CITY OF DELAND, FLORIDA

COMPETITIVE BIDDING

Competitive bidding is a basic requirement in pub­lic purchasing with certain exceptions, such as small cost pur­chases, emergency purchases and other pur­chases, allowed under City Charter Sec­tion 63.

ADVERTISING BIDS

No­tice of re­quests for com­petitive bid shall be adver­tised for two consecutive weeks.   The first of these two no­tices shall ap­pear not less than ten days prior to bid opening, and shall be placed in a news­paper published or dis­tributed in the city.  Currently the News-Journal is the locally distributed newspaper being used.

Per Florida Statute Section 255.0525 the bid advertisement for any construction project that is projected to cost more than $200,000 shall be publicly advertised at least 21 days prior to the established bid opening date and at least 5 days prior to any scheduled pre-bid conference.  If the pro­jected cost is more than $500,000, the re­quired time period is 30 days and at least 5 days prior to any scheduled pre-bid conference.

A listing of all open bids can be obtained at City of DeLand Bids.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR SPECIFICATIONS

The department wishing to purchase under com­petitive bidding is responsible for the bid specifications.  Prior to ad­vertising the bid, a reference number to be used throughout the bid process must be obtained from the Fi­nance Department.  A copy of the specifi­cations and bid advertisement shall be sent to the Purchasing Coordinator who will be responsible for all bid open­ings.

BID BOND/DEPOSIT

A bid bond/deposit can be requested in the public notices for bid whenever determined necessary to ensure success­ful perfor­mance.   Generally this bid bond is returned to the bidder upon award of the bid.  However, if the City is unable to award a contract through the fault of the bidder, then this bid bond may be forfeited to cover the cost of bidding and advertising the project again.

The size of the bid bond/deposit is determined by the depart­ment preparing the specifications, although five per­cent of the bid placed by the vendor has been the general rule.

TABULATION

All bids are opened and tabulated by the Purchasing Coordinator in the Finance Depart­ment.  Bids will be read aloud for any bidder present at the bid opening.   The original copy of the tabulation is kept on file in the Finance Depart­ment along with the original bid documents.

LATE BIDS

A date and time for submission of bids is set in the invitation to bid.  Any bids received after that time will be re­turned un­opened and marked as such.

REJECTION OF BIDS

After bids are received, they must be presented to the City Com­mission for dispo­sition.   The authority to accept and reject bids rest with the City Commission.  There is no Commission action required if no bids are received.

DETERMINATION OF LOWEST AND BEST BID

The department director in charge of preparing the specifications will review the bid tabulations and complete a "Re­quest for Commission Action" (RCA) form recommending the bid con­sidered to be the lowest and best.  This decision should include consideration of price, service record, financial stability,   skill, estimated completion time, quality of previous contracts, and ability to provide future maintenance.  The RCA should also state the amount of funds budgeted, and if the bid exceeds the budget, how the excess will be covered. The depart­ment director shall make a recom­mendation on bid award, however, the final decision re­mains with the City Commission.

TIE BIDS

Tie bids will be awarded by the City Commission on the basis of such consider­ations as listed above.

SINGLE SOURCE VENDOR

The City Commission may also authorize, by resolu­tion, the pur­chase of equip­ment, materials or supplies without com­petitive bidding when these are avail­able only from a single source, or are unique or used items, or when no compet­itive bids are submit­ted in re­sponse to notices published.

EXCEPTIONS TO COMPETITIVE BIDDING

The requirement for competitive bidding does not apply to per­sons employed by the City or to professional ser­vice contracts for engineering services, architectural services, insurance ser­vices, auditing services or similar professional service con­tracts.   These contracts may be negotiated by the City Commission in the best interest of the City, unless otherwise regulated by general law; i.e. "Consultants Competitive Negotiation Act" (see below).

COOPERATIVE PURCHASING

Excepted  from the requirement for competitive bid­ding are  pur­chases from other political bodies, including state and federal government, counties,  munici­palities, authorities, districts and school boards, and their agencies and divisions, and purchases from qualified  vendors  of  products selected through competitive  bidding  procedures conducted by those govern­mental bodies.   This exception provides express authority for cooperative purchas­ing and bidding arrangements with the pre­viously identi­fied govern­ments, authorities and their agencies.

In order to allow other local governmental units and other members of the Coop­erative Purchasing Council to purchase under approved bids accepted by Council members, the VCOG Cooperative Purchasing Council has incorporated the fol­lowing into its Policies and Pro­cedures:

     "All bidders awarded contracts from this bid are required to permit the fol­lowing entities to participate in the contract un­der the same prices, terms and conditions, except that allow­ances may be made for differences in delivery costs:

                    (1) Governmental agencies in Volusia County ; and

                    (2) Nonprofit organizations that are members of the VCOG Coop­erative Purchasing Council."

Therefore, it will be necessary for all bid specifications, where appropriate, to include the above quotation.

EMERGENCY APPROPRIATIONS

The City Commission may by resolution purchase, without benefit of bid, equip­ment, materials or supplies by emergency appropriation when such purchase is determined to be necessary to protect the health, welfare or safety of the people.

CONSULTANT'S COMPETITIVE NEGOTIATION ACT

Procedures to be followed regarding Consultant's Competitive Ne­gotiation Act, Florida Statutes Section 287.055, are incorporated in this manual.  The Act requires a public announcement on each occasion when professional services are required to be purchased for a project the basic construction cost of which is esti­mated to exceed Category Five or $250,000, or for a planning or study activity when the fee for professional services exceeds Category Two or $25,000, except in cases of valid public emergen­cies. A "professional service" is defined as architecture, professional engineering, landscape architecture or registered surveying and mapping.  A "project" is defined as that fixed capital outlay study or planning activity described in the public announcement.  The statute states the agency administration should pre­scribe procedures for the determination of a project.  This project determination could be (1) a project that constitutes a grouping of minor construction, rehabili­tation, or renovation activities, or (2) a project that constitutes a grouping of sub­stantially similar construction, rehabilitation, or renovation activities.  A "Request For Proposals" can only be prepared requesting services for a specific project or project grouping.

According to Florida Statutes Section 287.055 the procedure that should be fol­lowed is:

     1. Each agency announces publicly when "professional ser­vices" are required to be purchased for a project with the basic construc­tion costs in excess of $250,000 or when the professional fee is an­ticipated to exceed $25,000.  The notice must include a general de­scription of the project and indi­cate how inter­ested consultants can apply.  Exceptions can be made in case of valid public emergencies certified by the agency head.

          2.  The professional services which are covered by the act in­clude architec­ture, professional engineering, landscape archi­tecture or registered land survey­ing services.

          3.  Any consulting firm is allowed to file annual state­ments as to qualifica­tions and performance data with the pub­lic agency, and these have to be retained on record.  Any consult­ant who wishes to be considered for a project must be found to be qualified by the agency.  Among the factors to be considered are capabilities, adequacy of per­sonnel, past record and experience.

          4.  For each proposed project the agency evaluates cur­rent state­ments of qualifications plus those that may be sub­mitted by other firms and con­ducts dis­cussions with, and may re­quire public presentations by, no fewer than three firms regarding their qualifications, approach to the project and ability to furnish the required service.

          5.  The agency then selects in order of preference at least three firms deemed to be the most highly qualified to perform the re­quired services.  In determining whether a firm is qualified the agency con­siders such factors as the ability of pro­fessional per­sonnel; whether a firm is a certified minor­ity business enterprise; past performance; willingness to meet time and bud­get requirements; location; recent, current and projected work loads; and the volume of work pre­viously awarded to each firm by the agency, with the goal of evenly distributing work wherever pos­sible.

          6.  After the firms are ranked, the agency attempts to nego­tiate a contract with the most qualified firm at a compen­sation that the agency deter­mines to be fair.  If a con­tract can­not be negotiated with that most qualified firm, the agency may move on to the next most qualified firm for pur­poses of negotiat­ing an agreement.  How­ever, once nego­tiations are broken off with one firm an agency is not al­lowed to move to the next most qualified firm to get, for example, a price quote from them and then re-approach the most qualified firm and attempt to nego­tiate with them once more.  In other words, if firms are ranked 1, 2, 3, the agency must negoti­ate with firm #1.  If that nego­tiation is un­successful, the agency must move on to firm #2.  If that nego­tiation is unsuccessful, the agency must try once again with firm #3.  The agency is not allowed to go back to firm #1 or firm #2.

          7.  Exempt from this procedure are projects with a construc­tion cost less than $250,000 or consultant fees of less than $25,000, and consultant services provided under a continu­ing con­tract between a firm and an agency.

FIRMS OR PERSONS CONVICTED OF "PUBLIC ENTITY CRIMES"

Procedures to be followed regarding Florida Statutes Section 287.133 are in­corporated in this manual. Firms or persons con­victed of "public en­tity crimes", which are defined to include bid rigging, price fixing, bribery, fraud and theft, are re­quired to disclose that fact to the De­partment of General Ser­vices (DGS). The firm or person's name is then placed on  a list, maintained by the DGS, of convicted vendors with whom public agencies may not con­tract for a period of thirty-six months, un­less the vendor's name is re­moved from the list by the DGS. This list is published on January 1 of each year with the first list being pub­lished on January 1, 1990 .  All invitations to bid as defined by Florida Statutes Section 287.012(11), requests for proposals as defined by Florida Statutes Section 287.012(16), and any contract document described by Florida Statutes Section 287.058 shall contain a statement informing persons of the provisions of Florida Statutes Section 287.133 Public Entity Crime.