Pre-Proposal - Minutes -Family Peer Support and Navigation (1).pdf

MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH/BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

ADMINISTRATION (MDH/BHA)

PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE

RFP No. 21-18369

FAMILY PEER SUPPORT AND NAVIGATION SERVICES

Held at: Spring Grove Hospital Center 55 Wade Avenue Dix Building

Catonsville, Maryland 21228

February 25, 2020

10:00 a.m.

ATTENDANCE:

AGENCY:

Afua Tisdale, Contract Officer, OPASS

Laura Burns-Heffner, Director, Office of Problem Gambling and Navigation Services

Siji Georgekutty, Director of Procurement, BHA

Janelle Robinson, Director, Minority Business Department, MDH

Mary Viggiani, BHA

ATTENDEES:

Gail Doerr, Maryland Coalition of Families

Lisa Lowe, FACE Addition

Tameka L. Payton, PhD., Psychometric Solutions, LLC

Jane Plapinger, Maryland Coalition of Families

(Appearing Telephonically):

Timothy Harrison, Charm City Community Development Corporation

Kelsie Solomon, Charm City Community Development Corporation)

BHA

Michelle Darling

Sydnee Distance

Reported by: Carol O’Brocki, Notary Public Hunt Reporting Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland

1 P R O C E E D I N G S

2 (10:06 a.m.)

3 MS. TISDALE: Good morning. I want to

4 welcome everyone to the Family Peer Support and

5 Navigation Services Pre-Proposal Conference, and I want

6 to thank everyone for taking the time to attend.

7 If you have not already signed in on the

8 sign-in sheet I ask you to do so in case there is a

9 need to get in contact with you we can, and if you’re

10 an MBE or VSBE or SBR, just make acknowledgment on the

11 sign-in sheet, okay?

12 I am here today to help you understand the

13 process for this procurement. If further clarification

14 is needed after this meeting I can be reached by email

15 at MDH.solicitationquestions@maryland.gov.

16 The Department intends to make a single award

17 as the result of this RFP. As you know, the contract

18 resulting from this solicitation will be for a three-

19 year base period with two one-year renewal options.

20 There was an addendum 1 and 2 posted to eMMA.

21 Please include the addenda acknowledgment with your

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410-766-HUNT (4868)

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1 proposal submission. That is required.

2 There are no minimum qualifications for this

3 solicitation. Section 2, Contractor Requirements/Scope

4 of Work of this RFP begins on page 2. As noted, MDH

5 has issued this RFP in order to implement and provide a

6 statewide system of Family Peer Support and Navigation

7 Services to families with children, adolescents, young

8 adults, and loved ones with a mental substance use

9 problem, gambling, and/or co-occurring disorder.

10 All subsequent documentation regarding this

11 solicitation will be posted to eMaryland Marketplace

12 Advantage.

13 Please remember that in order to receive a

14 contract award a vendor must be registered on eMaryland

15 Marketplace Advantage, short for eMMA. Registration is

16 free, and that information can be found in Subsection

17 4.2 of the RFP.

18 I’d like to stress to everyone today that any

19 questions asked during the question and answer portion

20 of this meeting be submitted to the Department in

21 writing for clarification purposes. The questions and

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1 answers along with minutes will be posted to eMMA and

2 MDH websites as quickly as possible.

3 Carefully review Subsection 4.3, Questions, 4 on page 26 regarding how to submit questions subsequent

5 to this Pre-Proposal Conference. Questions to the

6 procurement officer, Dana Dembrow, shall be submitted

7 to mdh.solicitationquestions@maryland.gov by email.

8 Questions should also be submitted no later

9 than March 10th at 10:00 a.m. The procurement officer

10 and I, based on the availability of time and research

11 to communicate an answer depending on the complexity of

12 the question, and may need to go to an additional

13 office or going to have to go to the program. Yes?

14 MS. PLAPINGER: Can you repeat the name of

15 the person who needs to get the questions?

16 MS. TISDALE: It’s Dana Dembrow.

17 Ms. PLAPINGER: Thank you.

18 MS. TISDALE: So, please try to get your

19 questions in as soon as possible. Therefore, won’t be

20 any delays in the pre-proposal due date.

21 Carefully review the clause shown in

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1 Subsection 4.2.3, Payments by Electronic Funds

2 Transfer. By submitting a response to this

3 solicitation, the offeror agrees to accept payments by

4 electronic funds transfer unless the Comptroller’s

5 Office grants an exemption.

6 Payment by EFT is mandatory for contracts

7 exceeding $200,000. This section goes into detail on

8 how to register or request an exemption.

9 The procurement method used for this

10 solicitation is competitive sealed proposal. There are

11 several steps involved in this method, so your

12 attention to the solicitation document is crucial to

13 the successful submission of your proposal. Again, 14 there are no offeror minimum qualifications.

15 Section 2, Contractor Requirements/Scope of

16 Work, Section 2.2, this subsection gives an outline of

17 the background and purpose. The responsibilities and

18 tasks listed in Section 2, Subsection 2.3 is the meat

19 of this solicitation that will give you a clear

20 understanding of what the Department expects of the

21 successful offeror and the provision of the services.

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1 And someone will go over the scope of work later on.

2 Proposal Format, offerors are required to

3 submit their response to the RFP in two parts. Section

4 5, Proposal Format, beginning on page 39 clearly lists

5 all submission requirements.

6 Again, I want to stress that proposals shall

7 be submitted in separate volumes. Volume I, the

8 technical proposal, and Volume II, the financial

9 proposal. The financial proposal shall be sealed

10 separately from the technical proposal. That is a

11 requirement.

12 Subsection 5.3, Technical Proposal, lists all

13 of the documents and information required with your

14 proposal. Please note that there is a two percent MBE

15 and two percent VSBE participation goal for this

16 contract.

17 A two percent MBE participation goal has been

18 established for the contract resulting from this RFP.

19 This information can be found in Section 4, Subsection

20 4.26. Be sure to complete the MBE Utilization and Fair

21 Solicitation Affidavit and MBE Participation Schedule.

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2 A two percent VSBE participation goal has

3 been established for this contract resulting from this

4 RFP. This information can be found in Section 4, 5 Subsection 4.27. Be sure to complete the VSBE

6 Utilization Affidavit and Prime Subcontractor

7 Participation Schedule, Attachment E1A (phonetic).

8 Janelle Robinson will go over the MBE process

9 following my procurement overview.

10 Offerors shall provide their proposals in two

11 separately sealed and labeled packages as follows.

12 Volume I, technical proposal consisting of one original

13 executed technical proposal and four duplicate copies;

14 an electronic version of the technical proposal in

15 Microsoft Word format version 2007 or greater; the

16 technical proposal in searchable pdf format; a second

17 searchable pdf copy of the technical proposal with

18 confidentiality propriety information redacted.

19 Volume II, financial proposal consisting of

20 one original financial proposal and four duplicate

21 copies; an electronic version of the financial proposal

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1 in searchable pdf format; and a searchable pdf copy of

2 the financial proposal with confidential and propriety

3 information redacted.

4 To simplify the submission, Subsection 5.3, 5 Volume I, Technical Proposal shows where documents and

6 information shall be included in the technical

7 proposal. Section 5.4, Volume II, Financial Proposal

8 for the purpose of this procurement, the financial

9 proposal workshops are included and formatted in Excel.

10 The evaluation committee, evaluation

11 criteria, and selection procedures are outlined in

12 Section 6. Your proposal will be evaluated by a

13 committee organized for that purpose and will be based

14 on the criteria set forth in the RFP.

15 The technical criteria listed in descending

16 order of importance can be found in Subsection 6.2, 17 page 48, with the financial proposal criteria listed in

18 Subsection 6.3, again on page 48.

19 The selection procedures is highlighted in

20 Subsection 6.5. As noted, the contract will be awarded

21 to the responsible offeror that submitted the proposal

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1 determined to be the most advantageous to the State, 2 considering technical evaluation factors and price

3 factors as set forth in the RFP. Documents required

4 upon notice of recommendation of contract award is

5 listed in Section 6.6.

6 Other than composing your technical and

7 financial proposals, the most important matter is to

8 have your proposals submitted by the date, time, and

9 location listed. Therefore, your proposals are due no

10 later than March 30th, 2020 at 2:00 p.m.

11 Please consider traffic, the security

12 downstairs who has to check your ID and get a hold of a

13 contract officer. So keep this all in mind -- trying

14 to find parking -- because we cannot accept proposals

15 at our office no later than 2:00 p.m., okay?

16 The three acceptable means of delivering your

17 proposal is the U.S. Postal Service, hand-delivery by

18 offeror -- you want to request a receipt; hand-delivery

19 by commercial carrier. Again, request a receipt.

20 Please remember that after this Pre-Proposal

21 Conference perspective offerors may have questions

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1 answered that may help them understand our RFP. Please

2 keep in mind that the answer to your questions, if they

3 are significant in nature, shall be posted on the eMMA

4 and MDH websites. Therefore, please allow sufficient

5 time for this to occur.

6 Again, if you have any questions or comments

7 about the procurement process, you may contact me by

8 email address or Dana Dembrow, procurement officer, at

9 mdh.solicitationquestions@maryland.gov.

10 Next you will hear from Janelle regarding the

11 MBE process and I want you guys to please pay special

12 attention to the overview, because this is the most --

13 probably the most important documents that you will

14 complete, because if you don’t get it right the first

15 time you will be disqualified with no second chances.

16 And it’s been numerous of times that we have

17 thrown out offerors who spent lots of time sending

18 these expensive beautiful proposals and we cannot even

19 look at it. The first thing we do is pull out the MBE, 20 and if there is a no-go and if there is an error, it’s

21 not curable.

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1 So, Janelle is going to take time to go over

2 the process and example of completing the MBE form, 3 okay?

4 MS. ROBINSON: Good morning. The MDOT

5 Certified MBE Utilization and Fair Solicitation

6 Affidavit, Attachment D1, must be fully and accurately

7 completed and submitted in Tab O of your technical

8 proposal. Failure to do so will result in your

9 proposal being deemed non-responsive.

10 On the D1 form you must first acknowledge and

11 express your intention to meet the overall MBE goal

12 established for this solicitation. As no sub-goals

13 have been established for this solicitation, do not

14 enter any information regarding percentages for African

15 American, Hispanic American, Asian American, or Women-

16 Owned businesses in Section 1.

17 The MBE Participation Schedule should include

18 the names of the minority business enterprises that you

19 intend to use to meet the required MBE goal, along with

20 their Federal employment identification number, their

21 MDOT MBE certification number, as well as their

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1 certification category.

2 Only MDOT MBE certification is acceptable.

3 MBE certification from another entity or jurisdiction

4 will not be accepted. Additionally the percentage of

5 the total contract value to be provided by the

6 particular MBE should be entered, as well as a specific

7 description of the work that is to be performed by that

8 particular MBE.

9 These percentages should be equal to or

10 exceed the MBE goal established for this solicitation.

11 MBEs must be fully certified at the time of submission

12 of your bid or proposal. MBE prime contractors may

13 count 50 percent towards the established subcontracting

14 goal.

15 Within ten working days of receiving notice

16 that your firm is the apparent awardee, you must submit

17 your Outreach Efforts Compliance Statement, which is

18 Attachment D2; and your Subcontractor Project

19 Participation Certification, Attachment D3.

20 You may request a waiver of the MBE goal and

21 within ten working days of receiving notice that your

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1 firm is the apparent awardee, you must submit all

2 required waiver documentation in accordance with COMAR

3 21.11.03.10.

4 Additionally, please carefully review the

5 liquidated damages provisions in this solicitation

6 regarding compliance with the MBE rules and

7 regulations.

8 For the MBE forms, I left samples at the

9 front. Again, Afua said it -- very, very important. I

10 look at them. If they’re not right, nothing else gets

11 looked at. So it’s very, very important that the

12 details are correct. And it looks tedious. It’s

13 fairly straightforward, but there’s samples up front.

14 One sample is for a prime that is not an MBE, 15 and the other sample is for a prime that is an MBE. A

16 couple of little differences in the forms. But there’s

17 samples up front. So, if you want to grab one on the

18 way out, and if you have any questions for me before

19 you go, I’ll be around.

20 One more thing. The VSBE Utilization

21 Affidavit and Subcontractor Project Participation

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1 Schedule, Attachment E1, must be fully and accurately

2 completed and submitted in Tab O of your bid or

3 technical proposal. Failure to do so may result in

4 your bid or proposal being deemed non-responsive.

5 On the E1 form, you must first acknowledge

6 and express your intention to meet the overall VSBE

7 goal established for this solicitation. The VSBE

8 Subcontractor Participation Schedule should include the

9 names of the Veteran-owned business enterprises that

10 you intend to use to meet the required VSBE goal, along

11 with their DUNS number.

12 Both United States Department of Veterans

13 Affairs and Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs

14 certifications are acceptable. VSBE certifications

15 from other entities or jurisdictions will not be

16 accepted.

17 Additionally, the percentage of the total

18 contract value to be provided by the particular VSBE

19 should be entered as well as a specific description of

20 the work that is to be performed by that particular

21 VSBE. These percentages should be equal to or exceed

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1 the VSBE goal established for this solicitation.

2 Within ten working days of receiving notice

3 that your firm is the apparent awardee, you must submit

4 your Subcontractor Project Participation Statement, 5 which is Attachment E2.

6 You may request a waiver of the VSBE goal, 7 and within ten working days of receiving notice that

8 your firm is the apparent awardee, you must submit all

9 required waiver documentation in accordance with COMAR

10 21.11.13.07.

11 Does anybody have any questions for me?

12 (No response.)

13 MS. TISDALE: All right. For those on the

14 phone, I will post to eMMA copies of the MBE forms and

15 how they should be completed.

16 And I just want to add, if you submit a

17 waiver, all the documentation -- please review the good

18 faith efforts before you check off waiver, because

19 there is a host of things that must be done before you

20 consider checking a waiver, and those items, if you are

21 awarded the contract, will be due at that time and they

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1 will have to be dated prior to the proposal due date, 2 like emails of reaching out to MBEs, items such as them

3 signing off saying yes, they did reach out to me.

4 So, please keep that in mind, and again, this

5 is the most important form that you think that you’re

6 going to complete. Yes? Could you state your name and

7 where you’re from?

8 MS. DOERR: Yes, sure. This is Gail Doerr

9 from Maryland Coalition of Families. We submitted --

10 we prepared a submission for Family Peer Support and

11 Navigation for the last time that this was released in

12 November, and we plan to submit for this proposal.

13 We had completed all of the forms and had all

14 the documentation for MSBE [sic] and the VSBE entities

15 that we were planning to work with. We have letters of

16 commitment, and I’m wondering what forms need to be

17 updated for this current proposal?

18 MS. TISDALE: Everything. Everything. Since

19 that procurement was cancelled, you want to resubmit.

20 MS. DOERR: Okay. So, I would need the dates

21 of contact between February whatever it was and this

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1 date?

2 MS. TISDALE: Yes.

3 MS. DOERR: Okay. Thank you.

4 MS. TISDALE: Any other questions?

5 (No response.)

6 MS. TISDALE: I’m sorry. We didn’t do

7 introductions. I apologize. I’m sorry. We’re going

8 to go around and do them at this time.

9 I’m Afua Tisdale. I’m the Contract Officer.

10 I work for Office of Procurement and Support Services.

11 MS. ROBINSON: Janelle Robinson, the MBE

12 Liaison for the Department.

13 MS. GEORGEKUTTY: Siji Georgekutty, BHA, 14 Procurement.

15 MS. DISTANCE: Sydney Distance, BHA, 16 Procurement.

17 MS. LOWE: Lisa Lowe, Family Advocates

18 Coalition to End Addiction in Maryland.

19 MS. PAYTON: Good morning. Tameka Payton, 20 Psychometric Solutions.

21 MS. DARLING: Hi. I’m Michelle Darling, HUNT REPORTING COMPANY

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1 Behavioral Health Administration.

2 MS. PLAPINGER: Jane Plapinger, Maryland

3 Coalition of Families.

4 MS. DOERR: And Gail Doerr, Maryland

5 Coalition of Families.

6 MS. VIGGIANI: Mary Viggiani, Behavioral

7 Health Administration.

8 MS. BURNS-HEFFNER: And I’m Laura Burns-

9 Heffner. I’m the Director of the Office of Problem

10 Gambling and Family Care, Support, and Navigation

11 Services.

12 MS. TISDALE: And on the phone?

13 MS. SOLOMON: Kelsie Solomon from Charm City

14 CDC.

15 MR. HARRISON: And Timothy Harrison from

16 Charm City CDC.

17 MS. TISDALE: Next we will hear from Laura.

18 MS. BURNS-HEFFNER: Hi. Good morning. As I

19 just said, I’m Laura Burns-Heffner. I’m the director

20 of the office that oversees this procurement.

21 I wanted to say that we currently are funding

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1 programs from Family Peer Support and Navigation

2 Services for families with children and adolescents

3 with mental health disorders, families with young

4 adults, or loved ones with a substance use or co-

5 occurring disorder, and for families with young adults

6 or loved ones with a problem gambling disorder.

7 These three specific populations have

8 historically been funded through separate grants and

9 funding mechanisms. I wanted to note that Family Peer

10 Support and Navigation specialists in these programs

11 have lived experience with family members affected by

12 these disorders, and provide family peer-to-peer

13 support and information on how to access or navigate

14 the system of care.

15 You’ll see in the RFP there are expectations

16 for who can provide this service, so I just wanted to

17 highlight that. BHA also funds a Good Samaritan

18 Ambassador Project which consists of a cadre of trained

19 family peer support and navigation specialists who also

20 serve as Good Samaritan Ambassadors that go out into

21 the community and educate the public about the Good

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1 Samaritan Law using pre-approved print and verbal

2 messaging consisting of printed and verbal information

3 provided in a consistent manner through in-person

4 meetings, forums, town hall discussions, et cetera.

5 There are specific requirements for who can

6 be a Good Sam Ambassador, which are listed in the RFP.

7 But just to note that the ambassadors delivering this

8 messaging are required to be family members or loved

9 ones and/or advocates who have lived experience with

10 someone who has a substance use disorder, co-occurring

11 disorder, or someone who engages in underage drinking.

12 This procurement, BHA has consolidated these

13 various funding mechanisms and expanded the three

14 specific target populations into one procurement to

15 provide a statewide system of family peer support and

16 navigation services to not just the populations I

17 mentioned above, but expanding to providing services to

18 families with loved ones with mental health, as opposed

19 to just for families with children and adolescents with

20 mental health issues or problems.

21 This one procurement is to include family

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1 peer support and navigation services, as I mentioned, 2 and the Good Sam Ambassador Project. We call it Good

3 Sam and Good Samaritan interchangeably.

4 BHA acknowledges that there are many other

5 valuable peer-based educational workshops and community

6 outreach-type services in the State primarily for

7 individuals and their families, which are not included

8 or intended to be consolidated into the scope of this

9 procurement.

10 Consolidation for the purpose of this

11 procurement refers specifically to the designated

12 populations and funding mechanisms as mentioned. I

13 also wanted to note that this procurement has been

14 modified from a past procurement for these services by

15 decreasing the amount of insurance required to submit a

16 proposal.

17 This was done in recognition that a higher

18 amount of insurance coverage might be onerous for small

19 business owners or providers. One of the changes is

20 actually in the scope, and the other changes came out

21 yesterday and I will mention where that is, as well, HUNT REPORTING COMPANY

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1 but it’s in the amendment for the cyber security data

2 breach insurance.

3 Shall I go through specifically some of the

4 scope now, or --

5 MS. TISDALE: Uh-huh.

6 MS. BURNS-HEFFNER: All right. So, just for

7 clarity I want to go through the actual RFP and see if

8 there’s any questions as we’re going through.

9 If you go to page 2, we start with the

10 Contract Requirements, the Scope of Work. I just

11 wanted to note that the summary statements and the

12 background and purpose are really there for your

13 information. Nothing is required to be responded to in

14 regards to that.

15 When you come down to 2.3 is where the actual

16 scope of work starts, and I am just asking if there are

17 any questions with basically the meat of this scope, 18 which goes from 2.3.1 down through the next few pages

19 through page 6.

20 There are a couple of things I do want to

21 highlight in that and I’ll stop and take any questions

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1 if you have them, but for page 5 at the top, 2.3.1.10, 2 I just wanted to ensure that you note that there was a

3 change in the number of families to be served. That

4 was Amendment 1 that went out.

5 So the change from this -- the language in

6 this, it says “approximately 1,500 families statewide

7 in year 1,” that should be 2,000, and the increase is

8 to approximately 2,500 from 2,000.

9 MS. TISDALE: I just want to mention that’s

10 an Addendum 1 that was issued.

11 MS. BURNS-HEFFNER: Right. Right. Thank

12 you. If you go down to 2.3.1.13, I just wanted to

13 point out those percentages of the maximum of the total

14 budget that could be spent on development and printing

15 of materials for outreach.

16 There’s a maximum of ten percent of the total

17 budget for the year 1, and then three percent in

18 subsequent years, although we won’t actually see that

19 because of the budget form, be aware of that because we

20 will get a full budget once we contract with a

21 provider. And so, for your planning purposes, make

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1 sure that for your budget that that’s what you’re

2 following, okay?

3 Any other questions on the actual scope for

4 the family peer support and navigation services?

5 (No response.)

6 MS. BURNS-HEFFNER: Okay. Then going to the

7 Good Samaritan Ambassador Project at the top of page 6, 8 I just wanted to highlight that the expectation is that

9 the project plan that we receive must be addressing the

10 -- reaching a minimum of 16,000 individuals in the

11 first year.

12 And then when you go down to D on that same

13 page, that the presentations to a minimum of 125

14 specific audiences statewide, and then I wanted to also

15 highlight under G that the expectations is that the

16 vendor will prepare, collaborate with BHA on the

17 preparation but will be responsible for the printing of

18 all the materials. Okay. So that’s not clear. And

19 that the funding for this program should not exceed

20 five percent of the total overall program budget, and

21 again, that’s for your planning purposes, okay?

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1 The next section on Monitoring and Audits, 2 and again, I’m sorry -- are there any questions on this

3 before I go forward?

4 (No response.)

5 MS. BURNS-HEFFNER: The next section on

6 Monitoring and Audits is really an agree or disagree.

7 Same thing with Deliverables. There are several pages

8 that go through to page 9 that basically state what the

9 expectations are, and we would expect for you to either

10 acknowledge that you agree or disagree with those.

11 I don’t think there’s anything in the general

12 contract requirements under Section 3 of specific note, 13 except I do want to say there was a question in the

14 past about travel reimbursement, and on page 12 it

15 states that travel will not be reimbursed under this

16 RFP, and a clarification for that is that it’s not

17 separately reimbursed.

18 It’s the expectation that you will include

19 any travel expenses within your own individual program

20 budget. We won’t see that. That will be in your own

21 budget, okay?

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1 Then if we go to page 14, that is where the

2 two insurance requirements were modified. 3.6.1 was

3 decreased from -- I believe it was -- it’s in Amendment

4 1 -- no, no, no, I’m sorry. It was decreased to $1

5 million from $3 million, and then in Amendment 2

6 specifies that Section D was decreased from $10 million

7 down to $1 million. I just wanted to make sure you had

8 note of that. The rest of this is largely template in

9 this section.

10 All right. And then if we could move to page

11 19, and stop me if I’m going too fast. I just want to

12 get through the main parts of this. Page 19, under

13 Experience and Personnel, the preferred offeror

14 experience, are there any questions on that? We expect

15 that you provide full detail on that. It’s these

16 personnel and offeror experiences are to be addressed

17 where it says in Section 5.3 G and H.

18 I wanted to particularly highlight on page 20

19 at the top, the number of personnel to propose. I

20 wanted to make sure that it was clear that this is a

21 minimum required expectation. We certainly expect you

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1 to provide a full staffing plan to acknowledge what you

2 believe would be appropriate to provide these services

3 for a statewide program. This is what is the absolute

4 minimum as it says of one program director and two

5 family peer navigation specialists who have to be

6 available on day one of the start of this program.

7 But again, that is a minimum, not -- I just

8 wanted to make sure that that was clear because there’s

9 the word “exactly” in there, and that might be

10 ambiguous.

11 Unless there’s any questions here, I think

12 that’s all I have to say about personnel and the

13 offeror’s experience. The rest of this has been

14 covered by Janelle and Afua, and unless there’s any

15 other questions --

16 MS. TISDALE: Okay. We’ll leave the floor

17 open for questions. Please say your name and where

18 you’re from.

19 MS. PLAPINGER: Jane Plapinger, Maryland

20 Coalition of Families. I have a question about in

21 preparing a budget do you have any guidance regarding

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1 the indirect rate to use?

2 Just to clarify, the financial proposal does

3 not require that level of detail; however, in wanting

4 to prepare a budget that is going to accurately reflect

5 the real cost, that would be very helpful information

6 to have.

7 MS. TISDALE: The real cost of what, the --

8 MS. BURNS-HEFFNER: Okay. So, currently what

9 you’re saying is that there is only a line item for

10 each of the two programs that we discussed, and there’s

11 not anything here that indicates what the indirect

12 costs would be, and we know that most proposals or most

13 contracts with the State have some level of indirect

14 cost.

15 So, would it be permissible for us to add a

16 line for indirect costs and have the vendors submit

17 that with this proposal?

18 MS. TISDALE: I’m going to have to get back

19 to that, because I think we already went over that and

20 discussed that it would be a group sum. It’s up to the

21 offerors to submit their budget plan to you to -- but I

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1 would have to get back and talk to our procurement

2 officer, Dana, to see if that would be allowed.

3 Because I think the purpose is to -- we

4 wanted like one lump group. I think we stepped away

5 from the individual line items, but --

6 MS. PLAPINGER: An alternative would be to

7 not change the form but just provide guidance about

8 what the State’s allowable indirect would be for this

9 award.

10 MS. TISDALE: I think that is up to the

11 offeror. I mean, because we wouldn’t see the indirect

12 costs once you put the costs down there for the two

13 different services.

14 MS. BURNS-HEFFNER: Maybe we could -- can we

15 run this by Dana and see if -- what kind of guidance we

16 could give as far as how they should reflect that, 17 because I think it’s a valid point that we would want

18 to see what the vendors are proposing as an indirect

19 for this. Do you agree?

20 MS. VIGGIANI: If we’re not requiring a

21 budget --

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1 MS. TISDALE: Because if we’re not -- there

2 is no budget form to be put in here, and we’re not

3 going to evaluate each line item. Each line item would

4 not be evaluated; only the total would be evaluated.

5 MS. PLAPINGER: So maybe I could ask a

6 related but different question and that is could you

7 share what the State’s -- what the State Department of

8 Health’s policy is on allowable indirect, which is a

9 more general question. It would be helpful to share.

10 MS. TISDALE: We’re going to get back to you

11 on that question, and we’ll put the answer out for all

12 who are interested in seeing.

13 MS. PLAPINGER: Great. Thank you.

14 MS. BURNS-HEFFNER: Just for clarification, 15 they don’t have to resubmit that question in writing.

16 You have that.

17 MS. TISDALE: Yep. Uh-huh.

18 MS. BURNS-HEFFNER: Okay. Very good. Thank

19 you.

20 MS. TISDALE: Any additional questions? Yes?

21 MS. PAYTON: Hi. Tameka Payton with

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1 Psychometric Solutions. I wanted to clarify a question

2 and it may be in one of the released addenda. It’s

3 about the duplicate copies.

4 You mentioned four in your discussion. It’s

5 printed six. Was it changed somewhere? So, quickly I

6 see it on page 39. I know I have the old version, but

7 the one I picked up today also says six duplicate

8 copies, but you mentioned four.

9 MS. TISDALE: I’ll change it in the RFP.

10 MS. PAYTON: Thank you.

11 MS. TISDALE: Any other questions?

12 (No response.)

13 MS. TISDALE: Any questions on the phone?

14 (No response.)

15 MS. TISDALE: No additional questions? Okay.

16 I just want to thank everyone for coming and just

17 wanted to address some issues from our previous

18 procurement.

19 And all of our procurements -- well, on this

20 particular procurement there is an incumbent vendor and

21 in all of our procurements, where there is an incumbent

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1 vendor, the incumbent does have an advantage being that

2 they have performed these services, but that does not

3 mean that someone else cannot come in and win the

4 award. It happens time and time again. So I just want

5 to put that out there.

6 And any questions, please get them to us as

7 soon as possible so if we need to do some research on

8 them we’ll have time to do so without running into the

9 proposal due date, all right?

10 I want to thank everyone again for taking the

11 time to come out in this gloomy weather, and I just

12 hope that all of you will submit proposals because we

13 really want more than one. Thank you.

14 (Whereupon, at 10:42 a.m. the meeting

15 concluded.)

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CERTIFICATE OF NOTARY

I, Carol O’Brocki, Notary Public, before whom the foregoing testimony was taken, do hereby certify that the witness was duly sworn by me; that said testimony is a true record of the testimony given by said witness; that I am neither counsel for, related to, nor employed by any of the parties to this action, nor financially or otherwise interested in the outcome of the action; and that the testimony was reduced to typewriting by me or under my direction.

This certification is expressly withdrawn upon the disassembly or photocopying of the foregoing transcript, including exhibits, unless disassembly or photocopying is done under the auspices of Hunt Reporting Company, and the signature and original seal is attached thereto.

CAROL O’BROCKI, Notary Public in and for the State of Maryland

My Commission Expires: January 15, 2023

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