pre-bid_meeting_transcript.doc

FTS-USDA-FS KETCHIKA-1

Moderator: Kay Steffey

06-21-11/10:55 pm CT

Confirmation # 5224339

FTS-USDA FS KETCHIKA-1

Moderator: Kay Steffey

June 21, 2010

10:55 pm CT

Coordinator:

Thank you for standing by. The call is now being recorded. You may begin.

Kay Steffey:

Okay. Thank you. My name is Kay Steffey. I’m the administrative contract officer for this project and this meeting is specifically to help you speak with the technical team to answer any questions you might have about the contract specifically specifications for anything that has to do with that side.

With that I’m going to go ahead and open the meeting to questions. When you have questions please state your name and then the company you’re with and your question. We have with us on the government side of the house Molly Murphy and (Kent Boward).

(Rachel):

Kay, this is (Rachel) with (Iovac) Construction. I had just submitted a question this morning regarding the page length of the technical and management volume.

We were wondering if the government would consider an extension on the amount of pages allowed or perhaps allow us to attach resumes as an attachment.

Kay Steffey:

The CO on this contract is (John Ammon) and I will present that question to him. He is the one who prepared the Section L that talks about how to present the package.

(Rachel):

Okay.

Kay Steffey:

I will make sure and address that question of FedBizOps for you.

(Rachel):

Thank you.

Kay Steffey:

Are there any other questions? Who all do we have joining us today?

(Ray Nash):

(Ray Nash) with (Dyonic) Group.

Kay Steffey:

Okay.

Chuck McGraw:

Chuck McGraw with McGraw Custom Construction in Sitka.

Kay Steffey:

Okay.

(Art Taylor):

(Art Taylor), TLC General, Fairbanks.

Kay Steffey:

Thank you. And (Rachel), your company again?

(Rachel):

We are (Iovac) Construction out of Anchorage.

Kay Steffey:

Is there anyone else? And then the floor is yours. Does anybody have any questions about the contract package? Yes. I’m going to go ahead and have Molly start talking about it and maybe it will generate some questions.

Molly Murphy:

This is for the multi-trade facilities construction, repair and remodel contract so we do a whole variety of work. It’s not only remodeling something but it may be like a small new construction.

Some of the projects might be renovating a bunk house, renovating a warehouse into an office, building new additions, renovating a warehouse, expanding the warehouse and it will be pretty much all over Alaska and we’ve broken the contract up into groups, the South Tongass group, Central Tongass, North Tongass, Two Gatch and then the Mountaintop Communication group.

And you can bid your contractor coefficient on any or all of these. You don’t have to bid on all of them but if there is one that you’re interested, say North Tongass, you can just bid on that. And what you do is you provide your contractor coefficient that would be added to when you’re doing your spreadsheets based on the RSV facilities cost data books, you’d come up with your own list of line items for the work, describe the work.

And then you would use your contractor coefficient to add all your additional thoughts such as mobilization, overhead, quality control, materials shipment to the site, doing your submittals - all those are described on Page 7 of the solicitation in Item B3. And then when we are evaluating the contract during after you’ve made your initial technical proposal and price proposals as per Sections L and M.

When we’re evaluating the contract we have an order of magnitude figure that we’ll be using to determine the cost basis for the contract. So that order of magnitude times your contractor’s coefficient, we come up with a total number and then that’s how that price is evaluated as part of the contract. We expect the contractor to provide quality control.

We have in Section J you can see the form that is filled out for each job order request. Section J also has the type of form of how we request a job order and then the forms that you would fill out for the pricing information. And then once we would receive your price proposal we evaluate that price proposal, go over and validate that the line items are correct and that you have also used the right information from RSV.

And that’s pretty much how the price is negotiated is that you might have a certain line item that we don’t understand why that line item would be in the contract. Once we agree on all the line items that becomes the price for the work that we’re doing. We’ve done job orders. We have had this contract in the past for about ten years.

And we have done job orders probably as low as 5-6,000 and as high as 1-1/2 million maybe. But this contract I believe goes up to 4-1/2 million. We do the submittals just like we do on any other construction contract. We agree on the type of materials that are going to be used. We have different opportunities in the contract for if there isn’t a line item in RSV that describes the work.

There is an opportunity to provide a non-pre-priced amount and then there is also a spot if you’re using a subcontractor to provide at least three subcontractor proposals and then that goes in as a line item on the spreadsheet. That’s just kind of a real basic overview. Does anybody have any questions?

This is (Rachel) with (Iovac). Could we get the name of the incumbent?

Molly Murphy:

Of the incumbent?

(Rachel):

Yes.

Molly Murphy:

The incumbent contractor?

(Rachel):

Yes that’s right.

Molly Murphy:

I believe that contract has just about expired but it’s Kodiak KI Cable Company.

(Rachel):

Okay. Thank you.

(Art Taylor):

(Art Taylor), TLC here. I’ve got a few questions. On the - is there a site that we can download the forms that you had used in the solicitation package there?

Molly Murphy:

You can get it off the - you mean the actual XLS spreadsheets?

(Art Taylor):

Yes.

Molly Murphy:

Can we email it to them?

Kay Steffey:

We can put it on FBO.

Molly Murphy:

Okay. And you can put it on XLS? Okay. We’ll post that to FedBizOps.

(Art Taylor):

All right. Thank you and we’ll just look it up on there.

Molly Murphy:

Yes.

(Art Taylor):

Great. Thank you. Also I just wanted to verify on the contractor coefficient your line items on 14 said shipping of raw materials to the job site will be included in the coefficient, is that correct?

Kay Steffey:

Could you repeat your question?

(Art Taylor):

On the contractor’s coefficient and it’s line item 14, it says shipping of all materials to job site, is that included? Is that correct in my assumptions?

Molly Murphy:

Yes. That’s included in the contractor’s coefficient that’s described on Page 7 in B3C number 14.

(Kent Boward):

This is (Kent). There is a flat fee shown for incidental tools and equipment but what you were just asking about is correct. The coefficient that you bid does include shipping raw materials.

(Art Taylor):

Okay. Thank you. Another question I have, is this on site for items one and four, a one-year basis for option? Hello.

Molly Murphy:

Hang on just a second. It should be in.

Kay Steffey:

Because it’s a min-map IDIQ contract F7 states that this contract performance period is for three years from date of award or until we hit the max.

(Art Taylor):

Okay. So it’s a three-year max on it. Are we given any provisions to adjust the coefficient in the following years like some other jobs or IDIQ contracts or is it just are we relying on the coefficient or the updates on RSV to do that?

Molly Murphy:

You’re relying on the updates in RSV to account for future pricing.

(Art Taylor):

Okay. So it gets a quarterly adjustment from me?

(Kent Boward):

No. We’re just using the annual updates.

(Art Taylor):

We’re not allowed to use the quarterly updates for means then once we do - okay. So we’re just using annual, we just do it once a year and you will specify when to do the updates?

(Kent Boward):

Yes. That’s on Page 6 of the solicitation, B.3 talks about which books we use and when.

(Art Taylor):

Okay. (Unintelligible).

(Art Taylor):

Yes. No quarterly then, okay.

Molly Murphy:

Also one thing I forgot to mention was the use of flat fees for transportation to from the origin to the nearest ranger district where you’re going to be doing the work and return.

The cost per day per commercial lodging, the cost of food and ground transportation while staying in non-remote sites at commercial lodging. And if you’re staying in government furnished lodging at the non-remote sites then there is a different amount. There is a cost for the float plane from the nearest ranger district if it’s to a remote site.

There is a cost of food and local transportation while staying at the remote site, freight for incidental tools and equipment that is just a lump sum for that particular task order and then cost of transportation per hour for the helicopter from the helicopter staging area to the mountain top communications site and return.

These aren’t necessarily intended to either fully cover your costs or your costs might be less than that but this is still the amount that you get but those are just a flat fee. It was the attempt to try and help you with your contractor coefficient so it does take some of the risk out, especially in the southeast or Anchorage area during the summer when you have higher hotel rates.

But sorry, I forgot to point that out at the beginning. But you should include or consider all that when you’re coming up with your contractor coefficient. And if government housing is available there are rules that apply to the government housing. And there are other Forest Service people staying there. So you must adhere to the rules. There is no drinking is the big one.

Do we still have everybody?

(Art Taylor):

Yes.

(Rachel):

Still here.

Kay Steffey:

Okay. So has anybody got any more questions about the coefficients or the contract line items?

(Rachel):

None from (Iovac).

(Kent Boward):

This is (Kent Boward). I wanted to just also point out we have been - check me out, make sure I’m right here Molly. But we have been using the costs from the book or online or the CD version.

But when it comes to the city cost indexes we are doing that and this is talked a little bit about on Page 6. We’re doing that by division, not subdivision. And we’re bringing those out of the book and not off the quarterly updates because and the reason for that has been that we have wanted to keep those consistent.

And those numbers, those cost indices change or are not the same. They have more significant digits on the online versions than it does in the book so we just go by the ones in the book if that makes sense or not. But I think it’s a fair thing to point out.

Thank you.

Molly Murphy:

And that’s also described again in Section B3.

(Kent Boward):

Yes.

(Art Taylor):

(Art Taylor) again with TLC. On the - this is a year round contract I assume and if so, are there any winter premiums to be paid on this?

(Kent Boward):

No.

(Art Taylor):

None?

Molly Murphy:

No there are not and for instance, we recognize that we’re most likely not going to be requesting work on the mountaintop communications sites in the dead of winter. We realize that there is - some of this work will be weather dependent. But a lot of the work will be inside work.

(Kent Boward):

Yes. I would think the way we develop schedules too will reflect the season.

(Art Taylor):

Thank you.

Molly Murphy:

And sometimes there may be an emergency like a roof leaking so you’re going to have to be trying to repair it perhaps in the middle of winter. But generally most of our items we try to consider the weather. But sometimes if it’s an emergency we can’t do that.

Kay Steffey:

Okay. So how about Section C? Does anybody have any questions on Section C?

(Rachel):

None from (Iovac).

(Ray Nash):

None from (Dyonic).

I’m just looking through the contract very quickly to see if I can spot anything that might need to be addressed. I do want to point out that the part under H7, that amendment that I put out on FedBizOps, we’ll remove that section.

That is the HUD zone agreement section. We did change this to a small business set aside so that will no longer apply.

(Art Taylor):

(Shucks).

Okay. I do want to point out that proposals are due by July 14th. Usually it’s 3:00pm Alaska Standard Time. I want you to note that all the proposals should be sent to the Ketchikan Office and that’s in Block 8 of the standard form 1442.

Generally what happens after the proposals are received, the technical evaluation board will get to see the technical proposals and the source selection authority is the contract officer (John Ammon). And he will evaluate the team’s response and replies and summaries after that, he compares that to pricing. Are there any questions about how we do the evaluation process?

No ma’am.

(Art Taylor):

What is the response date on this then?

The response date is on July 14th. So if you have any kind of questions you need to direct them to myself as the administrative contract officer. All those questions will be answered on FedBizOps and posted there.

So any questions that come up after this meeting please direct them to me. I will get answers for you and they will be posted on the Web site.

(Art Taylor):

Notice of award?

Kay Steffey:

The notice of award will also be posted on FedBizOps.

(Art Taylor):

No, a date.

Kay Steffey:

Does everyone see where my email address is in Block 8 of the standard form 1441?

(Art Taylor):

Yes.

Kay Steffey:

Okay. Great. We will not accept faxed proposals. All the questions to me should be in writing and to my email address. And if you do notice anything in the proposal that we published, if there are ambiguities or anything that is not clarified right now you would need to bring it to the attention of myself before the closing of the package of the solicitation.

(Art Taylor):

On that note, was there official notice at the change of phone number for this teleconference?

Kay Steffey:

That was discovered just moments before the conference.

(Art Taylor):

So will another teleconference be scheduled for (additional)?

Kay Steffey:

If I get enough people calling me that they didn’t get to make the conference I may reschedule another conference. At this time one is not planned.

(Ray Nash):

And from proposal date or submission of proposal, when do we hear as far as results?

The process can take some time. The evaluation packages are - the teams have to get together. It generally takes five to ten days to do an evaluation and then the CO has to do his part of the evaluation and look it over.

It can take a couple weeks after the proposal closing before an announcement is made. Well, if that is a conclusion of the call today, we will get published the transcripts from this call and post them on FedBizOps.

Thank you.

Kay Steffey:

Anyone else want to - last chance for questions? Okay. Well, I know that you’ll probably think of something after this meeting is over so please make sure you send me your questions in writing and we will do our best to answer them for you.

(Art Taylor):

Thank you.

(Rachel):

Thank you.

(Ray Nash):

Thank you.

Kay Steffey:

Thank you so much.

END