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April 26, 2019

Q. Is the contractor to pay The Gordian Group a 6.25% for every task order received under this contract? Or is the 6.25% fee associated with task orders outside of Lake County for joint purchasing?
A.  No.  please refer to page 16; 18.0 Joint Purchasing Licensing, Section 18.1 &18.2.

Q. Is the contractor’s factor to include the 6.25% for bidding purposes?
A. No. The 6.25% fee for ezIQC joint purchasing projects will be included as a reimbursable task in the Price Proposal.

Q. Page 9 of the bid documents states the county has completed 175 Job Orders since 2009, what was the total value of the 175 Job Orders?
A. Approximately $34,700,000. 

Q. Does the 175 Job Orders include joint purchasing projects for other government agencies outside of Lake County?
A. No. This total is just for Lake County.

Q. What was the value of the joint purchasing projects outside of Lake County?
A. Lake County does not track projects outside of Lake County.

Q. The RFP calls for $2M/year Payment and Performance bond.  In order to reduce cost and provide the County with more competitive coefficients, will the County accept bonding each task order individually rather than carrying a $2M bond when we might not actually perform $2M/year worth of work?
A.  No, however any adjusts to reduce bonding will be handled throughout the term of the contract.

Q. The RFP requests adjustment factors for restricted environment.  Please clarify what “restricted environment” means.   Does this mean prisons, detention centers, secured areas, healthcare facilities etc.?
A. Please refer to page 12; Section 6.31

Q. We understand that the use of CTC catalog to perform work for Lake County is at no cost to the Contractor, however, if other entities wish to “piggy back” on the Lake County contract, then the Contractor must pay the Gordian Group 6.25% fee.  Please clarify.
A. The 6.25% fee is charged to other governmental entities for the use of County’s Job Order Contract.  It will be paid directly to Gordian.  It will be included in the Price Proposal as a reimbursable task.

Q. Section 18.0 Joint Purchasing Licensing, subsection 18.4 states “the contractor authorizes Lake County and the Consultant the use of the Contractor’s name, logos, trademarks, and Contractor provided materials in the presentation and promotion……”  Since parts of the provided material provided in response to this solicitation are considered confidential and proprietary, we ask that such confidential material be exempt for this requirement.  We will identify such confidential material in our proposal. 
A. Proposals are subject to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) once an award or final selection is made. Please refer to the FOIA statute, 5 ILCS 140/1 et seq., and specifically Section 7 therein, for explanation of information that may be redacted.  For example, information exempt from disclosure in response to a FOIA request includes but is not limited to: highly personal or objectionable information; trade secrets and commercial or financial information claimed as proprietary, privileged or confidential, the disclosure of which would cause your business competitive harm; valuable formulae, computer geographic systems, designs, drawings and research data when disclosure of the same would produce private gain or public loss; certain construction related technical documents; and information associated with automated data processing operations that, if disclosed, would jeopardize system or data security.

Q. General Conditions, Article I General Provisions, page 28, sub article 2. Architectural and Engineering Services states that incidental design is part of the of the adjustment factor.  Our interpretation of “incidental design” means casual assistance with scoping that does not require the involvement of licensed engineer or architect regardless if a stamped drawing is needed or not.
A. Incidental design may include the use of a licensed engineer or architect. If the Contractor is required to produce a full set of stamped drawings that is used as the Detailed Scope of Work, the Contractor will be reimbursed for the preparation of those stamped drawings. Anything else is considered to be incidental design.

Q. General Conditions, Article I General Provisions, page 28, sub article 2. Architectural and Engineering Services states that the preparation of drawings/plans are considered part of the adjustment factor.  We understand that “drawings/plans” referenced in this section means simple sketches that could be hand drawn to further clarify installations and it is not intended to be full-size design drawings/plans.  Please clarify
A. Yes, simple sketches that need to be drafted by hand or with computer aided drawing system i.e. AutoCAD or Bluebeam will be considered acceptable incidental architectural and engineering services and included in the Adjustment Factor. 

Q. Incidental design is part of the of the adjustment factor.  Our interpretation of “incidental design” means casual assistance with scoping that does not require the involvement of licensed engineer or architect regardless if a stamped drawing is needed or not.   Please confirm.
A. Incidental design may be required to provide scope detail on projects that do not require full set of stamped A/E drawings. Incidental design is a simple sketch drafted by hand, or with computer aid software from paper drawings or electronic files provided by the owner to finalize a detail scope of work.  

General Conditions, page 31 and 32, sub article 5 As-Built Drawings requires the contractor to keep a complete and accurate record of changes to infrastructure and changes must be neatly and correctly recoded daily on full size prints.

Q. Will the County be providing the contractor with full size, as-built drawings for the contractor to utilize or does the County expect the contractor to create these full-size drawings from scratch? 
A. In some cases depending on the detail scope of work requirements the Owner has 2D CAD or 3D RVT files that the will be provided to be updated for AS-Built conditions. In other cases, if the scope work requires Incidental drawings the contractor will be responsible for updating them for As-Built conditions. 

Q. If the contractor is to create these full-size drawings, will the cost be included in each job order price proposal?
A. Yes. If the county requires the Contractor to prepare full-size stamped drawings that is used as the Detailed Scope of Work, then the Contractor will be reimbursed for the cost of the stamped drawings as a reimbursable task in the Price Proposal.

Q. We understand the term “shop drawings” does not necessarily mean full-size drawings and in most cases, it is 11 x 17 size or smaller.  Please clarify.
A. The format and size of any required shop drawings will be determined on a Job Order-by-Job Order basis.

Q. General Conditions, page 36 item d. requires the contractor to provide supporting documents to indicate that adequate engineering has been done such as drawings and calculations. 
A. Correct, please refer to page 36; Article III Scope of Work and Procedure for Ordering Work   Section B, 5, d

Q. We understand this to mean that the contractor, at times, may be responsible for providing engineering design and the contractor should provide the supporting documents to prove adequate engineering has been done.  Under this scenario the County will compensate the contractor for such engineering costs.  No calculations, drawings or verification of adequate engineering is required if the contractor is not responsible for providing the engineering/planning.  Please clarify
A. If the Contractor is required to produce a full set of stamped drawings that is used as the Detailed Scope of Work, the Contractor will be reimbursed for the preparation of those stamped drawings. Anything else is considered to be incidental architectural and engineering services and included in the Adjustment Factor.

Q. General Conditions, page 39, Article IV Personnel states a suggested level and titles of key personnel.  We understand that these suggested titles and positions may not match each contractor’s internal JOC titles and position.  We understand that in the absence of the County committing to awarding each contractor $2M/year, the level of personnel may not match the suggested positions listed under this article.  We understand that the number of personnel the contractor will dedicate to the County JOC contract is highly dependent on the amount of work issued to the contractor and the contractor is responsible for providing the necessary number of personnel to manage the workload.  Please clarify.
A. Each awarded contractor shall list who they are assigning as their project manager, assistant project manager/estimator, project superintendent, and administrative assistant.  Clarification on staffing levels is found in Article IV Personnel, B. Personnel, 5. Staffing Levels.

Q. General Conditions, page 41, Article V Price Adjustment describes how the adjustment factors will be updated.  The methodology described which averages the previous 12 months CCI is mathematically flawed and will always produce updates that are not reflective of actual changes in construction costs.   A more accurate way of updating the adjustment factors is to only compare the CCI of the month the contract was awarded to the CCI of the month the option year is to be exercised.  Will the County consider changing the update methodology? 
A. No.

Q. The RFP states that the work under the resultant JOC contract is subject to prevailing wage rates for Lake County, Illinois.  We understand that the current prevailing rate of wages at the time of the award is the rate to be used for the one-year term of the contract regardless of how many updates that might be issued.   New wage rates will be utilized at the beginning of each option year.  Please clarify.
A. This Bid calls for the construction of a “public work,” within the meaning of the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act, 820 ILCS 130/.01 et seq. (“the Act”). The Act requires contractors and subcontractors to pay laborers, workers and mechanics performing services on public works projects no less than the current “prevailing rate of wages” (hourly cash wages plus amount for fringe benefits) in the county where the work is performed. The Department publishes the prevailing wage rates on its website at http://labor.illinois.gov/. The Department revises the prevailing wage rates and the contractor/subcontractor has an obligation to check the Department’s web site for revisions to prevailing wage rates. For information regarding current prevailing wage rates, please refer to the Illinois Department of Labor’s website. All contractors and subcontractors rendering services under this contract must comply with all
requirements of the Act, including but not limited to, all wage requirement and notice and record keeping duties.  

Q. Subcontractor forms requires bidders to list the names of subcontractors expected to be used on this contract and the amount to be awarded to each subcontractor.  Since this is an indefinite quantity indefinite delivery JOC contract with no actual scope of work at the time of this submittal, there is no way of knowing the amount to be awarded to each subcontractor.  Will TBD (To Be Determined) be an acceptable answer the dollar amount? 
A. Please identify key subcontractors that the contractor may use over the term of the contract.
 
 Q. Additionally, regarding page 65, Sustainability Statement.  Three lines is not enough to present “a clear description of your firm’s sustainable practices, policies, or procedures” regarding Sustainability.  Would it be compliant to attach additional pages or our firm’s complete Environmental Program?
 A. Yes.

 Q. Bid Bond Amount
 A. Please refer to page 13, Section 10.0 Bid Security and Section 13.0 Contractor Performance and Payment Bond, Sub Section 13.1 – 13.3
Page 25 Section 36.0 Contract Performance and Payment Bonds.