HOW TO FIND
THE RIGHT CONSULTANT
By JOHN L. GANN, JR., AICP, Cann Associates, Glen Ellyn
A couple of years ago, a suburban Chicago municipality we'll call Wilkinsville contacted our firm for a
very unusual assignment.
They wanted their entire zoning ordinance rewritten. What made the assignment extraordinary was that
their ordinance was practically brand new. It had been
totally reworked by the staff of a regional planning
commission just three years before.
Now, zoning regulations normally have a life expectancy of more than three years. But the mayor of Wilkinsville explained that after working with the regulations for three years, they had found them too complex,
contradictory, and confusing to tolerate any longer.
Wilkinsville had hired the regional planners rather
than a private firm thinking they would save money.
but instead of saving money, they found they had to
pay a second time just three years later for the same
work.
This anecdote highlights the importance of selecting
the right professional consultant. Like Wilkinsville,
many municipalities base this decision solely on price
— the "low bidder" approach. But sometimes the consultant that initially appears the cheapest can wind up
the most costly.
Use of consultants is necessary in virtually every
community. Staffs are never big enough to handle everything municipalities need to do. And adding experienced professionals to the permanent payroll can be
burdensome financially for years to come.
But selecting a professional services provider like an
engineer, city planner, law firm, landscape architect,
accountant, or economic development specialist is not
easy. This is because professional services are not
standardized commodities.
A product or service that can be defined by a list of specs, like a construction job, can lend itself to shopping
by price. But most professional assignments can be
done in any one of a number of ways at varying costs
and levels of effectiveness.
The author's experience both as consultant and as
municipal department head, suggests steps that can be
helpful in selecting the right firm.
1. Decide What You Want to Do
Failure to do this at the outset is one of the biggest
mistakes clients make. Only you can decide the job to
be done. And it is only when you know what you need
to do that you can decide which consultant you need.
Avoid asking prospective consultants what to do.
Many will define your problem in terms of the services
they want to sell. To a consultant with a hammer, your
problem is always a nail.
Decide yourself whether your problem is a nail. If it
isn't, don't seek out consultants with hammers.
2. Determine What Kind of Consultant You Need
If you have first determined what it is you need to
do, this step will be easier. You will know whether you
need a consultant with a ball peen hammer or one with a
Phillips screwdriver.
JOHN L, GANN, JR. is President of Gann Associates, a Glen Ellyn
development consulting firm. The firm's recent Illinois work includes
assignments in Bensenville, McHenry, and Warrenville.
February 1991 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 9
If what you need to do involves going to court you
will need a legal specialist. If it involves the design of a
building, an architect. Preparing a financial statement,
an accountant.
But what about the grey areas? The roles that do not
clearly fall within the traditional areas of professional
activity are harder to cast. In the newer specialties like
community planning, zoning, environmental management, strategic planning, and economic development,
firms with different professional backgrounds claim
expertise.
The key here is to determine precisely the skills that
will be most important. In a downtown revitalization
assignment, for example, design skills, economic analysis skills, or marketing skills may be paramount, depending on what kinds of results you want. Remember
that it is unusual to find a full complement of top people
with very different skills in a single firm. All firms, small
and large, are strong in certain areas, weak in others.
3. Get Names of Consultants
Next, get names of a number of consultants in the
right field.
Some municipal officials simply contact the next
town down the road and ask who they've used. However, the best consultant for a nearby town may not be
the best consultant for you.
There are several sources for such names. Ads in
Illinois Municipal Review are a good place to start. Ads
in other publications and directories and asking around
can add more names to your list.
4. Prepare and Send an RFQ
Next, prepare a written statement of what you want
the consultant to do. Put this in a Request for Qualifications and mail it to the firms you identified.
Include as much detail as possible about what you
want from the firm you hire. However, don't be specific on points that don't matter much to you, since you
may discourage some qualified firms from responding.
Ask in your mailing that firms interested in the job
file a Statement of Qualifications. An SOQ documents a
firm's capabilities in its field. It does not propose a work
program or fee.
While some municipalities initially issue a Request
for Proposals rather than a Request for Qualifications,
sending the RFQ first has advantages. Preparing a good
proposal is time-consuming work for which the consultant is not paid. Once a firm has been chosen as a
finalist, this cost can be justified. But at an earlier stage,
when the consultant has no feel for the chances of
landing the job, spending time on a proposal is a risk
very qualified firms sometimes will not take.
For the municipality, reviewing SOQ's before requesting proposals can assure that a consultant will not
be chosen on the sole basis of a low price. This does not
mean that budget limitations cannot influence the final
outcome. It only means that finalists will be chosen
Page 10 / Illinois Municipal Review / February 1991
because they are good and not because they are cheap.
One factor in evaluating proposals can be the
amount of the fee. Or if a single consultant is chosen on
the basis of the RFQ, the fee can be negotiated. If
negotiations are unsuccessful, the second-place finisher
can be chosen.
5. Tailor Selection Process to Job Size
A lengthy and involved multi-stage process can be
appropriate to select a consultant for a $100, 000 job,
since the city will be making a considerable investment
in the work.
The procedure for selecting a firm for a $5, 000 job
should, however, be very simple. It can cost a consultant that much or more just to prepare a proposal. And
the city could spend that amount just on staff time if the
selection process is too elaborate.
6. Review Credentials
In appraising consultants' credentials, look for education in the particular field as well as accreditation by
professional societies in that field. Experience in the
type of work you need done or closely related work and
publication related to that type of work are other indicators. Note honors or awards, but only those that reflect professional accomplishment. Election as an officer in a professional society, for example, may simply
mean that an individual is a good politician.
And you must evaluate the credentials of the right
people. Only the people who will work on your project
count. Everyone else is irrelevant. Some brochures and
SOQ's cite work accomplished by people who are no
longer with the firm. Or they note credentials of current
employees who will not be available for your job. Such
information should not sway your decision.
Some firms send a principal out to meet prospects
then turn the work over to a junior staffer. The person
who so impressed you in the interview may spend little
or no time on your job. When you interview, insist on
talking with the person who will be most deeply involved in your work.
Remember that whether you hire a one-person
company or one of the largest consulting firms, ultimately you are really hiring an individual, or several
individuals constituting your project team. Be satisfied
that the capabilities of that individual offer the best
assurance of a successful project.
7. Request Proposals
Choose from one to four finalists based on your
evaluation of the SOQ's. Ask them to prepare proposals
detailing what they will do, who in the firm will do it,
how long it will take, and what it will cost.
In your request, indicate specifically the criteria by
which you will judge the proposals. Besides being fair
to the finalists, doing this will help you clarify your own
February 1991 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 11
thinking and perhaps avoid later disagreements among
members of the selection committee.
8. Evaluate Fees
Judge fees in terms of the quantity and quality of the
work involved.
A demographic study for example, can be done for
$5, 000 or $50, 000. The $5.000 study will not be as useful
for many purposes as the $50, 000 study. Yet for some
purposes, the $50, 000 study, though superior, will be
unnecessary and wasteful and the $5, 000 study entirely
satisfactory.
9. Be Aware of Consultant Biases
If your problem is not a nail, one kind of consultant
to avoid is the consultant who only has a hammer. The
other one to avoid is the consultant with a professional
or ideological bias against using anything but a
hammer.
If you want to generate growth in your town, you
might not want to hire a consultant who is an extreme
environmentalist. If you want to boost your downtown
area economically, it might be unwise to hire a consultant concerned mainly with beautification or historic
preservation.
An article in the paper last year told of a suburban
city we'll call Sylvan Hills. It hired a county planning
staff as a consultant to develop a land use plan. One of
the land use issues in Sylvan Hills was a local effort to
keep prime land for commercial tax base development.
But this land was also sought by another county agency
for acquisition for open space.
When the county planners' preliminary land use
plan for Sylvan Hills showed all this land in open space
use, the city felt betrayed and canceled its contract for
the work. Asking staff from one level of government
with its own political agenda to do unbiased work for
another level of government is perhaps unduly trusting.
But it is surprising how often it is done.
Economic interests can also bias a consultant's
work. Some communities have hired architectural or
engineering firms to do community plans.
These plans sometimes find a "need" for certain
building or public works improvements of the kinds
routinely designed by the firm doing the plan. It is, of
course, possible that these improvements are in fact
really needed. But the best way to ensure objective
findings is to make sure your consultant will not stand to
gain politically or financially from the results of the
consulting assignment.
Summary
Like anything worthwhile, finding the right consultant takes a little work.
But the results of hiring the best consultant for the
job can be worth it, as many towns that have tried new
consultants have discovered. And as Wilkinsville, Sylvan Hills, and other communities have found, using the
wrong consultant can sometimes put you back to
square one a little poorer and a lot wiser. •
Page 12 / Illinois Municipal Review / February 1991