(A) The city will utilize competitive negotiations, regardless of contract amount, upon a written determination that:
(1) Specifications cannot be made specific enough to permit the award of a bid on the basis of either the lowest bid price or the lowest evaluated bid price (in other words, bidding is not feasible).
(2) The services to be procured are professional or personal in nature.
(B) With the exception of procurement of certain professional services (principally engineering services), competitive negotiations will proceed as follows:
(1) Proposals will be solicited through newspaper advertisement; additionally, a Request for Proposal (RFP) may be prepared and mailed to qualified vendors. The newspaper advertisement must be published at least seven days and not more than twenty-one (21) days before the date for receipt of the proposals. The RFP will describe services needed and identify the factors to be considered in the evaluation of proposals and the relative weights assigned to each selection factor. The RFP will also state where further details regarding the RFP may be obtained. The RFP will call attention to the same regulations discussed in the bidding process. Requests for proposals will always include cost as a selection factor.
(2) Award must be made to the offerer whose proposal is determined in writing to the top rated proposal according to the systematic evaluation. Evaluations must be based on the factors set forth in the Request for Proposal and a written evaluation of each response prepared. The review committee may contact the firms regarding their proposals for the purpose of clarification and record in writing the nature of the clarification. If it is determined that no acceptable proposal has been submitted, all proposals may be rejected. New proposals may be solicited on the same or revised terms or the procurement may be abandoned.
(C) For the procurement of certain professional services, an alternative to RFP's may be used. The county may publish a Request for Qualifications. RFQ's are handled in a similar method to RFPs with the exception that cost is not a factor in the initial evaluation. A review committee will evaluate the responses and rank them by comparative qualifications. The highest scoring person or firm will be contacted and the selection committee will negotiate cost. If the committee is unable to negotiate a satisfactory cost arrangement, the second highest scoring person or firm will be invited to negotiate. The committee will maintain a written record of all such negotiations.
(Res. - - passed 8-14-01)