REQUEST FOR ENGINEERING QUALIFICATIONS

County of Butler
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT PROGRAM
(CDBG Projects)

The County of Butler is accepting requests for engineering qualifications for the Community Development Block Grant (hereinafter referred to as 'CDBG"). The CDBG Program is an annual appropriation from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that can be used by the County to fund a variety of eligible activities in its non-entitlement communities. In an attempt to allow all interested entities a chance to propose, the County of Butler hereby issues one request for engineering qualifications for its entire CDBG program during the four (4) year period of 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. The final and actual scope of services of the engineer selected will be determined upon the needs of the individually approved projects. However, the general responsibilities of the selected project engineer may include the following:

Responsibilities of the project engineer will include:

1. Meet with County and local officials to review overall project goals, objectives and funding.

2. With the County's approval, undertake final design.

3. Coordination of site ownership and the right-of-way issues, if necessary.

4. Make determination as to general scope, extent and character of the project, prepare design documents consisting of final design criteria, preliminary drawings, and outline specifications; provide opinion of probable costs and furnish preliminary design documents for County and local officials.

5. With County's approval, undertake final design phase which will include preparing documents to be incorporated into the construction contract including final drawings and specifications to show the general scope, extent, and character of work; provide technical criteria for and file applications with the County for governmental approvals and assist in consultations with the appropriate authorities; prepare for review and approval by County construction contract documents including agreement form, general conditions, supplementary conditions, bid forms, invitation to bid, instructions to bidders and standard CDBG contract documents.

6. Assist County in bidding of the project, including maintaining a list of prospective bidders to whom bid documents were issued and providing bid tabulation; assist in evaluating bids and bonds and make a recommendation to the County of the lowest responsible bidder.

7. Coordination with County and municipalities on construction schedule.


8. Obtain all necessary and required permits.

9. Construction inspection including attending site visits to observe the progress of construction to generally determine if it is proceeding in accordance with the construction contract, keep County informed of the progress, review and take actions in response to contractor's submittal; review and take action in response to contractor's application for payment.

10. Coordinate with County and municipalities on final inspection of project.

INFORMATION AND DATA REQUIRED OF EACH OFFERER

All offerers are required to submit an original and three (3) copies of their proposal to the County. Such proposal shall contain response to at least the following:

1. Offerer's Method for Providing the Requested Services

a. Your understanding of the problems which are faced by CDBG Project(s) in particular.

b. Your suggested Scope of Services (if it differs from the RFQ).

2. Offerer's Qualifications, Experience and Time Commitments of Proposed Project(s) Coordinator and Technical Staff

a. Demonstrate the ability of the Project Coordinator to carry out the engineer's services as evidenced by, but not limited to, prior experience in similar projects, including proven ability to manage performance of required tasks within time and resource limits, and prior and relevant experience.

b. Demonstrate the ability of other specifically named key personnel to carry out assigned responsibilities for specific tasks or activities as evidenced by prior experience in executing similar responsibilities and prior experience.

c. Set forth the estimated level of effort in terms of time commitment to be provided by the Project Coordinator and the specifically identified key personnel.


3. Management and Work Plans

a. Set forth offerer's plans for allocating resources and personnel, coordinating the collection of data, writing and delivering the required plans and specifications and coordinating interactions with the County.

4. Engineer's Experience

a. Demonstrate experience and capability of the offerer in conducting efforts of the nature and scope required by this RFQ and producing acceptable products for projects of this size and scope in a tight time framework.

b. Demonstrate experience and capability of the offerer in providing stability, continuity and responsiveness of both staff and management.

5. Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) and Section 3 Businesses

The County of Butler strongly encourages the submission of proposals by MBE/WBE's and Section 3 businesses.

To achieve the objective of enhancing MBE/WBE, and Section 3 participation, the County of Butler has established MBE/WBE and Section 3, utilization as a selection criterion in the evaluation process.

The County of Butler will evaluate the Proposer's criteria and will assign a point value to be considered within the overall RFQ total point tabulation.

Proposals submitted by individuals claiming MBE/WBE or Section 3 status, or proposals submitted by individuals reflecting joint venture and subcontracting opportunities with MBE/WBE's or Section 3 businesses, must submit documentation verifying their claim.

Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) A business concern that is:

a. A sole proprietorship, owned and controlled by a minority; or

b. A partnership or joint venture controlled by minorities in which 51% of the beneficial ownership interest is held by minorities; or

c. A corporation or other entity controlled by minorities in which at least 51% of the voting interest and 51% of the beneficial ownership interest are held by minorities.

Minority Person - Persons who are citizens of the United States and who are Black
Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, or Asian-Pacific Americans.

Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) A business concern that is:

a. A sole proprietorship, owned and controlled by a woman; or

b. A partnership or joint venture controlled by women in which 51% of the beneficial ownership interest is held by women; or

c. A corporation or other entity controlled by women in which at least 51% of the beneficial ownership interests are held by women.

Section 3 Business Concern - means a business concern:

a. That is 51% or more owned by Section 3 residents; or

b. Whose permanent, full-time employees include persons, at least 30% of whom are currently Section 3 residents, or within three years of the date of first employment were Section 3 residents; or

c. That provides evidence of a commitment to subcontract in excess of 25% of the dollar award of all subcontracts to be awarded to business concerns that meet the qualifications set forth in (a) or (b) above.

6. Basis for Compensation

a. The offerer must include their hourly rate for specific services, with a not to exceed number per project or for the entire CDBG grant.

FACTORS FOR AWARD

The County will evaluate each written proposal, determine whether oral discussions of the offer are necessary, then based on the content of the written proposal and oral discussions, if any, will assign points for each segment of the proposal in accordance with the criteria hereinafter set forth. The offerer with the highest total points for such service will be selected for purposes of negotiating a contract. The points to be awarded are set forth for each major segment and subsegment below. If a contract cannot be negotiated successfully with the highest rated offer, negotiation will be conducted with the next highest offerer and so on until a successful negotiated contract can be arrived at.

1. Offerer's Method for Providing the Requested Services (40 points)

a. Understanding of Community Development Program in general and the subject Project in particular. (20 points)

b. Adequacy of the Scope of Services. (20 points)

2. Offerer's Qualification, Experience and Time Commitments of Proposed Project Coordinator and Technical Staff (30 points)

a. Demonstrated ability of the Project Director to carry out the project consulting responsibilities. (10 points)

b. Demonstrated ability of other specifically named key personnel to carry out proposed assignment, including prior experience in performing such assignments. (10 points)

c. The adequacy of the proposed level of effort in terms of time commitment of Project Director and key personnel. (10 points)

3. Management and Work Plans (5 points)

a. Quality of offerer's work plans.

4. Offerer's Experience (20 points)

a. Demonstrated experience and capability of the offerer's coordinating efforts of the nature and scope of similar work. (10 points)

b. Demonstrated experience and capability of the offerer in providing stability, continuity and responsiveness of both staff and management.
(10 points)

5. Participation by Minority Business Enterprises (MBE) and Women Business Enterprises (WBE) and Section 3 Businesses
(5 points)

Any offerer who meets any one of the following factors shall receive the following weight points:

Priority Rank 1. Proposals submitted by MBE/WBE's or Section 3 businesses (2 points)

Priority Rank 2. Proposals submitted from a joint venture with a Commonwealth approved MBE/WBE or Section 3 businesses as a joint venture partner. (2 points)

Priority Rank 3. Proposals submitted with subcontracting commitments to MBE/WBE's or Section 3 businesses. (1 point)



6. Scoring Key

a. Percent of points awarded:

0% - No Response
50% - Marginal
70% - Acceptable
80% - Occasionally exceeds acceptable
90% - Consistently exceeds acceptable
100% - Outstanding in all respects

The awarded engineering firm must enter into a contract with the County of Butler in compliance with all applicable provisions of the CDBG Program. All (eventual) agreements will include standard provisions concerning management; civil rights, equal employment opportunity, all other requirements in compliance with OMB Circular A-102 Attachment O, local, state and Federal rules and regulations applicable to the program, and a firm, fixed price maximum lump sum fee for services to be rendered.

No individual or firm responding to the Request for Proposal will be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, age, handicap, ancestry, familial status, nation origin, or use of guide or support animals.

Please submit original and three (3) copies sealed and clearly marked on the outside envelope RFQ for CDBG Services to: Butler County Controller's Office, 124 W. Diamond St. PO Box 1208, Butler, PA 16003-1208. Proposals will be accepted until 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 28, 2023 with opening being at the public meeting held at 10:00 Wednesday, March 1, 2023.

Contact person for Project: Wendy Leslie, CDBG Coordinator
Phone: 724-284-5303
Email: wleslie@co.butler.pa.us

See above description