(a) Conditions for use. Generally a contract for professional services should be awarded by competitive sealed proposals. Professional services include services of attorneys, physicians, architects, and engineers. If the Director determines that the use of competitive sealed bidding is not practical or advantageous to the County, a contract may be awarded by competitive sealed proposals.
(b) Request for proposals. Competitive sealed proposals must be initiated through a request for proposals.
(c) Public notice. The Director must give public notice of a request for proposals a reasonable time before the date set for submission of proposals.
(d) Evaluation and method of award.
(1) A request for proposals must contain evaluation factors and an explanation of how the rank of an offeror will be determined, including the procedure for resolving ties in ranking. Evaluation factors must include factors related to the technical quality of the proposal or the ability of the offeror, or both. Evaluation factors may include price. The evaluation process may involve one or more steps.
(2) If the Director determines that a sufficiently detailed scope of services has been developed to allow for selection of a contractor on the basis of price, the evaluation process may provide for the selection of a proposed contractor by requiring all offerors who meet pre-established levels of competency as reflected in scores awarded by the qualification and selection committee to compete for the contract award on the basis of price alone. Price submissions must be submitted in a sealed offer. If required in the Request for Proposal, the price proposal must be binding on the offeror. The price proposal may be submitted at any point during the evaluation process as stated in the Request for Proposals. If the Director decides to award a contract on price alone, the Director must award a contract to the County-based offeror when a qualified County-based offeror and a qualified non County-based offeror have submitted equally ranked price proposals.
(e) Qualification and selection committee. A qualification and selection committee must review and evaluate the proposals and recommend in order of preference the most qualified offerors.
(f)
Approval of contract awards.
The Director must approve the proposed ranking of offerors. If a County-based offeror and a non County-based offeror each receive an identical ranking score, the Director must consider the County-based offeror to be the higher ranked offeror.
(g)
Negotiation with responsible offerors.
Unless a binding offer has been required under the request for proposal, the Director may negotiate a contract with the approved top-ranked offeror. If a contract cannot be successfully negotiated with the top-ranked offeror, the Director may authorize that negotiations be undertaken with the next highest ranked offeror. If the Director approves, negotiations may be undertaken simultaneously with two or more of the top ranked offerors. If a binding offer has been required under the Request for Proposals, the Director may enter into a contract with the top-ranked offeror without negotiation.
(h)
Multiple awards.
Multiple awards may be made under a single request for proposals if the request for proposals provides for multiple awards. (1994 L.M.C., ch. 30, § 1; 2014 L.M.C., ch. 5, § 1.)