County picks vendor for automated-enforcement program after public protest

After robust public comment and a detailed procurement briefing, the Orange County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the procurement committee’s recommendation to select the top-ranked firm for the county’s intersection automated‑enforcement safety system.

Procurement manager Carrie Mathis told the board the Request for Proposals allowed firms to identify where they would perform work if awarded the contract and that proposals were evaluated strictly to the page limits and scoring methodology set in the solicitation. She said Medaxo (also referenced in public comments as Modaxo/Medaxo) disclosed an ongoing administrative dispute with Montgomery County, Maryland but had identified in its proposal a location in Orange County that it would lease if awarded the contract.

At public comment, representatives of competing bidders raised concerns. David Allen of Vera Mobility urged the board to reconsider awarding local preference points to a bidder that had not already established a physical Orange County location, arguing the practice rewards future intentions rather than firm commitments. Representatives for Medaxo said the company had listed a specific lease location on the RFP form and later reached a settlement with Montgomery County after proposals were due. Staff said public records requests returned limited documentation but the procurement committee had reviewed settlement documents provided by Medaxo’s counsel and found no written evidence of default.

Commissioner discussion focused on the procurement committee’s process: page counts and how to treat pages that might have been misfiled under a different header, the county’s consistent practice of disregarding pages that exceed RFP page limits, and the scoring rubric for location preference that scales by percent of work proposed to be performed in Orange County.

After questions, a motion to approve the procurement‑committee recommendation carried unanimously. The board’s action authorized award to the recommended firm with ranked alternates and left contract administration and performance matters to the procurement office and the county’s contract management protocols.

What’s next: The selected firm and ranked alternates will move toward contract execution; staff said performance-monitoring protocols are in place to address any failure to deliver on commitments stated in proposals.

Attribution: Procurement manager Carrie Mathis presented the committee recommendation and described scoring and page-count procedures. Public protest arguments were presented by David Allen of Vera Mobility and counsel representing Novoa Global and others.