CITY OF NEWPORT

CONTRACT Page 1

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR

Recruitment Services for City Attorney

DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF PROPOSAL: March 3, 2025 by 5:00 P.M.

SUBMIT EMAILED PROPOSAL TO: n.vetter@newportoregon.gov Nina Vetter City Manager City of Newport, Oregon

This request for proposal may be cancelled or any or all proposals may be rejected for failure to comply with procedures or requirements or if the City determines it is in the public interest to do so.

CONTRACT Page 2

1 Introduction The City of Newport Oregon is seeking proposals from qualified professional firms with experience in advertisement, solicitation and screening to fill the City Attorney position. The City Attorney position is currently vacant.

The City of Newport is a prime tourist destination and the population center of the Central Oregon Coast. Newport is the county seat of Lincoln County, and houses the offices of several federal and state agencies, including a major Coast Guard station, Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, NOAA’s Pacific Marine Operations, the Oregon State Police, Oregon DMV, and Oregon Employment Division offices. The City is home to the Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital, and the main campus of the Oregon Coast Community College. OCCC is a premier educational institution and unique in its aquarist program. Newport has a population of 11,083.

Newport is a council‐manager form of government. The governance of the city is vested with the city council. The council is comprised of seven elected members, which includes the Mayor.

Newport is a full‐service city providing a wide range of municipal services, including police, fire, finance, engineering, streets, water and sewer utilities, community development, airport, parks and recreation, performing arts center and visual arts center and urban renewal. The city employs 164 employees, and the FY 24‐25 budget is $148,513,163.

The City Attorney position reports directly to the City Council and serves to support the whole City organization in partnership with the City Manager. The City Attorney position is currently the only legal position within the City organization. The City does use outside legal counsel for additional support, as needed and based on the expertise of the incumbent City Attorney.

2 Proposed Scope of Work The City Manager and HR Director, with support from the Mayor, will lead the technical elements of the process, including selecting the recruitment firm, and working directly with the selected firm on all of the tasks. The Newport City Attorney reports to the City Council, and therefore, the City Council has hiring authority for this position.

The City wishes to conduct a search for a City Attorney and seeks professional assistance with recruitment logistics. The project scope should include: facilitation/ coaching with the City Manager, HR Director and Mayor on the recruitment process; development of the public process, development of recruitment materials; advertisement of the position to be vacated; outreach to potential candidates; screening of received applications; assistance with the interview process;

finalist background and reference checks. The city’s goal is to provide an open and fair recruitment that will attract top talent while keeping the cost of the recruitment process reasonable.

The scope of the work is to assist them through the entire process beginning with planning and preparing for the process and culminating with the selection and appointment of the new Chief that would include at least include at least the following:

Provide a clear written scope of the projected costs and a detailed recruitment schedule. Meet with the City Manager, HR Director, and Mayor to outline the public process, position description and selection criteria

Review the current job description and compensation and make recommendations

Design the recruitment process, schedule, scope of marketing and creative marketing materials

Develop a profile for the community and the position that will highlight the

CONTRACT Page 3 opportunities and characteristics of the community as well as a profile of a successful candidate

Develop a strategy for marketing the position to reach potential candidates. Track applications and prepare responses to applicants

Establish criteria to review and screen applicants

Initially screen applicants, in accordance with Oregon’s Veterans Preference laws and providing information to the City Council on the qualified candidates

Be available to manage and oversee the recruitment process over the duration of the project, including managing and participating in the interviews

Assist the Manager developing the structure and schedule of final interviews, including the debriefing and evaluation process

Perform reference and background checks

Assist the City Manager in decisions, job offer, contract negotiations and employment agreement

3 Proposal Content Please limit the number of pages in the proposal to [12] pages, each side of a sheet counts as one (1) page. Resumes are not included in the total page count. The City is not interested in brochures, boilerplate, or general information that is not relevant to the project at hand or specifically related to the proposed project team’s experience. Contractors responding to this request are advised to provide a clear and responsive project approach addressing all issues noted in this request and the proposed scope of work.

3.1 Project Understanding

The proposal should clearly state the proposal team’s understanding of the project requirements, goals, and objectives.

3.2 Project Approach

The proposed approach to the project should be clearly outlined; including the project team’s methodology for completing all the tasks within the proposed project scope or suggested variations to the proposed scope. Suggested variations from the proposed shall be accompanied by detailed explanation for the reason to consider variations, benefits to the City, project, etc.

3.3 Project Schedule

A proposed project timeline for the tasks within the scope of work shall be provided.

3.4 Experience and References

List the key personnel and qualifications for those who will be involved in the recruitment, relative to the scope of work of this RFP; including but not limited to a description of education, certificates or licenses, professional background, experience, skills, expertise and training. Provide a representative listing of municipal governments for whom the Proposer has previously provided executive recruitment for, within the last three (3) years (City Attorney recruitments preferred). Provide government contact name, phone number, and email address. Oregon references are preferred. The City reserves the right

CONTRACT Page 4 to explore the background, previous experience, training, financial affairs or related matters of any firm of individual under consideration for this contract.

4 Selection Criteria The City will screen and rank the proposals based on the criteria outlined in this RFP, using the following matrix:

Content and Evaluation Criteria Maximum Score Possible

Introduction Letter 10

Project Understanding 20

Project Approach 20

Project Schedule 10

Experience and References 20

Fee Schedule 20

Total 100

Applicants are encouraged to address these criteria in their proposals. Applicants may include any additional information they consider important or beneficial in the consideration of their proposal for this project. Each applicant must demonstrate experience in providing recruitments to entities of equal size, complexity, and scope. The City of Newport is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Each service provider must comply with federal, state and local Equal Employment Opportunity requirements. Each proposal received will be evaluated to determine if it meets the stated requirements. Failure to meet these requirements will be cause for eliminating the proposal from further consideration. The City reserves the right to reject any and all proposals, to accept or reject all parts of the proposal, and to be the sole judge of the suitability of the proposals offered.

5 Reimbursement City of Newport will not be responsible for any costs associated with preparing this proposal.

6 Confidentiality To the extent permitted, under Oregon Public Records Law, the Proposal shall be considered confidential and shall not be disclosed to the public until after the date and time set forth above for receipt of the Proposal.

7 Limitations This request does not commit the City of Newport to pay any costs incurred to prepare any proposal.

Further, the City of Newport reserves the right to:

● Accept or reject any and all proposals received as a result of this RFP at any time,

● Negotiate with any of the proposers,

● Cancel the request, in part or in whole, if it is determined to be in the best interest of the City to do so,

● Award to the selected contractor any subsequent contracts, in whole or in part, CONTRACT Page 5

● Seek further proposals for this work.

● Seek clarification on any point in any proposal at any phase of the selection process.

8 False or Misleading Statements If the review committee feels, at any time, that a contractor’s proposal contains false or misleading statements, references, or any other matter which does not support a function, attribute, capability, or condition as stated by the firm or firms submitting, the submittal shall be rejected, regardless of the status or the phase of the selection process.

9 Award of Contract

Once the final proposal has been selected and the fee proposal accepted or negotiated, the contractor will be asked to enter into a contract for the performance of the work. It is estimated that a contract will be awarded to the selected contractor by March 21, 2025.

10 Proposal Withdrawal Any proposer may withdraw its proposal prior to the final deadline for submission by providing the City with a written request stating the desire to withdraw. Withdrawal of a proposal will not prejudice the right of a firm to file a new proposal before the deadline.

11 Rejection City of Newport may reject any Proposal not in compliance with all prescribed public contracting procedures and requirements and may reject for good cause all Proposals upon finding that it is in the public interest to do so.

12 Licenses Proposals for a public improvement project may not be received or considered by the City of Newport unless the Proposer is licensed by the Construction Contractors Board. Selected contractor will be required to purchase a City business license if not already licensed.

13 Application of Public Contract Laws The City of Newport is a municipality of the State of Oregon. Contracts with the City of Newport are subject to compliance with applicable statutory public contract requirements, including but not limited to those stated in ORS Chapter 279. All contracts with City of Newport are also subject to administrative rules of the City of Newport’s public contract review board.