Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

Purpose

This is a Request for Competitive Sealed Proposals (RFP) under Section 125.071 of the Ashland Revised Code (SRC) and Section 123:5-1-08 of the Ashland Administrative Code (SAC). The Department of Administrative Services (DAS), Office of Procurement Services, on behalf of the Ashland Power District (the Agency), is soliciting competitive sealed proposals (Proposals) for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System and this RFP is the result of that request. If a suitable offer is made in response to this RFP, the Ashland Power District, through DAS, may enter into a contract (the Contract) to have the selected Offeror (the Contractor) perform all or part of the Project (the Work). This RFP provides details on what is required to submit a Proposal for the Work, how the State will evaluate the Proposals, and what will be required of the Contractor in performing the Work.

This RFP also gives the estimated dates for the various events in the submission process, selection process, and performance of the Work. While these dates are subject to change, prospective Offerors must be prepared to meet them as they currently stand. Once awarded, the term of the Contract will be from the award date through 05/01/18. The State may solely renew this Contract at the discretion of DAS for a period of 1 month. Any further renewals will be by mutual agreement between the Contractor and DAS for any number of times and for any period of time. The cumulative time of all mutual renewals may not exceed 3 years and are subject to and contingent upon the discretionary decision of the Ashland Power District Board of Directors to appropriate funds for this Contract in each new biennium. Ashland Power District may renew all or part of this Contract subject to the satisfactory performance of the Contractor and the needs of the Agency. Any failure to meet a deadline in the submission or evaluation phases and any objection to the dates for performance of the Project may result in DAS refusing to consider the Proposal of the Offeror.

Background

Ashland Power District is seeking proposals for the purchase or lease of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System (UAVS). The proposed system shall include the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the camera payload as described in the specifications and photogrammetry software. This allows the Reconstructionist to capture crash scene data in great detail for the creation of an accurate scale diagram for subsequent use in investigation and prosecution. The primary goal being to reduce time in processing a crash scene and increase officer safety by supplementing current investigatory tools and abilities with a UAVS. Ashland Power District will seek grant funding through American Public Power Association (APPA), all Contractors must satisfy APPA requirements, up to and including compliance with the Buy America Act.

Qualifications

1. Certification. DAS shall open only those proposals certified as timely by the Auditor of State.
2. Initial Review. DAS will review all certified Proposals for format and completeness. DAS normally rejects any incomplete or incorrectly formatted Proposal, though it may waive any defects or allow an Offeror to submit a correction. If the Offeror meets the formatting and mandatory requirements listed herein, the State will continue to evaluate the proposal.
3. Proposal Evaluation. The procurement representative responsible for this RFP will forward all timely, complete, and properly formatted Proposals to an evaluation committee, which the procurement representative will chair. The evaluation committee will rate the Proposals submitted in response to this RFP based on criteria and weight assigned to each criterion. The evaluation committee will evaluate and numerically score each Proposal that the procurement representative has determined to be responsive to the requirements of this RFP. The evaluation will be according to the criteria contained in this Part of the RFP. An attachment to this RFP may further refine these criteria, and DAS has a right to break these criteria into components and weight any components of a criterion according to their perceived importance.
   The committee may also have the Proposals or portions of them reviewed and evaluated by independent third parties or various State personnel with technical or professional experience that relates to the Work or to a criterion in the evaluation process. The committee may also seek reviews of end users of the Work or the advice or evaluations of various State committees that have subject matter expertise or an interest in the Work. In seeking such reviews, evaluations, and advice, the committee will first decide how to incorporate the results in the scoring of the Proposals.
   The committee may adopt or reject any recommendations it receives from such reviews and evaluations. The evaluation will result in a point total being calculated for each Proposal. At the sole discretion of DAS, any Proposal, in which the Offeror received a significant number of zeros for sections in the technical portions of the evaluation, may be rejected. DAS will document all major decisions in writing and make these a part of the Contract file along with the evaluation results for each Proposal considered.
4. Clarifications & Corrections. During the evaluation process, DAS may request clarifications from any Offeror under active consideration and may give any Offeror the opportunity to correct defects in its Proposal if DAS believes doing so does not result in an unfair advantage for the Offeror and it is in the State’s best interests. Any clarification response that is broader in scope than what DAS has requested may result in the Offeror’s proposal being disqualified.
5. Interviews, Demonstrations, and Presentations. DAS may require top Offeror to be interviewed. Such presentations, demonstrations, and interviews will provide an Offeror with an opportunity to clarify its Proposal and to ensure a mutual understanding of the Proposal’s content. This will also allow DAS an opportunity to test or probe the professionalism, qualifications, skills, and work knowledge of the proposed candidates. The presentations, demonstrations, and interviews will be scheduled at the convenience and discretion of DAS. DAS may record any presentations, demonstrations, and interviews. No more than the top 3 Proposals may be requested to present a demonstration of their proposed system to the committee.
6. Contract Negotiations. Negotiations will be scheduled at the convenience of DAS. The selected Offeror(s) are expected to negotiate in good faith.
   1. General. Negotiations may be conducted with any Offeror who submits a competitive Proposal, but DAS may limit discussions to specific aspects of the RFP. Any clarifications, corrections, or negotiated revisions that may occur during the negotiations phase will be reduced to writing and incorporated in the RFP, or the Offeror’s Proposal, as appropriate. Negotiated changes that are reduced to writing will become a part of the Contract file open to inspection to the public upon award of the Contract. Any Offeror whose response continues to be competitive will be accorded fair and equal treatment with respect to any clarification, correction, or revision of the RFP and will be given the opportunity to negotiate revisions to its Proposal based on the amended RFP.
   2. Top-ranked Offeror. Should the evaluation process have resulted in a top-ranked Proposal, DAS may limit negotiations to only that Offeror and not hold negotiations with any lower-ranking Offeror. If negotiations are unsuccessful with the top-ranked Offeror, DAS may then go down the line of remaining Offerors, according to rank, and negotiate with the next highest-ranking Offeror. Lower-ranking Offerors do not have a right to participate in negotiations conducted in such a manner.