Transportation Stipend Card Management Services

The City of Alexandria, Virginia is requesting proposals for Transportation Stipend Card Management Services under RFP 2017, with sealed proposals due August 20, 2026 at 5:00 PM EST. The solicitation uses competitive negotiation under the Virginia Public Procurement Act.

The scope calls for a comprehensive debit/prepaid card management solution supporting approximately 750 participants in Year 1, scaling to 827 by Year 3. The contractor must deliver either a card management database system integrated with a City-approved financial institution or a full-service banking/financial services solution providing prepaid, reloadable open-loop debit cards. The system must support configurable eligibility rules, multiple funding sources, PCI DSS compliance, AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, multi-factor authentication, OAuth 2.0 API security, and 99.9% uptime with 4-hour Recovery Time Objective and 1-hour Recovery Point Objective tested annually. Business hours are 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM ET Monday through Friday. Comprehensive reporting must cover participant counts, active/inactive cards, transaction-level data, fraud monitoring, and financial reconciliation with data retention per Library of Virginia schedules. The contractor must provide dedicated implementation management, staff training, real-time fraud monitoring, and notify the City's IT Office within one business day of any security breach.

The initial contract term is three years with three optional one-year renewal periods, not to exceed six years. Price adjustments upon renewal are capped at the Consumer Price Index percentage change for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria region and are not retroactive. No minimum service volumes are guaranteed; compensation is based solely on services performed and accepted.

Proposals will be evaluated on nine criteria totaling 100 points: Card Management Services & System Functionality (15 points), Reporting Capabilities (10 points), Implementation Plan & Project Management (15 points), Program Flexibility & Optional Features (10 points), IT and Data Security Compliance (15 points), Contractor Experience, Qualifications, & Capacity (8 points), Reference Quality (5 points), Staffing Plan and Staff Experience (7 points), and Cost Competitiveness and Value (15 points).

Offerors must demonstrate PCI DSS v4.0 compliance, provide a SOC 2 Type II report issued within the last 12 months, or complete the City's Cloud Vendor Assessment Tool (CACVAT). Solutions scoring as high risk (0–5 points) are automatically disqualified; medium-risk (6–10 points) require leadership approval; low-risk (11–15 points) proceed to approval. All subcontractors and associates must be pre-approved and identified in the response. The City requires a Subcontractor List designating SWaM or DBE status for each first-tier entity.

Insurance requirements include workers' compensation at statutory limits, automobile liability of at least $1 million per accident, commercial general liability of $2 million annual aggregate / $1 million per occurrence, cyber liability of at least $1 million, and umbrella liability of $2 million per occurrence. The City must be named additional insured on applicable policies. An Alexandria business license is mandatory.

Submissions include a cover letter, contractor experience and qualifications (5-page limit), staffing plan with key staff experience (15-page limit), program approach addressing card management, reporting, implementation, project management, and flexibility (5-page limit combined), IT and data security compliance documentation, and 3–5 project references with contract dates, description, dollar amount, and current contact information. Proposals must remain valid for 180 calendar days from due date. All responses are submitted electronically via the City's ERP system in PDF format.

An optional pre-proposal conference is scheduled July 23, 2026 at 1:00 PM EST virtually. Written questions are due July 30, 2026 at 5:00 PM EST, with City responses issued by August 6, 2026 at 5:00 PM EST. The Point of Contact is Brett Aronson (brett.aronson@alexandriava.gov); the Contracting Officer's Representative is Kate Garvey, Director of the Department of Community and Human Services; the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative is Chris Moore, Aging & Adult Services Division Chief.