Pre-Proposal Conference 4-22-09 Transcript.pdf

22 April 09 New Norton Sound Regoinal Hospital

Midnight Sun Court Reporters (907) 258-7100

8 NEW NORTON SOUND REGIONAL HOSPITAL

NOME, ALASKA

9 PRE-PROPOSAL MEETING

12 Taken April 22, 2009

Commencing at 9:00 a.m.

14 Volume I - Pages 1 - 64, inclusive

16 Taken at

Alaska Native Health Consortium

17 1901 Bragaw Street

Anchorage, AK 99508

24 Reported by: Valerie Martinez

2 (Pages 2 to 5)

1 A P P E A R A N C E S 3 Indian Health Service

Division of Engineering Services - Seattle

Abram Vinikoor, Contracting Officer 5 Paul Geisert, P.E., Project Officer

Henry Hardnett, AIA, Project Architect

Indian Health Service 7 Alaska Area Native Health Service

Office of Environmental Health & Engineering - Anchorage

Dale Mossefin, P.E., Director, Health Facilities 9 Engineer

Tom Coolidge, P.E., Director, OEH&E

Norton Sound Health Corporation

Angie Barr, AIA, Kumin Associates 12 Jay Farmwald, P.E., DOWL HKM

Cliff Gray, Project Manager 14 Nome Eskimo Community 15 Denise Barengo, Executive Director

Emma Goodwin, Deputy Director 18 Taken by:

19 Valerie Martinez 21 BE IT KNOWN that the aforementioned proceedings were 22 taken at the time and place duly noted on the title page 23 before Valerie Martinez, Notary Public within and for 24 the State of Alaska.

1 P R O C E E D I N G S

2 MR. VINIKOOR: I'm Abe Vinikoor. I'm the

3 contracting officer for the Indian Health Service, the

4 Division of Engineering Services in Seattle, and I want

5 to thank you all for coming and welcome to the

6 pre-proposal conference for the new Norton Sound

7 Regional Hospital.

8 Does everyone have a copy of the agenda? I

9 can pass some out. No? And there's a sign-in sheet

10 that is going around, too. I'd appreciate it.

11 Do you have copies? Everyone good?

12 So if you could all sign that sign-in sheet.

13 We have a stenographer that's taking notes. And what we

14 plan to do is post the minutes on the FedBizOpps web

15 site. We're going to post the presentations that we do

16 as well, as well as a copy of the sign-in sheet. So

17 you'll all be on the web eventually. We'll probably do

18 that towards the end of the week.

19 What I'd like to do now is have everyone in

20 the government and Norton Sound folks introduce

21 themselves. The government is sort of huddled over here

22 and Norton Sound is sort of over there, but we do get

23 along. For some reason, we took opposite sides of the

24 room. So why don't we start with some introductions.

25 MR. MOSSEFIN: Good morning. My name is Dale

1 Mossefin. I'm with the Alaska Area Native Health

2 Service. I'm in the Office of Environmental Health &

3 Engineering. And I'm the area director of the health

4 facility engineering program.

5 MR. GEISERT: I'm Paul Geisert. I'm with the

6 Indian Health Service, Division of Engineering Services

7 in Seattle. I'm the project officer.

8 MR. FARMWALD: Jay Farmwald with DOWL HKM

9 Engineers here in Anchorage working with Norton Sound on

10 program and project management over the last couple

11 years.

12 MS. BARR: I'm Angie Barr with Kumin

13 Associates Architects here in Anchorage. We're the

14 architects of record on the project.

15 MR. VINIKOOR: Do you want to introduce

16 yourself?

17 MS. BARENGO: Good morning. I'm Denise

18 Barengo, and I'm the executive director for the Nome

19 Eskimo Community, the tribe that serves the community of

20 Nome.

21 MS. GOODWIN: And my name is Emma Goodwin.

22 I'm the deputy director for Nome Eskimo Community.

23 MR. BARNES: I'm Russ Barnes, assistant

24 project manager with Norton Sound.

25 MR. GRAY: I'm Cliff Gray. I'm the project

1 manager for Norton Sound.

2 MR. HARDNETT: Henry Hardnett. I'm an

3 architect. I'm an alternate project manager. I'm with

4 Seattle IHS, Division of Engineering Services.

5 MR. VINIKOOR: Thank you so much. Henry and

6 Paul, you know, work in our office in Seattle, and we're

7 a group of engineers and architects and contract

8 specialists specializing in construction for IHS

9 facilities. Paul Geisert will give a presentation and

10 discuss that a little more.

11 What we'd like to do is sort of go through the

12 agenda and take questions at the end, if you're okay

13 with that. If you feel you need to shout out something

14 in the middle, you know, go ahead. But if you could

15 identify yourself so the stenographer can take down your

16 name and who you work with and speak clearly so she's

17 able to write it down, we'd appreciate it.

18 So Paul, why don't you --

19 MR. GEISERT: Okay. Well, good morning.

20 Welcome to the Norton Sound Regional Hospital

21 pre-proposal meeting. I'm Paul Geisert. I'm the

22 project officer of the project, and I'll just give you a

23 brief project overview and status. Oh, by the way, 24 happy Earth Day.

25 I'd like to talk just a little bit about the

3 (Pages 6 to 9)

1 roles and responsibilities of our team consisting of the

2 Indian Health Service and representatives of the Norton

3 Sound Health Corporation.

4 First of all, I'm with the Indian Health

5 Service, Division of Engineering Services in Seattle.

6 And we are an agency within the Department of Health &

7 Human Services. We are the construction contract agency

8 for the project. Our director is Ken Harper. We're

9 divided into three branches in Seattle. We have a

10 contracting administration branch, a project management

11 branch, and a technical support branch.

12 Within the contracting administration branch

13 is the contracting officer. Abe Vinikoor is the

14 contracting officer. And just a note, only the

15 contracting officer can modify the contract, so any

16 changes to the work or contract, approval of the

17 payments, you know, settles requests for equitable

18 adjustments, makes final acceptance, et cetera.

19 I'm within the project management branch. I'm

20 the project officer, and I will be the contracting

21 officer's technical representative on the project. So I

22 work under the authority of Abe Vinikoor, the

23 contracting officer. I approve technical submittals, I

24 give directions to the contractor to clarify the

25 requirements in the contract documents, and I evaluate

1 the performance and progress for payment and acceptance.

2 In terms of what you guys are used to, I guess

3 I'm the overall project manager for the Indian Health

4 Service. As Abe pointed out earlier, Henry Hardnett --

5 where are you sitting, Henry? In the back there. He's

6 the alternate project officer or project manager.

7 Our technical support branch has licensed

8 architects and professional engineers. We've got civil, 9 mechanical, electrical engineers and architects. Their

10 role is as advisers to the contracting officer and to me

11 as the COTR and the project officer. They provide

12 support to us in the form of reviewing submittals, 13 interpreting codes, on-site monitoring, et cetera.

14 So you'll see us up there as a group

15 periodically come in. We maybe do a meeting at the

16 beginning of our visit, respective disciplines go their

17 own ways and check things out, and then at the end of

18 the visit up there we get together and have a close-out

19 meeting.

20 Just a friendly reminder, the project officer

21 and the COTR and the support staff are precluded from

22 taking action that modifies the contract. So they

23 cannot alter the performance schedule, I cannot alter

24 the performance schedule, increase the contract price, 25 or modify the contract language. That sole authority

1 rests with Abe Vinikoor, the contracting officer.

2 One of our other team members is the Alaska

3 Area Native Health Service, also within the Indian

4 Health Service and Department of HHS. Their director is

5 Christopher Mandregan. I put down here Office of

6 Financial Management because they'll be sort of in the

7 background doing some of the payment-type issues, fund

8 certification.

9 Tom Coolidge is the director of the Office of

10 Environmental Health & Engineering. Tom wasn't able to

11 be here today. But the person that you will be seeing

12 most on this project would be Dale Mossefin. Dale is

13 the director of Health Facilities Engineering.

14 And the role of OEH&E is a budgetary and

15 programmatic role. So, again, they will be kind of in

16 the background certifying funds. They are advocates

17 with the Norton Sound Health Corporation. They are

18 technical and programmatic advisers to the Division of

19 Engineering Services.

20 One of -- Dale will be a member of the project

21 leadership team. There will be one person from his

22 group that is a member of the RFP technical evaluation

23 review panel. And they will also provide periodic

24 on-site monitoring and technical support to the

25 contracting officer and the COTR.

1 Of course, the other member of the team is the

2 Norton Sound Health Corporation. Carol Piscoya is the

3 interim president and CEO. Cliff Gray is the project

4 manager. Cliff is in the back there. I think he

5 introduced himself earlier. Hey, Cliff.

6 The Norton Sound Health Corporation is the

7 landowner and they will be the facility owner and

8 operator after DES transfers the building to them at the

9 end of the project.

10 So the Norton Sound Health Corporation are

11 advisers to the Indian Health Service. And under the

12 Indian Self-Determination and Education Act, Public Law

13 93-638, Title V agreement with the IHS, they will

14 provide us certain services. They'll be furnishing

15 equipment and artwork not in this direct federal

16 contract. So basically everything but the Group 1

17 equipment they will be providing.

18 They will be providing construction contract

19 administrative services to IHS, so they'll be doing

20 things like reviewing contractor provided submittals, 21 changes to the work, time extension requests and like

22 matters, on-site inspection and surveillance.

23 There will be a resident engineer. Cliff will

24 be there as the project manager. They'll have various

25 quality assurance inspectors, special inspectors, things

4 (Pages 10 to 13)

1 like that. There will be Norton Sound Health

2 Corporation representatives on-site. And they also will

3 be providing recommendations to the government

4 contracting officer and COTR.

5 The Norton Sound Health Corporation CCA team

6 consists of in-house staff in Nome: The architect of

7 record; Angie's group, Kumin Associates in Anchorage;

8 Jay's group, DOWL HKM in Anchorage; and also Emma and

9 Denise's group in Nome, the Nome Eskimo Community.

10 Just a little pointer, Mahlum Architects also

11 was involved in the design. As far as DOWL goes, they

12 will be providing program management for the Norton

13 Sound Health Corporation; again, the resident engineer;

14 contract support; document control, probably in the form

15 of some type of FTP site might be implemented;

16 inspector -- inspection and clerical support. And those

17 are the folks that will be in the on-site trailer that's

18 provided by the contractor that's awarded.

19 Jay, I think at this point I wanted to ask if

20 you had any other input as far as DOWL's role.

21 And, Angie, I think in the next couple of

22 slides you'll give some input here.

23 MR. FARMWALD: Sure. Realizing -- what Paul

24 said, realizing that the government staff physically

25 resides in Seattle, one of our main roles, DOWL HKM's

1 roles in support of Norton Sound will be to staff the

2 on-site office with resident engineer quality assurance

3 inspectors. In Anchorage we'll have staff that can do

4 analysis of things like change proposals and make

5 recommendations to the government. But, again, the

6 government has final sign-off authority.

7 Special inspection. Special inspection

8 services provided by the owner per IBC will come from

9 Alaska Testlab through the Norton Sound to the project.

10 And I think that's all I really wanted to say

11 other than one thing that hasn't been mentioned here is

12 that Norton Sound does have some construction equipment

13 that they would hope to make available to respective

14 contractors. So we're encouraging some side discussions

15 between bidders and Norton Sound with respect to that

16 construction equipment.

17 MR. GEISERT: Thank you, Jay.

18 Again, Nome Eskimo Community will be providing

19 Indian Preference referral, training, and monitoring.

20 So Denise and Emma here, you'll be working with them.

21 MR. VINIKOOR: Do you want to give Angie a

22 shot?

23 MR. GEISERT: I was going to give you a shot

24 on the next couple of slides, if you don't mind. Go

25 ahead. If you want to speak now, Angie, go right ahead.

1 MS. BARR: It doesn't make any difference.

2 MR. GEISERT: Okay. Go ahead.

3 MS. BARR: Well, I was just going to briefly

4 outline the design team. I'm going to spotlight a few

5 of the major consultants. Of course Kumin Associates

6 Architects are the architects in Anchorage. We also

7 worked with Mahlum Architects, and they are located in

8 Seattle.

9 The civil engineering was provided by Bristol

10 Environmental. Geotechnical engineering by DOWL HKM.

11 Those are both located in Anchorage. Structural

12 engineering was by BBFM in Anchorage. Primary

13 mechanical engineering was by Notkin in Seattle.

14 Electrical, lighting technology, acoustics, those were

15 all provided by Sparling, also located in Seattle. AEI

16 was working on the commissioning plans. They're in

17 Seattle. Clevinger in Seattle was the kitchen

18 consultant. And Gordon Adams, also in Seattle, provided

19 hardware consulting.

20 A brief description of the project, which of

21 course you've all dug into the drawings and know all

22 this, I'm sure. But the project is an approximately

23 150,000-square-foot steel frame building located in the

24 arctic climate. I think we have a photograph back there

25 that illustrates that. It's three stories with an

1 additional mechanical penthouse on top of that and a

2 heated interstitial space below the first floor.

3 We've also noted on the document that there's

4 an existing gravel pad. And the steel piling foundation

5 and thermosiphons are due to the permafrost conditions

6 on the site. The pilings for the building are proper

7 and are in place.

8 The occupancy of this building. We are both

9 under the IBC and the NFPA codes for this project. And

10 it is primarily combined business and institutional

11 occupancy under the IBC. That's called business and

12 health care under NFPA. They're divided by a two-hour

13 wall.

14 The building is Type 2A or, in other words, 15 it's noncombustible one-hour construction. We do have

16 the State Fire Marshal permit, and I think that's an

17 attachment shown in the solicitation.

18 The steel, I'm sure you have noted. The steel

19 that's part of the owner-supplied materials is also

20 described in attachments to the solicitation. And

21 that's currently in the shop drawing and fabrication

22 process. And the RFIs that are being generated during

23 that review process will be made available by amendment

24 or addenda when we put an addenda out. So you will be

25 kept up to date on RFIs that are occurring in that

5 (Pages 14 to 17)

1 process. And the owner-supplied steel will be provided

2 to the contractor at the building site.

3 Medical equipment is another part of this

4 project. The medical equipment lists that are provided

5 as attachments to the solicitation describe medical

6 equipment that's going to be incorporated into the

7 project, as I'm sure you've seen. It's identified as

8 CC, contractor purchase, contractor installed; HC, 9 hospital purchase, contractor installed; HH, hospital

10 purchase, hospital installed; and HV, hospital purchase, 11 vendor installed.

12 So in addition to specific responsibilities

13 associated with the contractor purchase and contractor

14 installed as well as the hospital purchased contractor

15 installed equipment, in addition to those specific

16 responsibilities, you're going to have to coordinate as

17 required with some of the owner-related medical

18 equipment, furniture, et cetera. And those are

19 described in project management and coordination in the

20 Division 1.

21 IT. In general, the infrastructure related to

22 IT, such as cabling and conduit, is under this contract

23 with specific devices being provided by the owner.

24 There will be commissioning performed on this building

25 and so the general and subcontractors will have

1 responsibilities related to the commissioning plan.

2 And, again, those duties are outlined in the

3 specifications.

4 Just a heads up, some of the off-site

5 utilities, I'm sure you've noticed, are indicated on the

6 plans as not in contract. So this is just a reminder

7 that current utilities are not at the site at this time.

8 MR. GEISERT: Thank you, Angie.

9 MR. FARMWALD: There was mention earlier of

10 the submittal process. This will be a typical project

11 in the context that Angie's team will be doing the

12 formal submittal review process. So her whole team is

13 mobilized and will be on the project during the

14 construction phase for formal submittal review and

15 approval.

16 MR. GEISERT: Are you getting all this, 17 Valerie?

18 THE REPORTER: Yeah.

19 MR. GEISERT: Okay. So Angie Barr from Kumin

20 and Jay Farmwald from DOWL HKM.

21 The State Fire Marshal's office also plays a

22 role. They're the authority having jurisdiction for

23 fire code issues. Other code issues not in the

24 jurisdiction of the State Fire Mashal's office will be

25 resolved by the City of Nome and/or the Indian Health

1 Service, Division of Engineering Services in Seattle.

2 As Angie pointed out, there are some things

3 that are excluded from this direct federal contract that

4 will be contracted separately by DES. One will be a

5 commissioning agent. The other is with the Norton Sound

6 Joint Utility System for off-site utilities. And then

7 under the Public Law 93-638 contract with Norton Sound

8 between Norton Sound and the Indian Health Service, they

9 will be providing FF&E and artwork.

10 So in summary on the roles and responsibilities, 11 the Indian Health Service, Division of Engineering

12 Services, is the construction contract agency. The

13 contracting officer and the contracting officer's

14 technical representative, Abe Vinikoor and myself, 15 reside in Seattle and we will be supported by Norton

16 Sound Health Corporation staff in Nome, supported by the

17 Alaska Area Native Health Service staff in Anchorage, 18 and will be supported by the Norton Sound Health

19 Corporation architectural and engineering staff in

20 Anchorage.

21 We'll also be working closely with the Nome

22 Eskimo Community on IP referral, training, and

23 monitoring issues. And of course working with the State

24 Fire Marshal's office in the City of Nome on other code

25 issues.

1 Just what Jay had gone over was, you know, there

2 will be a Norton Sound Health Corporation project

3 manager, Cliff Gray, on site that will be providing a

4 resident engineer, quality assurance inspectors, and

5 special inspectors. The Area's role again is funding

6 and periodic on-site monitoring. And the A/E staff will

7 only be contract support/document management at DOWL, 8 and A/E submittal review, RFI, and periodic observation

9 services by Kumin on site.

10 A little bit about the project description and

11 history. I think Angie pretty much covered this. It's

12 on a new 38.9 acre site in the northeast corner of Nome

13 between -- on By-Pass Road between L and N Streets.

14 Like she said, it's about 150,000 square feet, three

15 stories. It has an 18-bed subacute inpatient/labor and

16 delivery unit.

17 It has an existing site. A gravel pad and the

18 steel pipe piling foundation is in -- the photos are

19 back there -- thermosiphons. And the government will

20 provide the structural steel. We expect it to be on

21 site no later than September of '09.

22 And this is where the contractor that is awarded

23 may want to speak with Cliff Gray about unloading the

24 steel because he will be delivering that to the site.

25 So if you are the lucky contractor, I would recommend

6 (Pages 18 to 21)

1 you talk to Cliff.

2 A little bit about project time lines. I won't

3 bore you with the beginning stuff, but we do anticipate

4 award/notice to proceed the summer of '09, late summer.

5 And in the fall of '09, again, we anticipate the

6 structural steel will be on site. In the spring of '10, 7 we anticipate the erection will start. And in the fall

8 of '12, we anticipate completion of occupancy, which is

9 1157 days from notice to proceed with a one-year

10 anticipated warrantee period.

11 And that's all I have as far as the project

12 status and overview.

13 MR. VINIKOOR: They were going to go after --

14 MR. GEISERT: Oh, that's right. You guys were

15 going to go after NSHC's presentation.

16 MR. FARMWALD: Paul, I've got one more.

17 MR. GEISERT: Go ahead.

18 MR. FARMWALD: This is Jay Farmwald again.

19 There was reference to the owner-supplied structural

20 steel. That's not 100 percent of the structural steel.

21 So please look at the drawings carefully and attachments

22 to the RFP to understand where the demarc line is

23 between owner-supplied steel and your supplied steel.

24 MR. VINIKOOR: Did everyone get a chance to

25 sign the sign-in sheet?

1 I'd like to give a brief overview of the

2 acquisition process and then highlight some specific

3 contract clauses that might be different than what you

4 would typically see in a direct federal contract.

5 There's my name and e-mail address. I give

6 you that address so you could just send me nice personal

7 messages. But your inquiries, you'll see that we have a

8 separate inquiry e-mail address that we like bid

9 inquiries to come into. If you send it to there, I

10 can't guarantee that I'll notice it as a bid inquiry and

11 get an answer to you.

12 So here's what I would like to discuss, a

13 tentative award schedule. And as part of that, I would

14 like to get some feedback from you as far as a bid

15 extension. I know we've gotten a number of requests to

16 extend the closing date for proposals, so I'd like to

17 hear your thoughts about what an appropriate new date

18 would be. And then talk just a little about where the

19 plans and specs and solicitation can be found, what you

20 need to submit with your proposals, how they'll be

21 evaluated, how we'll determine who will get the award, 22 and then highlight those contract requirements. And

23 then we'll take your general questions at the end.

24 So here's the tentative schedule. We issued

25 the RFP the 3rd of April. Today is the pre-proposal

1 conference. The current date for submission of

2 proposals is the 5th of May. Contract award, we need to

3 award that by the 15th of July. And 10 days after that, 4 no later than that, would be the notice to proceed. And

5 then final completion, what, 1,157 days, not later than

6 September.

7 So we've got a number of requests about

8 extending the proposal date. We know that you need more

9 time. I've gotten some requests for two or three weeks.

10 I mean, I'd like to hear some feedback. What do you

11 think you might need? We're open to suggestions. We

12 want to accommodate you as well as we can but still keep

13 to that award schedule, getting the award done by mid

14 July.

15 SPEAKER: Somewhere around maybe like May

16 27th, before the holiday weekend.

17 MR. VINIKOOR: That would be after the holiday

18 weekend --

19 SPEAKER: Oh.

20 MR. VINIKOOR: -- because I think Memorial Day

21 is that Monday.

22 MR. FARMWALD: It's early this year.

23 MR. VINIKOOR: Yeah.

24 SPEAKER: Oh, it is?

25 MR. VINIKOOR: Yeah. That would be right

1 after Memorial Day weekend.

2 SPEAKER: We can cancel Russ out.

3 MR. VINIKOOR: What did you say?

4 SPEAKER: We can cancel Russ out.

5 MR. VINIKOOR: Okay.

6 MR. JANDA: Substitutions. The process of

7 submitting substitutions for approval, et cetera. It

8 says substitutions will be allowed via amendment --

9 MR. VINIKOOR: Well, you know, the government

10 process is not to allow substitutions during the bidding

11 phase. You know, we do the substitutions if -- you

12 know, from an equal product after the award --

13 MR. JANDA: I thought I read that --

14 MR. VINIKOOR: -- because it's right under the

15 contract to provide materials that are equal to the

16 brand names that we might specify. You know, the

17 contract clause, that's the materials, and workmanship

18 clause states that, you know -- a specified material, 19 it's sort of a standard equality. But the contractor

20 has the right to submit an equal product as long as the

21 contracting officer determines that it is in fact equal.

22 So that process occurs after award, not during.

23 MR. JANDA: Because it says you have to go

24 through this, all substitutions are allowed as provided

25 or approved and the amendment will be issued to

7 (Pages 22 to 25)

1 include --

2 MR. VINIKOOR: Yeah, we need to correct that.

3 And we're going to correct the language and the

4 specifications that talk about approving substitutions

5 during the bidding phase. That's not how the government

6 operates, so we're going to correct that.

7 And, in fact, there's going to be a technical

8 amendment coming out fairly shortly, I think.

9 MR. GEISERT: Abe, could I just interrupt for

10 a minute?

11 For Valerie's sake, when you have a question, 12 could you please state your name and who you're with so

13 our stenographer can get that information?

14 MR. JANDA: My name is Noel Janda. I'm with

15 DSI. I was referring -- my part was to the

16 communication piece.

17 MR. VINIKOOR: So any other thoughts about a

18 revised closing date for the closing? The 27th is what

19 I heard.

20 MR. DOKOOZIAN: I was just looking at my

21 calendar and kind of looking at Memorial Day and trying

22 not to destroy everybody's family time or something like

23 that. The 29th is the following Friday.

24 SPEAKER: Yeah, that would be good.

25 MR. DOKOOZIAN: That gives us time for people

1 to maybe take some time at Memorial Day and then come

2 back and have a good full week there -- well, maybe not

3 quite a full week, but four days -- to put the proposal

4 together.

5 MR. VINIKOOR: You know, the proposals have to

6 physically come to our office, you know, in Seattle. So

7 you're going to have to account for, you know, the time

8 to physically get those proposals to us as well.

9 So May 29th would be that Friday.

10 MR. FARMWALD: And that comment came from

11 which distinguished gentleman, for the stenographer?

12 MR. DOKOOZIAN: The one behind me because I'm

13 not distinguished. Jim Dokoozian.

14 MR. VINIKOOR: Any other thoughts?

15 MR. BELOY: I have one comment. I'm Kiel

16 Beloy with Kiewit. So if we were to extend it to May or

17 whatever day you select or you selected, the contract

18 award will still be mid July?

19 MR. VINIKOOR: Yeah. I mean, we still need to

20 keep, you know, the July 15th award date. You know, we

21 think -- even with an extension, we don't think that

22 date is in jeopardy, especially if you give us these

23 great proposals that we can award immediately.

24 Do we want to try to make a decision now?

25 MR. FARMWALD: No. I think we should --

1 MR. VINIKOOR: We'll take it under advisement

2 and there will be an amendment forthcoming. It'll have

3 the technical amendment that's been prepared; if we have

4 it in time, it will have the information about this

5 meeting; and it will have a date for -- a new date for

6 the proposals. But we are going to extend it, so -- and

7 it will be in the two-to-three-week time frame. So I

8 hope that works out for everybody.

9 The solicitation, I just want to go briefly.

10 It's all on the FedBizOpps web site. It's the

11 solicitation, the plans, the specs, the other

12 information. You know, the solicitation is available to

13 anyone with web access. The plans and the specs -- if

14 you go to the next slide -- they're locked, secured

15 documents. So you have to be registered in FedBizOpps

16 and registered in CCR.

17 I haven't had any indications that people are

18 having difficulty, you know, downloading the plans and

19 specs or getting access to them. Is that the case? Has

20 anyone had trouble? No? That's great. This is our

21 first experience doing it strictly, you know, 22 electronic. It's saving us a lot of time and effort.

23 We appreciate you being able to do that for us.

24 So now I'd like to just briefly go through

25 some aspects of the acquisition process. This is a

1 disclaimer that -- you know, this is just like an

2 overview that you really need to read the solicitation

3 and comply with the requirements of solicitation.

4 So what do you need to submit? If you look in

5 the solicitation, there's a Section L-7 that details the

6 instructions for your proposal. And it's to be

7 submitted in two parts: The business proposal, Part 1;

8 and the technical proposal, Part 2.

9 The technical proposal will go to our

10 technical evaluation panel and they're going to evaluate

11 the strengths and weaknesses and risks of your proposals

12 and score the proposals. And the source election

13 official will use that to make a selection based on the

14 prices. The evaluation of the prices as well.

15 So the Part 1 is the business proposal and

16 that's the part that you fill out on the SF1442, which

17 is that front form, the solicitation offer and award

18 form. And there is a place in there to acknowledge

19 amendments. So please, when you submit your proposal

20 make sure you acknowledge all the amendments that might

21 be issued.

22 At this point, there was just that one

23 amendment that announced this meeting, but there are

24 going to be a number of amendments coming up. And I

25 don't know if you had trouble noticing that there was an

8 (Pages 26 to 29)

1 amendment posted. I think there's like a watch list

2 that you can sign up for so if there's any change on

3 that FedBizOpps web site you'll get an e-mail about it.

4 You might just want to check the web site periodically

5 and refresh it. Sometimes if you don't refresh it, you

6 know, the new information won't come up. So we're going

7 to post all the new amendments and any additional

8 information, like the information about this meeting, 9 strictly to that web site.

10 So then you'll need to submit your Section B, 11 which is the price schedule, fill in all the required

12 prices. You'll need to do the online representations

13 and certifications. That's called ORCA, which is

14 another online government site for your annual

15 representations and certifications. Everyone familiar

16 with ORCA? There should be people in your organizations

17 that have already completed that and are familiar with

18 it. If not, if you have any questions, you can give me

19 a call about it. But I think there's a link from CCR to

20 the online representations and certifications.

21 And then if you're a large business, you'll

22 need a subcontracting plan submitted with your proposal.

23 I'll talk a little more about that --

24 MR. GOLICK: John Golick, SKW, a question on

25 that. If it's required, can that get maybe three days

1 after the bid is turned in? We've kind of typically

2 been able to talk to government agencies to push that

3 three days past the closing date just because we don't

4 know subcontractors until the bid date.

5 MR. VINIKOOR: We'd like it submitted with

6 your proposal.

7 MR. GOLICK: Okay.

8 MR. VINIKOOR: We'll discuss it in a little

9 more detail, but yeah. I mean, one of the reasons is we

10 want to try to get this coordinated as soon as possible

11 and we want, you know, at one time all the information

12 that we need at hand to make an award. If things sort

13 of dribble in, it will make it a lot more difficult to

14 get a time in awarding.

15 MR. DOKOOZIAN: Jim Dokoozian from Arctic

16 Slope Construction Holding Company. I understand what

17 your concern there is, but the process of bidding and

18 trying to come up with a competitive price, that last

19 hour or half hour can change what happens on

20 subcontractors. We don't prefer it that way, but that's

21 what happens to us. So then for us to be able to turn

22 around and have given you in writing in Seattle our list

23 of subcontractors means that we have to make a decision

24 a day at least ahead of time before we have received

25 final pricing or even any pricing from subcontractors.

1 So it's virtually impossible for us to give you, what

2 I'll call, good data.

3 I mean, people will always comply, but we're

4 going to go through a process of sorting it out

5 afterward. If you made it a day later even or

6 something -- the numbers are all there that were chosen.

7 We could fax it down or something.

8 MR. JANDA: As one of the subcontractors, I

9 know I deal with -- in follow-up to this, I'm one of the

10 guys putting in the bidding at the last second. What I

11 suggest is maybe just doing a subcontractor's plan and

12 maybe doing an overview as part of the response. But if

13 you are looking for all the certifications and all that

14 other stuff, it's an enormous amount of work to

15 complete. I would suggest you do that as part of the

16 submittal process.

17 MR. VINIKOOR: Well, we'll talk about the

18 subcontract plan, but we need to negotiate an acceptable

19 plan before we make an award. So let me take it under

20 advisement what you said here and see, you know, what we

21 can do. I hear your concerns. Let me think about it, 22 take it under advisement. And if there's a change to

23 our requirement that you submit it with your proposal, 24 it will be an amendment. I hear your difficulty.

25 We'll need a bid bond. There's the SF24 form.

1 So the bid bond is 20 percent of your proposed price or

2 $3 million, whichever is greater.

3 And then if you're going to be proposing as a

4 joint venture or some sort of formal teaming

5 arrangement, we want to see that agreement that you have

6 with your joint venture partner.

7 And then because DOWL and Kumin are

8 participating in the evaluation as advisory non-voting

9 members of the evaluation panel, we have a section in

10 there about having an agreement signed with them with

11 regard to non-disclosure of proprietary information in

12 your proposals. So that's a federal acquisition FAR

13 requirement. There's a sample agreement that DOWL and

14 Kumin have prepared in the solicitation. So we want

15 that with your business proposal.

16 So the Part 2 is the technical proposal. And

17 that includes the list of subcontractors in excess of

18 $5 million. We're just looking for the list.

19 Then if you are proposing as a joint venture

20 as a teaming arrangement, we'd like you to tell us, you

21 know, what the roles of the two joint venture parties

22 are, what their level of participation is. This way, 23 we're going to be able to evaluate appropriately the

24 past performance of the two parties.

25 And then if you go to Section L-7, there's

9 (Pages 30 to 33)

1 detailed information about what we will -- with regard

2 to information on your corporate experience; the

3 technical and management approach, which is the work

4 plans, key personnel, scheduling and communication

5 plans. Then you're given the opportunity to tell us

6 about past performance issues that you've had and how

7 it's resolved, as well as an OSHA violation. You know, 8 to provide a list of any OSHA citations and how those

9 have been resolved.

10 We're going to be evaluating the past

11 performance of the offerors and the major subs. So we'd

12 like that information for the major subcontractors, 13 which we define as any subcontractor over $5 million.

14 And then we want the plans and the goals that

15 you have for giving Indian Preference. When Paul said

16 IP, that's what he meant. That's Indian Preference for

17 American Indian/Native Alaskans in terms of training, 18 employment, and then as well subcontracting with

19 Native-owned organizations. We'll talk in a little more

20 detail about that in a few minutes.

21 And then as the final part, we want

22 information with regard to your past success in

23 utilizing small disadvantaged businesses in prior jobs.

24 So all this information -- if you go to the

25 next slide -- relates to how you're going to be

1 evaluated, and that's stated in Section M of the RFP.

2 So you really need to understand Section M when you

3 prepare your proposal. If you understand how we're

4 going to evaluate you, then I think you'll be in a

5 better position to give us your best proposal.

6 Just some pointers. Remember to comply with

7 the technical submittal -- the L-7 proposal submittal

8 requirements. As it states, the technical factors when

9 combined are significantly more important than price.

10 So when we do our selection, we're going to be

11 considering the technical factors and evaluation of that

12 is more important than price. But we'll talk a little

13 more about how that gets accomplished in a minute.

14 Then just as warning, if you fail to give us a

15 complete proposal, you really risk being eliminated from

16 consideration. So just make sure you read it, comply

17 with it, and give us everything that we've asked for.

18 We'll go to the next one. So here is just a

19 summary of the technical non-price factors. So these

20 five factors are in descending order. Factors A, B, C, 21 and D are equal weight. And Factor E is a very minor

22 weighting.

23 So in corporate experience, we have three

24 sub-factors. We go into some more detail defining those

25 in the RFP. These are all equally weighted, these three

1 sub-factors; one, two, and three. Your experience with

2 similar hospital construction projects, your experience

3 with large construction projects in remote arctic

4 locations similar to Nome -- and we sort of have

5 definitions of what we think constitutes similar and

6 what we think constitutes large -- and then your

7 experience working with Alaska Native communities. So

8 those are all equally important to us.

9 Factor B is your technical/management

10 approach, which consists of work plans, your key

11 personnel, your scheduling plan, and then your

12 communication plan, which is how you propose to set up a

13 system so we're all effectively talking to each other

14 and getting submittals timely. We're looking for your

15 ideas about how to accomplish that.

16 And then past performance.

17 And then the other equally weighted factors, 18 your plans and goals for Indian Preference. There's two

19 sub-factors which are equally rated.

20 I should go back to Factor B. Those factors

21 are listed in descending order. But I think one, two, 22 and three are equally rated. Is that it? I think

23 that's it. And then four is minor. I think I got that

24 right.

25 And then Factor D, there's two aspects to the

1 Indian Preference. There's the employment of Natives

2 and the training, and then there's the subcontracting.

3 So those are both equally important to us.

4 And then the minor factors, your past

5 experience -- your past success in utilizing small

6 disadvantaged businesses.

7 SPEAKER: How much are the percentages?

8 MR. VINIKOOR: No, we don't publish the

9 percentages.

10 SPEAKER: Why not?

11 MR. VINIKOOR: Because we're not required. We

12 just don't do it as a standard practice. But I think

13 we've given you some pretty good ideas here. I mean, 14 the first four equally weighted and that last one is

15 pretty minor. So I think you should be pretty well

16 aware, you know, of how we are considering these factors

17 in terms of weighting.

18 So what we plan to do is award without

19 discussions. So that means we want to get with your

20 initial proposal your best possible price and your best

21 possible technical proposal. So we prefer not having to

22 go into discussions and get best and finals -- or is it

23 called final proposal? We want to be able to take your

24 initial proposal and go with the best value that's

25 submitted.

10 (Pages 34 to 37)

1 So you shouldn't assume that you're going to

2 be contacted or afforded an opportunity to qualify, 3 discuss, or revise your proposal. So don't go into it

4 thinking, oh, well, I'll give it a shot knowing we're

5 going to ask you about something, because we don't

6 intend to. But we do leave it open that if we need to

7 open discussions or have some clarifications, we'll do

8 that. So I would take this to heart in terms of urging

9 you to, you know, submit your best price and technical

10 proposal with your initial offer.

11 So who will get the award? Well, I can't tell

12 you, but it's going to be the offeror who submits the

13 proposal that the source selection officials determines

14 is the most advantageous, the best value for the

15 government. What's the best value? Well, it's getting

16 the best service at the best possible price that we can.

17 So who's the source selection official? It's

18 not me. Though typically it's the contracting officer

19 that's the source selection official, but this is a

20 highly visible project for IHS and it has Recovery Act

21 funds, which are getting a lot of attention. So the

22 acting head of contracting for all of IHS will be the

23 source selection official. And that's actually my boss

24 in Seattle, just by coincidence. Dale Burson in

25 Seattle. He's the head of contracting in Seattle for

1 the Division of Engineering Services and he's also

2 currently the acting head of contracts for all of IHS.

3 So he'll be the source selection official.

4 So he's going to look at your technical

5 non-price -- those factors that we listed in terms of

6 your strengths and weaknesses and risks. He's going to

7 look at the evaluation that the technical evaluation

8 panel provides and their rate, their scoring. And he's

9 going to compare it and look at the prices and determine

10 which one in his best judgment represents the best value

11 to the government.

12 So it could be -- as the last bullet says, it

13 could be the highest rated technical offeror. For

14 instance, if the highest technical proposal or the most

15 technically superior proposal is the lowest priced, then

16 the decision is going to be pretty clear who gets it.

17 If it's not the lowest price, then he has to make a

18 decision whether paying more money is worth the

19 additional technical capabilities the higher-rated

20 proposal provides.

21 So he has to make that decision, yes, we're

22 paying more money because we're getting more something, 23 consistent with the evaluation factors. If he doesn't

24 think it's worth that additional money, if the highest

25 rate of proposals are a higher price, then he might go

1 with a lower-priced proposal even though it's

2 technically rated lower. So it's a judgment call. It's

3 not arbitrary, it's rational. It's based on the

4 evaluation factors and it's consistent with what we say

5 in the proposal. But it is -- it's a business judgment

6 call.

7 So I'd like to just go through some highlights

8 of the contract requirements. The first is these unique

9 clauses that are in there because the funding will come

10 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, 11 the Recovery Act. So on March 31st they were published, 12 clauses that implement certain unique Recovery Act

13 provisions. So we're very happy that we'll be able to

14 get this money. I guess it's money the

15 great-grandchildren are going to have to pay back, but

16 it will help build our hospital now so we're happy about

17 that.

18 So there's sections. What I have here is the

19 sections in the act and the new FAR provisions that

20 implement those sections. And I just want to bring your

21 attention to these. You really need to read them. The

22 first one is the reporting requirements. And that's

23 FAR 52.204-11. All these clauses are dated March 2009.

24 They came out on March 31st.

25 So at that one -- let's see where that is.

1 It's in I-3 of the RFP. And that discusses some unique

2 reporting that you're going to have to do as

3 contractors, because this is being funded by the

4 Recovery Act.

5 The Recovery Act, you know, requires that the

6 public knows what's happening with their money. And

7 there's transparency requirements in terms of how the

8 government is using this money and what benefit it's

9 giving the public in terms of job creation and

10 stimulating the economy. So there is some extensive

11 reporting requirements that the contractor and

12 subcontractors, certain subcontractors, will have to

13 have, so you need to be aware of that.

14 The next one is FAR 52.215-2. In the RFP it's

15 just incorporated by reference, but any of those clauses

16 that incorporated by reference we can give you the full

17 text. We can give you the site. There's a web site, 18 acquisition.gov, that you can go to to look at the full

19 text of those clauses. But that clause has been

20 revised. There's an alternate that provides for

21 additional rights of GAO and the Inspector General, the

22 Government Accountability Office, and the IG is the HHS

23 Inspector General's office. So they have additional

24 rights because of the Recovery Act in terms of coming in

25 and looking at records.

11 (Pages 38 to 41)

1 The next one is 52.203-15, whistleblower

2 protections. So the law says that contracts that are

3 funded by the Recovery Act, whistleblowers are given

4 certain protections against retaliation against them by

5 the contractor. So if a whistleblower calls the IG and

6 tells us something bad, this prevents contractors from

7 retaliating against them.

8 And then the Section 1605 is the section with

9 regard to use of American iron, steel, and other

10 manufactured goods. It's pretty complex. I suggest you

11 read it pretty carefully. I mean, it does change the

12 Buy America aspect to a certain degree. Buy America is

13 in there, but this puts a little twist in it. I would

14 look at it carefully and if you have questions, address

15 it.

16 That final clause is if you don't think you

17 can comply for certain materials, you don't think they

18 are a domestic supply, you would tell us. So take a

19 look at that. Have someone in your organization take a

20 look at that and make sure that you are going to be

21 complying with it.

22 So let's talk about Indian Preference. This

23 is unique to Indian Health Service projects. Our

24 projects are specifically for the benefit of Indians and

25 Alaska Natives. So by public law we're required to make

1 sure our contractors give preference to Indians and

2 Alaska Natives in hiring any subcontractors. This is

3 very important to us. And the Nome Eskimo Community is

4 going to be providing assistance to contractors with

5 regard to Indian Preference.

6 So there's two clauses. The first is HHSAR.

7 And HHSAR stands for Health & Human Services Acquisition

8 Regulation. And the first one is the Indian Preference

9 clause. You have to give preference in employment to

10 Indians, and that includes Alaska Natives, who can

11 perform the work regardless of their age, sex, religion, 12 or tribal affiliation. And then to the extent feasible

13 and consistent with the efficient performance of the

14 contract, you have to give preference in employment and

15 training to those who are not fully qualified to do the

16 work.

17 And then you need to give preference to Indian

18 organizations and Indian-owned economic enterprises --

19 and the clauses give definitions of what constitutes

20 Indian organizations and Indian-owned economic

21 enterprises -- in awarding of subcontracts consistent

22 with efficient performance under reasonable terms and

23 conditions, including price.

24 And you have to maintain statistical records and

25 you need to flow-down this clause and the other clause

1 to subcontractors. And then we conduct periodic reviews

2 to ensure compliance. And we're going to be assisted by

3 the Nome Eskimo Community in our monitoring efforts.

4 And then there's the Indian Preference Program

5 which goes beyond the Indian Preference clause

6 requirements in the sense it requires you to establish

7 and conduct an actual Indian Preference Program. So you

8 have to designate an individual liaison officer who will

9 administrate your program. You have to advise

10 recruitment sources and include a statement in all

11 advertisements that Indian applicants will be given

12 preference.

13 You need to post a notice of your employment

14 meetings with the designated Native Corporation

15 representative, which in this case would be the Nome

16 Eskimo Community. You need to establish a

17 subcontracting program to give preference to Indian

18 organizations.

19 And there's further record keeping and quarterly

20 reporting that's required. And we will work with Nome

21 Eskimo Community to monitor and review your quarterly

22 reports to make sure that you're doing what's necessary

23 and complying with your plan and achieving the goals

24 that you're going to give us in your proposal.

25 Now separately if you're a large business, you

1 need to give us a small business subcontracting plan.

2 And I heard what you said about needing some time to

3 prepare that plan beyond the date for submission of

4 proposals. We'll take that under consideration.

5 The plan is not part of the selection. We're

6 not evaluating your plan in terms of who gets the award.

7 But once we select the contractor, we need to make sure

8 that before award, we had negotiated an acceptable small

9 business subcontractor plan with you. And there's

10 specific goals that are in the RFP and there's a sample

11 plan, an model plan, that HHS has developed.

12 And before we accept a plan, we send it to the

13 Small Business Administration. They give us their input

14 on it. We also send it to the HHS small business

15 advocate, and they're going to give us their input on

16 it.

17 MR. FARMWALD: Before we move too far past

18 Indian Preference, were we going to give the Nome

19 Eskimo --

20 MR. VINIKOOR: Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I did

21 forget. I moved on too quickly. I wanted to give the

22 representatives from the Nome Eskimo Community an

23 opportunity to say a few words about their participation

24 and their activities.

25 MS. GOODWIN: Good morning. I'm glad you're

12 (Pages 42 to 45)

1 all here. My name is Emma Goodwin, and I'm the deputy

2 director for Nome Eskimo Community, which is a federal

3 recognized and tribal government for Nome. And I'm also

4 the contact person named in the RFP.

5 NEC will be providing Indian Preference, 6 employment referral, training, and monitoring services

7 during the construction phases of this project

8 consistent with Indian Preference goals established by

9 the Norton Sound Health Corporation Board where they

10 delegated the responsibility for construction of this

11 project to IHS. Related goals outlined in the Recovery

12 Act implementing guidance gives specific requirements in

13 the Indian Preference clauses in the RFP.

14 NEC will have a formal role on the project to

15 assist the contractor in meeting these requirements and

16 goals. The specific services and activities to be

17…