10-02 General Conditions Request For Proposals - Construction Rev. 12-25.pdf

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

GENERAL CONDITIONS – CONSTRUCTION

INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS: Read all documents. Offerors should promptly notify the

Buyer of any ambiguity, inconsistency, error, or missing attachments which they may discover upon examination of the RFP.

The purchase of any and all supplies, equipment, or services by the Gallup-McKinley County

Schools (GMCS), pursuant to any advertisement or request for proposals is subject to the following terms and conditions:

1. Cone of Silence: GMCS has adopted a “Cone of Silence” to enforce its commitment to ethical procurement standards and improve accountability and public confidence.

The Code of Silence prohibits any communication regarding a competitive procurement solicitation between any person who seeks an award from the District, including potential vendors or vendor’s representative and GMCS Board Members, the Superintendent, senior staff members, or other District staff who may have influence in the evaluation or selection process.

2. Official Contact: Offerors may contact ONLY the Procurement Buyer regarding the terminology stated in the procurement documents. Other GMCS employees do not have the authority to respond on behalf of GMCS. Any other verbal communication will be deemed unofficial and non-binding. Communication directed to parties other than the Buyer will have no legal bearing on this RFP or the resulting contract(s). Any response made by GMCS will be provided in writing to all Offerors by addendum; no verbal responses shall be authoritative.

3. Written Questions: Potential Offerors may submit written questions to the Buyer as to the intent or clarity of this RFP in the Messages Tab, “Vendor Discussions” on the

GMCS Bonfire portal. Failure to do so may result in question(s) not being addressed.

All written questions must be submitted NO LATER than the date and time specified in this RFP. All times are subject to the local time zone. The Buyer will respond in a timely manner subject to the complexity of the questions. Buyer will ONLY respond to the written questions submitted and received prior to the deadline in this RFP.

4. Notice to Offerors: Unnecessarily elaborate responses beyond that sufficient to present a complete and effective response to the solicitation are not desired and may be construed as an indication of the Offeror’s lack of cost consciousness. Unless specifically requested, elaborate artwork, corporate brochures, lengthy narratives, and other extraneous presentation materials are neither necessary nor desired.

Joel Klemmer – Procurement Director jklemmer@gmcs.org

Senior Procurement Buyer Hugo Cano

Buyers Rebecca Bertinetti Gregory Hudson Breana Kesner mailto:jklemmer@gmcs.org

Request For Proposals

General Conditions Page

640 S. BOARDMAN, GALLUP, NM 87301 | 505-721-1000 | GMCS.ORG

5. Electronic Submission of Sealed Proposals: All proposals must be submitted via the GMCS Bonfire eBidding portal prior to the time specified as the “closing” of the solicitation online and in the Advertisement for Proposals. All proposals must be submitted as instructed on the portal. All required forms must be signed by a responsible and authorized person for the bidding firm; failure to do so may result in the disqualification of their respective proposal. Fax transmittal, electronic mail

(email) transmittal, and hardcopy proposals will not be accepted.

NOTE: The web portal will not allow for submission of proposals after the posted and advertised “closing” date and time. The District and its agents are not responsible for

Internet outages, hardware failures, software failures, downtime, internet slowness, acts of God, power failures, and or user errors. All proposals must be submitted before the due date regardless of your organization's ability to submit proposals online. It is the bidding firms' responsibility to ensure that RFP offers arrive before the due date and time. Offerors are strongly encouraged to review, create, and submit all electronic responses several days in advance of the due date and time.

6. Modifications or Withdrawal: Proposals may be modified or withdrawn prior to the

“closing” date and time for the solicitation, by the Offeror on the GMCS Bonfire portal.

Withdrawal of a proposal after the closing date and time is governed by applicable procurement regulations.

7. Proposal Closing and Unsealing of Contents: The “unsealing” of the proposals shall be conducted in private to maintain the confidentiality of the contents of all proposals in accordance with §13-1-116, NMSA 1978. The District may release ONLY the names of the Vendors submitting offers at the time of the unsealing.

8. Note: These documents constitute a "Request for Proposal" or RFP. It is a request for an offer. As such, it allows alternate offers or proposals to be considered and the terms and conditions may be subject to negotiations to reach best and final offers. All information requested for submittal should be included with the offer, and exceptions or alternates clearly noted.

9. Proposal Offer Firm: Responses to this RFP, including proposal prices for services, will be considered firm for one hundred twenty (120) days after the due date for receipt of proposals or ninety (90) days after the due date for the receipt of a best and final offer, if the Offeror is invited or required to submit one.

10. Amendments: If any questions or responses require revision to the solicitation as originally published, such revisions will be by formal Amendment only. If the solicitation includes a contact person for technical information, Offerors are cautioned that any oral or written representations made by this or any person that appear to change materially any portion of the solicitation shall not be relied upon unless subsequently ratified by a written Amendment to this solicitation issued by the Procurement Office.

For a determination as to whether any representation made requires that an amendment be issued, contact the Procurement Office.

11. Disclosure of Proposal Contents:

a. Proposals will be kept confidential until negotiations and the award are completed by the District. At that time, all proposals and documents pertaining to the proposals will be open to the public, except for material that is clearly marked proprietary or confidential. The Procurement Manager will not disclose or make public any pages of a proposal on which the potential offeror has stamped or imprinted “proprietary” or “confidential” subject to the following requirements:

b. Proprietary or confidential data should be readily separable from the proposal to facilitate potential public inspection of the non-confidential portion.

c. Confidential data is restricted to:

i. Confidential financial information concerning the Offeror's organization;

ii. Data that qualifies as trade secret in accordance with the Uniform Trade

Act, §57-3A-1 to 57-3A-7, NMSA 1978 iii. PLEASE NOTE: The price of products offered or cost of services proposed shall not be designated as proprietary or confidential information.

d. If a request is received for disclosure of data for which an Offeror has made a written request for confidentiality, the District shall examine the Offeror’s request and make a written determination that specifies which portions of the proposal should be disclosed. Unless the Offeror takes legal action to prevent the disclosure, the proposal will be so disclosed. The proposal shall be open to public inspection subject to any continuing prohibition on the disclosure of confidential data.

12. Competency of Offeror: Proposals will be considered only from firms which are regularly engaged in providing the type of materials or service described in the solicitation documents, and who can provide evidence that they have established a satisfactory record of performance to insure they can execute the requirements as stated herein. Any determination as to competency shall be made by appropriate

GMCS staff.

13. Offeror Qualifications: The Evaluation Committee may, via the Procurement

Manager, make such investigations as necessary to determine the ability of the potential Offeror to adhere to the requirements specified within this RFP. The

Evaluation Committee will reject the proposal of any potential Offeror who is not a

Responsible Offeror or fails to submit a responsive offer as defined in NMSA 1978, §

13-1-83 and 13-1-85.

14. Prime Contractor Responsibility: Any contractual agreement that may result from this RFP shall specify that the prime contractor is solely responsible for fulfillment of all requirements of the contractual agreement with the District which may derive from this RFP. The District entering into a contractual agreement with a vendor will make payments to only the prime contractor.

15. Subcontractors/Consent: Use of subcontractors shall be clearly explained in the proposal, and major subcontractors must be identified by name. The prime contractor shall be wholly responsible for the entire performance of the contractual agreement whether or not subcontractors are used. Additionally, the prime contractor must receive approval, in writing, from the District awarding any resultant contract before any subcontractor is used during the term of this agreement.

16. Evaluation of Proposals: Proposals shall be evaluated based on demonstrated competence and qualification for the type of service required and based on the criteria set forth in the Request For Proposals (RFP). For purposes of conducting discussions, proposals may initially be classified as:

a. Acceptable

b. Potentially Acceptable, that is reasonably likely of being made acceptable or;

c. Unacceptable

17. No Obligation: This RFP in no manner obligates the District to eventual rental, lease, purchase, etc. of any items or services as offered until a valid written contract is awarded and approved by appropriate authorities.

18. Termination: This RFP may be canceled at any time and any and all proposals may be rejected in whole or in part when the District determines such action to be in the best interest of the District.

19. Discussions with Individual Offerors: The Board is under no obligation to conduct discussions with any or all Offerors. The Board specifically reserves the right to award the contract with no discussions and based only on the written proposals received by the due date and time. Discussions may be conducted with any or all responsible

Offerors who submit proposals found to be reasonably likely to be selected for award.

Offerors may be afforded an opportunity for discussion and revision after submission and prior to award for the purpose of obtaining best and final offers. After obtaining best and final offers, the award shall be made to the responsible Offeror(s) whose proposals are most advantageous to Gallup-McKinley County Schools.

20. Purpose of Discussions: Discussions may be held to:

a. Promote understanding of District’s requirement(s) and the Offeror’s proposal.

b. Obtaining best and final offers

c. Facilitate arrival at a contract that will be most advantageous to the Board, considering the evaluation factors in the Request for Proposals.

21. Conduct of Discussions: If the Board exercises its option to conduct discussions, the procurement officer will establish procedures and schedules for conducting these discussions. If during discussions there is a need for any substantial clarification of or change in the Request for Proposals, the request shall be amended to incorporate such clarification or change. Any substantial oral clarification of a proposal shall be reduced to writing by the Offeror.

22. Negotiations: The Board’s designee shall negotiate, if needed, a contract with the

Highest Qualified Offeror at compensation determined in writing to be fair and reasonable, considering the estimated value of the services and the scope, complexity, and nature of the services. Should the designee be unable to negotiate a satisfactory contract with the Offerors considered to be the most qualified at a price determined to be fair and reasonable, negotiations with that business shall be terminated.

Negotiations shall be undertaken with the second most qualified business. This process shall continue until a satisfactory contract is negotiated or the procurement process is terminated, and a new Request for Proposals is initiated.

23. Mandatory Requirements: Mandatory requirements may be waived by the Board if all of the otherwise responsive Offeror’s failed to comply with the same mandatory requirement and the failure to do so does not otherwise materially affect the procurement. The Board shall have the right to request subsequent information from the otherwise responsive Offerors.

24. Award: The award, if made, shall be made to the responsible and responsive Offeror or Offerors whose proposal is most advantageous to GMCS, taking into consideration the evaluation factors set forth in the Request For Proposals.

25. Contract Terms and Conditions: The contract resulting from this RFP will follow the format specified by GMCS and contain the terms and conditions set forth herein. The contents of this RFP, as revised and/or supplemented, and the successful Offeror’s proposal will be incorporated into the contract. Should an Offeror object to any of the terms and conditions, that Offer must propose specific alternative language that would be acceptable to the Board. Offerors must provide a brief discussion of the purpose and impact, if any, of the changes followed by the specific proposed alternate wording.

General references to the Offeror’s terms and conditions or attempts at complete substitutions are not acceptable and may result in disqualification of the Offeror’s proposal.

26. Offeror’s Terms and Conditions: Offerors must submit with the proposal a complete set of any additional terms and conditions they expect to have included in a contract negotiated with the District. The Evaluation Committee or Procurement Manager may, in its sole discretion, evaluate or consider any additional terms and conditions submitted with an Offeror’s response. This applies to any language appearing in any document as part of the Offeror’s response. By execution and delivery of this

Request for Proposals and response(s), the Offeror agrees that any additional terms and conditions, whether submitted purposely or inadvertently, shall have no force or effect unless expressly accepted by the District.

27. Contract Deviations: Any additional terms and conditions, which may be the subject of negotiation (such terms and conditions having been proposed during the procurement process, that is, the RFP process prior to selection as successful

Offeror), will be discussed only between the District and the Offeror selected and shall not be deemed an opportunity to amend the Offeror’s proposal.

28. Incurring Cost: Any cost incurred by the Offeror in preparation, transmittal, cancellation, presentation of any proposal or material submitted in response to this

RFP shall be borne solely by the Offeror.

29. Right to Protest: Any bidder, offeror or contractor who is aggrieved in connection with a procurement may protest to the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) for the District.

The protest shall be submitted in writing within 15 calendar days after the facts of the occurrences giving rise thereto §13-1-172, NMSA 1978 as amended.

30. Protest Bond and Filing of Protest:

a. A Protest Bond in the amount of Eight Hundred ($800.00) Dollars from a surety company authorized to do business in this state, or in the form of a cashier’s check made payable to Gallup McKinley County Schools, or cash shall be included with the timely protest to cover the District’s administrative costs incurred to administer the protest. In the event that the protest is upheld the Protest bond shall be returned to the protesting bidder. If the protest is disallowed, then the protesting bidder will forfeit the bond to the District.

b. Protest must be written: Protests must be in writing and addressed to the Chief

Procurement Officer.

c. Contents: The protest shall:

i. include the name and address of the protestant;

ii. include the solicitation number; iii. contain a statement of the grounds for protest;

iv. include supporting exhibits, evidence, or documents to substantiate any claim unless not available within the filing time in which case the expected availability date shall be indicated; and

v. specify the ruling requested from the Chief Procurement Officer.

d. Pleadings: No formal pleading is required to initiate a protest, but protests should be concise, logically arranged, and direct.

e. Time limit: Protests shall be submitted within 15 calendar days after knowledge of the facts or occurrences giving rise to the protest. Any person or business that has been sent written notice of any fact or occurrence is presumed to have knowledge of the fact or occurrence. Posting on the District’s website or eBidding portal (Bonfire) is considered public notice in this regard as well.

31. Contract Renewal: Except when either party shall provide written notice of termination or that the contract shall expire on the anniversary date, multi-term contracts shall automatically renew for an additional term, up to the maximum number of terms stated in any Special Terms and Conditions.

32. Month to Month Continuation: After completion of the initial contract term, an agreement may be continued on a month-to-month basis, upon mutual consent of both parties. This agreement may be extended after all renewal terms have expired for a duration, not to exceed six (6) calendar months, for the District to competitively solicit and award same services.

33. Cancellation for Convenience: GMCS reserves the right to cancel any contract resulting from this request for convenience by giving thirty (30) days written notice to the vendor. In such case, Contractor shall be paid (without duplication of any items):

a. For completed and acceptable work executed in accordance with the contract documents prior to the effective date of termination.

b. For expenses sustained prior to the effective date of termination in performing services and furnishing labor, materials or equipment as required by the contract document in connection with uncompleted work.

c. Contractor shall not be paid on account of loss of anticipated profits or revenue or other economic loss arising out of or resulting from such termination.

34. Cancellation for Cause: If the vendor fails to fulfill any obligation resulting from this contract in a timely and responsive manner, or it the vendor violates any of the terms of this contract, GMCS shall have the right to cancel the contract by giving written notice of cancellation to the vendor. Cancellation of contracts in excess of $3,000.00 on an annual basis, may be cause for debarment of a person or vendor to receive invitation for bids or to be awarded a contract for a period of one year.

35. Procurement Under Existing Contracts: In accordance with NMSA 1978, §13-1129, Offerors are hereby notified that other governmental entities within the State of New

Mexico, or as otherwise allowed by their respective governing directives, may contract for services with the awarded Offeror. Contractual engagements accomplished under this provision shall be solely between the awarded Offeror and the contracting entity with no obligation by Gallup McKinley Public Schools.

36. Equal Opportunity Compliance: All firms, their employees, and agents, agree to comply with the Gallup-McKinley County Schools “policy for Prohibition of

Harassment, Discrimination, or Violence based on Race, Religion, Sex, Disability, or

Age.” The Contractor agrees to abide by all Federal and State laws and rules and regulations, and executive orders of the Governor of the State of New Mexico, pertaining to equal employment opportunity. In accordance with all such laws and rules and regulations, and executive orders of the Governor of the State of New Mexico, the

Contractor agrees to assure that no person in the United States shall, on the grounds of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual preference, age or handicap, be excluded from employment with or participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under, any program or activity performed under this

Agreement. If the Contractor is found to be not in compliance with these requirements during the life of this Agreement, the Contractor agrees to take appropriate steps to correct these deficiencies.

37. Appropriations: The terms of this Agreement are contingent upon sufficient monies being made available by GMCS for the performance of this Agreement. If sufficient appropriations and authorizations are not made by GMCS, this Agreement shall terminate upon written notice being given by GMCS to the Contractor. The school district's decision as to whether sufficient appropriations are available shall be accepted by the Contractor and shall be final.

38. Payment Terms: Payment for tangible goods or services shall be in accordance with §13-1-158, NMSA 1978 as amended. Payment will be issued for undisputed invoices after goods have been received or services have been rendered, thirty (30) days after receipt of goods or rendering of services.

39. Payment Or Acceptance Not Conclusive: Vendor shall supply the District with

Invoice(s) for payment. No payment made under this contract shall be conclusive evidence for the performance of this contract, either wholly or in part, and that no payment made for the delivery of the items in whole or in part shall be construed as an acceptance of defective work or improper materials, nor relieve the Bidder from corrections of the defects. The final acceptance shall not be binding upon the District, or conclusive, should it subsequently develop the bidder has furnished inferior items or had departed from the Specifications and/or the terms of the Contract. Should such conditions become evident, the District shall have the right, notwithstanding final acceptance and payment, to cause the item(s) to be properly furnished in accordance with the Specifications (and drawings, if any) at the cost and expense of the bidder.

40. Procurement Code: The State of New Mexico Procurement Code and Regulations shall apply.

41. Procurement Code Violations: The Procurement Code imposes civil and criminal penalties for its violation. In addition, It is illegal in the State of New Mexico for any public employee to solicit or accept anything of value in connection with award of contract for this solicitation and for any person to offer or pay anything of value to any such public employee (30-24-1 and 30-24-2, NMSA 1978). Pursuant to Section 13-

1191, NMSA 1978, reference is hereby made to the Criminal Laws of New Mexico

(including Sections 30-24-1 through 30-24-3, NMSA 1978, and 30-41-1 through 3041-

3, NMSA (1978), which prohibit bribes, kickbacks, and gratuities, violations of which constitutes a felony.

42. Debarment: Submission of a Proposal in response to this RFP is certification that the

Respondent is not currently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, and declared ineligible or voluntarily excluded from participation in this transaction by any

State or Federal departments or agency. Submission is also agreement that the District will be notified of any changes in this status.

43. Indemnification: The Offeror shall be responsible for damage to persons or property that occurs as a result of Offeror’s fault or negligence, or that of any of his/her employees, agents, or subcontractors. Offeror shall save and hold harmless Gallup

McKinley County Schools against any and all losses, cost, damage, claims, expenses or liability in connection with the performance of the contract. Any equipment or facilities damaged by the Offeror’ s operation shall be repaired and/or restored to their original condition at the Offeror’s expense.

44. Insurance: The successful Offeror shall purchase and maintain statutory limits of

Worker's Compensation, Public Liability and Automobile Liability Insurance approved by GMCS at the time of contract award. Gallup McKinley County Schools shall be included as a loss payee and/or additional insured. Public Liability and Automobile

Liability insurance shall include at least the following coverage:

General Liability Insurance – per occurrence

General Aggregate $2,000,000

Product/completed operations aggregate $1,000,000 $1,000,000

Professional Liability Insurance (E&O) – per occurrence

Professional Aggregate $2,000,000 $2,000,000

Bodily injury, per occurrence $1,000,000

Medical and medically related expenses $10,000

Vehicle bodily injury, each occurrence, excluding medical and medically related expenses $750,000

Property Damage, per occurrence $1,000,000

Worker’s Compensation and Employers Liability $1,000,000

Contractor shall furnish Owner with certificates of insurance with the contract documents and prior to the commencement of work.

NOTE: Certificate holder shall be: Board of Education

Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools

Certificate of Insurance mailed to: Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools

Procurement Department

P.O. Box 1318, Gallup, New Mexico 87305

45. Dispute Resolution: In the event the Parties do not agree to mediate a dispute or unable to resolve the dispute through mediation, then the dispute shall be resolved by binding arbitration. Such arbitration shall be governed by the New Mexico Uniform

Arbitration Act, NMSA 44-7A-1, et seq. as amended.

46. THE GALLUP-McKINLEY COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD OF EDUCATION RESERVES

THE RIGHT TO REJECT ANY OR ALL PROPOSALS IN WHOLE OR IN PART, TO

WAIVE TECHNICALITIES AND TO ACCEPT THE PROPOSAL IT DEEMS TO BE IN

THE BEST INTEREST OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT.