During a work session held by the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, March 10, the commissioners discussed the option of potentially reissuing a request for proposal (RFP) for the county’s community plan update project.
The RFP for the community plan update initially opened on Feb. 5 and closed on March 9.
During the work session, County Manager Longinos Gonzalez explained that a total of three proposals had been received for the project and that the county would begin the review process.
Commissioner Veronica Medina mentioned that, during the county’s community forum hosted on Feb. 17, it was brought up that “potentially there was a group of citizens that have the experience and knowledge of how to do a community plan, but because of the way the RFP was written they were not able to submit an RFP for that.”
Medina then asked if there was any “desire” from the other commissioners to potentially put out another RFP that does not include the requirement for applicants to have done a community plan before.
Medina noted that she was not suggesting one particular group of people, but that the BoCC and county manager could possibly put a group together, “so we can have a well-rounded group to do it.”
Medina mentioned that it might be more work “on the front end,” but that by selecting a local group of constituents, the county might end up saving money on the project, and that having local community experience and knowledge “would be a great insight.”
Medina also commented that having local insight would be more helpful in creating an “effective” community plan, rather than a company out of Denver or some other metropolitan area across the country.
“I like your idea, actually,” Commissioner John Ranson said in response to Medina’s comments.
Ranson also noted that he had previously brought up the idea of having someone local put together the community plan rather than an outside group “coming in and telling us how the community should be developed.”
Ranson then indicated that he is excited for the county’s new director of development to start and that he’d like for them to help on this project.
“I’m all about potentially saving some money on it, too,” Ranson added, noting it would be an “advantage” to have more local knowledge involved in the community plan update.
Commissioner Warren Brown commented that it is not a “hard no” from him.
“But, I think that it needs to be done right,” he said.
Gonzalez referred to County Attorney Cathleen Giovannini asking if the county would first need to reject the bids it has already received before going back and opening up the process again to allow for locals to apply.
Brown mentioned that the county has to follow certain requirements in the RFP process, but that if it is opened up again for locals, he would want to include in the RFP that applicants show “qualifications they could get the job done.”
Giovannini explained that processes need to be followed and her guess is that would require completing the current round of RFPs.
She noted the BoCC can always make other decisions such as deciding to not accept any of the RFPs already received.
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