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Board adopts federal procurement policy to meet Brooks Act requirements for RAISE grant
Summary
The Board of Public Works adopted a 24-page procurement and contract administration policy required for federally funded projects under the Brooks Act, enabling the city to proceed with consultant selection for two pedestrian-bridge studies tied to a RAISE grant.
The Board of Public Works adopted a federal procurement and contract-administration policy on May 7 to ensure the city meets Brooks Act requirements for the RAISE grant-funded pedestrian-bridge studies.
Brandon, a city project staffer, told the board the 24-page policy sets a qualification-based selection process that does not allow the city to consider cost during initial consultant ranking. "The federal requirements of the Brooks Act do not, allow us from a consultant engineering consultant selection process to consider cost," he said, adding the policy also addresses contract management and dispute resolution.
Kevin Riley asked when cost would factor into the process; Brandon said cost is evaluated after the board approves the top-ranked consultant and staff enter contract negotiations, at which point staff can compare the top firm's proposed price with the city's estimate and either negotiate, walk away, and move to the next-ranked firm.
The board voted unanimously to adopt the policy, enabling staff to proceed with a qualifications-based Request for Proposals and later interviews for the top firms. City staff said the policy applies only to federally funded projects and not to the city's standard consultant selection for city-funded or CIP projects.
Adoption of the policy clears a procedural hurdle for the RAISE grant work, which staff said will move to the procurement and preliminary-design phase now that the Board has the formal policy in place.
