Recommend approval to renew an annual contract for all hazards preparedness, planning, consulting, and recovery services with Witt O’Brien’s in the estimated amount of $188,700.00.

These services are used citywide to ensure the City receives the maximum reimbursement for eligible expenditures related to disasters. The firm will provide professional assistance in identifying eligible costs, preparing auditable documentation for eligible costs, preparing project worksheets, assessing damaged sites and creating scopes of work and cost estimates related to those sites, submitting reimbursement requests, and providing assistance through grant closeout.

The City of Savannah is a member of the HGACBuy buying cooperative and utilized this cooperative to obtain names of qualified vendors. The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) is a regional council of governments operating under the laws of the State of Texas. The H-GAC Board awards all contracts, which can then be made available to local governments nationwide through HGACBuy. The City of Savannah’s purchasing ordinance authorizes the use of cooperative purchasing when beneficial to the City.

HGACBuy uses mass circulation, minority emphasis print media, and internet services to post legal notices and bid solicitations. Therefore, posting of public notices to solicit bids and the formal competitive bid process are satisfied through HGACBuy procedures. The method used for this procurement was the request for proposal, which evaluates criteria in addition to cost. Proposals were evaluated on the basis of pricing, qualifications and proposed team, M/WBE vendor participation, experience, and references.

The project included an overall M/WBE goal of 10% (0% MBE and 10% WBE). Based on the proposed schedule of M/WBE participation submitted by the highest ranked proposer, the overall M/WBE participation is 10% WBE using Symbioscity.

This contract was originally approved by Council on December 22, 2016. The contract term will be from December 21, 2017 through December 20, 2018. axs@1

Approval