In a meeting light on drama, Santa Rosa Commission votes to clean up RFQ mess
With surprisingly little drama, the Santa Rosa County Commission voted unanimously without objection Thursday to institute a policy that it is hoped will clear up future confusion over how companies are judged as most qualified to perform a particular task on the county's behalf.
Under the new method of sorting through responses to the county's requests for qualifications, commissioners will have four options available from which to select a method for sorting through information turned in for review.
Under the first, staff will review all material under an established criteria and make a recommendation.
Option B will have the staff review all selections via a criteria and develop a short list of five companies that will make formal presentations to the county.
In option C, the staff will evaluate under a prepared criteria, provide scoring information to the commission and schedule formal presentations.
More: Santa Rosa Commission re-ranks bids for dispatch center to put local company first
Under option D, all qualified submitting companies will be requested to provide a presentation to the County Commission.
Also, moving forward the county will deploy a single two-round scoring option when considering bid proposals following a presentation made to the Board of County Commissioners.
That option has each member selecting their top three firms in round one, according to Assistant County Commissioner Brad Baker. The three firms with the highest score advance to round two of the scoring, wherein each member of the board will rank their top firm and the firm with the most top votes will come out on top.
The ranking of RFQ's is to blame for creating the most recent crisis for Santa Rosa County's governing board. At a July 27 meeting, Commissioner Sam Parker objected to what he suspected to be fellow Commissioner James Calkins' manipulation of the system to negatively impact one of five companies bidding for design and construction rights for a county consolidated dispatch center.
More: Santa Rosa embarks upon effort to build multi-million dollar consolidated dispatch center
Architect Design Group-Caldwell had finished ranked first or second among four of the five commissioners following July 13 presentations by five companies bidding for the dispatch center work. Calkins ranked the firm dead last.
The five scores for the Architect Design Group allowed Madison County-based Clemons Rutherford & Associates to achieve the highest rank by the rating system employed and, with no round two of scoring considered, receive the commission's initial nod to be the first choice for the project.
Parker suggested the board reconsider the bids and give Architect Design Group-Caldwell the opportunity to negotiate for the dispatch center work based on the fact three commissioners had voted that team as their No. 1 choice. Commissioner Kerry Smith and Commission Chairman Colten Wright joined him in voting to overturn the July 13 decision.
Calkins strenuously objected, but Parker cut him off.
"The fact that you ranked them dead last, No. 5. I'm not going to make innuendos or try to pretend I know your motivations, but some people shared with me they thought it was because they learned this firm was working on the Medical Examiner's Office and there was some rub between you and the former administrator," Parker said in response.
More: Santa Rosa Commissioners lose patience over Calkins' 'political grandstanding'
Wright also publicly questioned Calkins motives for ranking Architect Design Group-Caldwell lowest among the five competitors for the job.
Calkins was an outspoken critic of former County Administrator Dan Schebler, who resigned his position under fire in 2021 and later went on to work for the District One Medical Examiner's Office based in Escambia County.
At Monday's Commission of the Whole meeting, Calkins took his objections to the change in contractors to a new level when he accused Parker, along with Smith and Wright, of bid rigging.
More: Commissioner James Calkins accuses three fellow board members of bid rigging
"Commissioner Sam Parker brought this item to the agenda regarding modifying the bid proposal. I would say modifying is the same as rigging it for the company that the board felt should have won it the first time but didn't have the votes," Calkins said. "This absolutely stinks. It looks bad."
At Thursday's meeting, Calkins, who actually made the motion to create the new RFQ policy, said he was fine with the proposed changes, but wanted to address an allegation he said Parker had made about him "bringing down our institutions."
It was Parker, Calkins said, who had brought up proposal to change rankings after a top choice had been selected, and then "had the audacity to throw the staff under the bus" by criticizing the previous ranking methodology.
"I blame you Mr. Parker, for bringing this up without public notice and without backup documentation," he said.
"While I don't believe anything was illegal or unlawful," Calkins continued, amending his statements made Monday. "I do believe what happened on July 27 was unethical, dishonest and a betrayal to a company that won the bid on July 13."
Calkins went on to "advise" his fellow commissioners to stick with the new RFQ selection system the county staff had devised.
"Let's try our best to follow the system and judge a company based on the best job they do at the presentation and don't let other influences change your mind," he said.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Santa Rosa Commission seeks better way to judge requests for qualifications
