A02 FINAL_Justification and Approval Other than FOB_02 02 2024.pdf

Control Number: UDALL-24-04

Justification and Approval for Soliciting from a Single Source

Program/Equipment: National Center for Environmental Conflict Resolution

Authority: FAR 13.106-1 and 13.501(a) Only one source reasonably available for supplies or services using Simplified Acquisition Procedures for Certain Commercial Items.

Amount: Base Year: $144,916.90 POP: 16 October 2023 – 15 October 2024 Base Year – Options: $68,976.00 Option Year: $125,326.10 16 October 2024 – 15 October 2025 Option Year – Options: $79,604.50

Total: $418,823.50 **NOTE: Contract award amounts are not included in the above stated estimated amount. The performance periods and optional tasks above are inclusive of all travel, materials, and ODC estimated values within each performance period. The Period of Performance dates provided are the original dates and remain unchanged from contract award.

Prepared by:

Typed Name: Stephanie Lucero Phone: (520) 901-8532

Title: Senior Program Manager Date: 20 December 2023

E-mail: lucero@udall.gov

Contracting Officer:

Typed Name: Terri L. Harrison Phone: (520) 901-8565

Date Final Reviewed: 02 February 2024

E-Mail: harrison@udall.gov

Reviews: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support other than full and open competition.

Legal Counsel and Special Competition Advocate

Typed Name: Gwendolyn T. D. Franks Phone: (520) 901-8552

Signature: _________________________________ Date: _05 February 2024_

Justification and Approval for Soliciting from a Single Source

1. Contracting Activity: Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation, 434 E.

University Blvd. Suite 300, Tucson, AZ 85705

2. Description of Action: The Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation (Udall Foundation) requires the existing contractor to continue providing facilitation and engagement services for the John S. McCain III National Center for Environmental Conflict Resolution’s (National Center), in support of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) Advisory Committee and related National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis project.

The NWFP Advisory Committee is a multi-party group comprised of non-Forest Service subject matter experts, who provide recommendations to the Forest Service on NWFP amendments, and other recommendations to address changed conditions referenced above. The contractor provides multi-party facilitation, mediation, and convening services to support the multi-party Advisory Committee’s development of recommendations to the Forest Service. These types of services require adaptability and flexibility to ensure the best practices for mediation and facilitation are met to address the needs, interests, and perspectives of all the NWFP Advisory Committee members. The original contract included an assessment phase and various options to accommodate the type of flexibility and adaptability commonly required in these types of facilitated projects. Likewise, this project is addressing the development of NWFP amendments and related NEPA analyses and processes. The NWFP Advisory Committee was convened under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The NWFP Advisory Committee is considered a Federal Advisory Committee (FAC) subject to FACA and is therefore subject to the timetables outlined in FACA for convening the committee. The request for proposals for the current contract was released June 14, 2023, and the contract was awarded October 16, 2023. The FAC was created in November 2022, however the members were not confirmed and announced by Forest Service until July 7, 2023. Prior to contract award, the government convened and facilitated the FAC in a 2.5 day in-person meeting and held two additional virtual informational meetings with the FAC. Between the July and October 2023, the Forest Service began discussions regarding adjustments needed on the timeline for the project activities that were proposed for the FAC, specifically the need to issue amendments to the NWFP within 12 months versus the originally anticipated 24 months. The final decision by Forest Service to proceed with a 12-month timeline was finalized and announced at the November 2023 FAC meeting. After the November 2023 meeting, the Forest Service began executing the decision to shorten the timeline.

In addition, the Forest Service prepared a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The NOI provides that the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest Regions of the Forest Service propose to amend the NWFP. This amendment applies to those Forest Service units, or parts thereof, with land management plans amended in 1994 by the NWFP or with land management plans developed later to include provisions of the NWFP. The Notice of Intent was formally issued in the Federal Register on December 18, 2023. Likewise, the Forest Service also issued a notice of intent to amend all national land management plans of the units in Forest Service to address old growth stands. This national amendment process issued a NOI on December 20, 2023. While the FAC is only working on the regionally based NWFP land management plan, the NWFP involves old Growth forests. Therefore, NWFP FAC and

Forest Service need to track and be aware of the National revision processes underway. The simultaneous nature of the National policy effort will increase the level of effort for review and possible revision required by the FAC and Forest Service in its NWFP activities to ensure consistency with National efforts. Likewise, the National land management plan revision discussions will increase public awareness of the NWFP activities, and likely increase public participation and comment at FAC meetings, which the contractor must manage. Therefore, the National efforts to amend land management plans involving old growth forests will impact FAC discussions and activities on the NWFP amendment process. During the November 2023 FAC meeting, the Forest Service and the FAC affirmed working on the shortened timeline to officially amend the NWFP. The FAC created and developed a process and recommendations for how they would meet the FAC Charter obligations, including providing recommendations to the Forest Service, within the newly condensed timeline. To meet these obligations, the FAC identified an in-person meeting structure, the number of subcommittees, the frequency of committee and subcommittee meetings, and a need for facilitation support at all the committee and subcommittee meetings.

Pursuant to the original PWS, immediately after the contract award in October 2023, the contractor developed an Engagement Plan and Schedule to assess the project needs. The awarded PWS contained various options and criteria to support the contractor utilizing facilitation and mediation best practices to adapt its facilitative process consistent with that contractor’s assessment and any project factors to arise. It is customary in the facilitation and mediation fields for a facilitator or mediator in a multi-party project to adapt its facilitative process to support project needs as the facilitation or mediation is assessed, needs are identified, and the process proceeds and evolves. This type of adaptation was anticipated and incorporated into in this contract for development of NWFP amendment recommendations in a manner that follows the NEPA process, while also ensuring that the FAC can complete its work consistent with its FACA Charter. It is a best practice in the facilitation and mediation field for process adaptations proposed by the facilitator/mediator to be reviewed by the client (in this case the Government) to affirm the facilitators assessment and to confirm that the proposed processes are consistent with the client’s view of the project needs and overall project costs and objectives. The contractor for the present contract proposed this type of adjustment to the process based on its Assessment and the needs described by the FAC; the Government analyzed the contractor’s conclusions and recommendation and affirmed that the proposed revisions are consistent with the Government’s needs in this case, given the newly condensed timeline and the approach established by the FAC to meet its obligations under its Charter.

The contractor facilitated the FAC, subcommittee meetings, and conducted an assessment of the FAC, including outreach and engagement requirements needed by the government to support the FAC, NWFP amendment process, and the related NEPA analysis. The contractor developed an Engagement Plan and Schedule based on its assessment of the project needs, discussions with FAC members and Forest Service staff, FAC Recommendations, and the changes to the NWFP Amendment process revised schedule referenced above. The assessment process details, and the Engagement Plan and Schedule were reviewed by the Government. Based on the approved Engagement Plan and Schedule, the Udall Foundation seeks to modify the existing contract to align with the findings of the Contractor’s assessment including the adjusted anticipated level of effort for the project tasks. The contractor’s facilitation of FAC recommendations to the Forest

Service for the amendment of the NWFP is within the original scope of the contract. However, the FAC activities necessary to provide the required recommendations within to the adjusted timeline, Forest Service’s proposal to officially amend the NWFP and the national land management plan process require an increase in the number and duration of tasks. The flexibility incorporated into the current contract is insufficient to meet the requirements as they evolved after contract award. Together, the NWFP and the national land management amendment process, and the requisite scoping timelines they required under NEPA, will increase the coordination efforts between the FAC and the government, which will require the contractor to provide an increased number of tasks/services than were originally estimated in the awarded Performance Work Statement and options.

The FAC is a multi-party group. It is consistent with facilitation and mediation best practices for multi-party groups like the FAC, to request modifications in the duration and/or frequency of meetings, level of facilitation, and location of project meetings and coordination to address the changed circumstances like those outlined above. After formally convening the FAC, the FAC requested changes to the meeting frequency, type (in-person versus virtual), and number of subcommittees requiring facilitation support that were not incorporated into the original contract award. The proposed contract modification will not alter the types of tasks and services performed under the existing contract but will address the following needs that have arisen since contract award, as validated through the contractor’s assessment process:

1. The first FAC meetings in September and November 2023 were 2.5 days to address the initial convening of the FAC, charter development, updates to the project, and overview of the process. After these initial meetings, the FAC requested to continue meeting for

2.5 to 3 consecutive days for each in-person FACA meeting and to remove any virtual meetings from the process. These adjustments are consistent with best practices for facilitating multi-party groups, but they increase the duration and number of tasks required of the contractor to facilitate the FAC. These tasks were originally included in the PWS and competed for award. However, the increase in meeting length and conversion to all in-person meetings ultimately increases the hours required for facilitation of this task. This increased meeting duration will support facilitation and coordination between the various subcommittees, ensure that attendees and participants at FAC meetings are aware of related but separate land management efforts, and engage with the public and other stakeholders in developing their recommendations to Forest Service.

2. At the November 2023 FAC meeting, the FAC established 6 subcommittees to address and discuss the identified topic areas that the FAC determined as “need to change” in the NWFP amendment. Each of these subcommittees address complex issues and have some overlapping areas of interest and discussion requiring significant coordination among them (i.e., Fires Resistance and Resilience, Climate Change, Old-Growth, Tribal Inclusion, Communities, and Wildlife/biodiversity). Therefore, based upon the timeline and topics, the FAC requested full facilitation support in October 2023 for all subcommittee meetings between contract award and January FAC meetings, with anticipated continuation through April; the meetings occur every two weeks. The number of subcommittees requiring full contractor (i.e., third-party facilitation) support is three times more than originally anticipated by the Government in the awarded PWS.

Additionally, the frequency by which the subcommittees anticipate meeting and the number of meetings requiring full facilitation and mediation support is 2-4 times more than originally anticipated, exceeding the originally planned structure and needs of subcommittees and meetings. It is anticipated that the up-front increased level of effort required for the subcommittee facilitation may decrease over the term of the contract using facilitation tools and coordination with the Government. While there is an opportunity for the subcommittees to meet less frequently consistent with proposed modifications to the base year, whether the frequency of subcommittee meetings will decrease is contingent on future advisory committee discussions, public comment, and other factors outside of the control of either the contractor or the Government. Therefore, additional options will be included in this modification to address the potential for a continued higher level of effort due to frequency of subcommittee meetings extending through the Base year and Option year, consistent with best practice in the field.

3. The proposed contract modification will address the need for the near-term increase in volume and allow for needed flexibility and adaptability in facilitation services, which are common in projects of this type, size, and complexity.

While changes in level of effort are reasonably anticipated in multi-party facilitations, the increase now required under the contract is more than anticipated in the originally awarded PWS. The FAC members are not compensated in their role on the NWFP FAC.

The original PWS assumed that the FAC members would not require and seek the duration of FAC in-person meetings currently requested. Similarly, the information available to the Government at time of solicitation and award did not anticipate that the FAC would require such a high number of subcommittees, increased meeting frequency, or full facilitation support for the FAC and all its subcommittee activities. This modification addresses these increased needs. Nonetheless, the FAC has requested the increased support described above, and the assessment of both the Contractor and the Government has affirmed that providing this level of facilitation support will best support the project goals and the needs of the Government.

3. Description of Supplies/Services:

The contractor will continue to provide facilitation services for the Udall Foundation. The Udall Foundation is an independent, Federal executive agency headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, at 434 E. University Blvd. Suite 300. The National Center for Environmental Conflict Resolution (National Center), a program under the Udall Foundation. The Udall Foundation has an interagency agreement with Region 6 of the Forest Service for the National Center to support facilitation of the NWFP Advisory Committee.

To address the changed needs, as described in Section 2 above, the PWS for the current contract will be modified as follows:

1. Task 3.2 Facilitation of Advisory Committee.

a. The estimated duration of the FAC meetings will increase from approximately 1 day to approximately 2.5 days each. These meetings will also change to be all in-person meetings, rather than a combination of in-person and virtual meetings.

This will require additional work on the part of the contractor in terms of preparation and attendance for performance. Similarly, meetings will be sited at a wider variety of locations to meet the needs, as articulated by the FAC, requiring additional preparation time and increased travel expenses.

b. The Contractor shall facilitate up to six subcommittees, which will meet as needed through the Base year, but not more than every two weeks through April 2024.

2. Task 3.3 Communication and Coordination – The PWS will be modified to increase the number of meetings between the contractor and the National Center, Forest Service, and the FAC chairpersons. These meetings will be conducted weekly, rather than monthly, and serve as a basis to design FAC meetings, coordinate subcommittee work, and coordinate public engagement and Tribal inclusion activities to support the FAC. The meetings will increase in frequency in order to accommodate the FAC’s proposed schedule, the additional subcommittee efforts, and any additional efforts that will impact facilitation of the FAC.

3. Task Options. Additional task options are also included in this modification to address the potential for a continued higher level of effort due to frequency of subcommittee meetings extending through the Base year and Option year. The options for Tasks 3.2, and 3.3 will be increased to allow necessary flexibility for delivery of services consistent with the project goals and original scope. These include options for an additional in person FAC meeting and 36 subcommittee meetings in the Base year, and 20 in the Option year.

4. Authority Cited: FAR 13.106-1 and 13.501(a) Only one source reasonably available for supplies or services using Simplified Acquisition Procedures for Certain Commercial Items.

5. Reason for Authority Cited: The Udall Foundation requires an increased level of effort to support and accomplish the original tasks awarded in this contract. This work must be completed efficiently to meet required timelines and to reduce overall costs to the Government.

Award of a new contract would unduly delay the project by pausing the ongoing activities until a new competitive action could take place. The new contractor would likely need to conduct a new assessment, and the FAC term would need to be amended to respond to these delays.

Additionally, a change in facilitators and facilitation services at this point could cause conflict between the Forest Service and the FAC and potentially increase the likelihood of litigation at a cost to the government. It is consistent with common practice in the field to have an increase in the level of effort to meet project needs after the project assessment is completed. Facilitators are required to understand the personal background, expertise, perspectives, methods of communicating, and needs of participants in multi-party group facilitations. This understanding supports facilitators/mediators working with participants to reach agreement by consensus on recommendations. Specifically, the facilitator for this contract is required to have a understanding of the general content of the discussions they facilitate and mediate, and awareness of the multiple parties that may be involved in public comment or open discussions.

The current contractor has completed the initial assessment phase of the project, finished its background review, created the Engagement Plan and Schedule, facilitated multiple subcommittee meetings, supported Federal Advisory Committee meetings, and worked to develop critical relationships, all of which are crucial parts of successful facilitation efforts.

The Government has analyzed and evaluated the use of potential alternatives, such as awarding an additional or separate contract through a competitive process to perform this effort. After consideration of these approaches, the Government has determined that it is not feasible to have duplicative efforts by contractors on the tasks to meet the increased frequency and duration outlined above. Such an alternative would result in duplication of costs in terms of background review, assessment, and developing facilitator familiarity with the parties and topics. It would also require increased coordination by government personnel, all of which would increase costs to the Government substantially. Similarly, it could result in the Government issuing two contracts for the same types of services on a single project. Based on the government’s analysis, a separate contract or additional contract through a competitive process is not a viable option.

Due to the nature of the FAC facilitation and number of parties involved, it is more efficient and, in the government’s, best interest for this work to be conducted by the existing contractor. The Government does not have, or expect to have, the resources to perform this effort, or a portion of this effort, internally in the time period required by the Forest Service or as efficiently as the current contractor. This modification to the contract is consistent with facilitation best practices, is of the type that would be reasonably anticipated by practitioners in the field given the scope of the requirement and constitution of the FAC. The modification will also support the FAC in meeting its goals, complying with timelines required within the NEPA review process, and ensuring consistency with the FAC’s timeline in accordance with its Charter under the FACA.

Award to another source at this point would significantly increase government costs, and unduly delay the project.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: All future requirements for these services will be fully researched and competed if the services are determined reasonably available from multiple sources. For this action, a competitive process was not considered due to the nature of the requirement.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: This requirement is an increase in the level of effort required by the current contractor. The tasks originally competed have not changed, nor have new tasks been added to this requirement. Instead, the increase needed for this modification is based on an increased frequency and/or magnitude of the already-competed tasks, which is consistent with facilitation and mediation services on a project of this size and complexity. All future follow-on contracts (as available and relatable) will be competed on a full and open basis (as required), with appropriate market research and consideration for any small business set-asides.

8. Market Research: Additional market research was not performed. The market research performed for the original requirement was reviewed and determined valid. There were only 4 professionals working within the NWFP area with the requisite availability to conduct this project for the time permitted. A full and open competition was conducted in order to reach the broadest range of candidates. The original competitive action resulted in the receipt of 2 proposals. After review of the market research, the Government has determined that additional competition for the same tasks, with only an increased level of effort, will not likely produce additional interested offerors, but would significantly delay the overall project delivery timeline.

9. Interested Sources: There are no interested sources that can become familiar with the internal facilitation and mediation processes of the current Advisory Committee. Only this contractor can continue the current services on the same progression and timeline that the FAC is working under and provide all deliverables required by the contract, without substantial additional Government resources, duplication of effort, and additional costs being incurred by the Government.

10. Other Facts: Nothing additional.

11. Technical Certification and Requirements Certification:

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Typed Name: Stephanie Lucero Date: 05 February 2024

Title: Senior Program Manager Signature: ______________________

12. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination:

I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. A price analysis will be completed in accordance with FAR Subpart 15.404- 1(a)(2) and 15.404-1(b), to include comparison with historical prices paid for these services and the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE). Certified cost and pricing data will not be obtained based upon meeting the exception at FAR Subpart 15.403-1(c)(3), which states that certified cost and pricing data shall not be obtained for acquisitions of commercial items. The total dollar value for this action is $418,823.50 and is an acquisition for commercial services.

Typed Name: Terri L. Harrison Date: 05 February 2024

Title: Contracting Officer Signature: ______________________

13. Contracting Officer Certification:

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Typed Name: Terri L. Harrison Date: 05 February 2024

Title: Contracting Officer Signature: ______________________

Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the increase in the level of effort required for the NWFP Advisory Committee and related NEPA analysis project on another than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of FAR 13.106-1 and 13.501(a) Only one source reasonably available for supplies or services using Simplified Acquisition Procedures for Certain Commercial Items, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Date: __05 February 2024___ Signature: _______________________________