(a) The Mayor is hereby authorized to award contracts for supplies and services, which would by local ordinance or applicable State law be required to be awarded by competitive bidding unless otherwise waived, through a "reverse auction", when the Mayor determines, in his sole discretion, that the same would be advantageous for the Village. A "reverse auction" as used in this section is a purchasing process in which offerors submit proposals in competing to sell services or supplies in an open environment via the internet. "Internet", "supplies" and "services", as used in this section, shall be defined as set forth in Ohio R.C. 9.314.
(b) Council adopts the following rules regarding "reverse auctions":
(1) The Village shall solicit proposals through a request for proposals, which shall state the relative importance of price and other evaluation factors;
(2) The Village shall provide notice of the request for proposals in a manner and at a time to be determined by the Mayor or the Mayor's designee at his/her sole discretion;
(3) The Village reserves the right on an auction to conduct discussions with offerors who submit proposals determined by the Mayor or the Mayor's designee at his/her sole discretion to be reasonably susceptible to being selected for award;
(4) The Village reserves the right by auction basis to require the successful bidder to provide a performance bond or other form of financial security in an amount and form herein determined by the Mayor or the Mayor's designee at his/her sole discretion;
(5) The Village reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal, in whole or in part, as its sole discretion, and to waive any informalities or irregularities in any proposal received or the process;
(6) The Village retains the right to begin the reverse internet auction process anew if the Village determines it is in the best interest of the Village;
(7) The Village may award a contract to the offeror whose proposal the Council, by motion and majority vote, determines to be the most advantageous offer taking into consideration factors such as price and the evaluation criteria set forth in the request for proposal;
(8) The Village assumes no responsibility for, and shall have no responsibility for, the costs incurred by any offeror prior to the award of any contract;
(9) The Village reserves the right on an auction-by-auction basis by each offeror for the download of information on the website. Any such fee shall be based upon the reasonable costs to the Village of such activity.
(10) The Mayor or the Mayor's designee is authorized to pay a reasonable fee to the reverse internet auction vendor which fee shall not exceed Mayor's spending authority. Fee shall be paid from funds appropriated by Council for such purpose;
(11) Alternatively, in the Mayor's or the Mayor's designee's discretion, the fee may be included as part of the bids received during the reverse internet auction and paid by the winning bidder or paid as provided in subsection (b)(10) above.
(Ord. 47-09. Passed 7-20-09.)