Specifications include, but are not limited to: The City of Philadelphias Office of Property Assessment (OPA or Department) is seeking proposals from qualified firms to supply various services for Philadelphia property owners regarding their property assessment and related programs. The OPA is seeking assistance with the following: 1. Customer Contact customer service and communications with property owners 2. Online Application Processing 3. Homestead Application Processing 4. Management of returned mail Vendors may propose to provide services in one or more of the functional areas outlined in the scope of work, and the City reserves the right to award one or more contracts for the services identified in this RFP. B. Department Overview OPA is responsible for discovering, listing, and valuing all real property throughout the City of Philadelphia on an annual basis, in a fair and equitable manner. Additionally, OPA formulates assessment policy, establishes assessment districts, keeps records of assessments and real property data characteristics, maintains surveys and other assessment materials, and provides public and individual notice of assessments. The office reports to the Mayor, City Council, and Board of Education on the aggregate change of assessments on an annual basis. OPA administers all tax abatement programs for new residential construction, residential rehabilitation, and construction and improvement of business properties, as well as exemptions. There is a separate agency that handles assessment appeals. This is the Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT). Once a taxpayer receives his or her revised assessed value he or she may submit an appeal to the BRT. During the current mass appraisal process, OPA plans to informally review all appeals as a quality assurance method. C. Project Background OPA is reassessing all properties in the City of Philadelphia by October 1, 2012 to ensure that property values are fair and equitable with respect to true market values. There are approximately 579,000 parcels in the City each one will be assessed. The process is referred to as the Actual Value Initiative (AVI). As this will be the first city-wide reassessment in years, there will be a need to communicate with property owners about the values and provide assistance to those owners with questions or problems. It is expected that a majority of properties will see a dramatic change in value and many of those property owners will have questions and/or will want to file an appeal. Additionally, the City will for the first time be offering targeted tax relief to home owners for their primary residence which will require an application and approval process. This is referred to as the Homestead Act ("Act") or Homestead Exemption. The proposed tax relief program, dependent on State legislation, will potentially be enacted in July of this year. The Act will allow owner-occupied properties to receive a discount in taxes owed. These owners will be required to apply for the exemption and prove their primary residency. To provide additional support for both of these projects, OPA seeks assistance in interactions with the public via mail, phone, web and in-person. D. Request for Proposals Through this RFP, OPA seeks a firm or firms experienced in providing the full range of customer relations and communications as cited in Section A above and detailed in this RFP. Vendors may propose to provide services in one or more of the functional areas outlined in the scope of work, and the City reserves the right to award one or more contracts for the services identified in this RFP.
