4-Amended DB27-002 RFSQ Employee Investigation-911-C103-BUNDY1.doc

REQUEST FOR STATEMENTS OF QUALIFICATION

Employee Investigation Legal Services Solicitation # DB27-002

PURPOSE OF REQUEST FOR STATEMENTS OF QUALIFICATION (RFSQ)

The Granite School District (GSD) is seeking proposals from qualified, licensed, and experienced law firms to provide specialized legal counsel and representation. The selected firm(s) will advise GSD to provide professional workplace and employee investigation services on an as-needed basis.

The selected firm(s) will conduct prompt, impartial, thorough, and legally defensible investigations involving employee misconduct, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, policy violations, ethics complaints, workplace conflicts, and other personnel matters as assigned by the District. Services may also include investigations involving administrators, licensed educators, classified employees, volunteers, contractors, and other individuals conducting business with the District.

It is anticipated that this RFSQ may result in a contract award to a multiple agencies depending on experience and qualifications.

This RFSQ is designed to provide interested firms, hereafter referred to as “Agency”, with sufficient basic information to submit proposals meeting minimum requirements but is not intended to limit a proposal's content or exclude any relevant or essential data. Offerors are at liberty and are encouraged to expand upon the specifications to evidence service capability under any agreement.

Granite School District will not be liable for any cost’s agencies may incur in the preparation or presentation of this proposal.

PRIVATE

ISSUING OFFICE AND RFSQ REFERENCE NUMBERtc \l 1 "ISSUING OFFICE AND RFP REFERENCE NUMBER" Granite School District’s Department of Purchasing is the issuing office for this document and all subsequent addenda relating to it, on behalf of GSD Legal Department. The reference number for the transaction is Solicitation #DB27-002. This number must be referred to on all proposals, correspondence, and documentation relating to the RFSQ.

ANTICIPATED TIMELINE

PRIVATE

DETAILED SCOPE OF WORKtc \l 1 "DETAILED SCOPE OF WORK" Scope of Services

The selected legal counsel will be expected to provide a full range of legal services including, but not limited to, the following areas:

A. Workplace and Employee Investigations

a. Conduct impartial, objective, and confidential investigations involving allegations of:

i. Employee misconduct

ii. Harassment and discrimination

iii. Retaliation

iv. Bullying or abusive workplace conduct

v. Ethics violations

vi. Policy violations

vii. Conflicts of interest

viii. Insubordination

ix. Timekeeping, fraud, theft, or misuse of District resources

x. Other personnel matters referred by the District

b. Develop investigation plans appropriate to the allegations and applicable District policies.

c. Review relevant documents, electronic records, personnel files, policies, emails, text messages, video recordings, and other evidence as authorized by the District.

B. Interviews and Evidence Collection

a. Conduct interviews with complainants, respondents, witnesses, supervisors, and other individuals possessing relevant information.

b. Coordinate with District administration, Human Resources, Risk Management, Legal Counsel, and other designated personnel while maintaining investigator independence.

C. Investigative Reports

a. Provide reports that are clear, objective, well organized, and suitable for administrative decision-making and potential legal review.

D. Consultation and Testimony

a. Provide consultation to District administrators regarding investigative processes, evidence collection, and investigative best practices.

b. Participate in meetings to discuss investigative findings and answer questions from District leadership.

c. Provide testimony in administrative hearings, grievance proceedings, arbitration, unemployment hearings, civil litigation, or other legal proceedings when requested.

COMPANY REQUIREMENTS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum Mandatory Requirements

1. Authorized to provide legal services in the State of Utah

2. 5 years experience providing employee investigation services for large school districts or equivalent government entities Demonstrated Experience of Qualifications

3. Provide examples of past work that demonstrates you are qualified to complete the requested service.

4. Resumes of those individuals who would be assigned to the project.

5. Any other experience or qualifications that has not been requested but that you would like to include to demonstrate your companies experience, results and expertise.

References Please provide a list of at least three but no more than five references from work with large districts (over 50 schools) or equivalent large government agencies. The references should provide evidence of work similar in scope to this request.

The District reserves the right to contact or visit any of the Agent’s current and/or past customers to evaluate the level of performance and customer satisfaction.

Insurance Agency shall maintain Commercial General Liability insurance which contains a “Separation of Insureds” provision with per occurrence and products-completed operations limits of at least $1,000,000 and general aggregate limits of at least $3,000,000. Agency shall also maintain, if applicable to Agency’s operations or performance relative to this contract, Business Automobile Liability insurance covering Agency’s owned, non-owned, and hired motor vehicles and/or Professional Liability insurance with liability limits of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence. Such insurance policies shall be endorsed to be primary and not contributing to any other insurance maintained by the District.

The Agency shall maintain all employee related insurance, in the statutory amounts, such as unemployment compensation, worker's compensation, and employer's liability, for its employees involved in performing services pursuant to this Contract. Such worker’s compensation and employer’s liability insurance shall be endorsed to include a waiver of subrogations against Granite School District, its agents, officers, directors and employees.

The Agency's insurance carriers and policy provisions must be acceptable to the District’s Risk and Insurance Manager and remain in effect for the duration of the Contract. The Granite School District shall be named as additional insured party on the Commercial General Liability insurance policy.

The Agency shall submit certificates of insurance as evidence of the above required coverage to the District prior to the commencement of this Contract. Mail to: Granite School District Purchasing Department, Attn: David Bundy, 2500 South State Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84115-3110. Such certificates shall provide the District with thirty (30) calendar days written notice prior to the cancellation or material change of the applicable coverage, as evidenced by return receipt or certified mail, sent to the above address.

PRIVATE

LENGTH OF CONTRACTtc \l 1 "LENGTH OF CONTRACT" 1 year with 4 optional 1 year renewal periods.

PRIVATE

PRICE GUARANTEE PERIODtc \l 2 "PRICE GUARANTEE PERIOD" All pricing must be guaranteed for the length of the contract. All change orders must be approved and agreed upon prior to any work being performed.

PRIVATE

STANDARD CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONStc \l 2 "STANDARD CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS" Any contract resulting from this RFSQ will include but not be limited to the District’s Standard Terms and Conditions (see Attachment A). Exceptions and or additions to the District’s Standard Terms and Conditions are strongly discouraged.

Exceptions and additions to the Standard Terms and Conditions must be submitted with the proposal response. Exceptions, additions, service level agreements, etc. submitted after the date and time for receipt of proposals will not be considered. Website URLs, or information on website URLs must not be requested in the RFP document and must not be submitted with a proposal. URLs provided with a proposal may result in that proposal being rejected as non-responsive. URLs are also prohibited from any language included in the final contract document.

The District retains the right to refuse to negotiate on exceptions should the exceptions be excessive, not in the best interest of the District, negotiations could result in excessive costs to the state, or could adversely impact existing time constraints.

If negotiations are required, contractor must provide all documents in MS Word format for redline editing. Contractor must provide the name, contact information, and access to the person(s) that will be directly involved in legal negotiations.

QUESTIONS

All questions must be submitted through the Utah Public Procurement Place (“U3P”) https://utah.bonfirehub.com. Answers will be given via the U3P site.

PRIVATE

SUBMITTING YOUR PROPOSALtc \l 1 "SUBMITTING YOUR PROPOSAL" Proposals must be received by the posted due date and time. Proposals received after the deadline will be late and ineligible for consideration.

Proposals must be received electronically through Utah Public Procurement Place (U3P) https://utah.bonfirehub.com/ or in hard copy. If submitting in hard copy for this RFP, one original and two identical copies of your proposal must be received at Granite School District Purchasing Department, 2500 S. State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115.

PROTECTED INFORMATION

All protected information must be included in this section of proposal response. Do not incorporate protected information throughout the proposal. Rather, provide a reference in the proposal response directing reader to the specific area of this Protected Information section.

The Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA), Utah Code Ann., Subsection 63G-2-305, provides in part that:

“the following records are protected if properly classified by a government entity:

(1) trade secrets as defined in Section 13-24-2 if the person submitting the trade secret has provided the governmental entity with the information specified in Section 63G-2-309;

(2) commercial information or nonindividual financial information obtained from a person if:

(a) disclosure of the information could reasonably be expected to result in unfair competitive injury to the person submitting the information or would impair the ability of the governmental entity to obtain necessary information in the future;

(b) the person submitting the information has a greater interest in prohibiting access than the public in obtaining access; and (c) the person submitting the information has provided the governmental entity with the information specified in Section 63G-2-309 (6) records, the disclosure of which would impair governmental procurement proceedings or give an unfair advantage to any person proposing to enter into a contract or agreement with a governmental entity, except, subject to Subsections (1) and (2), that this Subsection (6) does not restrict the right of a person to have access to, after the contract or grant has been awarded and signed by all parties:

(a) a bid, proposal, application, or other information submitted to or by a governmental entity in response to:

(i) an invitation for bids;

(ii) a request for proposals;

(iii) a request for quotes;

(iv) a grant; or (v) other similar document; or (b) an unsolicited proposal, as defined in Section 63G-6a-712 GRAMA provides that trade secrets, commercial information or non-individual financial information may be protected by submitting a Claim of Business Confidentiality.

To protect information under a Claim of Business Confidentiality, the offeror must: provide a written Claim of Business Confidentiality at the time the information (proposal) is provided to the district and include a concise statement of reasons supporting the claim of business confidentiality (Subsection 63G-2-309).

If you submit a proposal containing confidential information you must submit an electronic “redacted” (excluding protected information) copy of your proposal response. Copy must clearly be marked “Redacted Version.”

A Claim of Business Confidentiality may be appropriate for information such as client lists and non-public financial statements. Pricing and service elements may not be protected. An entire proposal may not be protected under a Claim of Business Confidentiality. The claim of business confidentiality must be submitted with your proposal on the form which may be accessed at:

https://purchasing.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/Claim-of-Business-Confidentiality-Updated.pdf An entire proposal cannot be identified as “PROTECTED”, “CONFIDENTIAL” or “PROPRIETARY” and may be considered non-responsive if marked as such.

To ensure the information is protected, you must include all protected information in the executive summary of the proposal response. Any protected information incorporated in other sections of the proposal response may result in release of data at no fault of the District.

All materials submitted become the property of Granite School District. Materials may be evaluated by anyone designated by the District as part of the proposal evaluation committee. Materials submitted may be returned only at the District’s option.

PROPOSAL RESPONSE FORMAT

All proposals must include:

Executive Summary - The one- or two-page executive summary is to briefly describe the offeror's proposal. This summary should highlight the major features of the proposal. It must indicate any requirements that cannot be met by the offeror. The reader should be able to determine the essence of the proposal by reading the executive summary. Protected information requests should be identified in this section.

Detailed Narrative - Provide a narrative in which you describe in detail how your agency will approach the task of advising and conducting employee investigations for GSD. Include resumes of individuals that will be assigned to tasks. Work examples may include but is not limited to briefs, motions, legal memorandum, contracts, and contract clauses References Costs. Cost will not be requested during the initial phase but will be directly negotiated with the highest ranked offerors.

PROPOSAL EVALUATION CRITERIA

A committee will evaluate proposals against the following weighted criteria. Each area of the evaluation criteria must be addressed in detail in proposal.

WEIGHT

EVALUATION CRITERIA

30%

Detailed narrative 30%

Provide examples of past work that demonstrates you are qualified to complete the requested service.

15%

Resumes of those individuals who would be assigned to the project.

15% References - Provide evidence of general experience with large employers with employee investigations. Including employers with Union representation.

10%

Any other experience or qualifications that has not been requested but that you would like to include to demonstrate your companies experience, results and expertise.

EVALUATION PROCESS

All proposals in response to this RFSQ will be evaluated in a manner consistent with the Utah Procurement Code and all applicable rules and policies as allowed in 63G-6a-1502 (3). Specifically, this solicitation will follow the guidelines set out in R33-115.

In the initial phase of the evaluation process, the evaluation committee will review all proposals timely received. First, non-responsive proposals (those not conforming to RFSQ requirements) will be eliminated. Second, the remaining proposals will be evaluated against the provided evaluation criteria and ranked. The district will then enter into direct negotiations with up to the 3 highest ranked responsive and responsible vendors. If negotiations are successful, the contract will be awarded to those vendors. If they are not, then the district will move to the next highest ranked vendor and repeat the negotiation process and then so forth.

RFSQ EVALUATION SCORESHEET

Employee Investigations Solicitation # DB27-002

Firm Name:

Evaluator:

Date:

Score

(0-5) Weight

Points

X 6

X 6

X 3

X 3

X 2

TOTAL EVALUATION POINTS

(100 points possible)

Total

Score will be assigned as follows:

0 = Fail, fails to address the requirements

1 = Poor, inadequately addresses the requirements

2 = Unsatisfactory, only partially responsive to the requirements

3 = Satisfactory, meets minimum requirements

4 = Good, meets requirements and exceeds in some respects

5 = Excellent, exceeds all of the requirements