Closed captioning services, term contract

Palm Beach County's Board of County Commissioners issued a Request for Quotation (RFQ) numbered 300526/AW for closed captioning services under a 12-month term contract with options to renew for four additional 12-month periods. The County seeks qualified stenocaptioners to provide real-time closed captioning for approximately 20 Commission meetings annually, scheduled primarily on Tuesdays beginning at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time and typically concluding at 4:00 p.m., with potential extensions based on agenda complexity. Additional services include studio productions and pre-recorded productions, with estimated quantities of 90 hours for real-time closed captioning, 5 hours for studio productions, and 5 hours for pre-recorded productions. Successful bidders must hold current Real-time Reporter (CRR) certification, CART Provider (CCP) certification, or Certified Broadcast Captioner (CBC) certification, provide minimum three references for similar services within the past three years, and submit evidence of current applicable licenses. Pricing must be submitted as a single firm, fixed hourly rate applicable uniformly across all services regardless of day or time, with payment rendered only upon County acceptance of services meeting a 90% translation accuracy requirement. A test session at no additional cost is required prior to final award. The submission deadline was February 23, 2017 at 4:00 p.m. Palm Beach County Local Time, with responses accepted via fax or email.

Bidders must maintain Commercial General Liability Insurance of $500,000 per occurrence, Business Auto Liability of $500,000 combined single limit, and Professional Liability Insurance of $500,000 per occurrence/$500,000 aggregate. Small Business Enterprise (SBE) certified firms receiving bids within 10% of the lowest responsive bid receive preference, while local preference of 5% applies to bidders with a permanent place of business in Palm Beach County, with an additional 5% preference for Glades businesses providing services within the Glades. A Drug-Free Workplace Certification preference applies to tie bids. All bidders must submit a Non-Discrimination Policy and meet criminal history record check requirements per County ordinance. The RFQ does not identify an incumbent vendor or current contractor. No specific contract award value or budget range was disclosed in the solicitation documents; however, the scope of work—approximately 100 total estimated hours annually—provides the basis for calculating potential contract costs based on the hourly rates proposed by bidders.