Transcript - 2023 Pre-Proposal Conference Afternoon Session.pdf

US DOT FTA Project Management Oversight (PMO)

Pre-Proposal Conference

Session 2

Audio file US DOT PMO Session 2 (10.26.23).m4a

Transcript 00:00:00 Cory Walker

I'm Cory Walker, I'm the director of FTA's office of Capital Project Management and Headquarters, and we, in coordination with FTA's Procurement Office, we’re the technical leads for the PMO contracts, we work very closely with FTA's 10 regional offices and I really just want to say thank you so much for your interest. For those of you that have been in the program, thanks for your continued interest and all of your support. We're really excited to see the new faces in the room too. And so unlike our virtual event we held earlier, we really emphasize having this in person and so we really appreciate you making the time to be here because this is all about not only learning about the program and asking your questions, but importantly making connections in the room, asking primes that have done this before what it's all about looking for sub opportunities, partnership opportunities and all of that. And so, you have a lot of great content coming your way. I'm just going to say at a very high level, FTA has a really exciting mission, so we're glad you're here and interested in it. We are a small but mighty agency, so we lean heavily on the support of experienced oversight contractors that have delivered transit projects before and know what is needed when we're at this really exciting moment when we have more investment than we've ever seen before, but our projects are experiencing challenges with costs, resources, supply chain and all that stuff like we've never seen before as well. So, it's a great opportunity, it's a challenging time and we need all the support we can get. So we're really excited about this next contract and we are really glad to have you in the room. And so we'll do a lot more intros, but I do want to do a shout out for Matt Nawn, who's the Division Chief for the Technical Services Division in our office and he is the Program Manager for the PMO program and he will have more content on the technical aspects of the contract. Thank you very much for being here.

00:01:58 James Harper Jr.

In addition to that, from TPM, we have, you were probably escorted in by Latonya Peeples or I'm going to mess this up, Michelle and or Ariana. Then there's our TPM side of the house, in front of you, on your far right here is Sonja Rousey, Contracting Officer for the Program Management oversight. My immediate boss is Dorian Ridley-Curtis, Division Chief, and LaStar Matthews, who is the Contract Specialist. We have some other members of our team in the back, the Palmer sisters, Alveda and Toniel.

Also escorting are Tiffany and Katrina, so everybody's on duty today. Welcome. I have to share with you some rules of engagement, beginning with if you would please silence your telephones. This session is being recorded. When you speak, we ask you to speak into the mic to make sure that our recorder picks it up. Our presentations, Q&A and the attendee list will be posted on SAM.gov. We will have a Q&A session at the end of this presentation, all questions can be forwarded to the website e-mail address that is before you and you all will get copies of this as well. The restrooms are out the back and to the left. If we have an emergency, please follow one of the DOT FTA employees, because we have an assembly area that we have to go to. Disclaimer and I have to read this, so bear with me. Materials presented and discussed at today's pre-proposal conference are for information purposes only. When issued to the former he is the only document that should be relied upon and determining the government's requirements. The former are to be posted on systems for SAM.gov supersedes in the communication received our presentation delivered at this pre proposal conference. All official requirements and information, as well as consulting RFP will be posted on SAM.gov. Q&A session. Focus on the requirement and the forthcoming RFP, focus on the requirement and the upcoming RFP.

Questions should be asked in the following format: The draft RFP, the draft page number and the question. We will not entertain questions that are confidential or proprietary. We will answer as many questions as possible, all Q&A's will be posted again on SAM.gov. If we can't answer your question here, it is being recorded, you will answer within the next 30 days.

00:05:39 James Harper Jr.

Our purpose is to basically communicate the fact that we are in need. We're in need of your support, we're in need of your expertise, your knowledge, your acumen on the project management oversight in the transit industry in and of itself. We are here to listen to you, to tell us what you saw in the draft and what we can improve, that's our number one focus, improvement of the program. As you have the wealth of experience and the knowledge and we are looking for you to share those with us. Our goals are to again, increase the number of PMO’s, Project Management Oversight Contractors, because again of all the influx of monies that have come from Congress. We're looking for a synergy between us and you. We have an open door policy, if you will, open communication, so again in fact, we know what each of us is expected. Industry day events. Sort of a platform, so we can in fact continue this dialogue of who we are and exactly what we need to be done. That will be seeking input from the upcoming performance. The government is not interested in sales pitches. Most of you know us and we know you, but new folks, we want to get to know you, what your capabilities are and what questions you may have about us. Industry will have an opportunity to engage the public discussion and communicate with the government as we move to the end of the session. We will take a break and ask that you move among yourselves for possible subcontracting opportunities and joint venture and those kinds of things that are of major interest to us. Q&A's approved for public release again, will be posted on SAM.gov.

00:07:51 James Harper Jr.

We'll move now to the acquisition of summary starting with Sonja Rousey.

00:07:58 Sonja Rousey

Good afternoon, everyone. All right, so this requirement is the Project Management Oversight. The place of performance for this requirement will be at various locations across the United States. All of that information will be detailed at the task order level. We anticipate awarding an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity, contracting vehicle. As you can see on the screen. That is the NAICS Code that this requirement will be put under, and the product service code. The period of performance for this requirement will be five years from date of award.

00:08:39 Sonja Rousey

This is a brief overview of the contract. We anticipate awarding a full and open competition requirement utilizing FAR Part 15. We will be reserving at least two awards for women owned small businesses. We will have the provision to award various contract types. All cost proposals will be audited, just so you know. We anticipate releasing the solicitation first quarter of the government's fiscal year 2024. Then we anticipate making awards, there will be staggered awards in FY2024 fourth quarter, so that would be next year.

00:09:33 Sonja Rousey

It is important that if you anticipate submitting a proposal that you are registered in the system for award management system as soon as possible, please do not delay this process.

00:09:51 Sonja Rousey

Next slide. You want to ensure that your online representatives and certifications are up to date and current in the system for award management system. All of that information will be in Section K of the solicitation.

00:10:09 Sonja Rousey

Accounting system. All potential offers must have an adequate accounting system in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, Gagas, the Federal acquisition regulation and cost accounting standards in place. The accounting system must have been audited prior to you receiving an award under this particular requirement. Any additional information if you're new to the program or new to what is deemed an adequate accounting system, you can click on the link or go to this link right here on the DCAA.mil website.

00:10:58 Sonja Rousey

The cost accounting system, as I mentioned before, it's going to be in accordance to FAR Part 16.3 Cost Reimbursement Contracts, generally accepted accounting practices and FAR Part 31. If you can pay attention to the notes section right there in order for you to receive award, you have to have an accounting system that is sufficient for determining cost applicable to the contract in accordance with FAR Part 16301-3 and for accumulating and segregating costs. If your accounting system is not compliant, you will not be eligible to receive a contract award.

00:11:41 Sonja Rousey Important sections for building your proposal response: Section C the Statement of Work and/or Performance Work Statement, Section L this will detail the proposal instructions, and Section M will have information about how we will be evaluating your proposal. Those are the three most important sections of the solicitation.

00:12:09 Sonja Rousey

OK. We'll go a little bit more into the 2024 solicitation. This is a list of how the solicitation will be formatted. We utilize the uniform contract format and according to the FAR, you'll have Sections A through M in the solicitation.

00:12:35 Sonja Rousey

Next slide. Section B Supplies or Services and Price to Cost. As I mentioned before, we will be reserving at least two awards for women owned small business. The minimum and maximum values anticipated for this requirement, the minimum will be $25,000, the maximum will be $670 million collectively amongst all offerors.

00:13:20 Sonja Rousey

Source selection procedures. We will be utilizing a formal source selection process. We will be awarding to the offerors who provide the best value to the government, all factors considered. That information will be in Section M of the solicitation. When we evaluate the proposal, we will utilize a comprehensive evaluation process, a high-quality fair and consistent evaluation of the proposals. Then the government intends to award contract based on the initial evaluation of the proposals. However, we do reserve the right to conduct discussions if it will result in the best interest of the government.

00:14:12 Sonja Rousey

I'll turn it over to Miss Ridley-Curtis.

00:14:15 Dorian Ridley-Curtis

Good afternoon. In coordination with source selection mythology under the source selection process, we'll be utilizing FAR Part 15 procedures, best value, trade off analysis and utilizing technical and risk ratings.

00:14:36 Dorian Ridley-Curtis

The next slide provides an image of the source selection organization and how that will be composed.

So, this just gives you an image of how that will be composed for the source selection organization.

00:14:52 Dorian Ridley-Curtis

The next slide talks about the RFP evaluation factors. Under the technical, we'll be utilizing rating and proposal risk, technical and management approach and management capability. We'll be utilizing past performance, experience and cost. These are the evaluation factors.

00:15:20 Dorian Ridley-Curtis Under the evaluation criteria, we'll be utilizing qualitative, not quantitative proposal ratings under technical; outstanding, good, acceptable, marginal, unacceptable. Under the proposal-risk technical we’ll be utilizing; low, medium and high. For the performance-risk in relation to past performance and experience; high, moderate, low and neutral. The technical evaluation. Under the technical evaluation, the government anticipates assessing the offers, understanding of the approach and the ability to meet our requirements, proposal compliance and proposal risk. Some of the things to take into consideration, does the proposal meet or exceed our requirements? If it exceeds the requirement, how is it benefiting the government? Does the proposal provide enhancing features, again that will benefit the government? Does the proposal provide benefits that reduce risk of schedule? Cost increase for performance.

00:16:42 Dorian Ridley-Curtis

The next slide provides an image of the grading using the assessment of the technical evaluation. For past performance, the government anticipates utilizing recent, relevant past performance, contract data, past performance related to the RFP requirements. The evaluation will be based on proposal information, CPARS, customer feedback through questionnaire. Your past performance will be due via you will send that information through a designated e-mail that will be noted in the RFP. That information is due before your proposals. The questionnaires 2 to 3 weeks. Ok, so the customer feedback through questionnaires is due two to three weeks prior to the proposal. Detailed information will be noted in the RFP. Onto the costs. We will be evaluating costs to ensure that it is deemed reasonable and fair to the government. Is the cost deemed acceptable for the technical approach? Is the cost deemed reasonable and real? The proposed prices, is it realistic to the government and what we're trying to procure or what a person would actually pay.

00:18:21 Dorian Ridley-Curtis

For the basis of award, selection of the successful awardee will be based upon your proposal, which is deemed the requirement of the solicitation. The government's goal is to procure the most benefit to the government, including all factors. I'm going to repeat this twice. Failure to submit a proposal for all, not some for all items listed shall be cause for rejection of the proposal. Failure to submit a proposal for all items listed shall be cause for rejection of the proposal. So, preparation consideration, please ensure that you read the solicitation, the RFP in totality, submit and sign your fully executed RFP, complete your Sections B through K. submit your proposal in accordance with Section L. Your Section L is your instructions that tells you exactly what you need to do. We anticipate once that RFP has been submitted that there will be a 60-day turnaround for proposal submission. Please ensure that you don't just provide blanket statements, that the government will be able to sustain what you stated in your proposal, this will allow for an independent assessment.

00:20:00 Dorian Ridley-Curtis

The next slide provides some typical proposal shortfalls. Not following instructions, but everybody in this room will follow explicitly the instructions, correct? Not providing the requested information, so it's not what you want to do is what's in that RFP. Not providing substantial information, making false claims or statements that cannot be supported, your proposal is deemed unorganized and the proposed skill sets are lacking and not in accordance with the RFP. Again, these are some friendly reminders, the remarks today of the officials are not guaranteed of the government's course of action, it is deemed what is in the future of the contract award. As a reminder, again, the formal solicitation is the only document that should be relied upon to determine the government's requirement. Again, please ensure that you read that solicitation RFP in totality. I cannot stress that enough.

00:21:17 Dorian Ridley-Curtis

For future follow on communication, again, as Miss Rousey stated, we anticipate that the RFP will be submitted, proposed to industry first quarter of the federal FY24. What does that mean Dorian? We mean that around November of 2023 that RFP will be submitted to industry, and we’ll be utilizing SAM.gov to provide that information to industry. To ensure the integrity of the acquisition process, please ensure that you communicate with the following personnel; the contracting officer, Miss Sonja Rousey, and the lead specialist for the PMO program recompete is Miss LaStar Matthews. Their contact information e-mail is noted on the slide. We will be providing copies of the presentation through SAM.gov within probably 30 days.

00:22:21 James Harper Jr.

A couple of things that I think need to be said here. First and foremost, we are asking you to write your best solicitation to us. Now, we're all human, so when you get it, if you see things in there that are not in sink with they way that we have said it, or the way that business is being conducted in the industry, it is incumbent upon you to let us know. Then those kinds of things will be corrected and maybe in a minute, issued at that time. Our intent is to award no less than two contracts for women owned small businesses, no less than two. We would love to be able to award more than two woman owned businesses. The sections within the solicitation itself under the Uniform Contract format, as Ridley-Curtis said, C, L and M. C will contain all of the requirements that will levy asking you before there has to be a corresponding evaluation criteria in M. For each one of the requirements that is identified in C, look for cross reference the evaluation criteria in M. If we say to you that your proposal is limited to 10 pages, don't send 15, we're going to read the first 10. Please ma’am and sir’s, be in compliance with their structure, we work hard at this, we know again that we need your assistance in making sure we have the best solicitation that we can possibly put together. Dorian said we are looking at the proposals that are the best for the government, that's sort of 90%. The rest of it is that it has to be very reasonable to you as well. So if you send us a proposal that is out of sync with what you wrote and then put them here in your cost proposal, and those don't correlate then we have an issue. We have to be fair, we will not award a contract that will not be beneficial to you as a contractor and we both have wasted a lot of time.

So please, sharpen your pencils and send us the best proposal that you possibly can.

00:25:23 James Harper Jr.

Now, Mr. Nawn.

00:25:37 Matthew Nawn

Good afternoon everyone, really appreciate you all coming today, making the effort. Hopefully not everybody sagging after that lunch. I'm going to try and keep this brief and keep this targeted to help in that endeavor. So as mentioned I'm Matt Nawn. I am the PMO Program Manager as part of my duties here at FTA in the division of Technical Services within the Office of Program Management under Cory Walker. And again, you know really glad you are here, really glad you showed interest your work makes a tremendous difference as Corey and Mr. Harper mentioned. We are passionate about what we do with FTA, we are passionate about the projects, we are users of our projects. Many of us got here today or got where we are thanks to public transportation. So we take it serious and again we look forward to hopefully working with all of you.

00:26:28 Matthew Nawn

So what I'm going to talk about here for the next few minutes, the focus areas are up here, primarily these center around Section C of your contract. Listed here, you know requirements, the Statement of Work in Section C and we're going to talk a lot about deliverables. That is really, you know what we expect from all of you, you conduct things, we pay you for your time but particularly we pay you for your deliverables. That's how you can get paid for your fee on the work. I'll explain how the deliverables are based, where they're derived from, we'll talk again about task orders. Keep clear on that. Your base contract is the vehicle, if you are a successful offer to allow you to get task orders. The individual oversight for projects, whether it be reviews at what we call programmatic level or whether it be that oversight of projects at one of our 10 geographically dispersed regional offices is delineated and specified through that task order. The oversight procedures lead us to our deliverables, I'll explain how that works. The CLIN structure, if you're not familiar with that, maybe you probably are, but it's ok if you're not. Your contract line-item number. We'll talk about the labor categories that are in Section C, this is really one of the key areas you want to pay attention to, read all of it, of course. With the labor categories and they're stringent requirements for education, experience and in some cases, licensure or certification or both. You want to pay particular attention there, and I'll explain a little bit of why. And then finally, conflict of interest. It is very important for your integrity as a business, for our integrity with the Public Transit Program and for our project sponsors or the entities which build the projects, you may say your transit authorities or regional authorities, we use the term project sponsor. That integrity is so important in maintaining an environment free of conflict of interest is very important and I'll explain why.

00:28:27 Matthew Nawn

So I have the requirements listed up here in a rather lengthy narrative format. I'll spare you all from me reading them to you, but I'll give you some of the key highlights. First of all, our oversight responsibilities are codified in federal law, I’ve given you the statute there. It is a congressional direction, this program is congressionally directed. If you really want the details, our program's birthday is September 1st, 1989, for the office I bring donuts every day and we have a party. But that's where it's from, and it's a congressional direction, this program, it is not something we just arbitrarily choose to do or not to do.

And that's very important because without our PMOC's, this responsibility doesn't go away. We fall to FTA, we are not staffed to do this, we never have been staffed to do this. We rely on our PMOC's to meet this statutory requirement for us as our advisors, for lack of a better phrase. So as it leads to the second bullet, the objective of this program is to provide us with that information working collaboratively. If you say who are the heart and soul, the people I'm going to work with in this program? It's our contracting officer represents our CORS as introduced earlier, Latonya Peeples is in the back, she is our COR, and you'll work with our regional ACORS, a being alternate, it's not a hierarchy, but that's where your CORS are in the regions and we've been able to get the insights from some of our teammates and the regions to help us make this RFP for this cycle even better and clarify a lot of things, and I particularly thank Michelle Daigle, who's here from our Region 1 office, is an ACOR. And although she stepped out, Ariana Valley, who's from our Region 9 office in Arizona.

00:30:13 Matthew Nawn

The key services what we're looking for, I want to walk through the deliverables. One of the main takeaways and one of the things that we really focus on are this project management plans. This is project management oversight, so a project sponsors, PMP and what's derived from that, and that review is critical.

00:30:36 Matthew Nawn

So why are we here, what are our requirements? to procure services from experts in their field like you all to provide us with those opinions, with those reviews, with those comments that help FTA make the most effective decisions possible. That's what we're looking for. As I noted, a continuous review. What is going on? Why? What are the risks? Is the project complying with its statutory requirements? Is it complying with its expectations? Is it delivering a level of service? Will it deliver the level of service we expect. Will it fill some of those fundamental basics as the project goes on, you know things such as cost, scope, schedule, budget. Of course, you know the requirements of project management, whether it be a transit project or something else, but again, are the intended benefits going to be met and in particular, why we are all here, is the taxpayer interest protected? Are the taxpayers getting what they should for the federal investment in these projects? We are not the builders of these projects, but project sponsors are. We are not the designers. If you come work with us, you are not the builders, you are not the designers, but you utilize the background and experience to help us with our oversight responsibility. As I mentioned, and it's again, elaborating the last bill to provide us with those, help us make those evaluations about the project sponsor. Does the project sponsor truly have the technical managerial capability and capacity to take on the type of project for which they could or have received a grant agreement for.

00:32:18 Matthew Nawn

The statement of work boiled down at a general level. What are we looking for? What do you deliver?

You utilize what you've observed. The data you compile, meetings with the project sponsors, working collaboratively with our regional ACORS to help us deliver us products, including opinions, reports that help us make those key decisions for our projects. And that relates to your professional opinions and the analysis. The statement of work itself is broken down into five key categories. Well, four really, with the 5th being travel, which I'll talk about a little bit later, but what I have here are the categories where they fall. This will, as I’ll mention in a few moments, these areas will coincide with your CLIN’s, a CLIN, contract line-item number, basically, how your contracts, how the task orders are broken out. A couple of key points there as I have those four areas listed. Lessons learned are very important to us. You know, our goal is not to reinvent the wheel, it is still round and it will be when we're done. But lessons learned are very important. They help us learn from past projects so that risks, challenges can be avoided. We have a lessons learned program, it's on our public website. We are continuing to try and if you want to say reinvest and that if you are a successful offer and you're awarded the task order, you may receive, as part of CLIN one, an oversight procedure that requires you to do a lessons learned report for us. Our long-term goals to tie this in with our risk analysis process so that we can not just collect and learn but actually put that into how we build our oversight budgets and what we look for, what are the key areas to help us better make risk informed decisions. Now it says optional oversight is the last one. Here's what we're talking about, baseline. These are the key things that in CLIN 3, would be common to almost any project when you get your task order, these are the things which across the board required.

Optional allows us to have the flexibility to delineate the work specific to the project needs, we may not need a tunneling expert on a surface-built life rail project or a bus rapid transit project as a very, simplified example, but that's why that CLIN is there, that's why it lets us do that.

00:34:46 Matthew Nawn

All right, the Statement of Work Section C is broken down in the following format. You can see.it here, I don't need to read it to you, but I do want to call out again Section C6 Labor Categories and Minimum Personnel Requirements. These are extremely important. Again, we are not here soliciting design services. That's why this is not under the Brooks Act. Many of you may have, and if you look at the experience, these positions have design experience. You're not here to build the projects for us. Again, many of these roles require experience with the project and construction management, but we have very stringent and strict requirements. Why? Program credibility. You will have the opportunity as a PMOC to interact with project sponsors and their teams of experts. You'll interact with our team here, many of our folks come from diverse backgrounds but have specialized expertise as well. This is for that credibility of the program and that senior as, I would say, those senior levels of expertise, qualifications, in some case licensure or certifications or both, that adds credibility, it sets minimum standards so that we have the level of expertise to truly make the recommendations, and this program work.

00:36:04 Matthew Nawn

This is just a sample of deliverables. The deliverables are defined by the oversight procedures, which I'll elaborate on in a moment. But this is the basis of what we ask for, this is what you bill against again, besides your time, with those deliverables, this is how you bill your fee. We get a report, we get a plan, we get analysis. I've put a couple up there. I'll call out the PMP. The Project management plan again, so critical to what we do. It's critical for our project sponsors to have this right, it's critical for you all to advise us whether or not these plans are accurate, effective and as time goes on, if they need review.

Risk assessments, another one I want to call out. We have a very well defined, well established, perhaps a little complicated, but well-established risk assessment process. It's been generated over 20-year period from experts in the field, it relates back to some transit cooperative research program TCRP reports on project costs. It helps us build, you all work with us to build a mathematical model, to assess the risks. Very complicated work, very complicated report, but it's proven to be successful. A couple of others, I'm going to group together technical assistance and special tasks you may say, what is that?

Generally, these are areas for which you all have the expertise based upon what you've put forth to us, but the work may not be explicitly defined in an oversight procedure. Two examples, we have review buy America reviews where, as part of one of our oversight procedures you would look at a project sponsors buy American documentation. However, we have been directed by Congress twice, in the past five years, to actually perform a buy America compliance review, not oversight, but go in, go to kinds of vehicle manufacturer site and review their data. PMOC's have supported us in this effort, that would be something under a special task, it's technical assistance spelled out a special task. Another example, some years back, Memphis, TN was having a problem with their vintage streetcars, they were Catching Fire repeatedly. Not a good scenario. We had some of our vehicle engineers from our PMO program assist FTA staff in identifying root causes and a corrective action plan. Just two examples, things that don't fall under an OP, but for which falls under the needs of the program and that would be an example of a special task.

00:38:37 Matthew Nawn So the task orders themselves, as I mentioned, are really what the lineages what we require. Base contract gets you to the table, task orders of the vehicle to execute the specific work. As I mentioned, it may include it, I don't know that I've ever seen the task order, let's start here, that has every single OP in it, that doesn't make sense. It enables us to tailor what is needed through those claims or the baseline oversight, as well as what we call optional oversight tailorable to meet the needs. Your deliverables will comply with the oversight procedures.

00:39:16 Matthew Nawn

So let's talk about those oversight procedures. The current or you hear, often abbreviated, we say OP's, oversight procedure. The current versions they're publicly accessible, hopefully you had a chance to look at them, if you have not, or you want to see them again, you're like where were they? Transit.dot.gov, you'll see a little search bar, up in the upper right, type in oversight procedures. You'll then get an opportunity, the search results will give you the list they'll give them to you one by one. Again, even if you're just curious at this point, I encourage you to look at this. You can expect updated versions will be included in the final RFP. You can expect that, I can't go into greater detail than that as a matter of fairness, procurement sensitivity, but you can see your current ones there to give you the sense of what we ask for, and in those OP's or the structure I have here, it'll tell you what those specific deliverables are highly encourage you to check that. Again, this justhelps us quantify what is needed for deliverables and what is expected of you.

00:40:30 Matthew Nawn

So I mentioned our CLIN structure earlier. Let's go Into a little more detail just how it looks like. I've talked to you about what we mean by lessons learned, I've talked about what we mean by baseline versus optional. These numbers, OP one through three or oversight procedures that we mentioned a moment ago. That's where you'll find them as planned right now, within the individual task orders. And then finally, CLIN 5 travel. This is a direct reimbursement. You are expected to travel. It varies by the task order you receive, not every task order requires travel, but if you're working with one of our regional teams or regional ACOR’s, you can expect and it's kind of hard to see what's going on in Seattle and in a quarterly meeting, or a risk assessment without actually being, so there is travel involved. It's broken down at the task order level, I want to make sure you know that, and you're expecting of that and that's where it would fall under CLIN 5.

00:41:30 Matthew Nawn

So, you will see in Section C, as I mentioned earlier, really encourage you to pay close attention to the minimum personnel requirements as you build out your teams. This is critically important. First and foremost, key personnel. It fits three positions, each with their own requirements. The Program Manager, your organization, your team working on this contract, that is the top person, that is the person responsible for everything goes on. Under that you have your Task Order Manager 1 and 2. I have them in numerical order here, but I want to add a clarification. Task Order Manager 2 requires greater experience and has stricter requirements in the Task Order Manager 1. Why do we do that? We have projects, things like second avenue subway in New York. Very complicated, very expensive, very challenging, that would require a Task Order Manager 2. We also have a number of projects, that are still major capital projects that might be, and this is a generalized example, of bus rapid transit project.

Not as expensive, not as inherently complex, but we would allow, based on the task order RFP, a Task Order Manager 1 that may have less experience and lesser clearance, but still is at a pretty senior level.

This also provides a means for you to, if this is the way you want to approach it, get your staff experience to move up to higher levels. We don't have a mentoring program, we don't pay to develop staff, but if we can construct a labor categories that allow you to at least consider that opportunity as you see fit, the program supports that. That's why we have that. One final thing on key personnel, read the draft RFP very carefully, if you have not, but I encourage you to do so. Very carefully read the final RFP when it comes out. These positions, they may not use subcontractors, these should be employees of your own firm. Otherwise, we have found our experience in the program is personnel, teams, contractors get stretched too thin and it provides a disservice to the contract. So please, make sure you read these carefully.

00:43:53 Matthew Nawn

Now we have our mission critical personnel. In the final RFP, you'll want to read for clarification. If you look in the draft, though, it will tell you that at the time you're proposal, you’re key and mission personnel, I just went through in your mission critical personnel be part of your proposal. That will be codified and quantified in the final RFP. We're going off the draft. These positions would be provided as part of proposal and we've broken down here different labor categories, they're associate requirements in Section C for what constitutes mission critical personnel.

00:44:31 Matthew Nawn

So to wrap up this part, let's talk about conflict of interest, I mentioned at the intro. I think for obvious reasons, as I said, it's critical to the integrity of this program. First of all, as part of what you submit to us, if you choose to submit a proposal, there's a conflict of interest matrix attachment J11. If you have the draft RFP that's where it's there, hopefully you saw it, if not, be careful to look for it in the final RFP. This is a requirement with your proposal, this tells us, at least gives us a guide to if you are a successful offer, what task orders you may be eligible for. Many of you may work for large firms where you may be a owners representative for a large Transit Authority, well, obviously we can't even provide oversight.

Maybe an engineer record, we're part of an engineers team. We're prepared the EIS for a project, obviously that would be a conflict. To help manage this process, we asked for that information from you up front. It's to make sure you are protected and the integrity of the program is protected. Now, we review that. Let's get to the point you've been awarded a base for going to issue task orders, we review that in advance. You may not even if it's a full and open RFP for task order, you may not receive the RFP if you are conflicted, and conflicts change over time. That's why it's critically important, in the last bullet there to notify the COR, ACOR, program manager, who is me, and the contracting officer. If you have a new, even a potential COI, it can affect your existing work. There are ways we can work with you, but we have to know that up front. This includes if your COI changes over time, you may not have had one, but let's say another entity of your company just picked up design contract for somebody overseeing, we need to know that we need to work with you so we can mitigate and manage it. Again, we know these things change. Communication is key in this area. So from this point I am going to turn it over to small business.

00:46:47 James Harper Jr.

Not just yet. We're going to take a break because there's been a minute and they just came from lunch, so we know that adults can't sit more than 22 minutes at a time. So we were taking 11.7 break.

00:47:13 Natalie Rosa

This will be very casual, so if anybody has any questions at the very end feel free. I don't bite much, but

I'm going to be notifying you guys about what the small business goaling is, the contracting goals and things along those lines.

00:48:15 Natalie Rosa

So our mission is to basically effectively and efficiently implement the small business goaling for US DOT.

Goals and achievements and policies for small business is what we do all day, but the main thing that everyone in the room has to understand is that we advocate on behalf of small businesses and advocate on behalf of the agency as well. So with FTA we if you guys need help with anything small business, I can't stress enough that our office is there to help you guys as well as the small businesses. We are the liaison and for the in between.

00:48:57 Natalie Rosa

So the next slide is operating administration. There's ten of them, I'm sure you guys know that. If you need more information about the different operating administration, this slide has that, pretty sure they're linked to each operating administration's website. One big thing that, some of you do know is that us at OSDBU, we approve and concur to the 4250 forms which basically say how you guys want to award the different contracts coming up. So we have it divided through the different small business specialists within our office currently it's just Brittany and I approving and disapproving those 4250’s to move forward to our director, AKA Leo, which is our manager, so in the next slide you'll see the OSDBU organization.

00:49:54 Natalie Rosa

The reason I say I wanted to explain to you guys about the organization is our small business Office works a little bit differently than other agencies, right. Other agencies just have a procurement assistance division. We have a regional assistance division as well as the Procurement Assistance Division. Why do we have that? Self-explanatory, we have their state DOT's the regional side helps with the state level and we help with the procurement level, that's the simplest way to put it. Out of the procurement assistance division, we help implement the Small Business Act, which I'm going to break down a little bit more for you guys in the next few slides, but we do mostly outreach efforts. Events just like the one that is actually coming up, next month, on behalf of the veterans, so the SDVOSB or Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business advocate is in charge of that event and therefore our entire office is moving forward with that event on November 15th. If you guys are interested in going to it or participating, please let us know. We're also in charge of the procurement forecast, making sure everything is up to date, making sure the different programming offices are putting in those opportunities as well, any technical assistance with associated with the forecast also entails that aspect.

We also oversee the Mentor Protege Program, if anybody wants more information about that, please let us know. We have our connections marketplace which I am the COR for. So the connections marketplace is an online platform 24/7, very similar to how we typically have our matchmaking events, but because it's 24/7 and constantly available to small businesses as well as buyers such as agency representatives, large prime contractors, stakeholders, things along those lines, you can actually have a profile on there for free. And everybody sees your profile and you see everyone else's profile. What does that mean? You can use this as another form of market research. I'm going to break down different forms of market research that are available to everyone within US DOT and everyone across the entire federal government, but the connections marketplace is also a new avenue. There's about 1,000 small businesses in there and these are small businesses that are actively participating in different events, round table sessions, monthly, things along those lines that actually get them in front of the decision makers so they're not tire kickers wondering, “Oh, I don't know how to do business with the federal government or I'm looking to open my own company,” these are established small businesses with past performance, as well as those who want more information, want more training opportunities. So again, that is part of the Procurement Assistance Division, but is also part of the small Business transportation resource centers that are ran through the Regional Assistance Division. So regional Assistance division has the SBTRC Program or the small Business transportation resource centers. There are 11 of them, they're situated regionally across the entire United States, these resource centers are there to be liaisons between the state DOT's, the small businesses, and any agencies and things along those lines.

We have our VIP program, so that's the bonding education program that's led through the Regional Assistance Division and helps small businesses be bonded and just provide more education on who or what or when to be bonded, things along those lines.

00:53:59 Natalie Rosa

The regional small business summits. Those are those symposiums that we were talking about that connect to the connections marketplace. They have matchmaking opportunities in there. So, dating for government contracting basically and we also have decision makers, subject matter experts that are of presenting at each one of these symposiums. So, each one of the SPRCS essentially presents a symposium for the region once a year, we're doing our 2.0 series starting this fiscal year. I believe the first one is in February, but don't quote me on that. Again, if you want more information about that, please let us know.

00:54:40 Natalie Rosa

We also have the DBE program, so the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program, which is on the state level and the airport concessions DBE program. FHWA, FTA and FAA are part of these. The DBE program is for on the state level. It's not a federal certification that small businesses hold, and the goals are set by on the grantee level, so these are grants mostly on the state level and then are obviously the project specific goals.

00:55:16 Natalie Rosa

So our next slide is the Goals and Achievements from FY2022, The one thing that is not on here that I want to reflect is that the goal for the entire small federal government on the small business aspect, so that first row after the top slide, their small business goals is 23%. So USDOT is set at 34%. Now that SDB goal should not be at 5, that should be at 12 for the entire federal government, and us at US DOT is at 20%. They're actually trying to push it to 22% for the next fiscal year. They're still gathering and compiling all the information for FY23, so that's going to push a lot of that. So our goal at USDOT is 34% across the board for all small business. In 2022, we obviously exceeded that, we exceeded all of our goals, we're very excited about that. But just because we exceeded the goals doesn't mean that we can't do better. The proposed percentage for FY24 is 37%. It's quite a bit of a jump when we have so much funding trickling down and it's a little daunting, so I believe our leadership is going back and forth and trying to negotiate, but for right now it's set at 37%. We do pretty well with our women own goaling. So that's WOSB and then our SDB, which is actually 20% is our goal. We did ok 21.33, we just made it. In 2022, I think we actually exceeded a little bit higher for FY23 and the SDVOSB goal and hub zone goals continue to be met, but as you can see are very, very close to just equalizing. We're constantly trying to make it apparent that USDOT, making sure that we're trying to find more SDVOSB and Hub zone certified firms that can contract with us. So these are the socioeconomic categories that I talked about earlier, the breakdown across the entire federal government is the SDB or small disadvantage business certification or it's a self-certification check box that also encompasses the AA program which a lot of you know about. So the SDVOSB is another socioeconomic category, hub zone or historically underutilized business zone certification program and the women owned small business program, which also encompasses EDWOSB under that percentage so Economically Disadvantaged Women Owned Small Business.

00:58:19 Natalie Rosa

The next slide, you'll see the pie chart as far as where the money is going and millions, that large avenue that you see the 5,482 obviously this is in millions. This is FAA's budget and then the red part is Federal Highway coming in second. The Office of the Secretary of Transportation is the green one, and then National Highway is purple. I believe FTA is the gold one, it's not reflected on here, it should be I apologize for that, but basically this is just a good breakdown to see how daunting the budget is. 75% of our budget affect it, but that doesn't mean that a lot of the opportunities within the other operating administrations are almost better. Why do I say that? For small business working with FAA is just historically a thing. They don't follow the FAR, but they do have a in good faith, socioeconomic goal, which they meet and exceed, actually. They have a full staff of small business specialists at FAA and they work with us constantly. Actually, that's one of the operating administrations we hear from the most. But it is notoriously difficult for small business to work with FAA only because they don't follow the farm, right. So usually we tell small businesses to look elsewhere if they are not ready and on different contracting vehicles that FAA procures from. The remainder is usually where we gear small businesses to go to if they're not government contracting rate.

01:00:17 Natalie Rosa

The next slide shows the top NAICs Codes that were procured by US DOT. In FY2022, you could see obviously engineering services was the top one, no surprise there, but construction coming in very close second. Another one that people don't even realize is the IT aspect of what we procure, so that 541519 and 541512, the computer design system services and other computer related services, those two are actually for FY23 were much higher, and they're just going to continue to move forward. Make sure that you're looking at this and you're realizing, just because if they're not what you provide or small business provides isn't on here, it doesn't mean that we're not procuring it, these are just the top ones.

01:01:09 Natalie Rosa

The next slide for the small business of contracting goals, you can see the socioeconomic categories come up again. This is going to be a common theme, so just keep that in mind. The prime goals for subcontracting goals 46%, we actually got to 33.4% which, I'm sorry, the numbers are a little off, but it's ok, I'm just going to jump into the next slide and the numbers are a little off on there. So what is the subcontracting goal? For every opportunity that goes other than small business, so anyone that's not small business set aside, any director work or you know WOSB or anything along those lines anything other than small business if it exceeds over 750,000 or in construction 1.5 million it has to have and is required to have a subcontracting plan. Make sure you keep that in mind, anything other than small if it goes other than small business, 750,000 is the threshold and in construction is 1.5 million for construction contracts. All of those contracts have to have a subcontract in plan, it's part of FAR 19.7 subpart 52.219-9. So small businesses do not have to submit a subcontracting plan. This is reserved for anybody who has a other than small and is not a small business, has to submit a subcontracting plan for those thresholds.