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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 Page 1 of 7 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. Page 2 of 7 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. Page 3 of 7 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 Page 4 of 7 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? Page 5 of 7 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? Page 6 of 7 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. Page 7 of 7