Title
Approve the Ranking for the Federal Lobbyist Services for the City of Gainesville, FL (B)
Explanation
The City has previously retained MWW Group LLC for Federal Lobbying and Advocacy Services which ends September 30, 2017. The Federal Lobbying agreement was extended from year to year and had never gone through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process. Two years ago, City management determined that in 2017 at the end of the lobbying contract extensions the City would send out a RFP for the Federal Lobbyist contract.
In March, the ranking committee members were selected and comprised of representatives from GRU, City management and general government. The Purchasing Department issued a RFP for Federal Lobbying services on April 6, 2017. Proposals were due on May 4, 2017. The Purchasing department distributed four proposals to the ranking committee on May 8th to review and evaluate based on a weighted criteria. On May 15th, the ranking committee provided the official scores for the written proposals. The top two ranked lobbying firms moved forward to the Oral Presentation process. Oral Presentations were conducted on June 7th and scored based on a weighted criteria. The firms were ranked as follows: #1. Van Scoyoc Associates, Inc. and #2. Alcalde & Fay, Ltd. On June 8th reference checks were conducted and both firms received an overall excellent rating. The ranking committee is recommending Van Scoyoc, Inc. the first-ranked lobbying firm as the City’s Federal Lobbyist beginning October 1, 2017. Van Scoyoc Associates Inc. (VSA) is a full-service bipartisan Federal Government affairs firm located at the base of Capitol Hill. Started in 1990, VSA is now one of the foremost independent lobbying firms in Washington, D.C. representing local governments and utilities issues to landmark legislation like the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Water Resources Development Act.
Fiscal Note
The proposed Federal Lobbying ser...
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