105. Hotel Justification_Redacted.pdf

conference rooms on the required dates. Three hotel vendors in Denver submitted a proposal and two of which were not holding guest rooms or meeting space at that time and cannot guarantee that the estimated 260 attendees will be able to book their rooms in the same hotel for the duration of the Leadership Summit.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition such as:

WAPA intends to award this contract under unusual and compelling urgency based on the following:

a. It has been two months since the vendor, Embassy Suites, initiated the process to update their

System for Award Management (SAM) Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) with the Federal Service Desk (FSD) and more than a month since the vendor completed all the required documentation for UEI activation and SAM renewal.

b. There have been unusual delays in processing times to validate SAM UEI due to the federal government’s switch from Duns & Bradstreet (D&B) to UEI, and there is no definite timeline as to when the vendor’s SAM registration will get activated due to this delay.

c. Logistics preparation for the Leadership Summit were held back due to the hotel contract not being finalized, such as registration for the event, reservation of flights and hotel rooms, ordering of supplies, awarding audio visual contract, etc.

d. There are only a few weeks left before the specified date of Leadership Summit and there is not enough time to prepare for the Summit if we were to wait for the vendor’s SAM registration to get activated.

e. Cancellation of the event will incur potential reservation fees, any incurred expenses, and loss of WAPA resources with almost 1,350 man-hours expended among the leadership development team, leadership summit planning committee and procurement team to prepare for this WAPA-wide event.

f. Based upon the proposals received in January 2022, there is only one other vendor that can provide the venue on the requested dates; however, they are not holding guest rooms or meeting space at this time and cannot guarantee that the 260 attendees will be able to book their rooms in the same hotel for the duration of the Summit.

g. Re-scheduling the event to a later date would require numerous leadership approval and coordination with the 260 attendees, facilitators, speakers and leadership summit planning committee, and a possibility of re-competing this requirement due to conference and hotel room availability.

10. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed a written interest in the acquisition.

Hilton Phoenix Resort at the Peak, Phoenix, AZ 85020 Hyatt Regency Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ 85004 DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Hotel Paradise Valley, Scottsdale, AZ 85250 DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Denver, CO 80207 Embassy Suites by Hilton Denver Downtown Convention Center, Denver, CO 80202 Grand Hyatt, Denver, CO 80202

11. A statement of actions the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition if subsequent acquisitions are anticipated.

As this requirement was competed against multiple vendors, there are no other actions to remove or overcome any barriers to competition.