Request for Proposals for Criminal Background Check Services

Background

The Sonoma County Housing Authority (“Housing Authority”) provides rental assistance in the form of Housing Choice Vouchers (“HCV”), Project Based Vouchers (“PBV”) and Mainstream Vouchers to 3,050 low-income households.  These vouchers enable housing authority Participants and Applicants to rent from area landlords, in the private rental market.

Federal regulations and local policies, require that the Housing Authority conduct a criminal background check on all applicants, over the age of 18 years. These background checks are searching for any violent and/or drug related arrests, citations and convictions that have occurred in the past 36 months. The criminal background check report must also include any information related to applicant sex offender registrations. 

Scope of Services

The selected respondent will be responsible for providing the Housing Authority the results of the Criminal Background Checks in accordance with the requirements below.

1. Allow Housing Authority staff access to an interactive website or the latest software available to request criminal background checks, retrieve reports and receive confirmation of request for information.
2. The Housing Authority will provide the full name, social security number and date of birth of the applicant/participant and aliases, if available along with the current address.
3. Respondent will search all current and past criminal records at the Federal, National, State and Local levels. Search is limited to 36 months immediately preceding request.
4. Conduct National Sex-Offender registration check. If an applicant/participant is determined to be an active sex offender registrant, include information regarding the applicant’s/participant’s type of registration. Report should include all associated conviction information.
5. Supply individual criminal background check reports on a Federal, National, State and Local level for each applicant/participant household member, at or over the age of 18 years of age, who is applying for a HCV, PBV or Mainstream voucher or receiving rental assistance.  Research all criminal activity by using applicant’s/participant’s full name, including alias names, date of birth and social security numbers.  Report must include charge class (felony, misdemeanor or summary) disposition type and date of disposition and any associated sentencing information. 
6. Supply background check results with accuracy within twenty-four (24) to forty-eight (48) hours of request.
7. Provide remote assistance and training materials for Housing Authority employees related to reading criminal reports, and utilization of the software.
8. Technical assistance.

Submission Requirements

To receive consideration, proposals shall be made in accordance with the following general instructions:

1. The completed proposal shall be without alterations or erasures.
2. No oral or telephonic proposals will be considered.
3. The submission of a proposal shall be an indication that the proposer has investigated and satisfied him/herself as to the conditions to be encountered, the character, quality and scope of the work to be performed, and the requirements of the CDC, including all terms and conditions contained within this RFP.

Proposal Format and Contents:  

For ease of review and to facilitate evaluation, the proposals for this project should be organized and presented in the order requested as follows:

Section I: Organizational Information

Provide specific information concerning the firm in this section, including the legal name, address, and telephone number of your company and the type of entity (sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation and whether public or private). Include the name and telephone number of the person(s) in your company authorized to execute the proposed contract. If two or more firms are involved in a joint venture or association, the proposal must clearly delineate the respective areas of authority and responsibility of each party. All parties signing the Agreement with the CDC must be individually liable for the completion of the entire project even when the areas of responsibility under the terms of the joint venture or association are limited.

Section II: Qualifications and Experience:

• Provide specific information in this section concerning the firm's experience in the services specified in this RFP. Examples of completed projects, as current as possible, should be submitted, as appropriate. References are required. Please provide names, addresses, and telephone numbers of contact persons within three (3) client agencies for whom similar services have been provided.
• Debarment or Other Disqualification - Proposer must disclose any debarment or other disqualification as a vendor for any federal, state or local entities. Proposer must describe the nature of the debarment/disqualification, including where and how to find such detailed information.

Section III: Project Approach and Work Schedule:

• Provide a description of the methodology developed to perform all required services. Also identify the extent of CDC personnel involvement deemed necessary, including key decision points. Information as to the type of any software that is anticipated to be used in the delivery of services, should also be discussed.
• Include your response to the Scope of Work as referenced above.

Section IV: Cost of Service

The proposal shall clearly state ALL of the costs associated with the project, broken down by category of products and services, and all on-going costs for recommended or required products and services.

Section V: Identification of Subcontractors

Proposers shall identify all subcontractors they intend to use for the proposed scope of work. For each subcontractor listed, proposers shall indicate (1) what products and/or services are to be supplied by that subcontractor and, (2) what percentage of the overall scope of work that subcontractor will perform.

Section VI: Insurance

The selected proposer will be required to submit and comply with all insurance as described in the attached Sample Insurance Agreement (Attachment B) or identify specific exceptions to the sample agreement.

Section VII: Additional Information

Include any other information you believe to be pertinent but not required.

Section VIII: Contract Terms:

Proposers must include a statement acknowledging their willingness to accept the sample contract terms (Attachment A) or identify specific exceptions to the sample agreement. 

Timeline

The following schedule is subject to change. If the timeline is changed, all known recipients of the original RFP will be notified of new dates, and any such changes will also be posted on the CDC’s website.

Questions

All questions must be submitted in writing no later than 5:00 p.m. PST, July 27, 2020. If any questions are received, all questions will be responded to in an addendum issued and posted on the CDC’s website. The CDC will not provide verbal responses to any inquiries made by prospective respondents. The CDC will instead direct respondents to submit all questions, in writing. Questions should be submitted via e-mail to marthacheever@sonoma-county.org

Proposal Submittal

Form

Respondents must do all of the following: Upload pdf copy of their proposal to this link: https://files.sonoma-county.org/link/vRQY7KJuMKg/

• Respondent must include the Respondent name in the title of the file uploaded. Note: The link will state “There are no files in this directory” click on the button that says “Click here to Upload” and then select “Browse for files” you may then select files and click upload. Confirmation of successful upload will not be received by respondent after upload is complete; and
• Submit one (1) digital copy on a thumb-drive to the address below. Thumb-drive must be enclosed in a sealed envelope or package and clearly marked Proposal for HA Background Check Services. All mailed digital copies must be postmarked no later than August 7, 2020.  Proposals shall be submitted to:

Martha Cheever
Sonoma County Community Development Commission 
1440 Guerneville Road
Santa Rosa, CA  95403

Due Date

Proposals must be uploaded to: https://files.sonoma-county.org/link/vRQY7KJuMKg/ no later than 11:59 p.m. PST on August 7, 2020. The proposal due date is subject to change. If the proposal due date is changed, all respondents to the original RFP will be notified of the new date. In addition, information will be posted on the Purchasing website.

Failure to meet the proposal submission deadline is considered an indisputable basis for disqualification. Late proposals will not be accepted nor forwarded to the evaluation committee to be scored.

Selection Process

1. All proposals received by the specified deadline will be reviewed by the CDC for content, including but not limited to fee, related experience and professional qualifications of the bidding consultants.
2. CDC employees will not participate in the selection process when those employees have a relationship with a person or business entity submitting a proposal. Any person or business entity submitting a proposal who has such a relationship with a CDC employee who may be involved in the selection process shall advise the CDC of the name of the CDC employee in the proposal.
3. Proposals may be evaluated using the following criteria (note that there is no value or ranking implied in the order of this list):

• Demonstrated ability to perform the services described;
• Availability and ease of use of web-based portal for Housing Authority staff;
• Quality of work as verified by references;
• Costs relative to the scope of services;
• A demonstrated history of providing Housing Authority background check services to comparable entities;
• willingness to accept the CDC’s contract terms; and
• Any other factors the evaluation committee deems relevant. (When such criteria are used for evaluation purposes, the basis for scoring will be clearly documented and will become part of the public record.)

The CDC’s Executive Director reserves the right, in his or her sole discretion, to take any of the following actions at any time before Commission approval of an award: waive informalities or minor irregularities in any proposals received, reject any and all proposals, cancel the RFP, or modify and re-issue the RFP. Failure to furnish all information requested or to follow the format requested herein may disqualify the proposer, in the sole discretion of the CDC. False, incomplete, misleading or unresponsive statements in a proposal may also be sufficient cause for a proposal’s rejection.  

The CDC may, during the evaluation process, request from any proposer additional information which the CDC deems necessary to determine the proposer’s ability to perform the required services. If such information is requested, the proposer shall be permitted three (3) business days to submit the information requested.

An error in the proposal may cause the rejection of that proposal; however, the CDC may, in its sole discretion, retain the proposal and make certain corrections. In determining if a correction will be made, the CDC will consider the conformance of the proposal to the format and content required by the RFP, and any unusual complexity of the format and content required by the RFP. If the proposer’s intent is clearly established based on review of the complete proposal submittal, the CDC may, at its sole option, correct an error based on that established content. The CDC may also correct obvious clerical errors. The CDC may also request clarification from a proposer on any item in a proposal that CDC believes to be in error.

• The CDC reserves the right to select the proposal which in its sole judgment best meets the needs of the CDC. The lowest proposed cost is not the sole criterion for recommending contract award.
• All firms responding to this RFP will be notified of their selection or non-selection after the evaluation committee has completed the selection process.

Finalist Interviews

After initial screening, the evaluation committee may select those firms deemed most qualified for this project for further evaluation. Interviews of these selected firms may be conducted as part of the final selection process. Interviews may or may not have their own separate scoring during the evaluation process.