0I. INVITATION

The City of Sunnyvale is seeking a qualified licensed environmental laboratory to provide routine analytical testing of water samples and special testing as required for nutrients, biological metals, non metals, organics and radio chemicals as specified herein. The contract award will be a one-year contract with option to renew for three (3) additional years should pricing and vendor performance under the contract remain acceptable to the City.

II. INSTRUCTIONS TO PROPOSERS

A. Preparation of Proposals - Proposals shall be made on the Proposal Pricing Pages included in this Request for Proposals. Proposer shall enter all requested information in the appropriate spaces. No oral, electronic, telephone or facsimile proposals will be accepted. All costs of proposal preparation shall be borne by the proposer.

B. Examination of Proposal Documents - The proposal documents consist of this request for proposal and its attachments and addenda, if any. Proposer shall thoroughly examine and be familiar with all proposal documents. Submission of a proposal shall constitute proposer’s acknowledgment upon which the City may rely that proposer has thoroughly examined and is familiar with the proposal documents. Failure or neglect of proposer to receive or examine all or part of the proposal documents shall in no way relieve it from any obligations with respect to this request for proposal or any resultant contract. No claim for additional compensation will be allowed which is based upon a lack of knowledge of any part of the proposal documents.

C. Conformance to Proposal Requirements - Proposal shall conform to the requirements of this Request for Proposal. All requested attachments shall be submitted with the completed Proposal Pricing Pages and in the designated format. Failure to comply with all requirements may result in proposal rejection.

D. Interpretation of Proposal Documents and Addenda - Should a proposer discover conflicts or ambiguity in the proposal specifications which require a decision or explanation, proposer may request an interpretation. Such a request shall be made in writing and delivered to the buyer identified on the cover page of this request for proposal no later than seven (7) days before the deadline for receipt of proposals. Every interpretation made to proposers will be in the form of an Addendum issued by the City. Addenda, if issued, will be sent as promptly as is practicable to all parties to whom proposal documents have been issued. All such Addenda will become part of the proposal documents and shall be binding in the same way as if originally written in the proposal documents. No alleged verbal decisions, interpretations, changes or modifications will be held binding on the City. Proposers shall acknowledge the receipt of Addenda on the Proposal Pricing Pages.

E. Submission of Proposal - Proposer shall submit completed Proposal Pricing Pages, together with any requested attachments or explanatory materials, prior to the time and date set for receiving proposals as stated on the cover page of this request for proposal any modifying Addenda. The proposer shall submit one original and three (3) duplicates for a total of four sets of proposals. Proposals shall be delivered in a sealed envelope clearly marked with the applicable bid number addressed to:

Purchasing Office

City Hall Annex

650 West Olive Avenue

PO Box 3707

Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3707

F. Proposal Modifications - A modification of a proposal already received will be considered only if the modification is received prior to the deadline for receipt of proposals. All modifications shall be clearly identified as such and shall be made in writing, executed and submitted in the same form and manner as the original proposal. Oral modifications shall not be considered.

G. Withdrawal of Proposals - Any proposer may withdraw its proposal by giving written notice to the City at the place such proposals are to be received at any time prior to the deadline for receipt of proposals. After the deadline for the receipt of proposals and until contract execution, no proposer will be permitted to withdraw its proposal for any reason unless contract execution is delayed due to acts of the City for a period exceeding sixty (60) calendar days after the deadline for receipt of proposals.

H. Late Proposals - Proposer shall be responsible for the timely delivery of proposals. Failure to submit proposal to the City prior to the time and date last announced for receipt of proposals will result in proposal rejection, regardless of circumstances.

I. Non-Collusion Certification - By submitting a proposal, proposer is certifying that it has not directly or indirectly been collusive with any other proposer in the preparation and submission of the proposal. If at any time it shall be found that the proposer to whom a contract has been awarded has, in presenting the proposal, colluded with any other party or parties, said proposer shall be liable to the City for all loss or damage which the City has or may suffer as the result of the collusive activity, including, but not limited to, the cost of advertising and awarding a new contract.

K. Proposal Evaluation - Factors which will be considered during bid evaluation include, but are not limited to:

1. Compliance with proposal format requirements;

2. Proposer’s ability, capacity, experience and skill to perform the contract in accordance with proposal specifications;

3. Proposer’s record of performance under prior contracts with the City and others;

4. Price.

The evaluation criteria and weighting system are listed in Attachment B. Prior to contract award, each proposer being considered shall provide for access by the City to audit its laboratory to assure that the necessary capability, capacity, and quality assurance/quality control exist to provide the specified laboratory services. At that time, the City will hold a formal interview of laboratory staff members regarding policies and procedures. If a substantial problem, inconsistencies with stated equipment, procedures, or policies, or lack of infrastructure to meet the City’s work load is found during this audit, the audit team may recommend not awarding the contract.

L. Contract Award - Contract award will be made to one or more proposers whose proposals are determined to be the most advantageous for the City.

M. Contract Documents - Contract documents will consist of this request for proposals, its attachment(s) and addenda, if any; the successful proposer’s signed proposal; and a Service Agreement executed by both parties.

N. Reservations - The City reserves the right to:

1. Postpone the date and time announced for receipt of proposals by issuance of an Addendum at any time prior to the deadline for receipt of proposals;

2. Reject any proposal that is conditional in any way or that contains erasures or irregularities of any kind, items not called for, items not in conformity with applicable law, changes, additions, alternate proposals, or any other modifications of the proposal form which are not in accordance with the proposal documents;

3. Make such investigations as deemed necessary to determine the ability of proposer to perform the specified services;

4. Reject any proposal if the evidence submitted by or investigation of the proposer or City’s past experience with proposer under another contract fails to satisfy the City that the proposer is properly qualified to successfully perform the obligations of the contract;

5. Reject any or all proposals and to waive any informality in any proposal;

6. Determine the proposal(s) most advantageous to the City;

7. Consider proposals for a period of sixty (60) days following the deadline for receipt of proposals before deciding which proposal or proposals, if any, to accept.

8. Make multiple awards for groups of testing services to different proposers if it is in the City’s best interest to do so.

III. SPECIFICATIONS

The contract will be awarded for a one-year term with the option for the City of Sunnyvale to renew for up to three (3) additional years, should pricing and vendor performance under this contract remain acceptable to the City.

Background – Environmental testing and analyses are requested by the City of Sunnyvale for purposes of compliance with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), Industrial Pretreatment Program, Resource conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and special projects. The City of Sunnyvale is required to perform a multitude of analytical tests to insure compliance with Federal, State and Local regulations. The complexity of testing, specialized equipment requirements, and sampling requirements are continually increasing.

C. Scope of Work – The scope of services are to conduct environmental testing and analyses as requested by the City of Sunnyvale for purposes of compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The successful proposer shall, to the satisfaction of the Director of Public Works and as may be requested by the Director from time to time, provide the following services as specified below:

Each individual analysis report shall include the following:

Chain of custody as submitted plus subcontractor’s chain of custody, if applicable.

Data from analyses of samples collected for compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act and under the applicable California Department of Health Services (DHS) rules shall be submitted on the appropriate DHS forms in addition to the successful proposer’s standard reporting form.

The successful proposer shall be responsible and liable for written communication of any miscalculation or error in analytical results to the City's Project Manager or designee. The successful proposer shall reissue, at its own expense, corrected hard copies and computer electronic copies as necessary. All reissued reports shall be labeled "revised" and include an explanation of the revision in the cover letter. Errors covered by this paragraph include, but are not limited to, operator error; equipment malfunction; excessive holding time; out of control results or any other quality control exception; and laboratory contamination in ambient air, glassware, standards, reagents, or equipment that could impact the quality or validity of the analytical results.

The City has the right to enforce penalties for late sample results. A one percent (1%) per day penalty per report may be charged to the successful proposer for each day that delivery of the written report(s) and/or electronic data exceed the above specified delivery times. The successful proposer will be held liable for penalties for all late analyses, including subcontracted analyses. Fines or penalties levied against the City of Sunnyvale by the State or Federal government due to late submittal of analyses results that are the result of the successful proposer exceeding the above specified delivery times shall be paid by the successful proposer.

Because of the potential for litigation involved with these samples, the successful proposer shall retain all samples for at least thirty (30) days after the postmarked date of final analysis report. These samples are still subject to chain of custody procedures until final disposal. The City reserves the right to retrieve the sample(s) during the retention time or to request an extension of the retention time, if necessary.

The successful proposer shall not disclose data or disseminate the contents of the final or any preliminary report without express written permission of the City of Sunnyvale.

The successful proposer shall maintain the integrity of the City’s samples at all times.

D. Proposer Responsibilities - The successful proposer shall, as part of this contract provide the following services/materials:

Transportation - The successful proposer shall provide for delivery of sample bottles or containers and pickup of samples to and from the City. Field samples shall be picked up as needed, but generally will be on a pre-established date between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The City will notify the successful proposer at least twenty-four (24) hours prior to the requested sample pickup time. The successful proposer shall pick up samples within twenty-four (24) hours of the City’s request. Fecal coliform samples shall be picked up within four (4) hours of the City’s request. The successful proposer shall deliver sample bottles no later than seventy-two (72) hours after the City’s request. The successful proposer shall provide all necessary shipping containers and "blue ice" to cool samples, upon request.

Sample Control - Any sample or trip blank received by the successful proposer in unacceptable condition or rendered unacceptable for analyses while in successful proposer’s possession shall be reported to the City’s Project Manager or designee within twenty-four (24) hours of loss of sample.

The City reserves the right to recover cost of resampling due to successful proposer’s error or failure to maintain sample integrity. Resampling required due to error or failure to maintain sample integrity by the successful proposer shall be billed to the successful proposer at the rate of the City’s cost plus standard overhead cost or $100, whichever is greater. Trip blanks rendered unacceptable while in the possession of the successful proposer shall result in a fifty percent (50%) reduction in the analyses fee for the accompanying field samples.

Holding Times - The successful proposer shall notify the City’s Project Manager or designee immediately on discovery that holding time(s) have been exceeded so that resampling can take place. The decision on analyses of such samples will be made upon notification. The City reserves the right to recover cost of resampling due to the successful proposer’s failure to meet sample holding times, provided that the successful proposer has had possession of the sample for at least fifty percent (50%) of the sample's holding time. The exception to this would be coliform samples where the successful proposer will only be liable if the successful proposer was not notified of sample pick up within two (2) hours of the time of the sampling. Resampling will be billed to the successful proposer at the rate of the City’s cost plus standard overhead cost or $100, whichever is greater.

E. City’s Responsibilities

Proficiency Samples – At the City’s discretion, and no more than twice per year, the successful proposer shall perform, at no cost to the City of Sunnyvale, analyses of Double Blind Proficiency Test samples for those analyses routinely requested by the City. The City of Sunnyvale will purchase and arrange for proficiency sample delivery.

The successful proposer shall submit a QAQC report on deficiencies and corrections associated with the above proficiency samples on an individual sampling period basis. The successful proposer may be required to analyze a second set of proficiency samples at its own cost should it fail to analyze the initial set within acceptable QA/QC limits. Failure of the laboratory to analyze and report results within acceptable QA/QC limits may result in cancellation of the contract.

F. Proposer Qualifications

Analyses required must conform to all State and/or Federally-mandated requirements. Laboratories performing such tests must meet and adhere to California Department of Health Services (CDHS) Environmental laboratory Accreditation Program requirements as defined under Chapter 19 of Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations.

Where specified, analyses must meet Minimum Levels (MLs) of detection for use in reporting and compliance determination purposes in accordance with Section 2.4 of State Water Resources Control Board Policy for Implementation of Toxics Standards, for Inland Surface Waters, Enclosed Bays, and Estuaries of California.

2. State of California Certification/Environmental Protection Agency Approvals - The successful proposer and any and all subcontractors must be accredited by the State of California Department of Health Services, Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program for all requested analyses for the duration of the contract. To be considered, each proposer shall meet the laboratory accreditation requirements as stipulated in the California Code of Regulations, Title 22, Chapter 19, Articles 1-14 and shall submit copies of such certificates and those of its subcontractors with its proposal.

The successful proposer shall provide copies of certification to the City upon contract extension, and shall provide to the City notification of any change of certificate status, censure, fine, revocation, or any investigation by any certification agency, including the California Department of Health Services or the Environmental Protection Agency, within twenty-four (24) hours of notification.

The WS and WP proficiency results and response letters from 1997 to present shall be submitted with the proposal as well as copies of any audit reports by California DHS/ELAP or EPA and associated responses and resolution from 1997 to the present.

Laboratory Services and Analytical Requirements - All analyses shall be based on current and future Federal and California Department of Health Services approved test methods for drinking water, waste water and hazardous waste. The successful proposer shall meet detection limits required by Local, State and Federal regulations. Each proposer and any and its subcontractors shall submit a copy of its Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) manual with its proposal. The manual(s) shall provide details about the successful proposer’s and subcontractor’s procedures concerning:

• Sample preservation, holding times, and sample containers used
• Chain of custody procedures sample receipt and tracking
• Review and reporting of results
• Laboratory record keeping procedures
• Organizational chart of laboratory management
• Maintenance and calibration of instruments
• Use of standard reference materials in analyses
• Internal QC program
• Corrective action of QC problems
• Determination of method detection limits (Refer to 40 CFR 136, Appendix B, as revised)
• Detection limit for purposes of reporting (DLR) and practical quantification limits (PQL).
• Sample bottle preparation and QC testing program
• Resumes of key laboratory personnel
• Copy of CDHS ELAP certification listing approved parameters.
• Describe use of and procedures for data flags/qualifiers

Quality control tests and checks for precision, accuracy and control of method shall be conducted on a ten percent (10%) basis, or per each batch if less than ten (10) samples are submitted. The successful proposer shall provide, as part of its quality control, all calibration curves and check sample data. A full description of any anticipated or realized problem areas shall be communicated to the City’s Project Manager or designee prior to analyses of any sample so that appropriate corrective action can be coordinated. Analytical or sample problems encountered subsequent to the analyses of any sample shall also be immediately communicated via telephone or telefax to the City’s Project Manager or designee, followed by written communication with the sample results. Results indicating exceedance of SDWA MCLs and/or triggers and NPDES permit limits and/or triggers shall be immediately communicated via telephone or telefax to the City’s Project Manager or designee, followed by written communication with the sample results. All verbal and written notification about results that are not final shall include designation as "preliminary" and documentation of QA/QC issues, as appropriate. Samples analyzed outside of the specified QA/QC without prior consent by the City shall not be invoiced and paid.

5. Project Manager

All correspondence dealing with issues related to work completed under this contract shall be directed to the City’s Project Manager or designee.

These names and addresses of the City’s Project Manager(s) will be announced at the time of contract execution.

The successful proposer shall provide a laboratory project manager to act as liaison to the City. This person must be designated and shall be responsible for all City of Sunnyvale work under this contract.

IV. TERMS AND CONDITIONS

A. Nomenclature

b. "Purchase order", "contract" and "agreement".

1. "Services", "work", and "project".

1. "The City" refers to the City of Sunnyvale, California.

1. Invoicing – Invoices shall be issued both in hard copy and electronically. Individual hard copy laboratory reports shall include a separate invoice. The invoice shall include the following information:Invoice number, accession number, date of invoice, customer number, project name, authorization name, PO number, LLSID number (project number), date samples received, test description with EPA method, quantity, price, surcharge, test total, and remit amount.

C. Insurance Requirements - Contractor shall obtain, at its own expense and from an admitted insurer authorized to operate in California, the insurance coverage detailed below and shall submit Certificate(s) of Insurance to the City of Sunnyvale, Purchasing Division, 650 West Olive Ave, PO Box 3707, Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3707; fax (408) 730-7710.

• Protection against claims arising from bodily and personal injury and damage to property, resulting from Contractor's or City's operations and use of owned or non-owned vehicles.

• The policy must cover complete contractual liability. Exclusions of contractual liability as to bodily injuries, personal injuries and property damage must be eliminated.

V. INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETION OF PROPOSER RESPONSE PAGES

A. Entries on Proposal Pricing Pages - All entries shall be printed in ink or shall be typewritten.

B. Corrections - Corrections shall be initialed in ink by the person signing the proposal.

C. Proposal Pricing – Proposal pricing shall be complete, including all costs for labor, supervision, methods or processes, implements, tools, machinery, equipment, transportation and materials as required to complete the work in accordance with specifications.

D. Additional Information - All requested information must be provided. If necessary, proposer may attach additional sheets clearly cross referenced to the applicable item number. However, unnecessarily lengthy responses are discouraged.

E. Addenda - Proposer shall indicate the number and date of all addenda received by proposer.

F. Signature - Proposal shall be signed by an authorized representative of proposer.

G. Attachments - Proposer shall submit the following attachments with the Proposer Response Pages:

Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) – Proposer shall submit a statement of qualifications document as part of its proposal. This document, which should have a one-page cover letter plus a maximum length of ten (10) pages, shall address the proposer qualification section of proposal specifications (Section IIIF.), and should include copies of licenses and certificates, copies of QA/QC manual, DHS reporting forms, CDHS audit results and responses and any other proposer qualification documentation as specified. See Attachment C for complete requirements.