Ad hoc committee advances RFP, sets vendor timeline and evaluation criteria

An ad hoc committee meeting on March 6 voted to advance a revised request for proposals, approving evaluation and submission details and directing staff to seek legal review before publication.

The committee’s chair put forward a motion to accept the final RFP draft and move it toward execution; following a second, the chair said the motion passed unanimously among the three voting members. Lisa Burke, introduced at the start of the meeting as the senior financial director, led the committee through the draft and described the edits made since the prior meeting.

The approved schedule sets the submission deadline for vendor proposals on Aug. 7, with a vendor question deadline of July 22. Burke told the committee that, to allow time for proposals and review, the project would start Sept. 1, target preliminary recommendations by Feb. 28 for the budget cycle, and aim to complete the work by June 30 of the following year.

The committee added evaluation language emphasizing cultural competency, demonstrated outcomes and partnership approaches. Burke said Jennifer Brady revised the evaluation criteria to include cultural competency and that the qualifications section now asks respondents to demonstrate experience working with diverse communities, education or public-sector organizations.

On vendor materials and data, the committee agreed not to enforce a strict page limit but to encourage proposals be kept to a maximum of 15 pages to reduce reviewer burden. Burke clarified that the RFP’s deliverables intend vendors to rely on existing data; vendors may recommend additional data collection in their submissions, but they are not expected to create new datasets for the committee.

Committee members confirmed that this ad hoc committee votes to advance the RFP; after the selection process, the full board will vote on any contract award. Burke said the legal review—identified in the transcript as “John and Woodson”—typically takes one to two weeks. If legal recommends no substantive edits, staff will notify committee members by email; if legal requests changes, the committee will reconvene to consider those edits before publication.

The committee recorded a formal motion to accept the RFP draft and proceed to execution; the chair stated the motion passed with three votes in favor. The committee did not specify the full names of all voters in the transcript; Burke and another committee member spoke in support during the meeting.

Next steps: staff will submit the draft to legal for review; if legal returns no sustained comments, the RFP will be posted for vendor submissions in the planned May–August schedule, with the selection and contract award to follow and be handled by the full board.