County evaluation committee to request refined BAFOs for disaster recovery management RFP

At a reconvened County evaluation committee meeting for RFP 25-00293 on the Disaster Recovery Management Program, staff said the committee will ask proposers to submit best-and-final offers (BAFOs) with refined, fixed-price units so the county can compare bids on an "apples-to-apples" basis. Ethan Kersey, the senior buyer assigned to the project, opened the meeting and described the process for issuing a BAFO and a bid table to firms.

Why it matters: The contract would support the county’s Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) work, a federally funded program subject to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) oversight. Committee members said clearer, unitized pricing will help the county evaluate costs across consistent deliverables before negotiating a requirements contract with the selected firm.

Committee members emphasized that the underlying scope of work will not change; staff are asking only for more detailed pricing. Robert Hendrickson, management and budget, summarized the rationale: "One of the challenges with a complex program like this is making sure that all of our proposers are providing cost information on a level playing field with enough specificity to ensure that we're receiving costs for like items." The committee agreed that converting many line…