Public Notice
Kittitas County, Ellensburg WA

REQUEST FOR STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS

For Consulting Services Relating to Professional Environmental, Archaeological, and Planning Services

ADVERTISEMENT:       Friday November 18th 2016 through Friday December 8th 2016

All submittals received after 10:00 AM Friday December 8th 2016 will be discarded

PURPOSE:

Kittitas County is requesting Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) from qualified professionals for on-call consulting services relating to environmental, archaeological, and planning professional services.  The consultant(s) will provide a variety of on-call services to the County as projects are budgeted for development.  The on-call contract will be for two years (2) with an opportunity for one one-year extension if mutually agreed upon and approval is obtained by the Board of County Commissioners.  The County will likely select more than one consultant to provide these services.

The County provides no guarantee that any projects will become available.  However, as projects develop the County may need the services of hired consultants with expertise in the following areas:

SCOPE OF PROJECT:

  1. Environmental Services

The consultant must be able to provide ecologists, biologists, and other related support and professional staff for on-call consulting to Kittitas County. These services may include but are not limited to wetland, stream, water quality, and plant community identification, including the services of planning, inventory, delineation, permitting, regulatory compliance, design, implementation, and construction management of mitigation, and monitoring, grant writing, as well as review and refinement of existing or new regulatory codes, and watershed analysis and planning.

The consultant must demonstrate competence and qualifications related to the services performed including:

  1. Successful experience in evaluating critical areas regulations and environmental studies including critical area reports, mitigation plans, NEPA/SEPA checklists, site and civil plan review, and biological assessments.
  2. Possess a strong knowledge of the Washington State Department of Ecology's Wetland Rating System for Eastern Washington and the Washington State Wetlands Identification and Delineation Manual.
  3. Successful experience in evaluating development proposals in areas where streams, rivers, wetlands, and endangered species exist.

 

  1. Ability to respond to unexpected as well as regularly scheduled requests for services with minimal delay.
  2. Ability to work collaboratively in a regulatory environment with other agencies, interest groups, and permit applicants.

 

  1. Archaeological Evaluations

Consultants will be expected to provide the full range of services to assist the County in meeting environmental obligations required by the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. The Cultural Resources Consultant will be used to provide all services relating to cultural resources management as requested by the County, including: archaeological and historic resources research and reconnaissance; site testing; resource recovery; construction monitoring; data recovery; geomorphological assessment; artifact cataloging; cultural resource compliance training, report preparation; mitigation, and monitoring. The consultant will have complete responsibility for the employment and supervision of all personnel used in completing the assigned work.

The consultant must demonstrate competence and qualifications related to the services performed including:

  1. Successful experience in preparing and obtaining Archaeological Excavation Permits from the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP).
  2. Staff members must be professionally qualified to perform cultural resource investigations according to DAHP qualifications, and have established successful, strong relationships with SHIPO.
  3. Successful experience in designing and implementing mitigation and monitoring plans.
  4. Ability to respond to unexpected as well as regularly scheduled requests for services with minimal delay.
  5. Ability to work collaboratively in a regulatory environment with other agencies, interest groups, and permit applicants.
  6. Experience working with incorporated Native American Tribes including but not limited to the Yakama Nation.

 

  1. Planning Services

The consultant must be able to provide a variety of community planning services to Kittitas County including but not limited to: expertise implementing the Growth Management Act, code amendments, urban and rural design, community education and coordination, economic development, transportation planning, development review capabilities, GIS support, and project scheduling and coordination experience.

The consultant must demonstrate competence and qualifications related to the services performed including:

  1. The consultant must have extensive experience working with local governments on both current and long-range land use and transportation planning projects.
  2. Demonstrated ability to conduct outreach efforts to engage community participation.
  3. Successful experience implementing GIS systems, training abilities, and ability to communicate with non-technical people about GIS functions and capabilities.
  4. Ability to respond to unexpected as well as regularly scheduled requests for services with minimal delay.
  5. Ability to work collaboratively in a regulatory environment with other agencies, interest groups, and permit applicants.

PROCEDURES FOR SUBMITTAL:

If you wish to be considered for on-call work under this SOQ, you must be a registered consultant on the Municipal Research and Service Center of Washington – Shared Small Works and Consultant Roster (www.mrscroster.org).

If interested in providing on-call services to the County, submit a sealed envelope to Lucas Huck, Kittitas County Engineer, at 411 N. Ruby St. Suite 1, Ellensburg WA 98926 by 10:00 am on December 8th 2016 indicating your interest and which services, or any combination thereof which you would like to be considered for. Submittals shall include a one page cover letter with the firm name as listed on the MRSC web site, contact information, and list of which services you'd like to provide. Submittals shall also include three copies of your Statement of Qualifications describing the firm’s or team’s ability to professionally provide the aforementioned services.

For your records, the County will provide a confirmation email to the contacts provided in the submittal confirming receipt of your interest in the proposal. Submittals received after 10:00 AM on December 8th 2016 will be disregarded.

Kittitas County will build an internal interview committee,  invite three to six firms to interview for the on-call services as listed in this SOQ, and then provide recommendations to the Public Works Director for firm selections.  Kittitas County encourages disadvantaged, minority and women owned consultant firms to respond.

The County reserves the right to reject any and all submittals.

SELECTION PROCESS AND PROPOSED SCHEDULE:

Kittitas County selection will be based upon:

  1. The firm's or team's qualifications, experience and ability to perform the work;
  2. Demonstrated experience with similar projects;
  3. Ability to apply creative solutions to complicated projects;
  4. Demonstrated ability to keep projects on time and within budget;
  5. Demonstrated ability to communicate and work effectively with the public, staff, policy and review bodies;
  6. The firm’s ability to scale the work and allocate appropriate resources resulting in the most efficient use of County funds.
  7. Responsiveness to this request for qualifications.

Anticipated Dates

Tasks

December 8th 2016 at 10:00 AM

Deadline for SOQ submittals

December 23rd 2016

Selection of Firms to Interview

January 9th 2017

Interviews and Reference Checks

January 16th 2017

Select firms, negotiate, and prepare contracts

February 7th 2017

BOCC Award of Contracts

The above noted schedule is tentative and may be changed based on the number of proposals submitted. Proposals will be evaluated immediately with final selection targeted for mid-January, 2016.

AGREEMENT OF SERVICES:

The selected consultant(s) will be expected to enter into a standard Professional Services Agreement. Insurance requirements are included in that agreement. The contract period shall be for on-call services for up to three (3) years.

Persons with disabilities may request this information be prepared and supplied in alternate forms by calling collect (509-962-7523).

Kittitas County reserves the right to accept or reject any and all proposals or any items or part thereof or to waive any information or irregularities in the proposals.  Kittitas County shall have the sole discretion to determine the most responsible proposal.

Kittitas County in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 252, 42 U.S.C. 2000d to 2000d-4 and Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, Department of Transportation, subtitle A, Office of the Secretary, Part 21, nondiscrimination in federally assisted programs of the Department of Transportation issued pursuant to such Act, hereby notifies all bidders that it will affirmatively insure that in any contract entered into pursuant to this advertisement, disadvantaged business enterprises as defined at 49 CFR Part 26 will be afforded full opportunity to submit bids in response to this invitation and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, national origin or sex in consideration for an award.

INQUIRIES:

Direct all inquiries regarding this request for services to Mark Cook Director of Public Works or Lucas Huck Kittitas County Engineer at (509) 962-7523, or via e-mail:

Mark Cook                                                        Lucas Huck

Mark.Cook@co.kittitas.wa.us                             Lucas.Huck@co.kittitas.wa.us

Dates of publication:     Ellensburg Daily Record – November 17th and 24th, 2016

                                     Daily Journal of Commerce – November 17th and 24th, 2016

 

 


More information is online at http://www.co.kittitas.wa.us/notices/.
Clerk of the Board
Publish:

Daily Record: 11/17/16; 11/24/16
Daily Journal of Commerce: 11/17/16' 11/24/16