PROFESSIONAL CONSULTING SERVICES AND RELATED FORENSICS SERVICES

CITY OF TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR PROFESSIONAL CONSULTING SERVICES AND RELATED FORENSICS SERVICES OCA File Number: OCA‐23‐0193 Issued by: City of Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa Police Department 3801 Trevor S Phillips Ave, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401 Date Issued: 02/27/2023 Deadline for Proposals: 03/23/2023 LATE SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED CONTENTS Part 1 – Overview .......................................................................................................................... 1 Part 2 – The Project and Scope of Work ........................................................................................ 1 Part 3 – Content of Proposals .................................................................................................... 1‐3 Part 4 – Instructions for Proposals ............................................................................................. 3‐5 Part 5 – Selection Procedure

...................................................................................................... 6‐7 1 PART 1 – OVERVIEW The City of Tuscaloosa is requesting qualifications from firms for Consulting and Professional Forensic Services for the "Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grant”. Part 2 of this RFQ provides a general description and abbreviated scope of work for the project. This is a procurement of professional services and will be conducted in a manner to provide full and open competition. A Selection Committee will review all proposals and will rank firms based on criteria identified in Part 5. The criteria may include but is not limited to: experience providing professional consulting and forensic services including, but not limited to, administrative and technical review of forensic firearm & toolmark casework. Upon selection by the Selection Committee, the City will enter negotiations with the successful Respondents. Pending successful negotiations, the successful Respondents will enter into a Contract for professional services with the City. PART 2 – THE PROJECT AND SCOPE OF WORK The City of Tuscaloosa seeks the services of a professional firm that has the knowledge, experience, and expertise to perform the following types of services upon request from the City: Providing professional consulting and forensic services including, but not limited to, administrative and technical review of forensic firearm and toolmark casework. The firm must comply with all applicable state, local, and federal regulations related to the services provided to the City. The City reserves the right, subject to negotiation and agreement, in writing, with the selected firm, to either expand or limit the scope of services as needed. The selected firm will be required to have sufficient personnel to complete the tasks required by this scope of services. The selected firm will complete the required tasks in a timely and efficient manner. The selected facility would be expected to enter into a contract for services based upon the negotiated fee structure. PART 3 – CONTENT OF RESPONSE TO THIS REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS To facilitate the Selection Committee’s evaluation, each Respondent firm responding to this request for qualifications should include the following content, in the following order:  Licensing and Professional Standing  Experience  Conflicts of Interest  Project Understanding and Approach  Fees, Quality Assurance and Quality Control Each of these items is discussed in more detail in the following sections. 2 3.1 Licensing and Professional Standing a. Please include a brief statement confirming that the Respondent is legally authorized to do business in Alabama and in the City of Tuscaloosa, and that all staff assigned to perform services for the project are licensed or certified to perform such services in Alabama. b. In addition, please include a statement confirming that the Respondent is not presently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, declared ineligible, or voluntarily excluded from participation by any state or federal department or agency. c. Finally, for the five year period preceding submission of the response for this RFP the Respondent shall please identify: (1) Any and all contracts terminated (in whole or in part) to which the Respondent firm was a party‐ for convenience or default, by either the Respondent firm or by another party to the contract with the Respondent, including:  contract value  description of work  project owner and contract number and/or name and telephone number for a representative of the project owner (2) All claims made against the Respondent arising out of the Respondent’s professional services; and (3) All litigation (including any arbitration or mediation proceedings) to which the Respondent has been a party.1 If no contracts have been terminated, or if the Respondent has not been a party to any claims or litigation, please include a statement to that effect. 3.2 Experience a. Please provide brief narrative about the Respondent’s experience, history, ownership and primary clients served by the firm. Include a statement as to whether the firm is a Minority/Disadvantaged/Women Owned Business Enterprise (MBE/DBE/WBE). b. List of the Respondent’s proposed project team and those team members’ qualifications and experience. 1 The disclosure of terminated contracts, claims, or litigation will not automatically disqualify a Respondent from consideration. The Selection Committee will review any matter disclosed, and make an independent determination as to whether the matter should disqualify the Respondent from consideration. 3 c. Recently Completed or Ongoing Contracts or Projects. Evidence of satisfactory performance of at least three (3) ongoing or recently completed contracts or projects of the type indicated above. Relevant experience will be judged on the basis of the experience of those individuals named to the firm’s project team for this project. Elements of recently completed projects are as follows: 1. Name and Address of Client. 2. Contact person for reference. 3.3 Conflicts of Interest Please identify all actual or potential conflicts of interest that would prevent the Respondent from entering into a professional relationship with the City generally, or for this project specifically. If no such conflicts exist, please include a statement to that effect. 3.4 Project Understanding and Approach Discuss the proposed approach to completing the needed services and how your firm will coordinate providing professional services. 3.5 Fees, Quality Assurance and Quality Control a. Please include a current rate sheet for professional services offered by the firm applicable to this contract. b. The proposal should describe how the responding Respondent will provide quality assurance (“QA”) and quality control (“QC”) for the project. Identify the individuals that will be involved in QA/QC services. If your firm has a structured QA/QC program, briefly describe the program and how it will be applied to the project. PART 4 – INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROPOSALS Before submitting a response to this RFQ, the Respondent should carefully review the entire RFQ and be familiar with its contents. 4.1 Format of Proposals Proposals shall be submitted electronically in pdf format. Proposals may be written in either Times New Roman or Calibri font, and the font size must be 12‐point or larger. 4.2 Inquiries The City will accept inquiries on the contents and requirements of the RFQ in electronic form only. Inquiries may only be submitted by email. Inquiries should be submitted to: 4 City Project Representative: Mitch Rector Contact Information: 205‐248‐4652 and mrector@tuscaloosa.com Inquiries must be submitted at least seven (7) days before the deadline for submission of proposals. For this RFQ, the deadline for inquiries is March 16th at 5:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time, after which time no further inquiries will be addressed by the City. If the City chooses to respond to an inquiry, the City will do so in writing, in the form of an addendum to this RFQ. The addendum will be sent to all recipients of the RFQ, and will be posted to the City’s website at www.tuscaloosa.com/bids. Each addendum issued by the City shall become part of this RFQ and proposals shall include any work or requirements described in the addendum. No addendum will be issued or posted less than 72 hours before the deadline for submission of responses to this RFQ. 4.3 Submissions of Responses to this RFQ a. Electronic submissions should be made via email only, in Portable Document Format (PDF) file format and submissions must be received by the City before 5:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time on March 23, 2023. Submit Proposals via email to: Mitch Rector mrector@tuscaloosa.com b. Proposals should be clearly labeled with the following information: Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grant OCA‐23‐0193 Late proposals will not be accepted or reviewed. It is the Respondent’s responsibility to ensure that their submission is received within the time required by this RFQ. The Respondent is responsible for obtaining confirmation that the City received the Respondent’s proposal. 4.4 Additional Items Related to submissions by Respondent Firms a. Submission rejection/costs By issuing this RFQ, the City does not commit to entering into a contract, to paying any costs incurred in the preparation of a submission, proposal, or to procuring or contracting for services. The City reserves the right to cancel this RFQ in whole or in part, to reject any and/or all submissions and proposals, to accept the submission and proposal it considers the most 5 favorable to the City’s interests in its sole discretion, and to waive irregularities or informalities in any submissions/proposals or in the submission procedures. The City reserves the right to reject all submissions or proposals and issue a new RFQ, at its sole discretion. All submissions and proposals and other materials submitted in response to this RFQ will become property of the City. b. Contract and Insurance Requirements The City has standard contract and insurance requirements for professional services contracts and is unable to make substantial changes to the requirements for the contract to be used for this project. The laws of the State of Alabama shall govern the contract executed between the successful Consultant and the City, as well as any interpretations or constructions thereof. Further, the place of performance and transaction of business shall be deemed to be in the City of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and in the event of litigation, the exclusive venue and place of jurisdiction shall be in the Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. c. Requests for Additional Information The City reserves the right to request additional information from Respondents to clarify the submissions. 4.5 Public Records Each Respondent is hereby informed that, upon submission of its proposal to the City in response to this RFQ, the proposal becomes the property of the City. Unless otherwise compelled by a court order, the City will not disclose any submissions while the City conducts its deliberative process in accordance with the procedures identified in this RFQ. However, after the City either awards an agreement to a firm, or after the City rejects all submissions, the City shall consider each submission from Respondents subject to the public disclosure requirements of the Alabama Open Records Act (Ala. Code § 36‐12‐40) and Tuscaloosa City Code § 2‐4, unless there is a legal exception to public disclosure. If a Respondent believes that any portion of its proposal is subject to a legal exception to public disclosure, the Respondent shall: (1) clearly mark the relevant portions of its proposal “Confidential”; (2) upon request from the City, identify the legal basis for exception from disclosure under the Open Records Act; and (3) defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the City regarding any claim by any third party for the public disclosure of the “Confidential” portion of the qualifications submittal. 6 PART 5 – SELECTION PROCEDURE The City will use a Selection Committee of qualified City employees for the evaluation of submissions. This is a qualifications‐based procurement for professional services, in which the qualifications of the responding firms will be reviewed and evaluated, and the most qualified firm will be selected, subject to negotiation of fair and reasonable compensation. The Selection Committee will review the submissions submitted in response to this RFQ, and rate the submissions based on the following grading system, which includes both numerical and pass/fail criteria: Numerically‐Scored Criteria Max. Points  Firm Experience 50  Project Understanding and Approach 20  Fees, Quality Assurance and Quality Control 20  Minority‐ or Woman‐Owned Business 5  Firm Location 5 Pass/Fail Criteria  Compliance with RFQ Instructions P/F  Licensing and Professional Standing P/F  Conflicts of Interest P/F The Selection Committee will eliminate from consideration any firm submission which receives a “Fail” grade on any one or more of the pass/fail criteria for evaluation. After review and evaluation of the submissions, the Selection Committee may select one or more Respondents for interviews. However, the Selection Committee is not required to conduct interviews. The Selection Committee may determine that interviews are not necessary for the selection process, and such decision is within the sole discretion of the Selection Committee. When the Selection Committee concludes its work, it will make a recommendation to the City Council’s Public Projects Committee, and request authority to begin negotiating an agreement, including final scope of work and fees for services, with the successful Respondent firm. Upon approval by the City Council’s Public Projects Committee, City staff will begin contract negotiations with the successful Respondent. If the negotiations are unsuccessful, of if an agreement cannot be reached within a reasonable time, as determined by the City, then City staff will terminate negotiations the firm, and will request authority from the Public Projects Committee to begin negotiations with another Respondent firm. Any compensation discussed with one Respondent will not be disclosed or discussed with any other Respondent. 7 Upon the conclusion of negotiations, the successful Respondent firm will enter into an agreement with the City. The agreement shall not be in force until it is approved by the Tuscaloosa City Council, and it is signed by the Mayor. The City cannot pay for any work or services performed prior to the approval of the agreement by the City Council, and the issuance of a notice to proceed by the City. Please note, this RFQ does not guarantee that the City will make any contract award. The City reserves the right to modify, amend, or withdraw this RFQ, in whole or in part, at any time and for any reason, in its sole discretion. The City also reserves the right to reject all submissions, in its sole discretion. END OF RFQ