RFP 12-02 Amended SpecsCITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH
REQUEST FOR BROKER /CONSULTANT PROPOSAL
FOR
BROKERAGE /CONSULTING SERVICES
FOR
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS, PROPERTY /CASUALTY AND RISK MANAGEMENT SERVICES
RFP# 12 -02
AMENDED
INTRODUCTION
The City of Atlantic Beach, Florida is soliciting a Request for Proposal for Brokerage /Consulting
Services for employee benefits, property /casualty insurance and risk management services.
The City desires to build a broker /consultant relationship that promotes trust and confidence in
assisting the City in making informed and quality decisions. The selected broker /consultant will
provide personalized customer service, proactively meeting its needs, listening to its issues and
concerns, understand the business and respond in a timely and accurate manner when assisting
with the City's Employee Benefits and Risk Management.
In order to enhance efficiency, our preference is to select a single firm capable of providing all
services. However, proposals for Brokerage /Consulting Services for employee benefits services
and property /casuality insurance & risk management services will be considered either
individually or with partnerships between firms.
Please do not contact any insurance market on the behalf of the City of Atlantic Beach.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The City of Atlantic Beach is in northeast Florida in Duval County, due east of Jacksonville on the
Atlantic Ocean. The City's population is approximately 15,000 and has an area of approximately
3 square miles. The City has 5 Elected Officials, 111 full time and 7 part time employees and 40
seasonal lifeguards.
The mailing address is: 800 Seminole Road
Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
City website is: www.coob.us
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TIMELINE — SUBMISSION
Respondents should review and become familiar with the event timeline. The dates and times
of each activity within the timeline may be subject to change. It is the responsibility of the
Respondent to check for any changes. Please provide five (5) hard copies of your response.
Event
Date
Time
Issue Request for Proposal
04/04/2012
Notice of Intent to Respond (email to Susan Danhauser)
04/13/2012
Deadline for Questions in writing to Susan Danhauser
04/18/2012
5pm
Proposal Due Date and Time
Amended Deadline
04/30/2012
05/14/2012
4 pm
Approval and Selection
TBD
TBD
Effective Date of Contract
TBD
TBD
PROPOSAL AND SCOPE OF WORK
The City is seeking the services of a brokerage /consulting firm specializing in employee benefits,
property /casualty insurance and risk management services. Currently, the employee benefits
consist of medical, dental, life, hospital confinement indemnity coverage, flexible spending
account and EAP. The contract renewal date is January 1, 2013. The City wants to add options
in employee benefits and seeks professional expertise in these areas.
The property /casualty insurance currently includes property and inland marine, general liability,
law enforcement, workers compensation, public officials and employment practices liability,
automobile and crime. All property /casualty policies have a renewal date of October 1, 2012.
WAIVER /REJECTION OF PROPOSALS
All proposals will be considered. However, the City reserves the right to waive formalities or
informalities in proposals, to reject, with or without cause, any or all proposals or portions of
proposals, or to negotiate or not negotiate with individual proposers, or to accept any
proposal(s) or portions of proposals seemed to be in the best interest(s) of the City.
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CONTRACT
The City intends to negotiate and enter into a contractual agreement upon selection of the
broker /consultant. This contract will include the broker /consultant compensation arrangement
which will be based on standard industry commission percentages or equivalent compensation
structures.
PUBLIC RECORD AND PROPOSAL CONTENTS
Upon award recommendation or ten (10) days after opening, whichever occurs first, proposals
become "public records" and shall be subject to public disclosure consistent with Chapter 119
Florida Statutes. If required, Proposers must invoke the exemptions to disclosure provided by
law in their response to this RFP, and must identify the data or other materials to be protected,
and must state the specific reasons such material in exempt from release under the Florida
Public Records Act.
All material submitted becomes the property of the City of Atlantic Beach. Selection or
rejection of the proposal does not affect this right.
PUBLIC ENTITY CRIMES
A person or affiliate who has been placed on the convicted vendor list following a conviction for
a public entity crime may not submit a proposal on a contract to provide services to a public
entity, may not be awarded or perform work as a contractor, supplier, subcontractor, or
consultant under a contract with any public entity, and may not transact business with any
public entity in excess of the threshold amount provided in Section 287.017 for Category Two
for a period of 36 months from the date of being placed on the convicted vendor list.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The award of contract is subject to the provisions of Chapter 112, Florida Statutes. All
proposals shall disclose the name of any officer, director or agent who is also an employee of
the City. Further, all proposals shall disclose the name of any City employee who owns, directly
or indirectly, an interest of five per cent or more in the proposer's firm or any of its branches.
Failure to make such disclosure in the proposal may be cause for proposal disqualification as
non - responsive.
DRUG -FREE WORKPLACE STATEMENT
Preference shall be given to businesses with drug -free workplace programs. Whenever two or
more proposals that are equal with respect to price, quality, and service are received by the
City a proposal received from a business that certifies that it has implemented a drug -free
workplace program shall be given preference in the award process. Established procedures for
processing the proposals will be followed if none of the tied proposers have a drug -free
workplace program.
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LOBBYING PROHIBITED
Please note that to assure proper and fair evaluation of proposals; proposers are not to contact
any of the City Commission members or City personnel. Any and all questions from a proposer
should be directed to Human Resource Director, Susan Danhauser via email:
sdanhauser @coab.us, or fax (904) 242 -3498.
Communication between a proposer and the City will only be initiated by the appropriate City
official, Human Resource Director Susan Danhauser, in order to obtain or clarify information to
develop a proper and accurate evaluation of the proposal. Ex parte communication may be
grounds for disqualifying the offending proposer from consideration.
RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES
Rights and privileges granted by the City shall not be assigned or transferred in any manner
whatsoever without written approval of the City. At all times during the term of the contract,
the Contractor shall act as an independent contractor and at no time shall the Contractor be
considered an employee, agent or partner of the City. The Contractor shall obtain and pay for
all permits, licenses, Federal, State and Local taxes chargeable to its operation.
NO COLLUSION CLAUSE
By offering a submission to this RFP, the proposer certifies the proposer has not divulged to,
discussed or compared his /her competitive proposal with other proposers and has not colluded
with any other proposers or parties to this competitive proposal whatsoever. Also, the
proposer certifies, and in the case of a joint competitive proposal each party thereto certifies as
to its own organization, that in connection with the competitive proposal:
• Any prices and /or cost data submitted have been arrived at independently, without
consultation, communication, or agreement, for the purpose of restricting
competition, as to any matter relating to such prices and /or cost data, with any other
proposer or with any competitor;
• Any prices and /or cost data quoted for this competitive proposal have not been
knowingly disclosed by the competitive proposer and will not knowingly be disclosed
by the proposer, directly or indirectly to any other proposer or to any competitor, prior
to the scheduled award of the contract;
• No attempt has been made or will be made by the proposer to induce any other person
or firm to submit or not to submit a competitive proposal for the purpose of restricting
competition;
• The only person or persons interested in this competitive proposal, principal, or
principals is /are named therein and that no person other than therein mentioned has
any interest in this competitive proposal or in the Agreement to be entered into.
NON - WARRANTY OF SPECIFICATIONS
Due care and diligence have been exercised in the preparation of this RFP and all information
contained herein is believed to be substantially correct. However, the responsibility for
determining the full extent of the exposures to risk and verification of all information herein
shall rest solely with the proposers. Neither the City nor its representatives shall be responsible
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for any error or omission in this RFP, nor for the failure on the part of the proposer to
determine the full extent of the exposures.
INSURANCE
Proposer shall agree to maintain Professional Liability or equivalent Errors & Omissions Liability
at a limit of liability not less than $1,000,000 Per Occurrence. When a self- insured retention
(SIR) or deductible exceeds $25,000; the City reserves the right, but not the obligation, to
request a copy and review Proposer's most recent annual report or audited financial statement.
The Certificate of Insurance must indicate whether coverage is written on an occurrence or
claims -made basis and must indicate the amount of any SIR or deductible.
LICENSES
Proposers must be fully licensed and certified in the State of Florida at the time of RFP
submittal.
QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED BY BROKE RS/CONSU LANT
Please respond to the following questions and specifically describe how your responses will
address:
Insurance Market Knowledge and Access
Please provide a brief overview of your view of the current insurance marketplace, your firm's
standing with each of the major carriers for each line of business (employee benefits and
property /casualty) and current market conditions.
For each major line of insurance coverage, please list all insurance carriers you believe could
provide a competitive option for the City of Atlantic Beach.
For each of the carriers noted above:
• Note whether or not you are currently contracted with each.
• Reference and provide contact information for a specific client currently insured
by each carrier you actively work with.
Client Knowledge
How does your understanding of public entities and municipalities help us achieve our
objectives?
What do you perceive as the key issues facing the City of Atlantic Beach over the next few years
and how would you address them on our behalf?
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Provide us information about your firm's history including the number of clients you service in
our industry and experiences you have which will benefit the City of Atlantic Beach?
Depth of Staff
What are the specific qualifications, skills and experiences of the person or persons who will
ultimately interact with us in the performance of services provided by your firm?
How do you allocate resources to assume responsiveness and flexibility to meet the needs of
our account?
How does the current work load of the person or persons assigned to our account impact the
overall management of our account?
Technical Knowledge
How will your services assist us with marketplace awareness, analytical and contract reviews,
legislative compliance and national initiatives relative to our industry and strategic objectives?
How does your process for management and financial reporting help us understand our
positioning in the marketplace relative to peer information and strategic planning?
How would your firm assist the City of Atlantic Beach in the use of technology in
communication, enrollment, self- service and administration of all benefit plans? What services
are available within your firm?
Scope of Services
Please outline your recommended platform of strategies and work plan to assist us in meeting
our overall objectives.
Account Management
How do your account management support and services assist us on day to day issue resolution
and overall activity management?
Communication
What types of methodologies do you use to communicate with us?
How do you keep us informed and current relative to product offerings, trends, cost control
measures and other emerging issues?
Performance
How do you assure stewardship of our business relationship, expectations and outcomes?
How do you establish your cost structure based upon your overall value you bring to us?
What rate of commission do you earn?
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How will we be able to measure your firm's performance and accountability?
Please provide references to validate the achievement of performance similar to the items
identified in this RFP.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REQUESTED
Please provide an executive summary statement outlining the unique qualifications of your firm
relative to our objectives outlined within this RFP.
Please attach a company overview of your organization. Include evidence of company financial
strength and Errors and Omissions Coverage.
EVALUATION METHOD
Each proposal will be ranked from 0 - 8 in the following areas: Market Knowledge & Access,
Client Knowledge, Depth of Staff, Technical Knowledge of Staff, Scope of Services, Account
Management, Communication, and Performance for a maximum score of 80.
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