TRANSMITTAL LETTER FOR BOARD MEETING OF DECEMBER 21, 2017
COMMITTEE ON PROCUREMENT
Mr. David St. Pierre, Executive Director
Title
Issue purchase order and enter into an agreement with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, for contract 17-RFP-12 Legal Advisory Services Related to the District Financing Program, for a three-year period in an amount not to exceed $166,500.00, Account 101-11000-612430, Requisition 1470947
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Dear Sir:
Authorization is requested to issue a purchase order and enter into an agreement with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, for legal advisory services related to the District financing program for a three-year period ending January 31, 2021. The purpose of this contract is to provide the District with legal advisory services related to the District’s financing program for the next three years.
At this time, the District does not anticipate the need for any new money bond sales during the next three years, but one or more eligible firm(s) may be requested to perform bond sale legal advisory, tax counsel, underwriter’s counsel, and disclosure counsel services in the event a bond sale is required for refunding opportunities. In the event of a bond sale, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP will provide bond and tax counsel services for all bond sales which may occur for the period February 1, 2018, to January 31, 2021. The District has identified eligible firms from the qualified respondents to this RFP to serve as co-bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, co-underwriter’s counsel, disclosure counsel, and co-disclosure counsel in any bond sale transactions during the three-year period; this list of firms can be found in the attached Exhibit I. Any such legal advisors will be appointed at the time of each bond sale. The District reserves the right to extend the life of the eligible lists for a period of up to one year at the conclusion of the three-year period, and to terminate the lists at any time
The Request for Proposal 17-RFP-12 was advertised on August 31, 2017. One hundred fifty-two (152) firms were notified, and thirty-three (33) firms requested proposal documents. Sixteen (16) acceptable proposals were received on September 29, 2017. The RFP process was coordinated through the Director of Procurement and Materials Management. The evaluation committee which reviewed and evaluated the submitted RFP responses consisted of staff from the Treasury, Law, and Procurement and Materials Management Departments. Responses were evaluated according to the criteria defined in the RFP. Firms were ranked based on the numeric score calculated by the evaluation committee.
The committee reached a consensus that three proposers met the technical qualifications portion of the RFP to provide general legal advisory consulting services. These firms were interviewed by the committee and requested to submit their best and final offers. A final evaluation matrix, including the interview evaluations and the best and final offers, resulted in an overall top ranking for Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP. This top overall ranking was based on a composite evaluation score which was calculated from the committee’s individual evaluations for each firm’s experience, qualifications, technical approach to the work, understanding of the project, and cost of services.
Appendix A was not included for legal advisory services due to liability considerations, as the law firm selected must provide advice and legal opinions to the District and cannot rely on another firm’s work; however, Appendix A was included and will be utilized for the potential legal advisory services related to bond sale transactions.
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP is a law firm that has engaged in public finance for more than 40 years. It employs 14 attorneys focusing on municipal finance and has ranked in the top tier of law firms both nationally and locally. Inasmuch as the firm possesses a high degree of professional skill, it is requested that the Director of Procurement of Materials Management be authorized to issue a purchase order and enter into an agreement with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP for a three-year period ending January 31, 2021, per Section 11.4 of the Purchasing Act, in an amount not to exceed $166,500.00.
The estimated expenditure for 2018 is $50,900.00, for 2019 is $55,500.00, for 2020 is $55,500.00, and for 2021 is $4,600.00. Funds for 2018 through 2021 are contingent on the Board of Commissioners’ approval of the District’s budget for those years.
Requested, Mary Ann Boyle, Treasurer, MAB:st
Recommended, Darlene A. LoCascio, Director of Procurement and Materials Management
Respectfully Submitted, Barbara J. McGowan, Chairman Committee on Procurement
Disposition of this agenda item will be documented in the official Regular Board Meeting Minutes of the Board of Commissioners for December 21, 2017
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