Offers in response to this solicitation shall be submitted via the City’s e-Procurement Portal, OpenGov to be received no later than Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 11:00 am.

a) All proposals must be on the forms provided in this Request for Qualifications (SOQ) package. It is permissible to copy these forms if required. Faxed or e-mailed responses will not be considered.
b) The Offer and Contract Award document must be submitted with a signature by a person authorized to sign the offer.
c) If price is a consideration and in case of error in the extension of prices in the proposal, the unit price will govern. No proposal may be altered, amended, or withdrawn after the specified proposal due date and time.
d) Periods of time, stated as a number of days, will be calendar days.
e) It is the responsibility of all prospective offerors to examine the entire Request for Qualifications package and seek clarification of any item or requirement that may not be clear and to check all responses for accuracy before submitting a proposal. Negligence in preparing a SOQ confers no right of withdrawal after SOQ due date and time.

SOQs shall be submitted in via the City’s e-Procurement Portal. SOQ submissions are limited to a maximum of Seventeen (17) pages in length, excluding the Offer & Acceptance page, Cover Letter, and any other required forms. Adherence to the maximum page criteria is critical; each page side with evaluation criteria information will be counted. Pages that have photos, charts, graphs or criteria information will be counted towards the maximum number of pages. Supplemental Resumes are not allowed and will be counted towards the page limit. The SOQ response shall be submitted with the following sections:

a) Offer and Acceptance
The first section of the SOQ shall contain the Offer and Acceptance Form. The Offer and Acceptance Form shall be signed by an authorized representative of the company such as the owner, partner, or in the case of a corporation, the President, Vice President, Secretary, or other corporate officer(s) that is permitted to contract on behalf of the organization.

b) Statement of Interest
Identification of artist (Provider) including name, address, telephone number, fax number, website URL and email address. The letter must include the signature of the artist or an officer of the Provider authorized to contract for work. The letter must state the artist’s reasons for interest in this project and a description of how his/her work and/or experience relates to the project.

c) SOQ Response (Seventeen (17))

The SOQ response should address the following evaluation criterion. Please refer to Section 7-Evaluation Phases for the full description of information to include in each of the four evaluation criterion.

Demonstration of Artistic Experience:
The Offeror shall provide information that can demonstrate the ability to perform the work described in the Scope of Work. The Offeror shall include a copy of their professional resume in this section

Demonstration of Artistic Excellence:

The Offeror shall provide examples of previous work within the last 7 years. A maximum of 10 examples is permitted. Include the following information for your previous work:

The Medium of the artwork

Dimensions of the artwork

Date the artwork was created

Ability to enhance Community Identity and Vitality:

The Offeror shall provide examples of their familiarity with the community and its characteristics and provide examples of previous work, successful collaboration and projects which represent this understanding.

Demonstration of Artistic Values & Artistic Processes:

Potential to expand the range of artists and forms of artistic expression represented in the City as if supports and enriches the arts community in the City of Surprise, the West Valley and Arizona.

Any question related to the Request for Qualifications must be submitted in writing through the OpenGov Question/Answer Tab via the City's e-Procurement portal, on or before, Thursday, August 18, 2022 by 4:30 pm. Please include the section title for each question, if applicable, in order to ensure that questions asked are responded to correctly. All questions submitted and answers provided shall be electronically distributed to bidders following this solicitation on the City's e-Procurement Portal.

A prospective offerors conference may be held. If scheduled, the date and time of this conference will be indicated on the cover page of this document. The purpose of this conference will be to clarify the contents of this Request for Qualifications in order to prevent any misunderstanding of the City’s position. Any doubt as to the requirements of this Request for Qualifications or any apparent omission or discrepancy should be presented to the City. The City will then determine if any action is necessary and may issue a written amendment to the Request for Qualifications. Oral statements or instructions will not constitute an amendment to this Request for Qualifications.

Late proposals will not be considered.

At any time prior to the specified proposal due date and time, proposals may be withdrawn through the City's e-Procurement Portal, the responding firm may “unsubmit” their SOQ in OpenGov. After withdrawing a previously submitted SOQ, the responding firm may submit another SOQ at any time up to the deadline for submitting SOQs prior to the SOQ opening.

Any addenda shall be posted on the City's e-Procurement Portal and must be acknowledged by the offeror. Addenda notifications will be emailed to all persons on record as following this RFQu. Failure of any offeror to receive any such addenda or interpretation shall not relieve such offeror from any obligation under their SOQ as submitted. All addenda so issued shall become part of the contract documents.

The successful offeror must have a completed vendor registration for vendor payment with the City of Surprise Procurement Division. Vendor registration for proposal submissions shall be completed by creating a FREE account with OpenGov by signing up at https://secure.procurenow.com/signup.

An Offeror determined by the Procurement Manager to have submitted a SOQ that conforms in all material respects to the requirements of the RFQu documents.

An Offeror determined by the Procurement Manager to have the following qualities:
a) The ability, capacity, experience and skill to provide the goods and/or services in accordance with RFQu specifications;
b) The ability to provide the goods and/or services promptly, or within the time specified, without delay or interference;
c) The equipment, facilities and resources of such capacity and location to enable the Offeror to provide the goods and/or services;
d) The ability to provide future maintenance, repair, parts and service for the use of the goods and/or services purchased, if applicable;
e) The quality and adaptability of the materials, supplies or services required or necessary to the particular use;
f) The financial resources to perform the Contract.

Award(s) will be made to the responsible and responsive Offeror(s) whose SOQ(s) conforms in all material respects to the requirements and criteria set in the Request for Qualifications. The City will be the sole judge as to the acceptability of the products and/or services offered.

During the evaluation process, the City of Surprise reserves the right, where it may serve the City’s best interest, to request additional information or clarifications from proposers. At the discretion of the City of Surprise, firms submitting SOQs may be requested to take part in interviews as part of the evaluation process.
If interviews are conducted, the Evaluation Committee will determine the Offerors best suited to meet the needs of the City based on the scoring of the evaluation criteria. These Offerors will form the “Offeror Short List” that may be invited for interviews.

Interviews will be conducted at City offices. Time limitations and presentation requirements will be provided with the “Offeror Short List” notification. Each Evaluation Committee member will score each interview. Interview scores will be the sole determining factor for selection.

The City may elect, at its sole option, not to conduct interviews with Offerors. The City may request additional information or clarification of Offerors and hereby reserves the right to select the particular response to this RFQu that it believes will best serve its business and operational requirements, considering the evaluation criteria herein.

The following evaluation factors are listed in descending order of importance. Topics should be addressed in the following order for ease of evaluator interpretation and evaluation. The committee will evaluate and rank the offers, based on the following criteria & weight:

a) Demonstration of Artistic Experience: 30%
b) Demonstration of Artistic Excellence: 30%
c) Ability to enhance Community Identity and Vitality: 20%
d) Demonstration of Artistic Values & Artistic Processes: 20%

a) Unless the prospective offeror states otherwise, or unless provided within this Request for Qualifications, the City reserves the right to award by individual line item, by group of line items, or as a total, whichever is deemed most advantageous to the City.

b) A response to a Request for Qualifications is an offer to contract with the City based upon the terms, conditions and specifications contained in the City’s Request for Qualifications and the written amendments thereto, if any. SOQs do not become contracts unless and until they are accepted by the City. The contract has its inception in the award document, eliminating a formal signing of a separate contract. For that reason, all of the terms and conditions of the procurement contract are contained in the Request for Qualifications; unless modified by a Solicitation Addendum or a Contract Amendment.

c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Request for Qualifications, The City expressly reserves the right to:
i. Waive any immaterial defect or informality: or
ii. Reject any or all proposals, or portions thereof, or
iii. Reissue a Request for Proposal.

In accordance with the City of Surprise Procurement Code, after the initial receipt of proposals, discussions may be conducted with Offerors who submit proposals determined to be reasonably susceptible of being selected for award.