RFP No. 267016 Arbitrage Consultant Services

The City of Salem, Oregon, is issuing Request for Proposals No. 267016 for arbitrage consultant services to support the Finance Department's compliance and tax-exempt bond management activities. The City seeks a qualified consulting firm to provide comprehensive arbitrage compliance services for its portfolio of eight outstanding tax-exempt bond issues totaling approximately $420.3 million in principal. Primary deliverables and objectives include yield verification analyses, rebate liability calculations, IRS Form 8038-T preparation, annual executive summaries, and representation during any IRS inquiries or audits related to Internal Revenue Code Section 148 and Treasury Regulations compliance. The consultant must develop fee proposals that specify pricing structures differentiated by bond type, including general obligation bonds, tax increment/urban renewal obligations, and revenue-backed issuances. Evaluation criteria are weighted as follows: qualifications (35 points), fee proposal (30 points), references (15 points), organization (10 points), and support of city staff (10 points), with a cover letter required as a pass/fail threshold. Proposals must be submitted electronically via Equity Hub's Bid Locker by April 24, 2026, at 4:00 PM local time, with an anticipated award date of May/June 2026 and a Notice to Proceed scheduled for July 1, 2026. The initial contract term runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, with four optional one-year renewal periods available at the City's discretion.

The RFP documents do not specify set-aside designations, disadvantaged enterprise restrictions, or incumbent vendor information. Respondents must provide a minimum of three government references from the past five years as part of their proposal evaluation. No maximum contract value or budget range has been established; pricing is to be proposed by respondents based on their fee structures and service offerings. The City reserves the right to award the contract based on overall merit rather than lowest cost alone, and no existing contractor information or infrastructure integration requirements are specified in the procurement documents.