Request a bid packet

Request for Qualifications with Cost Proposals

RFQ/P #43-023

For the provision of

DEMAND SERVICES ON-CALL

TREE CUTTING, REMOVAL AND STUMP GRINDING SERVICES

Hall County, Georgia, seeks to establish a pool of qualified Demand Services, On-Call Tree Cutting, Removal and Stump Grinding contractors. The County’s intent is to award more than one (1) contracts to qualified firms to issue Task Orders too as needs arise.

Schedule of Events:

Bid Post Date: 03/20/2023

Bidders Questions Due Date: 03/23/2023

Answers to Questions Due Date: 03/28/2023

Bid Due Date: 03/30/2023, 2:00pm EST

Anticipated Award Date: 04/14/2023

Bidding Process: The County is now accepting sealed bid proposals from qualified Tree Cutting, Removal and Stump Grinding Service providers for various tree service throughout the County (herein ‘Services’). Bids will be received by Hall County, Georgia in the Purchasing Department located on the fourth (4 ^th ) floor at the Hall County Government Center, 2875 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville, GA 30504, on 03/30/2023, 2:00pm EST , or equally digitally through BidNet by the same time and date.

Public Reading : The Issuing Officer named herein will open and publicly read all proposer’s names on the date, time and address above.

Addendums: If needed and in the best interest of the County, Purchasing may make any extension of the bidding period by a formal written addendum and publicly posted. The County will not read cost factors publicly but will publish the results once the evaluation process is completed.

Proposal Documents: Bidders may request submittal documents via the County’s Website at https://www.hallcounty.org/Bids.aspx ,then click the ‘Request a Bid Packet’ link, fill out the requested information, click ‘Submit’, and Purchasing will send you a bid package via email.

Alternatively, Bidders may download the submittal documents from BidNet directly and additionally from the Georgia Procurement Registry.

1. General Qualifications:

The contractor shall be responsible for all work performed in support of this contract. Sub-contractors shall perform no work unless pre-approved in writing by the County. Contractors must disclose any intended Sub-contractors within the bid at the time of bid submissions. If the bidder intends to use a sub-contractor to fulfill one entire segment of this contract, then the bidder should submit to the County professional references for the sub-contractor on jobs similar in size and scope. Once the County has awarded the contract, the contractor cannot change sub-contractors without seeking written pre-approval from the County. The County reserves the right to check all references and conduct background checks on any changes to sub-contractors or workers performing work under this contract. The contractor shall be wholly responsible for the quality of their sub-contractor’s work. The contractor shall not award more than twenty-five percent (25%) of the work to sub-contractors on any project, without prior approval of the County Representative.

2. The awarded contractor(s) shall provide On-Call Tree Cutting, Removal and Stump Grinding services.

3. The County must pre-approve any change orders in writing.

The County may deny any work done before the issuance of a written change order. Contractor is not to accept any verbal change order(s) from the project manager. The County will work will be considered out of scope and thus not compensated.

5. Contractor shall provide copies of the following Licensing with their bid response:

1. Valid Business License
2. Letter of Bondability that your firm can acquire Performance and Payment bonds equal to 100% each of the contract value for Performance and Payment bonds. Awarded Contractors must produce the Bonds prior to any work commencing.
3. Certificate of Insurance

6. On-Site Pre-Bid Meetings: Contractors shall be responsible for confirming and attending any on-site pre-bid meetings as listed on future Task Orders.

Request for Clarification: The County reserves the right to request clarification of information submitted and to request additional information of one or more applicants. The County considers a bid response as an irrevocable offer, good for a period of one-hundred and twenty (120) days from submission.

Legally Binding Agreement: The County and the selected Service Provider shall enter into a formal agreement; substantially in the form of the attached EXHIBIT K: SAMPLE CONTRACT TEMPLATE. All questions regarding the scope of services should be included in the response to the Proposal. If there are no objections, an affirmative statement to this effect is required.

The County reserves the right to reject all proposals, and to negotiate fees, conditions, or terms with the respondent submitting the overall best proposal.

Proposal Information : In consideration of service fee proposal, assume the following:

Technical Proposal Response: Bidders must answer all Mandatory Questions, which are pass/fail, and the Mandatory Scored Questions, which are weighted. The County’s Evaluation Committee will weigh the answers with point values. The total maximum points available for the Technical Proposal response is eight-hundred (800) points.

The proposer’s response should be limited to direct answers to the questions asked. Proposers are required to answer all the Mandatory Scored questions.

Bidders may expanded their answers to the questions onto separate pages if needed, with the question repeated at the top of each page, in addition to the space provided next to each Mandatory Scored Question worksheet. Do not submit bound proposals, neither stapled nor spiral-bound. Provide one-side documents only. Do not include superfluous marketing materials.

Additionally, proposers should not exceed the maximum response length for each question. All quantitative material should include complete assumptions and be supported by detailed schedules evidencing all calculations and results.

Responses to the questions should be clear and concise. Where appropriate, Bidder’s should show statistical information in a tabular (chart) format, and textual information in bullet form. If possible, summarize key information or points for each question at the beginning of answers.

Evaluation and Selection: The County will evaluate all submittals in accordance with the Official Code of Hall County, Georgia 3.10, and as further detailed herein. The County will evaluate proposals using a two-step process. The first is the ‘Technical Proposal’ that outlines the bidding firm’s qualifications and experience and its approach to offering the Services. The total available points available is eight-hundred (800) points.

The Evaluation Committee will then evaluate cost for such services to determine the best value in the interest of the County. The total available points available for cost is two hundred (200). The total highest score is a possible one-thousand (1,000) points. The highest scoring proposal will be the apparent award winner and may enter negotiations with the County.

The County has determined its own Evaluation and selection Committee to review the submitted qualifications and the cost proposals of submitting firms. During the evaluation process, the County reserve the right, when it may serve the County’s best interest, to request information for clarification from proposers and to allow corrections to errors or omissions.

Defined Terms: For the purpose of this Request for Qualifications and Cost Proposals, the terms; ‘consultant’, ‘submitter’, ‘proposer’, ‘firm’ and ‘bidder’, ‘contractor’, ‘agency’, ‘company’, shall mean one and the same. Additionally, the terms ‘submittal’, ‘bid’, ‘response’ and ‘proposal’ shall also mean one and the same. Additionally, ‘Hall County, Georgia’, ‘Hall County Government’, ‘Hall County Board of Commissioners’, and ‘County’, shall all mean one-and-the-same.

Validation: Bidders must sign and notarize their submittals. Hall County requires that bidder’s provide a cover letter with a wet signature by an officer of the firm with the submittal to ensure its originality. Please submit one (1) hard paper proposal marked “Original” with a wet signature, along with three (3) copies, and additionally provide the proposals (technical and separately cost) in a digital format on a flash drive, in both Microsoft Word and Excel, as each document requires.

The County reserves the right to retain all proposals submitted and use any idea(s) in a proposal regardless of contract award or not. The County shall have the right to waive any informality or irregularity of immaterial deviation in any bid received.

Bidders must complete and return all forms and documents entitled ‘Mandatory’ with the bid or the proposal. Failure to do so may deem the proposal non-responsive and the County will not evaluate for award.

Award Process: The County reserves the option to reject any or all bids, in whole-or-in-part, or to select any bidder to complete the described Service. The County will not make an award of contract solely based on lowest bid, but also on approach, references, qualifications and other subjective criteria as the County may deem necessary and determine at its sole discretion. Bidder then expressly understands that the County may reject the proposal for any reason without liability on part of the County to the Bidder.

Questions: Bidder’s must present all questions in writing and directed solely to the issuing officer at apenick@hallcounty.org For security reasons, you must enable JavaScript to view this E-mail address. . N o other contact of any nature, verbal, email, or other communication is permissible with any other County staff member, nor its elected officials, nor Commissioners, during the evaluation process. The County may deem such as collusion, and thus render the submission in violation of the Official Code of Hall County and thus the County may render the proposal as non-responsive and not evaluate the proposal for an award.