good morning if you could please if you could please mute your computers your cell phones so we have no background noise we will get started in a couple of minutes we're just waiting for one more person okay so you just if you could please again mute your computers and your microphones and there's no need to share your screen if you're currently sharing your screen please stop sharing your screen thank you we didn't we didn't start it yet right good morning I am Carolyn Messersmith purchasing manager and the meeting facilitator I would like to call to order this evaluation committee meeting for requests for qualifications RFQ number PNC 212-9492 R1 professional engineering testing services rotating QVL for the purchasing division the time is 10 08 a.m. on July 14th 2026 this meeting is being held through Microsoft Teams some representatives from the county are physically here in room GC 430 of the governmental center building located in Fort Lauderdale Florida attendees please mute the microphones on your devices to limit background noise this is a public meeting and is being recorded by Broward County the video recording will act as the official recording of the meeting the video will be made available at the purchasing divisions publicly accessible repository information reviewed by the evaluation committee as part of the evaluation process will be available on the purchasing division website under the RLI RFP repository this meeting has been publicly noticed the meeting the purpose of the meeting is to determine the responsiveness and responsibility of the proposing vendors only those vendors that have been determined by the evaluation committee to be both responsive and responsible to the solicitation requirements and determine qualified by the evaluation committee will move on to participate in this step 2 invitation to bid for pricing only at the time of the the solicitation advertising deadline 2 p.m. on October 21st 2025 11 proposals were received meeting attendance is recorded in in the following ways the purchasing division records attendance of county staff physically here in room GC 430 all virtual attendees including county staff use the chat in Microsoft Teams to click on the link or scan the QR code with your mobile device to complete the sign in sheet the sign in sheet for attendees that cannot access the link or QR code in the Team's chat email the senior purchasing agent Veronica Wilson at vewilson at Broward org with the subject meeting attendance and indicate your name your title and the title of the the Senior Purchasing Agent Veronica Wilson at VEWilson at Broward.org with the subject Meeting Attendance and indicate your name, your title, and the company you represent in the email body. The following are the county's project staff. Veronica Wilson, Senior Purchasing Agent and Project Manager, Sarah Cohen and Jason Crusaca, County Attorney's Office, Olga, Office of the Economic and Small Business Development, Colleen Pinnell, Risk Management Division. We have a quorum present with the following evaluation committee members. Committee members, please say present after your name is called. Jeffrey Thompson, Assistant Director, Construction Management Division, Public Works and Environmental Services Department. Present. Thank you. Todd Manning, Capital Program Administrator, Construction Management Division, Public Works and Environmental Services Department. Present. Thank you. John Lowe, Manager Construction Project, Highway and Bridge Maintenance, Roadway Division, Public Works and Environmental Services Department. Present. Thank you. It is the evaluation committee's responsibility to review the vendor submittals to ensure solicitation requirements are met and evaluate the submittals to make a recommendation to award a contract. Each evaluation committee member was appointed by the county administrator to serve on this committee based on their experience. The evaluation committee members are responsible for following the county's established committee procedures to select vendors which provide the services that are in the best interest of the county. At the discretion of the board, the evaluation committee members may be requested to substantiate their recommendation and discuss their submittal reviews. In accordance with Broward County Procurement Code, each evaluation committee member must affirm that they are free of conflicts of interest as provided by Part 3, Chapter 112 Florida Statutes, and the Broward County Employee Code of Ethics. All evaluation committee members submitted the required Broward County disclosure forms and responded they can be fair and impartial to all vendors. The cone of silence has been in effect since solicitation's advertisement. Vendors are prohibited from discussing this solicitation with the commissioner's office, county staff, or a member of the evaluation committee. The cone of silence terminates when the awarding authority takes action which ends the solicitation. During the cone of silence, inquiries regarding this solicitation should be directed to the project manager or the director of purchasing and or his designee. Also, vendors may communicate with representatives from the Office of Economic and Small Business Development at any time regarding the solicitation small business enterprise or county business enterprise participation. The summary of vendor rights regarding Broward County's competitive solicitation was issued in the solicitation. At this time, the purchasing agent will report on the findings on the responsiveness and responsibility and the exceptions taken to the county's terms and conditions. Proposals were received from the following vendors, Absolute Civil Engineering Solutions, LLC, Arena Engineering, Inc., Gallagher-Bissette Services, Inc., Nova Engineering Environmental, LLC, Professional Services Industry, Inc., Doing Business as Intertech-PSI, Quest Engineering Services and Testing, Inc., Radisson International, LC, Terracon Consultants, Inc., Terra South Florida, Inc., Doing Business as TSF-GO, UES Professional Solutions, LLC, and Wingateur Laboratories, Inc. Responsive requirements. The solicitation had one responsiveness requirement involving compliance, and that was lobbyist registration certification. All vendors were found responsive to all the responsiveness requirements by the purchasing division. Responsibility requirements. The solicitation had six areas of responsibility requirements. The first one was affiliate entities of the principal or principals. The second was disclosure of financial information. The third was insurance requirements. Fourth, license, pre-qualification, or certification requirements. Five, disclosure of litigation history, litigation with Broward County. And the sixth was the Office of Economic and Small Business Development Program requirements. Refer to the responsiveness and responsibility matrix for any additional information. Terms and conditions. The solicitation required vendors to state whether they accepted Broward County's terms and conditions or, if they do not accept them, to identify the agreement provisions and vendor proposed changes. Nine of the 11 vendors accepted Broward County's standard terms and conditions. The county provided vendors with an opportunity to ascertain whether they would waive their exceptions prior to the evaluation committee meeting. The following vendors waived all exceptions to the Broward County's standard terms and conditions. Gallagher-Bissette Services, Inc., Professional Services Industries, Inc., doing business as Intertech-PSI. Please note, as this is a rotating QVL, there will be no negotiation of terms and conditions. This concludes Purchasing's remarks as presented for the consideration of the evaluation committee. Thank you. Thank you. The next order of business is to determine the responsiveness as defined in the Procurement Code Section 21.40A. Is there any discussion from the evaluation committee regarding determination of responsiveness? Hearing none, may I have a motion with respect to the responsiveness. Yes, Jeff Thompson, I'd like to make a motion to find all vendors as responsive to the solicitation's responsiveness. May I have a second? Todd Manning, I second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. The next order of business is to determine the responsibility of the vendors. As defined in the Procurement Code Section 21.40B, is there any discussion from the evaluation committee regarding responsibility of the vendors? Hearing none, may I have a motion with respect to their responsibility. Jeff Thompson, I would like to make a motion to find all vendors as responsible to the solicitation's responsibility requirements. May I have a second? Todd Manning, I second the motion. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. The next order of business is to determine the vendors that were found to be both responsive and responsible. May I have a motion with respect to the vendors determined to be both responsive and responsible? Todd Manning, I'd like to make a motion to find all vendors as responsive and responsible to the solicitation's responsibility requirements. May I have a second? Jeff Thompson, I second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. At this point, evaluation committee members must determine, after having reviewed all proposals, additional information, and documents provided by county staff, the responsive and responsible firms that are qualified and will move forward to the next step. This is a qualified vendors list. At this time, committee members will be sent the ballots and complete them. On the ballots, you will indicate which firms are qualified to proceed to step two invitation to bid based on evaluation criteria responses. A firm will be required to have a minimum of two votes to proceed, majority of EC members. When all committee members have completed their ballots and handed the sheets back over to purchasing, I will recess the meeting to allow purchasing the time to tabulate the ballots. Purchasing will notify me when they have completed their tabulations, and I will then reconvene the meeting, and purchasing will read the results. Are there any questions? Did you receive the email? Not yet? Yeah, I got mine. Okay, so Jeff did not get his, the other two EC members did. Yeah, exactly. The ballot sheets, you have all three? The ballot sheets have been turned in. We will now take a recess. The time is 10.24 a.m. We are in recess. I would like to reconvene the meeting. It is now 10.25 a.m. The Purchasing Division will now announce the firms to proceed to Step 2 invitation to bid. The Purchasing Division will read the following firms that have been determined qualified by a minimum of two votes and will move forward to Step 2. The following firms have been determined qualified by a minimum of two votes and will move forward to Step 2. Absolute Civil Engineering Solutions, LLC, Arena Engineering, Inc., Gallagher-Bissette Services, Inc., Nova Engineering and Environmental, LLC, Professional Services Industry, Inc., Doing Business as Intertech-PSI, Quest Engineering Services and Testing, Inc., Gratacy International, LC, Terracon Consulting, Inc., Terra South Florida, Inc., Doing Business as TSFGO, UES Professional Solutions, LLC, and Winger Ter Laboratories, Inc. May I have a motion to accept the firms? Sheriff Thompson, I'd like to make a motion to accept the firms. May I have a second? Todd Manning, I second the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. As stated in the RFQ, the county will issue an invitation to bid Step 2 to responsive, responsible, qualified firms to submit prices for each test offered. Pricing offered will be evaluated to determine fair and reasonable pricing similar to same or lower prices than those offered to other governmental entities. The county may eliminate any prices submitted that are deemed unreasonably high. The county will then calculate a mean and median price for each test and select the lowest of both. Each firm must accept all calculated prices established through this method to enter into agreement with the county. The list of tests and associated calculated pricing will be included in the agreement as in Exhibit B. Committee members, is there any other business that needs to be discussed today? I'd just like to thank all of the firms that submitted today, and we appreciate the lengths they went to to put together this submittal. It was quite a lot of paperwork that we went through to evaluate these firms, so thank you for your participation. Purchasing would also like to reiterate what Jeff just stated and thank the Evaluation Committee and all vendors for their participation. This Qualification Evaluation Committee meeting is adjourned. The time is 10.29 a.m. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. My first one. Thanks, guys. Well, good luck. I hope you get a good... Yeah, whoever put it together, they're rather hard. How long did you say it took a year? Put it here? Were you involved with it, Todd? Both of you. Oh, yeah. Thank you.