(WSB photo of city-owned grader doing snow-removal work 12/23/08)
As discussed during the post-Snowpocalypse ’08 debriefings, the city has promised to get more snow-removal backup lined up for future use. (Here’s our coverage of the January 6th hearing in which SDOT boss Grace Crunican revealed how little private help they actually summoned last December.) Toward that end, the city is now officially seeking proposals, due April 14, for private, on-call, on-retainer snow-removal help. So what are they looking for? Thinking it might make interesting reading on this snowflake-dotted day, we pulled a few excerpts – read on (or just go here to see the whole document):

The City seeks a vendor, or will award to a combination of vendors that when combined can provide the City access to at least 13 pieces of equipment. The City seeks any combination of road graders (with industry standard low-boy truck/trailer) or wheel loaders in order to together combine for at least 13 pieces of equipment among the awarded vendor(s). The vendor would also provide a skilled and licensed operator for each piece of equipment. The City intends to score most favorably those vendors that have a greater number of equipment available, although will consider proposals from vendors that have fewer pieces of equipment so that such vendors could be used in combination with other awards to meet the full need for 13 pieces of available equipment.

Right now, as noted later in the request for proposals, SDOT has “27 trucks that can be fitted with plows and/or sanders, and also two de-icer trucks.” As for how much private reinforcements would be paid to be on standby and potentially summed to action:

The City expects Proposers to seek an Annual Readiness Fee, a Mobilization Fee for each piece of equipment called into use, an hourly rate for each piece of equipment/operator that is called into service, a separate reimbursement for supplies/dump fees (unless rolled into the hourly rate), and a Supervisor rate. …

The City desires a Readiness Fee of no more than $50,000 a year, and requests Proposers to structure their costs accordingly. The City reserves the right to reject all Proposals that exceed a maximum threshold of either $50,000 or $75,000, depending on which threshold is found to be competitive upon evaluation of the responses received by the City.

The RFP adds:

The work may include, but is not limited to, snow plowing of streets, roads, parking lots and approaches, as specified, snow removal of accumulated snow as requested, sanding of de-icing services if requested by the City and mutually agreed with the Vendor, and other related miscellaneous services.

This may just be boilerplate but as part of The Media, we thought this part was interesting:

Publicity: The City will provide instructions to the Vendor about media inquiries, interview requests, or similar events. The Contract also contains provision that includes instructions on publicity.

And that was followed by these instructions:

Snow Management: Do not push snow onto islands that have shrubs or trees. Never push or pile snow into handicapped stalls, access aisles or ramps. Do not allow snow to pile so deeply by side of road that owners will not have access to their vehicles. Do not push piles near intersection. At no time shall the Vendor push, haul or dispose of snow into delineated wetland areas. Snow shall be removed to the outside edges of the shoulders to permit drainage for the road services, and to avoid blocking of drainage vents.

The contract would be for three years, with options for two 2-year extensions. Again, the full RFP document is here; other current city RFPs and other bidding opportunities are listed here.