§ 2-13-110. Competitive sealed proposals.

(a)

Purchases of goods, services or construction may be made by competitive sealed proposals if the use of competitive sealed bids is either not practicable or not advantageous to the city, as determined by the city purchasing manager, for the purchase of goods and services, or for the purchase of construction. Factors which may, among others, be considered in the determination are:

(1)

Specifications cannot be adequately prepared which permit the award on the basis of the lowest evaluated bid price;

(2)

The use of proposals would promote innovation, the use of state of the art technology and overall efficiencies to the benefit of the city;

(3)

Evaluation of responsive offers is dependent on levels of performance, expertise, financial capability or other criteria and cannot be based solely on lowest price.

(b)

Purchases by competitive sealed proposals shall be made by a request for proposals, in accordance with the provisions set out in section 2-13-220, notice of purchase. In addition, the following provisions shall apply:

(1)

The request for proposals shall include a weighted scale to indicate the relative importance of evaluation factors to be used in the scoring of proposals. Pricing may be a weighted factor. Evaluation factors shall be developed by the users according to their needs in conjunction with the central purchasing office.

(2)

To evaluate proposals, the central purchasing manager shall name an evaluation committee which shall include as one (1) of its members a representative from the department or agency requesting the purchase.

(3)

During the evaluation of proposals, and until approval of the recommendation of award by the commission, the contents of proposals may not be disclosed to any persons other than the members of the evaluation committee or its advisors. If a request for proposals is cancelled and a similar RFP is anticipated to be issued within six (6) months, the contents of proposals received in response to the first request for proposals may not be disclosed until after approval by the commission of the recommendation of award for the second RFP, or cancellation of the RFP.

(4)

As part of the evaluation of the evaluation committee, additional information may be requested from and interviews may be conducted with all offerors determined in writing by the evaluation committee to be among the finalists considered for award. Any discussions with finalists may not disclose any information derived from proposals submitted by competing offerors.

(5)

On the basis of the weighted evaluation of the proposals offered, the committee shall submit to the commission its recommendation for award. A written record of the committee's evaluations shall be kept as a public record.

(6)

Negotiations of price or other contract terms may be conducted with the offerors selected or recommended for award which have been approved by the city commission, as described above. Negotiations shall begin with the offeror whose proposal appears first on the approved list and if unsuccessful, as determined by the city purchasing manager, may then be conducted with the next offeror on the list. If more than one (1) contract will be awarded, simultaneous negotiations may be conducted with more than one (1) offeror on the list.

(Ord. No. 1185, § 11, 6-22-04; Ord. No. 1273, § 5, 6-13-06)