§ 2-570.1. Contracting for professional services.

(a)

Competitive negotiation procedure. The purchasing agent shall engage in individual discussions with all offerors deemed fully qualified, responsible and suitable on the basis of initial responses and with emphasis on professional competence to provide the required services. Repetitive informal interviews shall be permissible. Such offerors shall be encouraged to elaborate on their qualifications and performance data or staff expertise pertinent to the proposed project as well as alternative concepts. The request for proposal shall not, however, request that offerors furnish estimates of man-hours or cost for services. These discussions may encompass nonbinding estimates of total project costs, including where appropriate, design, construction and life cycle costs. Methods to be utilized in arriving at price for services may also be discussed. Proprietary information from competing offerors shall not be disclosed to the public or to competitors. At the conclusion of discussions, outlined herein, on the basis of evaluation factors published in the request for proposals and all information developed in the selection process to this point, the purchasing agent shall select in the order of preference two (2) or more offerors whose professional qualifications and proposed services are deemed most meritorious. Negotiations shall then be conducted, beginning with the offeror ranked first. If a contract satisfactory and advantageous to the city can be negotiated at a price considered fair and reasonable, the award shall be made to that offeror. Otherwise, negotiations with the offeror ranked first shall be formally terminated and negotiations conducted with the offeror ranked second, and so on until such a contract can be negotiated at a fair and reasonable price. Should the purchasing agent determine in writing and in his sole discretion that only one (1) offeror is fully qualified, or that one (1) offeror is clearly more highly qualified and suitable than the others under consideration, a contract may be negotiated and awarded to that offeror. Once formally terminated, negotiations may not be reopened with any offeror.

(b)

Multiphase contracts. Multiphase professional services contracts satisfactory and advantageous to the city for environmental, location, design and inspection work regarding construction infrastructure projects may be negotiated and awarded based on qualifications at a fair and reasonable price for the first phase only, when completion of the earlier phases is necessary to provide information critical to the negotiation of a fair and reasonable price for succeeding phases. Prior to the procurement of any such contract, the city shall state the anticipated intended total scope of the project and determine in writing that the nature of the work is such that the best interests of the city require awarding the contract.

(c)

Contracting for multiple projects. A contract for architectural or professional engineering services relating to multiple construction projects may be negotiated by the city, for multiple projects provided (i) the projects require similar experience and expertise, (ii) the nature of the projects is clearly identified in the request for proposals, and (iii) the contract term is limited to one (1) year or when the cumulative total project fees reach the maximum cost authorized in this paragraph, whichever occurs first. Such a contract may be renewable for four (4) additional one-year terms at the option of the city. Under such contract, (a) the fair and reasonable prices, as negotiated, shall be used in determining the cost of each project performed; (b) the sum of all projects performed in one (1) contract term shall not exceed six million dollars ($6,000,000.00); and (c) the project fee of any single project shall not exceed two million five hundred thousand dollars ($2,500,000.00). Any unused amounts from the first contract term shall not be carried forward to the additional term. Competitive negotiations for such contracts may result in awards to more than one (1) offeror provided (1) the request for proposals so states and (2) the city has established procedures for distributing multiple projects among the selected contractors during the contract term. Such procedures shall prohibit requiring the selected contractors to compete for individual projects based on price.

(Ord. No. 3910-89; Ord. No. 5636-01, § 1; Ord. No. 5938-03, § 1; Ord. No. 5999-04; Ord. No. 6513-08, § 1; Ord. No. 6615-09, § 1; Ord. No. 6980-13, § 1; Ord. No. 7036-14, § 1; Ord. No. 7194-15, § 1)

Editor's note— Ord. No. 6980-13, § 1, adopted June 25, 2013, shall be in effect on and after July 1, 2013.

(Ord. No. 3910-89; Ord. No. 5636-01, § 1; Ord. No. 5938-03, § 1; Ord. No. 5999-04; Ord. No. 6513-08, § 1; Ord. No. 6615-09, § 1; Ord. No. 6980-13, § 1; Ord. No. 7036-14, § 1; Ord. No. 7194-15, § 1)

Editor's note

Ord. No. 6980-13, § 1, adopted June 25, 2013, shall be in effect on and after July 1, 2013.