner with a Washington, D.C., firm.

Council members discussed three options: 1) add federal work as an amendment to the city's existing state lobbying contract as a time‑limited pilot, 2) wait until the current contract expires and include federal services in a future RFP, or 3) issue a separate federal lobbying RFP now. Council members expressed a preference to try an add‑on or amendment with the current firm and to gather sample contracts from potential partner firms first. "I like the idea of some kind of a partnership or coordinated approach since, you know, Versa or whoever we will end up working with the state level kinda knows us and knows what our priorities are," Council member Shields said.

Staff said the city’s current contract expires in about a year, so a full competitive selection likely would occur next summer; in the meantime staff advised they could pursue a limited contract amendment under a pilot/sole‑source rationale if costs and procurement rules allow. No hiring decision or contract award was made at the meeting. The council asked staff to obtain sample scopes and sample contract language from the firms referenced in the memorandum and to bring options back for further discussion ahead of the next procurement cycle.