RFQ Professional DevelopmentCRPC FINAL.pdf

RFQ-Professional Development_CRPC FINAL 1

Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for

Professional Development and Training Services

Issue Date: February 26, 2026, 9 AM (ET)

Questions Deadline: March 11, 2026, 2:00 PM (ET)

Response Date/Time: March 31, 2026, 2:00 PM (ET)

Response Location: crcog.bonfirehub.com

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CAPITOL REGION COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS

Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Professional Development and Training Services

I. INTRODUCTION AND INTENT

The Capitol Region Purchasing Council (CRPC) is seeking responses from qualified and experienced individuals, firms, or teams (hereto referred to as Consultants) to assist CRCOG and CRPC Members (approximately 150 municipal and government agencies across the state of Connecticut – see EXHIBIT A.) with the development and implementation of various professional development and training for their employees.

Respondents should have experience in public agency leadership training and coaching, presentation training, and collaboration and culture.

Successful Respondents will be placed on a list of qualified professionals to serve CRPC members who are seeking professional development and training for their employees.

Any contract entered into pursuant to this solicitation shall be between the consultant and CRPC member. CRCOG shall not be a party to any contract, nor shall CRCOG be responsible in any way for contract performance including payment terms. Nothing herein, or in any contract resulting from this solicitation shall be construed as a guarantee by CRCOG of contract performance.

II. BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

Municipalities have an ongoing responsibility to ensure that staff are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain safe, healthy, and well-managed public environments. Professional development and training play a critical role in supporting this responsibility by strengthening municipal capacity, promoting best practices, and ensuring compliance with applicable regulations and standards.

Local government agencies oversee a wide range of facilities and operations—including administrative offices, public works departments, parks and recreation facilities, libraries, and other public spaces—that require informed, well-trained personnel to operate effectively. Targeted training and educational programs help municipal employees address operational challenges, manage risk, protect public health, and deliver high-quality services to residents and visitors.

In addition, certain municipal functions—such as facilities management, environmental services, public health-related operations, and regulatory oversight—require specialized training to address evolving requirements, safety considerations, and industry standards. Access to qualified professional development and training services enables municipalities to enhance workforce competency, support continuous improvement, and ensure consistent, effective service delivery across departments.

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III. SCOPE OF SERVICES

The selected consultants will provide professional development, training, and related support services to municipalities and local government organizations to enhance staff knowledge, skills, and organizational capacity. Services may include the design, development, and delivery of training programs; facilitation of workshops and seminars;

instructional support; and advisory services tailored to the operational, regulatory, and strategic needs of municipal and public sector environments. Training may be provided in person, virtually, or through hybrid formats, and may be customized to meet the specific goals, workforce composition, and resource constraints of each participating municipality or agency.

Topics that are desired within the curriculum will include, but are not limited to:

• Presentation Skills (how to create effective presentations as well as how to present effectively)

• Leadership Development, specific topics to be determined

• Potential coaching for managers and potential managers

• Team building, understanding and appreciating differences and using them effectively within a team

• General meeting facilitation, potentially including a section on Robert’s rules

• Collaboration and culture for public engagement

• Collaboration and culture for internal staff communication, hiring, mentoring, and organizational culture

• Positive supervision and employee engagement within unionized work environments, including effective communication, contract awareness, conflict resolution, performance management, and fostering collaborative labor-management relationships

Some of the topics above will require all staff participation. Others may depend on the level of the staff as well as interest in the topic and job duties.

IV. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

The following minimum qualifications must be met for a firm or individual consultant to be considered qualified under this RFQ. Submissions that do not clearly demonstrate these qualifications may be deemed non-responsive.

A. Professional Expertise and Subject Matter Knowledge

1. Consultants must demonstrate a working knowledge of state, federal, and local laws, regulations, policies, and best practices relevant to the subject areas for which training or professional development services are proposed, including those applicable to municipal and local government operations in Connecticut, where appropriate.

2. Consultants shall possess the education, credentials, certifications, or professional experience necessary to competently deliver training services in their proposed areas of expertise. Credentials may include professional certifications, licenses, advanced degrees, or other recognized qualifications relevant to the training subject matter.

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3. Proposers shall submit, as part of their response, a summary of key personnel who may be assigned to provide training services, including a brief description of each individual’s qualifications, relevant credentials, and areas of instructional expertise.

Copies of licenses or certificates are not required with the submission but may be requested by the contracting municipality or organization prior to or following award.

B. Experience with Public Sector or Comparable Organizations

Consultants must demonstrate experience providing professional development, training, facilitation, or instructional services to municipalities, local government agencies, public sector organizations, or comparable entities.

C. Qualifications of Key Personnel

Key personnel proposed to deliver training services must have a minimum of two (2) years of relevant professional experience in their respective subject areas and/or in delivering professional development or training services.

V. PREPARING A RESPONSE

By submitting a response, respondents represent that they have thoroughly examined and are familiar with the Scope of Services outlined in this RFQ and are capable of performing the work to achieve the stated objectives.

F. CRITICAL DATES

Questions Deadline: As outlined on the cover page RFQ Deadline: As outlined on the cover page

G. COMPLETENESS AND FORMAT OF RESPONSE

Respondents are requested to prepare a single response PDF document, referred to as a Statement of Qualifications. Respondents are asked to organize their responses in the order requested, in accordance with the following format:

1. Respondent name and background - Include complete name, business address, website, and phone and email address of main contact person. Include brief overall description of the responding organization, including size, geographic scope, location of office from which work will be performed, length of time in business, summary of services, involvement in the community, etc.

2. Summary of relevant experience and references – Explain why the respondent is qualified to perform this work, including a summary of experience, training and education in the public sector.

Please also provide at least three (3) references for similar engagements, including organization name, contact name, title, phone number and email address; and length of time on engagement.

3. Resumes of personnel assigned – Provide resumes or paragraph descriptions

RFQ-Professional Development_CRPC FINAL 5 of the key personnel to be assigned to this engagement.

4. Approach, Workforce Development Alignment, and Recommendations

Please address the following items in your response. CRPC members seek training services that strengthen municipal workforce capacity, support employee development and succession planning, and improve service delivery.

• Training Delivery Describe your approach to in-person, virtual, and hybrid training. If offering virtual training, explain how engagement and learning outcomes and achieved.

• Training Schedule Provide recommendations for training frequency and duration, recognizing that municipalities may have differing priorities, staffing capacity, and timelines.

• Curriculum Development Describe your approach to designing and customizing curriculum in collaboration with CRPC members to address various municipal roles, experience levels, and workforce needs.

• Customization and Applicability Describe your ability to tailor training to various departments, organizational sizes, and service areas, including leadership and transferable skill development.

• Evaluation and Outcomes Explain how training effectiveness and workforce impact are measured.

• Additional Value Provide any additional recommendations or value-added services that would benefit CRPC members.

5. Record of success- Include any examples of successful similar efforts for similar clients.

6. Costs - Include a schedule of rates and fees applicable to the services offered.

Please provide hourly rates for each category of personnel proposed, along with any anticipated adjustments to those rates through the year ending 6/30/2028. CRCOG encourages respondents to include standard rates for training (per day, per half day, and hourly), as well as rates for developing customized curriculum for CRPC members and for providing coaching services.

7. Required Forms. Include signed copies of EXHIBIT B: CRCOG Equal Employment Opportunity and Minority/Female Business Enterprise Certification Form.

8. Questions

Questions shall be submitted as instructed via Bonfire. No oral interpretations shall be provided. Responses shall be posted as addenda at BONFIRE. It is the respondent’s responsibility to check Bonfire for addenda prior to submission of any proposal.

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Prospective consultants shall not attempt to communicate with, in writing, electronically or orally, any CRCOG official or employee other than the method listed in this section, above. All inappropriate communications with CRCOG employees or officials will be forwarded to the proposal evaluation team. Inappropriate communications by a prospective consultant may, at the discretion of the evaluation team, constitute grounds for disqualification of that prospective consultant’s proposal.

Alternatively, the evaluation team may, at its discretion, consider such inappropriate communications when evaluating and scoring submissions.

Only electronic submissions via the Bonfire portal are being accepted in response to this RFQ.

VI. RFQ TERMS AND CONDITIONS

F. Acceptance or Rejection by CRCOG

CRCOG reserves the right to accept and/or reject any or all proposals submitted for consideration. Respondents whose submissions are not accepted shall be notified in writing.

G. Ownership of Submissions

All submissions in response to this RFQ are to be the sole property of CRCOG and shall be subject to the provisions of Section 1-210 of the Connecticut General Statutes (re:

Freedom of Information).

H. Changes to Submissions

No additions or changes to the original proposal will be allowed after submittal.

I. Contract Requirements

A formal contractual arrangement will be entered into with the consultant, selected as per the CRPC members’ standard form of agreement. Contracts will be executed between the CRPC member and their preferred Consultant of choice.

J. Amending or Canceling Request

CRCOG reserves the right to amend or cancel this RFQ, prior to the due date and time, if it is deemed to be in its best interest to do so.

K. Waiver of Informalities

CRCOG reserves the right to accept or reject any and all responses to this Request for Qualifications, or any part thereof, and to waive any informalities and/or technicalities that are deemed to be in its best interest and the best interest of the MEMBERS.

L. Collusion

By responding, the firm implicitly states: that his/her proposal has not been made in connection with any other competing firm submitting a separate response to this RFQ;

is in all respects fair; and has been submitted without collusion or fraud. It is further

RFQ-Professional Development_CRPC FINAL 7 implied that the firm did not participate in the RFQ development process, had no knowledge of the specific contents of the RFQ before its issuance, and that no employee of CRCOG either directly or indirectly assisted in the Consultant’s proposal preparation.

M. Assigning/ Transferring of Agreement

Any successful Consultant is prohibited from assigning, transferring, conveying, subletting or otherwise disposing of the resulting agreement or its rights, title, or interest therein or its power to execute such an agreement to any other person, company or corporation without prior consent and approval in writing from CRCOG.

N. Severability

If any terms or provisions of this Request for Qualifications shall be found to be illegal or unenforceable, then such term or provision shall be deemed stricken and the remaining portions of this document shall remain in full force and effect.

O. Affirmative Action

The MEMBERS participating in this RFQ are equal opportunity employers and require an affirmative action policy from all consultants and Consultants as a condition of doing business with the MEMBERS, as per Federal Order 11246.

P. Insurance Requirements

The Respondent shall, at its own expense and cost, obtain and keep in force during the entire transition and contract period the following insurance coverages covering the Respondent and all its agents, employees and sub-consultants and other providers of services, and shall name CRCOG and the participating CRPC Member and its employees and agents as an Additional Insured on a primary and non-contributory basis to the Respondent’s Commercial General Liability and Automobile Liability policies. These requirements shall be clearly stated in the remarks section on the Respondent’s Certificate of Insurance. In addition:

• All policy forms shall be on the occurrence form.

• Acceptable evidence of coverage will be on the ACORD form or a form with the same format.

• All renewal certificates shall be furnished at least 10 days prior to policy expiration.

• Each certificate shall contain a 30-day notice of cancellation.

• Insurance shall be issued by an insurance company licensed to conduct business in the State of Connecticut which has at least an “A-“policy holders rating according to Best Publications latest edition Key Rating Guide.

Required insurance coverage:

• Professional Liability Insurance with limits up to $2,000,000 aggregate limit issued on claims made basis for the term of the contract and continuing for two years following the completion of the contract at the Consultant’s cost.

• Comprehensive General Liability Insurance: Consultant shall, at its own cost and expense, obtain and keep in force during the Term of the Agreement general liability insurance with minimum limits of 1 million per occurrence/ 2 million

RFQ-Professional Development_CRPC FINAL 8 aggregate and shall name the CRPC Member and their respective officers, officials, employees, agents, boards, Additional Insureds on a primary and non-contributory basis. There shall be no special limitations on the scope of protection afforded to the CRPC Member. Consultant shall assume any and all deductibles in the described insurance policies and Consultant’s insurer shall have no right of recovery or subrogation against CRPC Member These requirements shall be clearly stated in the remarks section on Consultant’s Certificate of Insurance. Insurance shall be written with insurance carriers approved in the State of Connecticut and with a minimum Best’s Rating of A-and all deductibles, if any, are the sole responsibility of Consultant.

• Automobile Liability Insurance including non-owned and hired vehicles in the same limits as indicated above.

• Workers' Compensation Insurance at the Connecticut statutory limit including Employers' Liability with limits of $100,000 each accident, $500,000 for each disease/policy limit, and $100,000 for disease for each employee.

• Excess Liability Umbrella Form over sections B, C, and D-Employers' Liability with limits up to $4,000,000.

Q. Hold Harmless and Indemnification

In addition to its obligation to provide insurance as specified above, the Consultant, its subconsultants, agents and assigns shall indemnify and hold harmless the CRPC Member including but not limited to, its elected officials, and its officers, from any and all claims made against the CRPC Member, including but not limited to, damages, awards, costs and reasonable attorney’s fees, to the extent any such claim directly and proximately results from the negligent acts, errors, or omissions in performance of services by the Consultant during the Consultant's performance of this Agreement or any other Agreements of the Consultant entered into by reason thereof. The CRPC Member agrees to give the Consultant prompt notice of any such claim and absence of a conflict of interest an opportunity to control the defense thereof.

VII. Selection Process

The following is a general description of the process by which a consultant will be selected to be placed on the qualified vendors list to perform the services described in this RFQ:

Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is released to prospective consultants.

All questions regarding this RFQ, as well as CRCOG's responses to the questions, will be electronically posted as an addendum to the RFQ via Bonfire.

All submissions must be received by CRCOG no later than the date and time specified on the cover sheet of this RFQ. Late submissions will not be considered or reviewed.

Following the due date and time when submissions are due, the electronic submission from each responding firm will be opened and reviewed by CRCOG and the CRCOG’s evaluation team.

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CRCOG’s evaluation team expects to take the following actions to determine the merits of the submissions:

Review of qualifications: Review the submissions to determine whether they are responsive to the RFQ and that they were submitted by responsible companies.

Submissions shall be evaluated by using the following criteria:

Element Weighting

Overall strength of proposal and experience 10

Project Understanding / Approach 40

Quality of References 20

Fee Proposal 30

Minimum Requirements Met Pass/Fail

Non-Collusion Statement Answered as True Pass/Fail

Selection: Selection shall be made of one or more respondents deemed to be fully qualified and best suited among submissions on the basis of the evaluation factors included in the Request for Qualifications. Selected Consultants will be placed on the qualified vendors list for Professional Development and Training services.

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EXHIBIT A

CRPC Members as of January 2026

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EXHIBIT B

CRCOG Equal Employment Opportunity and Minority/Female Business Enterprise Certification Form

The undersigned certifies that ____________________________(Name of company) is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is in compliance with federal and State rules and regulations pertaining to Equal Employment Opportunity.

(Consultant's Signature)

(Today’s Date)

ONLY IF APPLICABLE:

The undersigned certifies that ________________________ (Name of company) is a Disadvantaged (Minority/Female) Business Enterprise (DBE) and is in compliance with federal and state rules and regulations pertaining to Disadvantaged Business Enterprise designations.

(Consultant's Signature)

(Today’s Date)