Council reviews new architectural/engineering supply schedule meant to broaden vendor pool

Detroit’s chief procurement officer told the Public Health and Safety Standing Committee on Monday that a proposed architectural and engineering supply schedule is intended to expand competition and make it easier for more firms to bid on task orders across departments.

“Sandra Stahl, chief procurement officer,” introduced the proposal and said the schedule is “an open enrolling qualifications process. It will be open for the five years of the proposed term” and will start with eight vendors and add applicants quarterly. “It allows more competition to a wider pool of vendors who get the prior authorization per the schedule to be able to compete on every task order,” she said.

Council members voiced concerns that a prequalification list could be perceived as pre-approval and asked how new firms will be added. Stahl said vendors can apply at any time and the city will evaluate additions quarterly; the procurement office said the schedule also benefits from city code–mandated outreach and that initial applicants are predominantly Detroit-certified firms.

Member Mary Waters asked how many firms were already on the schedule; Stahl said eight firms have cleared evaluation and three more were in process. Vice Chair asked that urban planning be explicitly added to the scope because planning firms are often excluded from architecture and engineering solicitations; Stahl agreed to work with the planning department to add urban planning to the June submission.

The committee voted to send the supply schedule to formal with a recommendation to approve and later moved the item to new business by unanimous consent. Members asked for continued outreach and for procurement to coordinate with the planning commission staff and other departments to widen participation by local and minority-owned firms.