A. Contracts for professional services shall be awarded by competitive sealed proposal, except as otherwise permitted by this chapter.
B. Competitive sealed proposals may be used for any procurement when determined to be beneficial to the City by a procurement official in consultation with the procuring department or division.
C. The City may prequalify offerers using a request for qualifications or other process. Notice of such process shall be made public, and such process shall be conducted, in a manner permitted by the procurement rules. The City, in its sole discretion, shall determine which applicants are best qualified to submit a proposal.
D. Competitive sealed proposals shall, at a minimum, include the following:
1. Notice of a request for proposals shall be made public in a manner permitted by the procurement rules at a reasonable time prior to the time when proposals are due. The proposal package shall state the criteria which an offeror's submission must address in order to be considered by the City.
2. No submission delivered to the City after the time established in the notice shall be considered. Timely submissions shall be opened so as to avoid disclosure of contents to competing offerors during the process of negotiation, and a record of each shall be retained.
3. Submissions shall be evaluated based on the criteria set forth in the City's request, and as provided in this chapter. The procurement rules shall include guidance for evaluating proposals and conducting discussions with offerors, and shall provide for the formation of a panel to evaluate and advise regarding all submissions. Submissions may be evaluated on the basis of ability to perform the work, with price to be established by negotiation.
4. Offerors under consideration shall be given fair and equal treatment with respect to opportunity for discussion and revision of proposals, and revisions may be permitted after submissions and before the contract is awarded for the purpose of obtaining best and final offers. No proposal information shall be disclosed to competing offerors prior to award.
5. Any award shall be made by the Department Director, City Council, or other authority responsible for making a determination to the responsive and responsible offeror whose proposal is determined in writing to be the most advantageous to the City based on the criteria for evaluation and the requirements of this chapter. (Ord. 64-97 § 2, 1997)