24145143 TAX AND UTILITY BILL PRINTING-COMMBUYS SOLICITATION.pdf

REQUEST FOR QUOTATIONS

CITY OF NEW BEDFORD

OUTSOURCING OF TAX & UTILITY BILL PRINTING

& MAILING SERVICES

Qualified vendors under MA state contract OFF48, please respond with quotations using the included bid form by 2 pm on Friday, May 3, 2024.

Attention is called to the fact that supplies furnished as part of this Contract are exempt from the Sales and Use Tax. All proposals submitted should take this factor into consideration, and be calculated accordingly.

Questions regarding this request for quotations can be emailed to Purchasing@newbedford-ma.gov.

SCOPE OF SERVICES:

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Only Respondents who can demonstrate that they comply with the following should submit proposals as only proposals from such Respondents will be considered:

•You must have been in the printing/mailing business for 5+ years.

•You must be able to convert the City’s Munis data to the bill format.

•You must have 10 municipal clients with at least 5 Munis Real Estate.

•You must be able to provide bulk mailing discounts.

•You must submit proof from the U.S. Postal Service of a bulk mailing permit.

•You must provide an affidavit of mailing each time.

•The vendor must be capable of including up to 2 inserts plus a return envelope in each mailing.

•The vendor will submit a proof of all bills to the City of New Bedford contact person within one business day of receiving the data file.

•The City agrees to accept or amend the proof within one business day.

•The vendor must agree to on-site inspection by City of New Bedford staff.

•For quality assurance, prior to the start of services, the City may choose to run a parallel test with the existing vendor.

•All work must be done in house by the successful vendor and not sub-contracted out.

•The scan line on all forms is to be OCR-A.

•Dedicated Customer Service Representative for the City must be provided.

Along with quotation submission:

•Please provide your implementation strategy including staffing requirements.

•Please provide samples of bills produced for other clients.

•Please describe your company’s experience in providing tax and utility bill printing and mailing services, including how many municipal organizations you’ve serviced in the last five years.

• Please describe how many municipal or government clients your company services with Munis real estate.

• Please provide 3 municipal references.

mailto:Purchasing@newbedford-ma.gov

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Respondents are expected to address the Scope of Work provided herein. However, respondents are expressly encouraged to consider the Scope of Work to be a foundation upon which to provide an expanded and/or modified approach.

Regardless of which approach each vendor proposes to undertake, each vendor should address the details of the proposed approach.

Water/Sewer Monthly Bills:

•25,000+/-Monthly Water/Sewer bills must be mailed out within 1 business day of receipt of file.

•All bills to be printed on 60 pound, 8 ½ x 11 paper; portrait orientation.

•Each page will have one (1) - 3¾” micro-perforation.

•Bills will have print on two sides.

•Bills will use black ink only.

•We would like to have the ability to have large customers with 10 or more bills in a common envelope.

•PDF of all bills with scan lines must be uploaded to the City’s online bill provider and to the City for each billing.

•Scan line must show on remit.

Water/Sewer Demands:

•5,000+/-Monthly Water/Sewer demands must be mailed out within 1 business day of receipt of file.

•All bills to be printed on 60 pound, 8 ½ x 11 paper; portrait orientation.

•Each page will have one (1) - 3¾” micro-perforation.

•Bills will use black ink only.

•Scan line must show on remit.

Real Estate Preliminary Bills:

•25,000+/- Real Estate preliminary quarterly bills must be postmarked in accordance with M.G.L. “No later than July 1st of each year” •All preliminary real estate bills must contain an affidavit of address in accordance with M.G.L.

•Bills will have print on two sides.

•Bills will use black ink only.

•All preliminary real estate bills to be printed on 60 pound, 8 ½ x 14 paper.

•Each page will have three (3) - 3¾” micro-perforation.

•Scan line must show on remit.

•PDF of all bills with scan lines must be uploaded to the City’s online bill provider and to the City for each billing.

•Bills must conform to the Department of Revenue Guidelines that are issued in its annual Information Guideline Release.

Personal Property Preliminary Bills:

•500+/- Personal Property preliminary quarterly bills must be post marked in accordance with M.G.L. “No later than July 1st of each year” •Bills will have print on two sides.

•Bills will use black ink only.

•All preliminary bills to be printed on 60 pound, 8 ½ x 11 paper.

•Each page will have two (2) - 3¾” micro-perforation.

•Scan line must show on remit.

•PDF of all bills with scan lines must be uploaded to the City’s online bill provider and to the City for each billing.

•Bills must conform to the Department of Revenue Guidelines that are issued in its annual Information Guideline Release.

Real Estate and Personal Property Actual Bills:

•25,500+/- Real Estate and Personal Property actual bills must be postmarked in accordance with M.G.L. “No later than December 31st of each year” •Bills will have print on two sides.

•Bills will use black ink only.

•All actual real estate and personal property bills to be printed on 60 pound, 8 ½ x 11 paper.

•Each page will have two (2) – 3¾” micro-perforation.

•Scan line must show on remit.

•PDF of all bills with scan lines must be uploaded to the City’s online bill provider and to the City for each billing.

•Bills must conform to the Department of Revenue Guidelines that are issued in its annual Information Guideline Release.

Real Estate and Personal Property Demand Bills:

•2,000-5,000 Real Estate and Personal Property demand bills must be mailed within one (1) business day of receipt of file.

•Bills will use black ink only.

•All demand real estate and personal property bills to be printed on 60 pound, 8 ½ x 11 paper.

•Each page will have two (2) - 3¾” micro-perforation.

•Scan line must show on remit.

•Bills must conform to the Department of Revenue Guidelines that are issued in its annual Information Guideline Release.

Additional Requirements:

•You must be able to accept data via FTP process or by compressed e-mail. All data will be provided in standard .TXT format provided by the MUNIS Software. The vendor must coordinate with the City’s MIS Department on data file field definitions and with City’s lockbox bank for testing and processing.

•You must complete two (2) successful tests with the City of New Bedford before each mailing. Tests will include totals of both count and dollar amounts and must be sent within two (2) days of receipt of file.

•Proof copies, twenty-five (25) samples of real estate bills varying in type of tax (residential, commercial, mixed use) and ten (10) samples of personal property tax bills must be provided to the City Collector prior to printing. Proofs must be approved in writing by the City Collector and the Director of Assessing before bills are printed.

Mailing of all documents:

•Bills must be folded and stuffed into a #10 envelope, along with one #9 preprinted return envelope. The return envelope must have the correct bar-coding and Facing Identification Mark (FIM). All envelopes are to be provided by the vendor.

•Bills are to be mailed by vendor on correct dates. The vendor must use a management system that will provide zip + four, carrier route sorting and bar coding as applicable to each piece. The City will pay for postage.

•A certified United State Postal Service “Postage Statement – First Class Mail and Priority Mail” is to be provided.

•The vendor will bundle mail to achieve the lowest postage rate.

Inserts:

•The vendor must be able to print in both color or black and white and stuff inserts into mailings.

•Inserts may vary in size (example 8 ½ x 11, 8 ½ x 14, buck slip) •Inserts may be one or two-sided.

•Preprinted inserts must be picked up by vendor or mailed at no cost to City.

Forms Design Services:

•The successful vendor will, at no additional cost to the City, layout the templates for the City.

•The vendor must be familiar with Munis layouts and deal with updates, and Edifice layouts.

•Final design and form must be approved by the City Collector before actual form printing begins.

•If the City requests changes/modifications to the existing format in the future, the vendor will quote an hourly rate for this service, if applicable.

•Bills must be laser-printed.

•Taxpayer information as required by the Department of Revenue must be preprinted on the back, top two (2) sections of the form only. The third section is reserved for city payment information.

•The forms shall be high quality OCR bond and ink, contain an OCR-A scan line that complies with FIS equipment specifications.

City of New Bedford Bill Print and Mail Cost Proposal Sheet

Cost per bill for printing, folding, inserting, sealing, metering of the following bill types. Postage costs are to be completed per piece.

PRELIMINARY RE BILLS: (25,000+/-) $_________________________________________________

POSTAGE PRICE PER PIECE: $_________________________________________________

PRELIMINARY PP BILLS: (25,000+/-) $_________________________________________________

POSTAGE PRICE PER PIECE: $________________________________________________

ACTUAL RE BILLS: (25,000+/-) $_________________________________________________

POSTAGE PRICE PER PIECE $ ________________________________________________

ACTUAL PP BILLS: (25,000+/-) $_________________________________________________

POSTAGE PRICE PER PIECE: $_________________________________________________

DEMAND RE & PP BILLS: (2,000-5,000) $_________________________________________________

POSTAGE PRICE PER PIECE $ ________________________________________________

MONTHLY WATER/SEWER BILLS: (25,000+/-) $_________________________________________________

POSTAGE PRICE PER PIECE: $_________________________________________________

DEMAND WATER/SEWER BILLS: (5,000+/-) $_________________________________________________

POSTAGE PRICE PER PIECE: $_________________________________________________

**The city reserves the right to award a contract for all of the listed items or to award a contract for a partial list of the items listed.

INSERT STUFFING COST

BUCK $______________________________

8 ½ X 11 $______________________________

8 ½ X 14 $______________________________

INSERT PRINTING COST

BUCK $_____________________

8 ½ X 11 $_____________________

8 ½ X 14 $_____________________

PDF COST (PER PDF) $_________________________________________________

FORM CHANGES (Hourly Rate) $_________________________________________________

Signature of Authorized Agent Company Name (Please Type)

Printed Name & Title Date

Email address

CITY OF NEW BEDFORD

MASSACHUSETTS

VOTE OF CORPORATION AUTHORIZING

EXECUTION OF CORPORATE AGREEMENTS

At a meeting of the Board of Directors of __________________duly called and held on _________________, 20_____ at which a quorum was present and acting throughout, the following vote was duly adopted.

VOTED: That ____________________________, the_________________________ of the corporation, be and hereby is authorized to affix the Corporate Seal, sign and deliver in the name and behalf of the corporation contract documents with the City of New Bedford, the above mentioned documents to include but not be limited to Bids, Proposals, Deeds, Purchase and Sales Agreements, Agreements, Contracts, Leases, Licenses, Releases and

Indemnifications; and also to seal and execute, as above, surety company bonds to secure bids and proposals and the performance of said contract and payment for labor and materials, all in such form and on such terms and conditions as he/she, by the execution thereof, shall deem proper. A true copy

ATTEST:

Name (printed)

______________________________________ (Affix Corporate Seal) Signature

Title Date

CITY OF NEW BEDFORD

MASSACHUSETTS

NON-COLLUSION AND TAX COMPLIANCE FORM

CERTIFICATE OF NON-COLLUSION

The undersigned certified under penalties of perjury that this proposal has been made and submitted in good faith and without collusion or fraud with any other person. As used in this certification, the word “person” shall mean any natural person, business, partnership, corporation, union, committee, club or other organization, entity or group of individuals.

Signature of individual submitting proposal

Name of business/organization

TAX COMPLIANCE CERTIFICATION

Pursuant to M.G.L. c. 62C, §49A, I certify under the penalties of perjury that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, I am in compliance with all laws of the Commonwealth relating to taxes reporting of employees and contractor, and withholding and remitting child support.

Signature of person submitting proposal

Name of business

CITY OF NEW BEDFORD