The Northwest Florida Chapter of the Florida Engineering Society is making its recommendations to Escambia County Commission on how to improve its process for awarding professional services contracts. Here are some of them:
1. Award engineering contracts on studies under $25K for projects with an estimated construction cost under $250K to firms on the County’s pre-qualified list using a simplified process, at the discretion of the County. Award Continuing Service Contracts to a small number of firms as allowed by the CCNA.
2. Bundle projects to be awarded at one time to several consultants, using the same selection committee.
3. Establish objective measures for actual performance.
4. With a County definition of what is considered local, include a variable “Portion of this Project to be done Locally.”
5. Review the scoring for each of the variables and rewrite to have “behavior anchored” scoring where applicable, thereby minimizing individual judgements.
6. Chose more selection committee members with expertise in the discipline being evaluated.
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