00002690 RFP Addendum 2.pdf

Procurement Services City Operations City of Portland, Oregon

@PortlandGov portlandgov

PortlandORGov

ADDENDUM NO. 2

RFP No. 00002690

FOR

Language Interpretation and Translation Services

Bids or Proposals Due: February 26, 2026 before 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time

This Addendum shall provide changes to the specifications for the above-entitled project to be considered by each respondent. This Addendum shall be included within the proposal. Any changes made by this Addendum to said specifications offset only the portion of the words or paragraphs specifically mentioned herein, and the balance of the specifications remain in full force.

It is the responsibility of all respondents to conform to this addendum.

1. Addendum 1 00002690 Proposal Packet, Section 8 Required Proposal Components, Proposal Checklist is deleted and replaced with this table to remove the Civil Rights Data Collection requirement:

Proposal Component Required/Optional Included in page limit?

Proposer Information Form Required N □

Proposer Capabilities Required Y □

Project Team Required Y □

Project Approach Required Y □

Equal Employment Opportunity and Access in Subcontracting

Required Y □

Equal Opportunity Employer and Community Involvement

Required Y □

Sustainable Business Practices Required Y □

Exceptions and Deviations to the Contract Form Optional N □

Redacted for Public Disclosure Copy Optional N □

Redaction Summary Form Required if

Redacted for Public N □

Sylvester Donelson, Jr. Tracy Warren Raymond C. Lee Chief Procurement Officer interim Deputy City Administrator Chief Administrative Officer https://twitter.com/PortlandGov https://www.instagram.com/PortlandGov/ https://www.facebook.com/PortlandORGov

Disclosure Copy is provided.

Resumés Required N □

Copies of any certifications or similar professional documentation held by staff, as defined in the RFP

Optional N □

2. Q: Please provide incumbent(s) and incumbent(s)’s rates.

A: Incumbents were provided in Addendum 1. Copies of current contracts and rates may be requested through a formal public records request here: https://www.portland.gov/public-records.

3. Q: Please provide historical volumes.

A: Historical contract spend was included in Addendum 1. See attachment “City Interpretation and Translation Contracts 2026-02-04”

4. Q: Please provide historical volumes per service category (telephonic interpretation, or over the phone interpretation, or OPI; video remote interpretation, or VRI; on-site interpretation;

translation services).

A: The City does not keep that data as independent records but a rough idea can be calculated from the Addendum 1 attachment “City Interpretation and Translation Contracts 2026-02-04”.

5. Q: 4. Please provide breakdown by language for each category (telephonic interpretation, or over the phone interpretation, or OPI; video remote interpretation, or VRI; on-site interpretation; translation services). Re breakdown by language, please separate, at the very minimum, Spanish and All Other. For on-site interpretation, please separate spoken languages and hearing impaired. For hearing impaired, please break it down into on-site ASL, and VRI ASL.

A: The City does not keep this information in a database. That would need to be compiled from a long search of each individual invoice for services and we will not perform that function for this solicitation.

6. Q: Please provide projected volumes.

A: The City does not anticipate an increase or decrease in services different from historical spend.

7. Q: Please provide projected budget.

A: The budget will be roughly the same as historical spend.

8. Q: Please confirm that City of Portland Business Tax Account and State of Oregon Secretary of State registration is required upon award only.

A: Confirmed.

https://www.portland.gov/public-records https://www.portland.gov/public-records

9. Q: Please revise 3.5. Interpreter Qualifications to take into account submissions by language service providers, especially parts referring to Preference will be given to individual interpreters . . . (p. 11) and 3.5.2 Alternate Criteria for Individual Interpreters.

A: This section shall be left as it was originally published. The City has identified in the Proposal Information Packet which certifications it finds preferrable. It is incumbent upon Proposer to clearly state what criteria, training, education, or certifications, are used to qualify their staff.

10. Q: Are vendors required to bid on all services listed in Section 3. Scope of Work?

A: See Addendum 1.

11. Q: Are vendors allowed to bid on ASL Interpretation but limit it to remote only?

A: Yes. The City primarily uses on-site ASL interpretation but uses video, too.

12. Q: If not bidding on all services, will it be counted against a vendor?

A: Proposing on one service or more will not count against a vendor. Ensure that it is clear for which service you are proposing and how you will provide those services to the City.

13. Q: Are vendors to submit their own price schedules that take into account line items in Pricing Proposal?

A: See Addendum 1.

14. Q: How are vendors to address multi-year pricing since contracts may be extended to last 10 years, as per 1.2 Contract Details?

A: Price increases are not included in the Project Information Packet, Section 5, Sample Contract, so Proposers may include how they address price increases in their proposal.

15. Q: Is telephonic and video interpretation on demand or pre-scheduled? Should we list both?

The unit of measurement, as per the industry standard, is by the minute for on demand and by the hour for prescheduled.

A: Most work is pre-scheduled but there are occasional needs for on demand services.

Proposers are welcome to include descriptions of their delivery methods for such services in their proposal.

16. Q: Are vendors allowed to differentiate pricing by language across all service modalities? The City’s current Pricing Proposal does not differentiate between languages or groups of languages.

17. A: Yes.

18. Q: Please confirm City’s business day and hours.

A: Business days are defined as M – F, 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. There are needs at other times as well so if a Proposer provides services outside these hours, please include that in the proposal.

19. Q: Where are vendors to list their after-hours, minimum and cancellation charges, and emergency / urgent request surcharges?

A: In the pricing section of the proposal.

20. Q: Are vendors to provide resumes for their key project staff or linguists? If for linguists, please specify languages and how many resumes per language. Please exclude resumes from the page limit.

A: Proposers are to determine how many resumés to provide and for who on their team.

Resumés have been excluded from the page count. See Addendum 1.

21. Q: What professional certifications are language service companies to provide? If for linguists, how many certifications per language and in which languages? Please exclude certifications from the page limit.

A: See Addendum 1 00002690 Proposal Packet for which certifications City prefers. Stating certifications which Proposers staff hold is not excluded from the page count.

22. Q: If vendors are to provide answers in a document that is not limited to the table in Proposer

Capabilities, are vendors to repeat each question first and then provide an answer? If that were to be the case, please increase the page limit.

A: See Addendum 1 00002690 Proposal Packet.

23. Q: Please extend the bid due date to allow sufficient time for vendors to review the forthcoming Q&A and prepare their responses.

A: Addendum 1 extended the due date to February 26, 2026 before 4:00 P.M. Pacific Time.

24. Q: Please reduce the professional liability requirement to $1 million per occurrence and aggregate, which is typical for solicitations of this kind.

A: Proposes should submit any deviations from the Sample Price Agreement in their Proposal. See Addendum 1 00002690 Proposal Packet.

25. Q: Is proof of insurance required with submission?

A: No. It is required before an agreement will be signed.

26. Q: Please remove Civil Rights Data protection, as discussed during the pre-proposal meeting.

A: See Addendum 1.

27. Q: Are all documents to be submitted as a single document where all parts are listed in the order of Section 8?

A: It is up to the Proposer to determine how best their proposal should be presented to the City.

28. Q: What challenges have you faced with similar scope of work from vendors you worked with?

A: Primarily, interpreters not able to effectively interpret or translators not able to translate with correct vernacular or appropriate cultural language.

29. Q: What is the approximate number of calls per language for the last year for each of the required languages?

A: We do not intend to extend the due date further. I will try to get this data but do not thing I can get it in time.

30. Q: What is the average length of an interpreting service requested?

A: We don’t track this data. Some sessions could be as short as a few minutes or as long as several hours.

31. Q: What languages other than Spanish will be needed?

A: The Proposal Information Packet included the primary languages and a link to the City’s language webpages.

32. Q: Does the Client provide equipment for on-site simultaneous interpretation (if simultaneous is needed)?

A: It would depend on whether the equipment is available and timing. Proposers are welcome to include their solution to this problem in their proposal.

33. Q: What percentage of your interpreting assignments are rush request, with less than 2 full business days’ notice?

A: We don’t track this data but it is a low percentage.

34. Q: What file types, content type, etc. will be submitted for translation?

A: Primarily Microsoft Word. Proposers may include what file types they work with in their proposal.

Please direct all questions and concerns to Jeff Blade, Procurement Supervisor, at 503-823-8338 or by email at jeff.blade@portlandoreon.gov.

End of Addendum

SD:jab mailto:jeff.blade@portlandoreon.gov