A. Invitation for Bids: The purchasing division may solicit sealed bids which shall be awarded to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder.
1. Bid Preparation: The department head or designee seeking to procure a good or service shall prepare an IFB using standard city formats with complete, accurate, and understandable specifications and submit such to the purchasing manager. The purchasing manager will review the IFB and proposed contract for compliance with federal and state law (if federal or state funds are applicable) and this chapter and other applicable city ordinances. Once the purchasing manager has reviewed and approved the IFB for advertisement, he or she will advertise the IFB pursuant to this section.
2. Advertisement: All invitations for bids shall be advertised at least once in a generally and widely available medium including but not limited to newspapers, business journals, city websites, and online procurement service. The city shall post the notice as described above at least five (5) business days in advance of the bid due date, unless a department requests a shorter time that is approved by the mayor or designee. All requests to shorten the advertisement period to a period less than five (5) business days should be in writing, submitted to the mayor, and include (i) the requested reduced time of posting, (ii) verification that there is sufficient competition from multiple sources who can respond within the shortened advertisement time line, and (iii) the unique nature of the request. Notwithstanding this subsection, any procurement subject to noticing requirements of state and/or federal law shall comply with those requirements.
3. Bid Clarifications and Specification Substitution Requests: Bidders may submit questions, requests for clarification of specifications, or product and/or specification substitution prior to the question due date specified in the bid requirements. All requests shall be made through the online procurement service. All responses by the purchasing manager or designee, if any, to the bidder's questions, clarifications, and substitutions of specifications may be posted on the online procurement service in the "Question and Answer" section or by modifying the specifications through an official addendum.
4. Receipts of Sealed Bids: All sealed bids shall be received through the online procurement service by the time and date specified in the invitation for bids. If no sealed bids are received by the deadline to submit, the purchasing manager, upon the mayor's approval, may seek bids using any method described herein without further competition.
5. Verification: The city may verify and investigate any part of the competitive solicitation process, including but not limited to requesting documents and questioning potential or official bidders. If the potential or official bidder fails to respond to questions or requests, the potential or official bidder may be found to be a non-responsible or non-responsive bidder and disqualified from continuing the solicitation process or being awarded the contract. The city's failure to discover any matter shall not preclude any subsequent evaluation or action. The city shall determine in its sole discretion (i) what actions may be appropriate for verification or investigation, (ii) the responsiveness of questions or requests, (iii) disqualification or qualification, and (iv) successful bid and/or award of contract.
6. Bid Review: Bids shall be received and reviewed by the purchasing manager and verified by the department head or designee making the purchase or entering into the contract that bidders meet the requirements stated within the bidding document. The purchasing manager or designee may request additional information from vendor(s) at any time throughout the procurement process. The city reserves the right to evaluate and waive any minor informalities to determine the overall impact of the bid process and value to the city.
7. Awarding the Winning Bid: Subsequent to the deadline for the submission of bids, the purchasing manager shall post the bid tabulation sheet showing the total bids for each bidder. After the purchasing manager and department head or designee have determined the lowest bid which complies with all solicitation requirements, the purchasing manager may award the bid to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder. Within three days after the purchasing manager awards the bid, the purchasing manager will post notice of the award on the online procurement service.
B. Requests for Proposals: The purchasing division may solicit sealed proposals which shall be awarded to the highest scoring responsive and responsible offeror.
1. Process for Solicitation of Proposals: Unless otherwise stated below, the general principles and processes related to solicitation of sealed bids shall apply to the process of soliciting sealed proposals.
2. Proposal Review: Once the sealed proposals are received through the online procurement service, the purchasing manager and the department head or designee requesting the sealed proposals may review the proposals for compliance with all solicitation requirements. The purchasing manager, in coordination with the department head or designee, shall form an evaluation committee to evaluate and score the proposals based on criteria set forth in the RFP.
3. Evaluation Criteria: All proposals will be evaluated based on criteria set forth in the request for proposals. The evaluation criteria may, but is not required to, include the following evaluation criteria:
a. The extent of the specialized experience of the individual or firm in the type of work required;
b. The degree and depth of professional qualifications available through the applicant for performance of the services required;
c. Past performance of the applicant on similar projects, in general, and city projects in particular;
d. Location and accessibility of the offices of the professional submitting the proposal;
e. The proposed schedule for completing the scope of work;
f. The facilities and equipment at the disposal of the professional submitting the proposal;
g. The projected work hours and costs associated with providing the services outlined in the scope of work;
h. For construction projects, an offeror's company general safety plan and project specific safety plan;
i. The offeror's ability to work cooperatively with the city, including, without limitation, whether the bidder has previously failed to comply with city agreements or other requirements, nonpayment of sums due to the city, poor working relationships with or adversarial actions against the city, suspension, or other proceedings by the city against the bidder, or failure to assist the city in determining responsibility; and
j. The offeror's capacity to perform contractual requirements, including whether the bidder has available appropriate financial, material, equipment, facility and personnel resources and expertise, or the ability to obtain them, including without limitation, legal capacity to enter an agreement, the ability to perform within required times, or the ability to perform any necessary future service and maintenance.
4. Evaluation Committee: The department head or designee shall appoint an evaluation committee that shall be comprised of no less than three (3) members.
5. Best and Final Offers: As provided in the RFP, discussions and/or RFP modifications may be conducted with the responsible offerors who submit proposals determined to have a reasonable chance of being selected. Offerors shall be accorded fair and equal treatment to discuss and revise proposals in writing and such written revisions may be permitted by the selection committee after submissions and prior to award to obtain best and final offers. In conducting discussions, there shall be no disclosure of any information derived from proposals submitted by competing offerors, except for the names of the offerors. Discussion may also occur with vendors who are on the approved vendor list.
The purchasing manager may request best and final offers from:
a. All responsive and responsible offerors when the evaluation committee wants to verify full understanding of, and conformance to, the solicitation requirements of the RFP;
b. All responsive and responsible offerors who score within twenty percent (20%) of the highest scoring offeror; or
c. All responsive and responsible offerors who have the highest identical scores.
6. Selection and Awarding of the Winning Proposal: The evaluation committee shall evaluate the proposals and may require the offerors to give an oral presentation to further understand each of the offerors proposals. The evaluation of the proposals may be performed in successive stages that eliminate a certain number of offerors from continuing through the evaluation process. Once each stage has concluded and all members of the evaluation committee have scored each proposal according to the processes set forth in the RFP, the individual scoring shall be submitted to the purchasing manager. The purchasing manager will confirm that the highest scoring offeror is compliant with all the solicitation requirements and submit a recommendation to the mayor that the highest scoring proposal be awarded the contract. Within three days after the mayor or designee awards the contract, the purchasing manager will post notice of the award on the online procurement service.
7. Public Access to Sealed Proposals: Sealed proposals shall remain confidential and withheld from public disclosure until an award is posted. After the award is posted, all proposals shall be available for public inspection upon a written Governmental Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) request, except for information or data that the bidder designated as proprietary or confidential or that the city classifies as "privileged" under Utah law. All records retention schedules and access shall be consistent with GRAMA. (Ord. 19-54, 12-11-2019, Effective at 12 noon on January 6, 2020)