The City of North Miami Beach (“City”) entered into a Interlocal Agreement (“Master Partnership”) with the Florida International University Board of Trustees (“University”) to provide student interns from the University Colleges in support of the advancement of resource and process efficiencies for utility planning, operations and public outreach and engagement.  

The original Master Partnership was established to allow North Miami Beach Water to hire student interns from the University to facilitate and accelerate technology transfer, promote collaboration between researchers and industry, to service as a public resource to perform research analysis.  

The original Master Partnership allowed the City to collaborate with the local University to enhance the educational experience of those students who attend.  

The University is fully qualified to render the interdisciplinary technical support and services described in the Master Partnership, found in Exhibit A.  

Other City departments have expressed an interest in having student interns on staff as needed; and

Section 3-4.5 of the Purchasing Code states that purchases of the following materials and services shall be exempt from the bidding process and subject to the spending limitations provided in subsection 3-3.14, unless otherwise provided by State law, as found in section r., contracts and purchases from other public entities, i.e. public state colleges, public state universities, federal government agencies, state governments, government school boards, county sheriffs offices, and other government entities.  

The City Manager approved the Master Partnership agreement with the University in the amount not to exceed $50,000 for a one-year term with the option to renew for four additional one-year terms.  

In order to facilitate utilizing additional interns, the City determined that approval is necessary to expend the additional annual budget allocation.  

Section 3-3.20 Change Orders requires that change orders exceeding 10% or $50,000.00, whichever is less, shall be approved by the City Commission.