The District wants to encourage additional competition among bidders on its construction and building maintenance projects and to do so, wants to put in place a program in which small business enterprises are assisted in meeting the Districts requirements to be qualified to submit bids on and perform District construction and maintenance projects. The program shall also be designed to develop skills and resources for participants necessary to obtain the bonds and insurance required for such projects. This program will include such matters as assisting contractors with insurance and bonding requirements and familiarizing contractors with other District bidding and contracting requirements. The program will also include assistance to participants with business and project management skills, understanding construction drawings and estimating construction costs, but will not assist in the preparation or submission of any bids on any District construction or maintenance project. The District intends to award a single contract to the firm deemed by the District in its sole discretion to be the most qualified and responsive to this request. The Program Consultant (PC) awarded the contract will be expected to provide a full range of services to program participants as described in this RFP. A detailed itemization of the scope of services can be found under the heading Proposed Scope of Services and Contract Requirements below. General The proposal shall contain, at a minimum, the following information under the following sections and in the order given. Proposals shall be contained in a three-ring or similar binder that allows easy removal of pages for photocopying or scanning. Firms may use a format of their choosing within the sections. Any proposal not containing the required information may be rejected by the District. Firm Profile 1.) Identification of firm, including contact person, address, telephone/fax number, e-mail address and date the firm was organized. State whether the firm is a 3 corporation, limited liability company, partnership or other entity and the state of organization. 2.) Size of the firm (number of offices, employees and the like) and the geographic area of its operations (i.e., local, regional, national). 3.) A current financial statement as evidence of the firms financial stability. State whether the financial statement is internally prepared or has been prepared by an outside accounting firm and whether it is audited. An internally prepared financial statement must be certified as accurate in all material respects by an officer or authorized employee of the firm. (This information should be submitted in a separate envelope marked Financial Information with the RFP response only one copy of this financial information is necessary this information will be retained as confidential by the District, will not be reproduced, and will be returned to the firm at the conclusion of the selection process). 4.) Names of key personnel who would be assigned to this program and their qualifications, including an organizational chart that includes all key personnel for the program. Provide brief resumes for all key personnel including education, number of years with the firm, related work experience, and professional association memberships. Also include any state licenses and registrations held by such personnel. 5.) State whether your firm would utilize any subcontractors to perform any services. Program 1.) Please describe any existing programs that you are presently conducting that are similar to the program that the District is seeking to establish that assist and develop small business enterprises involved in the construction or maintenance industries or that involves development of small businesses in the construction or maintenance fields. Include in the description the educational and consulting components of the programs, the program goals and objectives and the measurement tools used to gauge program success. 2.) Please include with the proposal samples of program educational materials, course outlines, and promotional materials used to recruit program participants for each program. 3.) Please describe how you recruit program participants and the eligibility requirements for participation in these programs. Identify any programs presently utilized by your firm to encourage diversity in participants in your programs. Also include in your response your eligibility requirements for your programs. 4.) Please state the time period that a typical program participant will participate in the program. 5.) Please state whether you charge any fee to program participants to participate in the program, and, if so, the amount of that charge. 4 6.) For each such program, please provide the following information: a. The location where the program is conducted and the years of operation. b. The number of people and/or businesses that have been assisted by the program since its inception. c. The number of current program participants. d. The retention rate for program participants and the most common reasons program participants quit the program. Include the number of business failures of program participants. e. If applicable, the number of construction and maintenance contracts and the dollar amount of such contracts awarded to program participants currently in the program. 7.) Please state in summary form how your proposed program would meet the program requirements of the District as set forth in the Program Requirements section of this RFP document. Experience 1.) Please list references of at least three companies or governmental entities that have implemented one of your programs. Include for each the name and contact information of a person that the District can contact for a reference. 2.) Please list references of at least three companies that have participated or who are current participants in one of your programs. Include for each the name and contact information of a person that the District can contact for a reference. 3.) Please state whether your services were ever terminated due to a claim made against you because of a default or non-performance of a contract. Fee Structure 1.) Describe the firms fee structure proposed for implementing a program for the District, including any potential increase in fees for future contract years and contract extensions. Include the manner in which fees would be calculated and any expense reimbursements that would be charged to the District in addition to the fees. This fee structure is requested for bid evaluation purposes only and should not be considered an assurance that, if awarded the contract, the District would pay the fee or reimbursements proposed. The amount that will actually be charged will be subject to negotiation by the District and the selected firm. 2.) State the manner in which any additional services that may be requested by the District would be charged.
