§ 2-102. Competitive sealed proposals.

(a)

When the purchasing director determines that the use of competitive sealed bidding under this division is either not practicable or not advantageous to the county, the competitive sealed proposals method may be used.

(b)

Proposals shall be solicited through a request for proposals.

(c)

Adequate public notice of the request for proposals shall be given in the same manner as provided for competitive sealed bidding.

(d)

The request for proposals shall state the relative importance of price and other evaluation factors.

(e)

As provided in the request for proposals, discussions may be conducted with responsible offerors who submit proposals determined to be reasonably susceptible of being selected for award for the purpose of clarification to ensure full understanding of and conformance to the solicitation requirements. Offerors shall be accorded fair and equal treatment with respect to any opportunity for discussion and revision of proposals and such revisions may be permitted after submissions and prior to award for the purpose of obtaining best and final offers.

(f)

Awards shall be made to the responsible offeror whose proposal is determined in writing to be the most advantageous to the county, taking into consideration price and the evaluation factors set forth in the request for proposals. No other factors or criteria shall be used in the evaluation. The contract file shall contain the basis on which the award is made. Awards shall be made by the purchasing director, county administrator, county attorney, or board of county commissioners in accordance with section 2-110.

(g)

Request for proposals and request for statement of qualifications shall be evaluated by an evaluation committee consisting of no less than five evaluators, which may include subject matter experts from the using agency. Outside consultants or agencies retained to assist the county with the solicitation, may serve as an advisor to an evaluation committee; however such advisor shall not participate as a voting member.

(Ord. No. 15-26, § 2, 12-15-15; Ord. No. 18-16, § 5, 6-5-18)