23MLD017_Addendum__2.pdf

arb.ca.gov 1001 I Street • P.O. Box 2815 • Sacramento, California 95812 (800) 242-4450

Notice to Prospective Proposers

Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 23MLD017

“Statewide Mobile Monitoring

Initiative” ADDENDUM NO. 2

February 20, 2024

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is issuing this Addendum No. 2 to post Questions and Answers to the RFP.

All other information in the RFP shall remain the same.

This addendum, along with the RFP is published online in the California State Contracts Register at https://caleprocure.ca.gov/pages/index.aspx. To ensure receipt of any addenda that may be issued, interested parties are encouraged to register online at https://caleprocure.ca.gov Any questions are to be addressed to the contact listed below:

Contact: Alissa Loyola Phone: (279) 216-0686 Email: alissa.loyola@arb.ca.gov

Thank you.

https://caleprocure.ca.gov/pages/index.aspx https://caleprocure.ca.gov/ mailto:alissa.loyola@arb.ca.gov

Questions and Answers

1. Are you planning to allocate the whole amount to one proposal? Or will you spread the available money on several proposers?

a. The contract will be awarded to a single proposal for a maximum of $27M. The proposal may include numerous subcontractors.

2. “Contractor may need to build platforms and equipment to meet the project’s scale and capacity. This Contract will not fund the construction or build out or procurement of platforms or supporting infrastructure, or the inclusion of stationary air monitoring equipment.”

What does this above sentence exactly mean? Our team plan to propose to use low cost sensors on taxi. We are not planning to procure taxi. We plan to pay taxi drivers say $100 per month for them to carry our sensors and turn on our app in their cell phone to transmit the real time data. My team also needs to buy a couple of stationary monitoring equipment to calibrate tens if not hundreds of low cost sensors. Are these allowed? In addition my team would like to develop advanced low cost sensors which maintain the benefit of low cost yet have sufficiently higher accuracy. Is this allowed to be included in the proposal?

a. This contract will not fund equipment purchases. All equipment, instrumentation, and infrastructure should be preexisting or funded from a separate source. Other expenses should be factored in the cost to carry out this contract.

3. The RFP is unfairly restrictive and aims to rule out other bidders. This is an unfair practice a state agency cannot and should not do this. There should be public meetings, which should include potential bidders to receive their opinions and the RFP should be rewritten in ways that are fairer. $30M is a lot of money and the process should be clearer. The RFI process appears to be just formality.”

• CARB issued a Request For Information (RFI) from September 20, 2023, to November 16, 2023 (2023CARB_SMMI-RFI001, https://caleprocure.ca.gov/event/3900/0000028762). Multiple vendors responded demonstrating their capacity to meet the scale and scope of this project. For transparency, responses to the RFI were published to provide stakeholders and potential vendors with a better understanding of capacity and capabilities to perform mobile monitoring at scale for the pollutants of interest (https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2023- 12/SMMI_RFI_responses_compiled.pdf).

• This RFP is designed based on the RFI and concerns from air pollution overburdened communities, following the State Contracting Manual (https://www.dgs.ca.gov/OLS/Resources). The RFP considers the availability of monitoring technologies and challenges to address air quality, toxic, and climate issues. The RFP lists air pollutants, emission sources and monitoring areas, which CARB compiled through community engagement, data collected by https://caleprocure.ca.gov/event/3900/0000028762 https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2023-12/SMMI_RFI_responses_compiled.pdf https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2023-12/SMMI_RFI_responses_compiled.pdf https://www.dgs.ca.gov/OLS/Resources

CARB’s monitoring networks, and scientific literature. It is the proposer’s responsibility to decide and justify what air pollutants, emissions sources, and monitoring areas will be included in the proposal. CARB evaluates and selects the contractor following a list of criteria, such as project management, experience, methodology, and cost (see RFP pages 22-27).

4. The initial amount of $30 million was reduced to $27m. Why was that done? and what will the remaining $3 million be used for?

a. $3M was reappropriated for CARB administrative costs over 4 years. In the first year, $750,000 from the appropriation in item 3900-001-3228 of SB 101, Budget Act of 2023 (Ch. 12, Statutes of 2023), as amended by Section 45 of SB 104, Budget Acts of 2022 and 2023 (Ch. 189, Statutes of 2023), will be used by CARB for State Operations for this program, with an additional $750,000 to be appropriated annually over the subsequent three years.

5. Should proposers only submit proposals for the whole amount of $27 million? Or should they spend the time and energy making proposals for less than $27 million?

a. A single award will be made to the responsive proposer with the highest scored proposal within the allocated budget. Proposal evaluation criteria are included in the RFP (Section IV.B.3, page 22).

6. If proposers submit a proposal for a lesser amount than $27 million, will they be considered for a grant of that lesser amount?

a. This contract will be awarded to one proposer. Award is to the responsible proposer earning the highest overall score. Proposal evaluation criteria are included in the RFP (Section IV.B.3).

7. How many proposers will CARB select?

a. This contract will be awarded to one proposer.

8. How will CARB select the number of proposers who get a grant?

a. This is a contract for services, not a grant. The contract will be awarded to one proposer. Award is to the responsible proposer earning the highest overall score.

Proposal evaluation criteria are included in the RFP (Section IV.B.3).

9. If several proposers are selected, how is CARB planning to coordinate the work between them?

a. This contract will be awarded to one proposer. The prime contractor may have subcontractors and will be responsible for coordinating work between subcontractors. If subcontractors will be used to carry out tasks, please see page 16 and 62 of the RFP for more information about subcontractors and subcontracts.

10. If the choice on the number of selected proposers was already done, what dictated that choice?

a. See response to Q3.

11. Specifically, if CARB decided to allocate everything to one proposer, why was that choice made?

a. See response to Q3.

12. The RFP does not specify any of the above and leaves the impression that only one proposer will be chosen. Is that a possibility?

a. The RFP specifies that “The Award, if made, shall be to the responsive Proposer with the highest scored proposal, within the allocated budget.” (RFP page 27)

13. The RFP is requesting “firm-fixed costs for specific tasks listed in Attachment 2”. This suggests that the contractors would be paid at the completion of each major task or subtask. Is this assessment correct? If so, such delays in payment could create a significant and unsurmountable financial burden on small and medium-sized organizations, resulting in fewer proposals for the State of California to select from.

a. Yes, contractor shall submit one (1) copy of each invoice not more frequently than monthly in arrears upon completion of each task.

b. The Prompt Payment Act requires State agencies to pay properly submitted, undisputed invoices within 45 calendar days of initial receipt. If the requirement is not met, State departments must automatically calculate and pay the appropriate late payment penalties as specified in Government Code section 927, et seq.

14. If the answer to Q1 is yes, would CARB be open to further breaking down some of the major tasks into subtasks so that the contractors are paid on a more frequent basis for completed tasks, especially for the monitoring tasks? An example task breakdown is shown below.

a. Please see the response to Q13.

Task 1: Project Kick-Off and Updates 1.1: Project Kick-Off Meeting 1.2: Weekly Monitoring Progress Updates 1.3: CCI Biannual Reports Task 2: Form Advisory Committee 2.1: Form Advisory Committee 2.2: Create Advisory Committee Plan 2.3: Summarize Advisory Committee Meetings Task 3: Develop Community Engagement Plan Task 4: Design a Community Air Monitoring Plan 4.1: Implement Community Engagement Plan 4.2: Develop Draft CAMP(s) for CARB review and Public Comment 4.3: Incorporate Public and CARB Comments into CAMP(s) Task 5: Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Provide Summary Report

5.1 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 1

5.2 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 2

5.3 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 3

5.4 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 4

5.5 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 5

5.6 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 6

5.7 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 7

5.8 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 8

5.9 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 9

5.10 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 10

5.11 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 11

5.12 Conduct Mobile Monitoring and Report - Month 12

Task 6: Data Reporting and Presentation 6.1: Establish Data Management Procedures 6.1.1: Develop and deliver quality assurance project plan 6.1.2: Develop and deliver instrument-specific standard operating procedures 6.1.3: Develop data management system protocols 6.2: Establish Data Transfer Mechanisms 6.3: Provide Quarterly Data Transfers to CARB 6.3.1: Provide Quarterly Data Transfers to CARB - Quarter 1 6.3.2: Provide Quarterly Data Transfers to CARB - Quarter 2 6.3.3: Provide Quarterly Data Transfers to CARB - Quarter 3 6.3.4: Provide Quarterly Data Transfers to CARB - Quarter 4 6.4: Provide Finalized Data to CARB 6.5: Develop Data Management and Visualization Systems 6.5.1: Develop data management system 6.5.2: Produce a data visualization platform pilot system 6.5.3: Finalize data visualization platform system 6.5.4: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 1 6.5.5: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 2 6.5.6: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 3 6.5.7: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 4 6.5.8: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 5 6.5.9: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 6 6.5.10: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 7 6.5.11: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 8 6.5.12: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 9 6.5.13: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 10 6.5.14: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 11 6.5.15: Update data visualization platform with monthly data – Month 12 Task 7: Project Wrap-Up 7.1: Summary of Findings 7.2: Technical Report 7.3: Project Conclusion Meeting

15. Is this opportunity slated to one company or can it be parsed out to multiple companies?

a. This contract will be awarded to one proposer. The prime contractor may have subcontractors and will be responsible for coordinating work between subcontractors.

16. What is the timeline for funds disbursement?

a. Please see the response to Q13.

17. If Contractor cannot meet the proposed schedule as detailed in Attachment 2, will CARB accept an alternate schedule as part of Contractors submission?

a. Deliverable deadlines that are broken down by quarters must be completed within the established quarters, and deliverables with a specified date must be completed by those dates (see page 44 of RFP).

18. Can the proposal include a combination of mobile and stationary sensors, or must all air monitoring activities be performed exclusively with mobile sensors?

a. Please see “Potential Mobile Monitoring Categories”. All monitoring must meet the four (4) criteria used to define "mobile monitoring" on page 40 of the RFP.

Both “in-motion mobile platforms” and “short-term mobile laboratories” are applicable to meet the requirements of this project, but stationary sensors are not.

19. Are there any restrictions or requirements regarding the geographic scope or distribution of mobile monitoring activities across the state?

a. Please see “Potential Monitoring Areas” on page 41 of the RFP.

20. Are there specific criteria or metrics for evaluating the effectiveness and success of the proposed mobile monitoring initiative, and how will performance be assessed over the duration of the contract?

a. Proposal evaluation criteria are provided in the RFP (Section IV.B.3).

Performance will be assessed across the duration of the contract using these metrics along with those that will be developed and agreed upon within initiative Community Air Monitoring Plans.

21. Can you specify how many towns or locations are meant to be monitored, as stated in the Request for Proposal (RFP)? The RFP mentions 60 locations, but clarity on the intended number of locations would be helpful.

a. Specific monitoring areas will be established by the proposer based on their mobile monitoring approach(es) and capabilities, balancing what coverage is feasible within the contract timeframe to achieve the proposed monitoring objectives.

22. The RFP states that the contract will not cover expenses related to platform construction, building, procurement, or supporting infrastructure. However, it acknowledges that proposers will use unique mobile monitoring systems, each with its own pricing model. Could you clarify if there will be a fee associated with the monitoring system cost, and if so, who will be responsible for covering this fee?

a. Contractor must provide an all-inclusive cost for each task in their proposal (see Attachment 11, RFP page 83). The contractor’s proposal should include any taxes, labor, and fees associated with their monitoring systems in their rate.

23. Are you trying to detect all the pollutants listed on pg 42 with a single analyzer, or do you plan to employ multiple analyzers to detect the listed pollutants?

a. CARB is looking for cost-effective, scalable approaches that provide a balance of coverage, selectivity, and sensitivity for compounds of greatest health concern (chronic and cancer risk) where data is sparse (RFP page 42). All listed pollutants are not required to be measured. The list of pollutants is provided as an example of pollutants that reflect common community air quality concerns and serves as a guidance to help vendors to develop their proposals. Measurement methods and techniques are to be determined by the vendor. Vendors may apply a single analyzer or a suite of analyzers to measure pollutants.

24. Will CARB have any flexibility to extend the contract period if more time is needed to address unanticipated community interests, e.g. via a no-cost extension?

a. The contract term shall be for 24 months from the actual start date of the Agreement.

25. Regarding Exhibit E, §B (p59): “Any deliverables, work product, and/or works developed during and/or pursuant to this agreement by Contractor…shall belong to State upon creation”: Would CARB consider a modification to this to clarify that ownership pertains only to deliverables, work, product, and/or works developed during and pursuant to this agreement, and not intellectual property developed prior to establishing an agreement in response to the RFP nor intellectual property developed during the period of this agreement but not pursuant to it?

a. No, this requirement is set forth by the State Contracting Manual.

26. Regarding Attachment 12 (p85): does CARB expect all content to be added to the sheet as provided, or can additional pages be inserted/copied?

a. Yes, additional pages may be inserted.

27. On page 19, RFP states that all pages related to the Bidder Declaration Form GSPD- 05-105 must have a specific header and page numbering format. On page 20, RFP states that these same pages must have a different header and page numbering format.

Does CARB prefer one of these header and page numbering formats, or are both required, for Bidder Declaration Form GSPD-05-105?

a. Please page 19. Page 19 indicates the numbering for the technical proposal, marked Exhibit A – Attachment 1. Please see page 20. Page 20 indicates the numbering for the cost proposal, marked Exhibit B - Attachment 1. Both items shall be included in the proposal as one document. Any Socio-Economic and Preference Programs shall be included in the same document as attachments. .

28. Regarding Cost Points (§IV.A.2, p20): CARB indicates that total cost is an input to the cost points allocation. Given the extent to which the actual monitoring approach will be determined by community input, and therefore total cost may be substantially unknown at this point, is CARB open to a range of potential total costs for different potential project configurations?

a. No, for each Proposal there is only one cost sheet. Proposal costs are limited to $27M total.

29. In the event that CARB is open to a range of cost configurations, would the highest cost configuration still be the only input to allocating cost points?

a. Proposers are limited to one cost sheet. The technically qualified proposal that has the lowest cost will be given a maximum score (30 points for cost).

30. CARB states that Proposer capabilities must achieve or exceed the requirement:

“Minimum of 3 complete mobile monitoring platforms that can be employed for this project” (p26). Elsewhere, CARB indicates either “in-motion mobile platforms” or “short-term mobile laboratories” can satisfy this minimum requirement, and suggests typical capabilities and limitations of such platforms. Does CARB have any specific requirements on the types and capabilities of instruments for either type of platform, that may play a factor in evaluating and scoring the responses received?

a. CARB requires a minimum of 3 complete platforms, whether “in-motion mobile platforms” or “short-term mobile laboratories”. Each of the 3 platforms must meet the four (4) criteria used to define "mobile monitoring" on page 40 of the RFP.

b. CARB expects contractors to submit proposals that explain their monitoring approach, including the types and capabilities of instrumentation that will be employed. Specific evaluation criteria pertaining to measurement capabilities are provided on page 26 of the RFP.

31. Regarding the potential pollutants and source categories (Exhibit A, §C.A.3, p42-43):

Does CARB have a minimum set of pollutants that must be covered via the mobile monitoring approach?

a. Please see response to Q23.

32. Does CARB have a minimum set of sources that must be covered by the mobile monitoring approach?

a. No, CARB expects contractor proposals to detail sources that can be monitored using their specific mobile monitoring approaches.

33. Regarding Task 6.3, “Provide Quarterly Data Transfers to CARB: The Contractor shall provide finalized data in discrete packets every month, beginning four (4) months after monitoring commences.” (p46):

a. Can CARB clarify the cadence and temporal extent of each data delivery? E.g. 1 month dataset, with three month lag, every month Yes, 1 month dataset, with three month lag, every month is correct.

b. Does CARB expect this monthly delivery of finalized data to include the final calibrations of collected data, for all pollutants?

Yes, CARB expects quality assurance/control data to be included.

34. Regarding “Work with CARB Project Manager to make any interpreted versions of the story (stories, summaries, and reports) and finalized dataset available on CARB’s Community Air Quality Viewer: AQview” (§IV.2.A.1, Task 6.6, p38): Will CARB hold the contractor responsible for modifying AQview, or just supplying data to AQview via its readily available data protocols?

a. The contractor is not responsible for modifying AQview and will not directly supply data to AQview. Data will be sent to the CARB project manager and any data summaries will be integrated into AQview by CARB staff.

35. Regarding “Provide an online, interactive, and free-to-use data visualization tool…”

(§IV.2.A.1, Task 6.4, p38): What geospatial systems (and specific packages) does CARB currently have approved in its technology stack?

a. ArcGIS, Power BI, Tableau

36. Will other platforms outside of this technology stack be considered?

a. We recommend using the technologies listed in Q35, however others will be considered provided that they can be hosted on a CARB server and meet the requirements on page 38 of the RFP.

37. If the contractor is responsible for maintaining, how long does CARB expect this responsibility to be continued?

a. The contractor is not responsible for maintaining any visualization tool related to this initiative beyond the contract period. All data and the final report will be provided to CARB and housed on CARB servers.

38. In Task and Deliverables table Item 6.5 (p46), the visualization tool has a due date of Q1 2026. Will there be an opportunity to continue to refine the visualization project until the end of the contract period? Can CARB provide more clarity on their expectations to achieve ADA compliance in the visualization tool?

a. The visualization tool must be operational by the end of Q1 2026, but this does not preclude continual refinements to the tool until the end of the contract period.

b. For clarity on ADA compliance, please refer to CARB's Web Accessibility guidance: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/accessibility

39. In §IV.2.A.1, Task 6.3 (p38), CARB describes a requirement to “provide all finalized data collected during the contract period to CARB. What is CARB’s data retention policy?

a. Please see page 43 of the RFP: “Raw and final data will be owned by the State of California and will remain in the public domain to maintain public transparency.

What constitutes ‘raw’ data may vary significantly based on instrumentation and equipment used for mobile monitoring, and specific requirements will be defined between CARB and the Contractor. This data will be wholly owned by CARB in perpetuity with no use limitations.”

40. How long will the contractor be expected to store data after the contract’s completion?

a. The contractor must retain data throughout the contract period.

41. Regarding Project Guidance under §V, CARB requires that “all mobile monitoring data collected and processed by the Contractor shall be provided to CARB in a standardized file format following EPA Air Quality System codes” (p43). Given that not all AQS codes may be applicable to a mobile monitoring platform using non-FRM/FEM instrumentation, e.g. site ID and method codes: Will CARB allow the contractor to provide the data in a standardized file format using AQS codes only where those codes are applicable to mobile monitoring?

a. The contractor will provide data using AQS codes, where applicable, and work with CARB to adhere to a framework where no codes exist.

42. What is the expected frequency of mobile monitoring within a specific area/region (i.e.

hourly, daily, weekly, etc.)?

a. Specific monitoring duration and frequency will be dependent upon the contractor’s monitoring approach and defined monitoring objectives but should be sufficient to adequately characterize pollutant concentrations in the location(s) of concern during the period(s) of interest. For more details, see RFP page 41 “Potential Monitoring Areas”.

43. Will the expected geographical coverage for the mobile monitoring portion be the entire state, or specified regions? If specified regions, what are they?

a. This will be defined in the contractor’s proposal. The contractor is required to conduct no less than 60% of monitoring to benefit priority populations, with a breakdown of 50% in disadvantaged communities, 5% low income, and 5% in buffer communities (https://gis.carb.arb.ca.gov/portal/apps/experiencebuilder/experience/?id=6b4b15 f8c6514733972cabdda3108348). For more details, see page 41 “Potential Monitoring Areas”.

https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/accessibility https://gis.carb.arb.ca.gov/portal/apps/experiencebuilder/experience/?id=6b4b15f8c6514733972cabdda3108348 https://gis.carb.arb.ca.gov/portal/apps/experiencebuilder/experience/?id=6b4b15f8c6514733972cabdda3108348