Snyderville Basin Cemetery District posts RF(S)Q for business-plan consultant; board outlines evaluation process

The Snyderville Basin Cemetery District said it has posted a request for statement of qualifications for a business‑plan consultant on the Utah public procurement site and is now in the solicitation window for firms to review and submit responses.

Board members and staff discussed how the state procurement process works for an RSQ (Request for Statement of Qualifications), clarified that RSQ solicitations are different from RFPs, and outlined the district’s planned evaluation steps. The district identified roughly 10 firms to notify directly; those firms include consultants based inside and outside Utah, and the district’s procurement contact has emailed them to alert them to the opportunity.

Why it matters: Selecting a consultant will shape the district’s business plan, a foundational document for budgeting, property decisions and future contracting. The board recorded a desire to use a transparent scoring matrix and to keep deliberations in public meeting agendas.

How the district plans to evaluate responses: Board members said they will use a pre‑determined scoring matrix assigning numeric weights to criteria such as experience with advisory districts and related skills. Each board member is expected to individually score submissions before a public meeting; the board will then discuss and average scores in open session. The top scoring firms may be invited to interviews. The board discussed appointing either a subcommittee to do initial screening or having the whole board score submissions; several trustees favored leaving scoring and deliberation for the full board and placing evaluation on a future agenda so discussions are public.

Procurement timeline and submission window: Staff said there is a window for submitting questions during the solicitation and that the application window closes shortly after the question period; staff estimated those deadlines occur near the end of September (the transcript records “September 20” as an approximate date). The district’s procurement work will be processed through the Utah purchasing platform and state procurement office; staff said questions submitted on the platform are routed to the district’s contact for answers.

Next steps: When responses arrive, the board will use the published scoring matrix to evaluate them in open meeting. If the board chooses a top‑scoring firm, it may invite interviews or begin direct contract negotiations according to the solicitation rules described by staff and the state procurement office.

Ending: The district will return to this item on a future agenda with a recommended process and proposed meeting procedure for interviewing and selecting finalists; no consultant was selected at this meeting.