(a) Establishment of minimum dollar limits required for competitive bidding for construction services, the purchase of equipment, supplies, materials and commodities as follows:
(1) Sealed competitive bids shall be required for the purchase of:
A. All contracts for construction projects or improvements estimated to cost more than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.00), or more;
B. All purchases of supplies, materials or commodities, estimated to cost fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000.00) or more;
C. All purchases of equipment, machinery or parts related thereto of any kind, including, but not limited to, vehicles, trucks and rolling stock, estimated to cost Twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.00) or more;
(b) Procedure for Bids.
(1) Solicitation of bids. The Director of Finance shall invite bids from all responsible providers and vendors by publishing a "Notice of Invitation to Bid" as a Class IT legal advertisement in the Clarksburg Exponent/Telegram at least once a week for two successive weeks, the second of which shall be published at least three (3) business days before the deadline for bids to be received. The Director of Finance shall also solicit bids from any responsible providers or vendors who have requested that their names be added to a "bidders list," which shall be compiled and maintained by the Director of Finance, by mailing them a copy of the said Class IT legal advertisement or such other notice to acquaint them with the invitation to bid. In any case, bid invitations sent to the vendors on the bidder's list shall be limited to commodities that are similar in character and ordinarily handled by the trade group to whom the invitations are sent.
(2) Submission of bids; bid opening procedure.
A. Bids shall be sealed and submitted by first class mail, express courier, or hand delivery to the City of Clarksburg, 222 West Main Street, Clarksburg, West Virginia 26301, to the attention of the City Manager or the Director of Finance, as may be specified in the invitation to bid, and specifically identified as bids on the outside of the sealed envelope.
B. Bids shall be opened in public at the time and place specified in the notice, provided that the Director of Finance may, in an appropriate case, publicly announce that the deadline for submission of bid is to be extended for a period not to exceed two (2) weeks from the original deadline. The Director of Finance shall make a tabulation of all bids and such tabulation shall be available for public inspection, and shall be retained by the Director of Finance for a period of three (3) years, in the manner prescribed by law. The Director of Finance shall submit the tabulation to Council, and/or any boards or commissions of the City authorized to make any purchases.
C. A written tabulation of all bids received must be prepared and filed with the Director of Finance, along with a copy of the newspaper Publisher's Certificate attesting to compliance with legal notice requirements in accordance with applicable law.
(c) Award of Bids. Bids shall be awarded by Council, or the board or commission awarding the purchase contract, to the lowest responsible bidder. In determining the lowest responsible bidder, in addition to price, Council shall consider:
(1) The ability, capacity and skill of the bidder to perform the contract or provide the services required;
(2) The character, integrity, reputation, judgment, experience and efficiency of the bidder;
(3) The quality of performance of other contracts or services;
(4) The sufficiency of the financial resources and ability of the bidder to perform the contract or provide the services;
(5) The ability of the bidder to provide future maintenance and service for the use of the subject of the contract.
(6) In determining the lowest responsible bidder, Council shall allow a competitive advantage of five percent (5%), which shall be awarded to any "in-City" business that submits a responsible bid, as defined herein, in accordance with the terms of this Article. For the purposes of this Article, an "in-City" business shall be defined as a business with a physical location (street address) within the corporate boundaries of the City, and pays business and occupation taxes, and is current in all its accounts with the City. The competitive advantage is equal to five percent (5%) of the total bid amount of the in-City bidder, which shall be deducted when comparing the in-City bidder's bid to the lowest bid received. Provided that this provision shall not be applicable to contracts for construction or improvements to property.
(d) Rejection of Bids. The City Manager may reject all bids, parts of bids, or all bids for any one or more supplies or contractual services included in the proposed contract or purchase, when the public interest will be served thereby. This statement shall appear in all notices and solicitations to bids.
(e) Exceptions.
(1) Bid requirements will not be applicable for purchases of materials, supplies, equipment, services, or commodities utilizing a vendor awarded a bid under contract with the State of West Virginia.
(2) Purchases of used equipment, supplies, materials. Any such purchase must be approved by City Manager and Council, or the appropriate board, authority or commission.
(3) Purchases of supplies, materials, equipment, services from a vendor awarded a bid by federal agency of the United States and whereby the federal agency allows the City to purchase from this vendor at a predetermined price.
(Ord. 13-9. Passed 3-7-13.)
(4) Single Source Exception.
A. The City Manager may make a direct award of a contract without competitive bidding if:
(i) The department requests a direct award in writing;
(ii) The department provides written justification showing that the direct award is in the best interest of the City;
(iii) The department provides written confirmation that competition is not available because there is no other source for the commodity or service, or that no other source would be willing or able to replace the existing source without a detrimental effect on the spending unit, the existence of a detrimental effect being determined by the City Manager in the City Manager's sole discretion;
(iv) The City Manager, through the Director of Finance, publicly advertises a "Notice of Invitation to Bid" as a Class II legal advertisement in the Clarksburg Exponent/Telegram at least ten days before any bid is due and shall mail a copy of such advertisement to those responsible providers or vendors who have requested that their names be added to the bidders list. Notice to those on the bidder's list shall be limited to those vendors that provide commodities or services that are similar in character and ordinarily handled by such vendor as those commodity or service being requested; and
(v) No other vendor expresses an interest in providing the commodity or service in question.
B. If a vendor expresses an interest in providing the commodity or service described in the notice of intent to make a direct award, then the spending unit must convert the direct award to a competitive bid, unless the City Manager determines that the interest expressed by a vendor is unreasonable. The competitive bid may, at the discretion of the City Manager, be either a request for quotation or request for proposal.
C. The notice of intent to make a direct award shall contain the following information:
(i) A description of the commodity or service for which a direct award will be made;
(ii) A time period by which delivery must be made or performance must occur;
(iii) The price that will be paid for the commodity or service;
(iv) Any limitations that a competing vendor would need to satisfy;
(v) An invitation to all vendors interested in providing the commodity or service to make that interest known; and
(vi) Contact information for the City Manager or the manager's designee, and instructions to submit a statement of interest to the City Manager or the manager's designee.
D. The City Manager may refuse a department's request to utilize a direct award procurement if the commodities or services have previously been obtained through competitive bidding.
(5) Emergency. Emergency repairs to building components, systems, and public infrastructure. For the purpose of this subdivision, the term "emergency repairs" means repairs that if not made immediately will seriously impair the use of building components, systems, and public infrastructure or cause danger to persons using the building components, systems, and public infrastructure.
(6) Professional and personal and other contracted services, equipment maintenance, services, including, but not limited to, legal services, architectural, engineering, accounting, financial, real estate appraiser services, professional consulting services, clerical and information technology consulting services provided, that all contracts for engineering and/or architectural services shall be pursuant to and in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 5G of the West Virginia Code of 1931, as amended.
(7) Informal Competitive Bidding/Pricing. All items purchased not subject to competitive bidding shall be subject to the following informal price quotation policy:
A. Departments making purchases of $5,000.00 or less should obtain three (3) verbal prices prior to making purchases between qualified vendors will produce economies to the City to be submitted to the City Manager or his designee prior to any purchase, for selection of vendor and approval of the expenditure. Verbal prices should be documented on the requisition of separately attached to the purchase order of requisition of which shall be filed with the Director of Finance who shall retain such records for a period of three (3) years from the deadline established for said price quotations.
B. A minimum of three (3) written quotes shall be obtained prior to making purchases in excess of $5,000.00 and not exceeding $25,000.00 except for Professional and Personal Service contracts where it can be expected that competition between qualified vendors will produce economies to the City. All written quotes shall be forwarded to the Director of Finance along with the Requisition or a Purchase Order.
C. All contracts which are not required to be bid, in excess of $5,000.00 and less than $15,000.00 must be approved by the City Manager and/or the Director of Finance; and further provided that all contracts in excess of $15,000.00 must be approved by Council.
D. The City Manager may, in an appropriate case, make exceptions to the requirement of obtaining written quotations as required herein.
(8) No Competitive Bids shall be required for any purchases by the City except as required in this section.
(Ord. 22-10. Passed 6-2-22.)
(f) Tie Bids. In the event of a tie, ties shall be resolved by the flip of a coin performed during a meeting of the City Council.
(g) Nondiscrimination Policy. In every case, all contracts shall be made and purchases shall be awarded without regard to race, religion, political affiliation, sex, handicap, or national origin.
(h) Applicability. The provisions of this Article shall apply to purchases by all departments, boards and commissions of the City authorized to make any purchase.
(i) Administrative Rules. The Director of Finance may, establish administrative rules and policies for purchasing and competitive bidding not inconsistent with this Article. Any such administrative rules and policies must be in writing and approved by the City Manager.
(j) Compliance. All quotes, bids and contracts shall comply with all applicable West Virginia and/or federal laws and regulations. Contracts and expenditures of grant funds must also comply with an applicable conditions of the grant and the grants' provider.
(Ord. 13-9. Passed 3-7-13.)