(A) Department heads, agencies and/or elected officials shall have the authority to award professional services contracts of less than $50,000 and may determine, in their discretion, whether such contracts will be awarded on the basis of competitive sealed proposals. Professional services contracts for $50,000 or greater or where multiple professional services contracts for the same item and/or with a single vendor within a fiscal year are likely to exceed $50,000 will be subject to the competitive sealed proposals provisions pursuant to § 33.051, unless they meet one of the exceptions and/or requirements enumerated in §§ 33.065 through 33.069, or unless they fall within the scope of subsection (C) below. All contracts that fall within the scope of subsection (C) below shall be awarded on the basis of qualification-based factors rather than price and will follow the statement of interest procedures according to the Local Government Professional Services Selection Act (50 ILCS 510/1 et seq.) rather than a competitive bid or a competitive sealed proposal.
(B) For professional services contracts for $50,000 or greater, the respective department head and the Purchasing Agent shall present a joint recommendation to the County Board for consideration and approval.
(C) All professional services contracts relative to engineering, architectural and land surveying services will be governed by the requirements of the Local Government Professional Services Selection Act (50 ILCS 510/1 et seq.). In the event the county does not have a satisfactory relationship with one or more firms, a statement of interest shall be issued for the initial selection of engineering, architectural, or land surveying services with evaluation based on qualifications such as ability of professional personnel, past record and experience, performance data on file, willingness to meet requirements, location, workload of the firm, work on similar projects, past performance and other applicable qualification-based factors, but excluding consideration of price or compensation. Responders are then ranked in order of preference and contract negotiations are initiated with the firms individually in order of preference. A request for statement of interest is not required for contracts up to $25,000 regardless of the existence or non-existence of a satisfactory relationship with one or more firms. In all cases, a written description of scope of services to be provided shall be prepared and used as the basis of contract negotiations.
(D) Contracts, other than professional services contracts, in which the Purchasing Agent determines that competitive sealed bidding is neither practical nor advantageous, may be entered into by a competitive sealed proposal.
(1977 Code, § 1:4-1) (Ord., § 5-101, passed 12-8-2009; Ord. passed 2-12-2013)