Department of Human Services

MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
RFP NUMBER SSA/RCC-19-001-S
RESIDENTIAL CHILD CARE PROGRAMS
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2019
10:30 A.M.
Enoch Pratt Free Library
Wheeler Auditorium
400 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, Maryland
PRESENT FROM MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES:
ARDENA M. WALKER, Program Manager
Contracts and Monitoring Unit, SSA
DEBBIE MARINI, Director, Placement and Permanency
Social Services Administration
DAVID AYER, Deputy Executive Director
Operations, SSA
KENNETH L. JESSUP, Program Manager, Hiring
Agreements, Family Investment Administration
ARETHA ECTOR, Assistant Attorney General
SANDRA JOHNSON, Director of Procurement
NIA GRAVES, Procurement Specialist
RICHARD MASON, IV, Supervisor
Contracts and Monitoring Unit, SSA
PRESENT FROM MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES:
SANG KANG, Procurement Officer
ANDRE J. THOMAS, Program Manager
Office of Licensing and Monitoring (OLM)
HELEN MURRAY-MILLER, Quality Assurance/
Data Management, OLM
REPORTED BY: DEBORAH B. GAUTHIER, Notary Public

2
1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 MR. KANG: Good morning. Today is -- welcome
3to the pre-proposal conference for the Residential
4Child Care Programs RFP. My name is Sang Kang, and
5today we will be presenting information about the
6Request for Proposals, and we will also be trying to
7answer any questions that you may have about the RFP.
8If you have not already done so, please make sure that
9you sign in outside, and when you are signing in please
10indicate whether you are a Minority Business Enterprise
11or a Small Business Enterprise.
12 Please note that the court reporter will be
13transcribing the event, so when you ask questions, we
14are going to have a microphone go around. Just please
15make sure you state your name and your company for the
16record. The transcript of -- a transcript of this
17conference will be -- will be made available on
18eMaryland Marketplace Advantage and also the DHS
19website. So I'd like to begin the conference with
20introductions. We're going to have Henry and Danny go
21around with the mics so everybody can introduce
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1themselves. I think -- I was expecting more people, so
2I think everybody can introduce themselves, so just
3please state your name and your organization, and,
4also, if you're an MBE or VSBE -- please let us know if
5you're an MBE or VSBE and you can give a description of
6the type of services that you provide. Okay. I guess
7we'll start over here.
8 MR. BERRY: Rufus Berry, DHS Procurement.
9 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi, I'm Jacqueline
10(indiscernible).
11 MR. JESSUP: Good morning. My name is
12Kenneth Jessup. I'm here as the Program Manager for
13Hiring Agreements Programs.
14 MS. ECTOR: Aretha Ector, Assistant Attorney
15General, DHS.
16 MS. JOHNSON: Sandy Johnson, Director of
17Procurement for DHS.
18 MR. CORNHEY: Simon Cornhey, Office of the
19Attorney General, DHS.
20 MS. WIMBISH: Sharone Wimbish, Contract
21Monitor, Social Services Administration.
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1 MS. ROSETTE: Londa Rosette, Contract
2Monitor, SSA.
3 MS. DUNN: Beatrice Dunn, Gibbs Place, LLC.
4 MR. MADDEN: Nathaniel Madden, SSA
5Operations.
6 MS. KOLLEH: Christie Kolleh, Program
7Manager, Community Options.
8 MS. PEREZ: Chloe Perez, Hearts and Homes for
9Youth.
10 MR. CLEMENT: Paul Clement, Hearts and Homes
11for Youth.
12 MS. HAYES: Hi. I'm Melanie Geddings Hayes,
13Hearts and Homes for Youth.
14 MS. TETREAULT: Hi. I'm Kathryn Tetreault
15with (indiscernible).
16 MR. BUCHDAHL: Ezra Buchdahl, Catholic
17Charities, St. Vincent's Villa.
18 MR. MASON: Richard Mason, Social Services
19Administration, Contracts and Monitoring Supervisor.
20 MR. EDUFUL: Samuel Eduful, Contracts and
21Monitoring, DHS.
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1 MS. FROST: Shilda Frost, Second Family.
2 MS. THOMAS: Dovia Thomas, Second Family.
3 MR. LABULE: Joseph Labule, Second Family.
4 MR. FLEMMONS: David Flemmons, Second Family.
5 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Aquan (indiscernible).
6 MS. EBY: Hi. I'm Beth Eby, COO of Creative
7Options.
8 MS. CARTER: Pamela Carter (indiscernible).
9 MR. DOKA: Mohammed Doka, NCCF.
10 MR. OKHOMINA: Omore Okhomina, National
11Center for Children and Families.
12 AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Indiscernible).
13 MR. TEASLEY: Isaiah Teasley, Program
14Director, Bridgeway.
15 MS. BRITT: Elizabeth Britt from Britt's
16Industries. I'm an MBE and I'm certified for
17commercial printing.
18 MR. FORD: John Ford with the Arc of
19Washington County, Incorporated in Hagerstown.
20 MR. DINGLE: Good morning. Zachary Dingle,
21Executive Director of Jumoke.
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1 MS. MCGLOTHLIN-RENAULT: Jennifer McGlothlin-
2Renault, Arrow Child and Family Ministries, Vice
3President of Maryland Operations.
4 MR. BASLER: Robert Basler, Arrow Child and
5Family Ministries.
6 MR. PRUETT: Jay Pruett, Arrow Child and
7Family Ministries.
8 MS. RIDGLEY: Nikeya Ridgley, Ardmore
9Enterprises.
10 MS. POWELL: Karen Powell, Maryland State
11Department of Education.
12 MR. HUBNER: Louis Hubner, Controller at The
13Children's Guild.
14 MS. FRIES: Allisa Fries, Children's Guild.
15 MS. FURMAN: Janet Furman, Department of
16Health, Developmental Disabilities Administration.
17 MS. ANDERSON: Lisa Anderson with the
18Children's Guild.
19 MR. HOWE: Steve Howe with Children's Guild.
20 MR. MCNEIL: Walter McNeil, Challengers
21Independent Living.
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1 MR. BAIRD: Bobby Baird, Board of Child Care.
2 MS. SMITH: Good morning. Nicole Smith,
3Board of Child Care.
4 MS. BERGER: Kelly Berger, Board of Child
5Care.
6 MS. JOHNSON: Danielle Johnson, Inner County
7Outreach.
8 MR. COOPER: Andre Cooper, The Children's
9Home.
10 MS. REID: Nicky Reid, The Children's Home.
11 MS. LUCAS: Yvette Lucas, The Children's
12Home.
13 MS. SHATZER: Paula Shatzer, Cedar Ridge
14Children's Home.
15 MR. BADLEY: Tom Badley, Cedar Ridge.
16 AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Indiscernible) Central
17Office, Procurement Supervisor.
18 MR. THOMAS: Andre Thomas, DHS, Office of
19Licensing and Monitoring.
20 AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Indiscernible) DHS, Office
21of Licensing and Monitoring.
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1 MS. BULLUCK: Odetta Bulluck, Office of
2Licensing and Monitoring.
3 MR. OYEFUSI: Good morning. Tunji Oyefusi,
4Innovative Services.
5 MR. MCCOURT: Paul McCourt, Innovative
6Services.
7 MS. MCCABE: Jennifer McCabe, Office of
8Licensing and Monitoring.
9 MS. MURRAY-MILLER: Helen Murray-Miller,
10Office of Licensing and Monitoring.
11 MS. SPARROW: Patricia Sparrow, Office of
12Licensing and Monitoring.
13 MS. JARVIS: Kisah Jarvis, Office of
14Licensing and Monitoring.
15 MS. CHAPMAN: Sheryl Brissett Chapman, The
16National Center for Children and Families.
17 MR. AYER: Hi, everyone. David Ayer, Social
18Services Administration.
19 MS. MARINI: Good morning, everyone. Debbie
20Marini, Director of Placement and Permanency, SSA.
21 MS. WALKER: Ardena Walker, Program Monitor,
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1SSA Contracts and Monitoring.
2 MR. KANG: Okay. Thank you. Today to make
3opening remarks is David Ayer, who is Deputy Executive
4Director of SSA.
5 (Whereupon, there were comments off the
6record.)
7 MR. AYER: Welcome, everyone. Welcome to our
8providers and various State representatives. Really
9glad to have the group together today. I don't think
10anyone's arrived mistakenly to this pre-proposal
11conference for the RCC's RFP.
12 I wanted to just briefly review that we're
13focusing on several kinds of placement services that we
14very much need to have for our foster children; group
15homes, high intensity group homes, therapeutic group
16home programs. We have programs for the
17developmentally disabled; we have diagnostic evaluation
18and treatment programs, as well as some recent
19additions over the last year, year-and-a-half, two
20years maybe, the high intensity group home services
21that are serving the commercially sexually exploited,
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1as well as those with emotional and cognitive
2developmental disabilities. And so we have a broad
3range of needs that continue to need to be met as we
4move forward. We have, as you know and as reflected
5somewhat in the RFP, itself, some core principles that
6we're espousing and trying harder and harder with,
7through our own efforts and, obviously, through
8emphasis of our federal partners, on placing only when
9necessary in these special kinds of placement services
10so that we have the right services being matched to the
11needs of the children for whom they're designed. You
12know, we're shifting as we go along, paying more
13attention to trauma-informed services, family
14involvement, as we continue to work with these children
15and youth, even though they're in group home kinds of
16settings, and being as community-based as we can be --
17well, actually, very community-based in all the other
18facets of the lives of children who live in the homes.
19 I'll also just make a brief pitch for what's
20to come, in terms of modernization. A lot of my time
21lately has been focused on modernizing information
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1systems and we do envision a future. I can't say I
2have it in hand right this very moment, but always
3having the hope of reaching this vision of being able
4to have a decent kind of collaboration and data sharing
5be able to take place between the providers and the
6State agency, the Social Services Administration, in
7relation to serving our children and our families. And
8there are the beginnings of a portal that we're going
9to -- a portal that is being developed and will provide
10a conduit for us to have various kinds of exchanges and
11data sharing that will be appropriate to serving the
12needs of the children and families that we have. So,
13like I said, it's not quite entirely in hand just yet,
14but we're going to continue to aim for that as we go
15along.
16 This RFP was issued on November 4th, and it
17will be -- proposals will be due by two o'clock on
18February 6th, 2020, next year. A lot of questions have
19been received and are being answered, and the
20clarifications will continue to be made, particularly
21following feedback and questions from today's meeting.
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1And so I really wanted to welcome you again. Thank you
2so much for serving the children with all the love,
3care, and, very importantly, the expertise and
4professional services that you provide for each of
5these children and that each of these children deserve
6as they move through their lives. And so we're very
7appreciative of all the efforts that you and the folks
8that you hire to help take care of these children and
9help them thrive as they go through this what's
10supposed to be a temporary experience of foster care
11and we all work together to try to achieve that for
12these children. So without further ado, the next part
13would be to hand over to Sang, and thank you -- thank
14you again. And I'll send this back over here.
15 MR. KANG: Thank you, David. Okay. Now I
16will present Section 1 of the RFP. I know the agenda
17states that we are going to have two sets of questions,
18but we're just going to hold off questions till the end
19and we're going to go through each section of the RFP
20first.
21 So Section 1 is Offeror Minimum
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1Qualifications, and I'll go quickly. For the following
2programs, Developmentally Disabled, Diagnostic
3Evaluation and Treatment Program, Group Home, High
4Intensity Group Home, Therapeutic Group Home, and
5Medically Fragile, you must be in good standing with
6the appropriate licensing agency and have a current,
7valid Maryland license to provide residential child
8care services. As proof of meeting this requirement,
9you need to submit a copy of the current license with
10your proposal.
11 For High Intensity Group Home Services-
12Commercially Sexually Exploited and High Intensity
13Group Home Services-Emotional and Cognitive
14Developmentally Disabled, the Offeror needs to have a
15Maryland license to provide these services by the time
16of recommendation for award, and you need to submit a
17copy of a Letter of Intent to OLM expressing interest
18in obtaining a license to provide either CSE or ECDD
19services.
20 So we have one preferred qualification for
21this RFP, and I know that there are some questions
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1about it, but just please wait till the end and we'll
2try to answer them. The preferred qualification is to
3be accredited as a Qualified Residential Treatment
4Program or QRTP, and you would have to be certified or
5accredited by any of the following three bodies, which
6are Council on Accreditation, Commission on
7Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, and the
8Joint Commission on Accreditation on Health Care
9Organizations, so -- and if you have that
10accreditation, please submit it with your Proposal.
11And so those are the minimum and preferred
12qualifications for this RFP. To present the Scope of
13Work will be Ardena Walker, who is the Program Manager
14at SSA. Ardena.
15 (Whereupon, there were comments off the
16record.)
17 MS. WALKER: Good morning. Okay. Contractor
18Requirements: Scope of Work. Sang just went through
19the programs that were -- that this Proposal is for.
20Technical Proposals must be submitted in accordance
21with Section 5.3 of your RFP. All services provided to
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1the children shall be provided in the IRC budget/rate.
2The Department will also only pay for the rate
3established by the IRC. Offerors can -- directly or
4through its subcontractors must be able to provide all
5goods and services and meet all of the requirements. A
6contract award with the State does not insure any State
7business.
8 For the Background and Scope (sic), DHS
9oversees the administration of Child Welfare Services
10in the State of Maryland. Also under the Scope, the
11focus of Place Matters and the Families First
12Prevention Services Act is to shift the foster care
13population in the family settings. The Department
14intends to enter into performance-based contracts with
15multiple RCC providers, and the geographical areas are
16on page five of your RFP. If you don't have the RFP,
17it would be the Southern Maryland region, Central
18Maryland, Western Maryland, D.C. Metro, Eastern Shore,
19and Baltimore City. Baltimore City is considered a
20part of the Central region.
21 Services provided by RCC programs must be
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1appropriate to the age, gender, sexual orientation,
2cultural heritage, and the developmental and functional
3level of children. Sang went through the eight program
4categories that this solicitation is intended to
5solicit providers for. Those, again, are the
6Developmentally Disabled Program; the Diagnostic
7Evaluation and Treatment Program; the Group Home
8Program; High Intensity Group Home Program; Therapeutic
9Group Home Program; Medically Fragile; High Intensity
10Group Home Services for Commercially Sexually
11Exploited; High Intensity Group Home Program Services-
12Emotional and Cognitive Developmentally Disabled.
13 The Department intends to award a number of
14contracts as may be necessary to meet the projected
15number of beds needed for each program, taking into
16consideration the gender and age of the children in a
17geographical region. The chart -- there's a chart on
18page seven of the RFP that describes the estimated
19Department needs for RCC services per program. And
20please note that the number of beds in the chart may
21change. And the chart that I'm referencing is figure
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1four on page seven. The Department can also not make
2any promises about referrals or the number of referrals
3that any provider will receive. Technical factors will
4be given greater weight than the Financial factors.
5 Under General Requirements, Contractors must
6possess and maintain a current, valid Maryland RCC
7license and remain in good standing with the
8appropriate licensing agencies, and those agencies are
9listed in Section 2.2.10 of the RFP. The RCC must
10operate in the State of Maryland. It must be open 24
11hours a day, 365 days per year, and have 24-hour awake
12overnight staff. The RCC must comply with all
13applicable State and federal laws, regulations, DHS
14policies, standards, and guidelines, and also remain
15abreast of and comply with any current and new or
16revised laws, regulations, or DHS policies.
17 The Contractor must also maintain a policy
18and procedures manual describing in detail your
19philosophy and your approach to care and delivery, and
20it also must include the Maryland DHS IPM and Ready by
2121 initiatives. The RCC must comply with the Scope of
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1Work. It must develop a Behavior Management Plan that
2employs positive behavior interventions. It must also
3plan, facilitate, and coordinate all preventive,
4routine, and emergency medical, mental health, and
5dental care services; arrange for and insure that each
6child -- each school-age resident attends an
7educational or vocational program; insure that the
8Program's residential care workers are certified by the
9State Board for the Certification of Residential Child
10Care Program Professionals.
11 Under Staffing, you must maintain a Board of
12Directors, employ a significant number of RCYCPs, and,
13again, that's an acronym that's kind of new to me as
14well, but that would be Residential Child Care Program
15Professionals. Identify the Certified Program
16Administrator who is considered under this solicitation
17to be Key Personnel. For QRTP providers, identify
18registered or licensed nursing and clinical staff who
19provide care within the scope of the practice, and they
20would be considered Key Personnel. Based on the level
21of care, insure that there are at least two persons,
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1excluding volunteers and staff not providing direct
2care and supervision, present and on duty in the
3facility at all times when a resident is present in the
4facility. And I want to just make the note, because
5there's been I think one set of questions published,
6that the requirement that at least two staff persons be
7present and on duty in the facility at all times
8applies even if the -- if there are more staff present
9and on duty at the facility than otherwise required by
10the minimum resident to staff ratios provided. You
11need to insure that staff receives appropriate
12orientation and ongoing training, and that means insure
13that all staff receive 40 hours of initial and 40 hours
14of annual training, and that you maintain training
15records, including the names and credentials of
16trainers.
17 And under Cultural and Linguistic Competence,
18Contractors shall insure that all staff persons who
19come in contact with the child are aware of and
20sensitive to the child's cultural, ethnic, and
21linguistic differences, which may include -- or which
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1does include hearing-impaired children. All costs for
2these services shall be included in your IRC rate.
3 The Intake and Admission, accept all
4referrals 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that are
5made in accordance with the provider's profile; have a
6no reject policy on the identified needs in the RFP;
7insure that children reside in quarters with persons of
8their own age groups, and the suggested age groups are
914 through 17 and 18 through 21.
10 For providers who have multiple site
11locations, as it relates to moving children, children
12shall not move -- Contractors shall not move a child to
13another site location without prior written notice to
14and written consent from the local case worker, and
15that notice can be given via fax, mail, e-mail, or
16hand-delivery to the local case worker of your intent,
17and that's within at least 30 calendar days before the
18move occurs. You should proceed, however, with an
19emergency move and then immediately let the case worker
20know or the on-call staff. The Contractor shall
21participate in all local Family Involved Meetings,
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1reviews, and court hearings pertaining to case
2planning, treatment, placement setting, permanency, and
3family resources to include, at a minimum, all ISP
4reviews.
5 Visitation and Transportation, you are to
6insure and facilitate family -- regular family and
7sibling visitation; provide transportation to children
8to all medical and mental health appointments,
9school/educational extracurricular and vocational
10activities, recreational activities, and community
11activities.
12 For Staff Security, Contractors should insure
13that all staff, including all employees, consultants,
14subcontractors, are cleared through the Child
15Protection Registry and that the background checks
16include the jurisdictions in which the staff member
17resides prior to beginning work.
18 There's a mandatory incident requirement, and
19those requirements are under 2.3.12 of the RFP, and
20you're to follow the procedures for mandatory reporting
21of incidents. Report any alleged child abuse, neglect,
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1or other risk to residents to the local case worker,
2Child Protective Services, DHS OLM, SSA Resource
3Development, and MDH/OHCQ via the DHS OLM Incident
4Report Form. Failure to report shall be sufficient
5cause to restrict or suspend placement of the
6Contractor.
7 Under Normal Daily Routines, Contractors
8shall insure a structured routine and schedule of
9events and activities. And under Community
10Integration, make community resources available and
11encourage participation; insure that every child has an
12opportunity to participate in religious services of his
13or her choice or to refrain if it's so desired; insure
14that any gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and
15questioning children be linked with organizations.
16 Under Education, enroll the child in the
17locally zoned school serving the geographic attendance
18area; initiate and monitor the transfer of academic
19records; attend a meeting with appropriate school
20personnel at the time of enrollment and at any other
21time upon request.
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1 Demonstrate compliance with the Bill of
2Rights for Maryland's Children. Ready by 21, align
3your practice and principles and core values with Ready
4by 21.
5 Under Discharge, provide, in the absence of
6extenuating circumstances, prior to any and all
7discharges, 30 day's calendar notice and a Discharge
8Plan.
9 For Recordkeeping, comply with all processes
10and requests made by the SSA Contracts and Monitoring
11Unit. Specific requirements for Contractor's providing
12services to Qualified Residential Treatment Programs,
13which is your QRTP, that's in Section 2.3.21.
14 For Contractors providing DD services, you
15will use the minimum -- the following minimum LOI
16standards, and that's under Section 2.3.22.1, and it
17must also have a MSDE-approved Type III school or
18utilize the local school systems and serve male and
19female youths ages 14 through 20.
20 For DETP Contractors, there are minimum LOI
21standards, and that's on page 19, and that's under
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12.3.22.2, and, for that program type, serve male and
2female youth ages five through 20. The staffing ratio
3is listed under letter "H" for DETP Programs, and that
4would be three to one during waking hours and eight to
5one during sleeping hours.
6 For Contractors providing Group Home, you're
7required to have a 24-hour awake overnight and the
8minimum LOI standards are under 2.3.22.3, Letter "B",
9and that program will serve male and female youth ages
1014 through 20. The staffing ratio is four point (sic)
11one during waking hours, eight point (sic) -- I'm sorry
12-- eight through -- eight to one during sleeping hours.
13 For providers for High Group Home Programs,
14following the LOI standards under 2.3.22.4; serve an
15age group for males and females ages 14 through 20;
16staffing ratio is three point (sic) -- I'm sorry --
17three to two during waking hours and eight to one
18during sleeping hours.
19 For Contractors for Therapeutic Group Home
20Programs, you're to follow the LOI standards under
212.3.22.5. The program is serving males and females
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1ages 14 through 20. The staffing ratio is three to two
2during waking hours and eight to one during sleeping
3hours.
4 For Medically Fragile Programs, following the
5minimum LOI standards, and that's under 2.3.22.6. This
6program is serving youth, male and female, ages 14
7through 20. Staffing ratio is three to one during
8waking hours and eight to one during sleeping hours.
9 For Contractors providing HIGH-CSE,
10Contractors shall house and care for no more than four
11children in this population in one setting with one
12youth per bedroom. The LOI standards are under
132.3.22.7. Staffing ratio is one to two during waking
14hours, eight to one during sleeping hours.
15 For Contractors providing HIGH-ECDD, the LOI
16standards are under 2.3.22.8. That serves male,
17female, and/or transgendered children ages 14 to 20.
18You must have a facility for male, female, and
19transgendered youth ages 14 through 20. Staff ratio is
20one to two during waking hours, eight to one during
21sleeping hours.
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1 Under the RCC Performance Requirements, the
2performance measures for each RCC Program category will
3be compiled, monitored, and rated four times each
4contract year, after the third, sixth, ninth, and
5twelfth month. There's a chart under Section 2.2.25
6that lays that out. All Offerors awarded a Contract
7will be monitored by DHS for performance measures,
8weighted, and that's under Chart A. That would be on
9your page 25, and that's under Section 2.3.23; it's
10letter "C", and the chart under it is "A", and it
11basically lays out the indicators for your child safety
12and the percentage, licensing and monitoring and the
13percentage, child well-being and the percentage, and
14the incentive points for child stability and
15permanency. Under RCC Performance Requirements are
16also your licensing and monitoring and the details
17behind that; the child safety, child well-being, child
18stability and permanency, and then there are subsequent
19charts, and those would be on -- you would find in your
20RFP under page 28.
21 Corrective Action Plans. At any given three-
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1month rating period, Contractors who perform -- whose
2performance scores fall below the minimum standard will
3be required to submit a Corrective Action Plan, and the
4details behind that are under 2.3.27. There's also a
5performance report used for the contract award and the
6performance measures outlined in Section 2.3.29 will be
7used as part of the evaluation of these Proposals for
8awarding Contracts.
9 Again, I believe I stated that the Technical
10will have more weight than the Financial. For Contract
11award, the performance measures are weighted, as shown,
12and there's a chart under 2.3.30; that's on page 33, so
13that gives percentages of the weighting.
14 There will also be deliverables and there's a
15deliverables acceptance requirement, a description of
16the deliverables, and that's the end of Section 2.
17Let's move to Section 3, and I'm just going to skim
18through those because these are your General Contractor
19Requirements, and so they begin on page 39, and so just
20know that I'm not really going to read all of this to
21you or get into the details, but there is an end of
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1contract transition. There's also invoicing -- general
2invoicing and about payments. There's travel
3reimbursement. Your insurance requirements, that's
4under 3.6. Criminal background checks, and that's
5under Section 3.71. All staff, including employees,
6Board members, consultants, subcontractors, must be
7cleared through the Child Protection Registry.
8 There's your Information Technology, your
9Security Incident Responses. And the Contractor shall
10notify the Department within 24 hours and it talks
11about data breaching, problem escalation procedures.
12And for your Technical Proposals, your personnel
13experience must be noted for your Project Manager, for
14your RCYCPs, and the RCYCPs must be certified by the
15State Board for the certification of Child -- of
16Residential Child Care Programs, and that's under
17Section 3.10.2.
18 Your Key Personnel is your Certified Program
19Administrator, and for QRTPs, that's going to be your
20licensed nursing and clinical staff. There's a section
21in here about Substitution of Personnel, and that's
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1under 3.11. I'm not really feeling good about
2mentioning this, but there is an MBE requirement on
3this Proposal. That's under 3.12. And also a
4Veteran's Small Business Enterprise requirement of one
5percent, and that would be General Requirements under
6Section 3. Thank you.
7 MR. KANG: Thank you, Ardena. Okay. So I
8will present Sections -- Section 4, 5, and 6, and, at a
9later point, Nia and Kenneth will present Living Wage
10and Hiring Agreements. Let's see here. So I'd like to
11begin with Section 4.2. It's about eMaryland
12Marketplace Advantage. And since it's necessary to be
13registered with eMaryland Marketplace Advantage, I'm
14going to ask that everyone -- all Offerors register
15with the new eMMA system. And if you've already
16registered, please make sure that you sign up for the
17Foster Care -- I'm sorry -- Foster Home Care Services
18and Orphanage commodity code, and you can contact me
19about that. I saw that some of you were signed up on
20the new system, but not for that commodity code.
21 Okay. Questions. Please send all questions
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1in writing. We have already sent out one question and
2response document and so I'll gather all the questions,
3and we're in the process of sending out a second one.
4 Proposal due date and time. Proposals are
5due February 6th, 2020 at two p.m. And I will go into
6more detail about this later, but we want the Technical
7Proposal -- it is preferred that the Technical Proposal
8be sent through Citrix ShareFile, but if you don't want
9to use Citrix, that's okay; just contact me and I will
10-- or just let me know and -- but you have to send in
11one original and five copies.
12 Financial Proposal. There's only one way to
13send the Financial Proposal, and you have to send that
14directly to me -- directly to Department of Human
15Services. So the Financial Proposal should not be sent
16through the Citrix system.
17 Okay. Multiple or Alternate Proposals. I
18just want to note that multiple or alternate Proposals
19will not be accepted, but you are sending a separate
20Proposal for each program that you actually -- you're
21applying for. So if you're applying for
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1Developmentally Disabled and DETP, that's two separate
2Proposals -- Technical Proposals you have to send to
3us. Section 4.7, Economy of Preparation. Please try
4to make your Proposals straightforward and concise.
5 Okay. Award Basis. I'm going to skip a few
6cases here and there. Award Basis. Please note that
7this is an RFP and that you're going to be ranked first
8technically, and then you're going to be ranked
9financially, based on your provider rate letters, and
10then you're going to be given an overall ranking.
11There will be an overall ranking given for each
12geographical location within a given program, so you
13can -- Offerors may receive an award for more than one
14geographical location and you can also receive an award
15for more than one program.
16 Oral Presentations. There will be oral
17presentations, and the oral presentations then become a
18part of the Technical Proposal. Any substantive
19material, whether that had to be from the writing, and
20that becomes part of your Proposal. I will notify you
21of the time and place of the oral presentations.
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1 Revisions to the RFP. Please -- I already
2sent out three amendments and one question and response
3document, so you should've received those. Please on
4the lookout for amendments. I've also been sending all
5the amendments and the questions and responses to our
6list of e-mails. If you want to get on that list, just
7contact me and I'll put you on that list so that you
8receive all the addenda.
9 Okay. I'm going to skip ahead here.
10Proposal Affidavits. There are certain affidavits that
11you have to submit with the Proposal. One is the
12Proposal Affidavit. The Contract Affidavit you send
13after you are given an award. I'm at Section 4.21.
14Please register with SDAT, which is the State
15Department of Assessments and Taxation. You need to
16have -- you need to be registered in order to get an
17award.
18 Okay. So I'll present the MBE portion of
19this RFP. There is a five percent MBE goal. That's
20Minority Business Enterprise, and that's only for those
21Offerors that are proposing 25 or more beds. The MBE
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1Program, we -- at the State, we believe that is an
2important initiative, and we want our contractors to
3work with Minority Business Enterprise companies. So
4you are supposed to contact your MBEs prior to
5submitting a Proposal, and you're supposed to give us
6then what's called an MBE Utilization and Fair
7Solicitation Affidavit. That's Attachment D-1A. And
8in that attachment you are essentially saying that
9we're going to meet our MBE goal by subcontracting with
10these companies, so -- and it's very important that you
11send that D-1A, and it's very important that you reach
12out to the contractors -- or subcontractors prior to
13submitting a Proposal. You need to do that for each
14Proposal that you're submitting, so if you're
15submitting for more than one program, that means you
16will be sending us a separate Attachment D-1A for each
17Technical Proposal, each program. Okay. The other MBE
18documents will be due upon award.
19 All right. VSBE Goal. There is a one
20percent goal for Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, and
21regardless of how many beds you're providing there's a
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1one percent goal. And, again, as with the MBE goal,
2you are required to solicit your VSBE companies and
3then give us an attachment. It's E-1. It's called the
4VSBE Utilization Affidavit and Prime/Subcontractor
5Participation Schedule, but it's Attachment E-1, and in
6that attachment you're saying that you're going to work
7with these VSBEs to meet the goal, so -- and, again,
8you have to submit one of those for each program that
9you're applying for, which would be a separate
10Technical Proposal. I'm sorry. Okay. So the other
11VSBE documents are due upon award. It's very important
12that you send your MBE and VSBE documents on time, and
13if you need help with them, just contact me by phone or
14e-mail.
15 Okay. So for Living Wage, Nia Graves will
16present the Living Wage portion of this RFP.
17 MS. GRAVES: Hello, everyone. All right. So
18the Living Wage law requires certain contractors and
19some subcontractors to pay minimum wage rates to
20employees working under certain State services
21contracts -- volume contracts valued at $100,000 or
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1more. So effective as of September 28th, 2019,
2contractors and subcontractors subject to the Living
3Wage law must pay each covered employee at least $14.24
4per hour if State contract services valued at 50
5percent or more of the total value of the contract are
6performed in the Tier 1 area. And the Tier 1 are
7includes Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City,
8Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George’s
9Counties. And for those in the Tier 2 area, the rate
10is $10.70, and that includes all area that aren't
11listed in the Tier 1 area. The Affidavit of Agreement
12must be completed and submitted with the Technical
13Proposal. Failure to complete the -- and submit the
14Living Wage Affidavit of Agreement will result in a
15determination that the Offeror is not responsible.
16Please note that the Living Wage rates are subject to
17annual change by the Department -- Maryland Department
18of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, but the
19contractor's prices under the contract may not change
20because of the Living Wage changes, so Offerors must
21factor this into their pricing proposal submissions.
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1Any additional information can be found on the Maryland
2DLLR website about Living Wage. So next we're going to
3have Kenneth Jessup talk about the Hiring Agreement.
4 MR. JESSUP: Good morning, everyone. Sorry
5(indiscernible). For those of you who may not be
6familiar with the Hiring Agreement process, it is a
7legislative piece that was developed to encourage the
8use of -- kind of really just a mechanism for providing
9current and former Family Investment Program recipients
10with employment opportunities on State Procurement
11contracts. The populations that we work with are
12Temporary Cash Assistance families and children that
13are seeking employment opportunities, so what we are
14looking for is an opportunity just to see if we can get
15some people with the quality and skills that need
16employment with the contractors to have the positions
17they need. If you have any questions regarding that,
18you can also check on the BPW website. Just type in
19"BPW Advisory Hiring Agreement" and it will give you a
20brief overview of it there. And if you want even more
21information, you can just contact me and I'll be around
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1with my card and my e-mail. Thank you.
2 MR. KANG: Thank you, Nia, and thank you,
3Kenneth. I'm going to present Section 5 -- I'm sorry
4-- Section 5 and Section 6 of the RFP now. Section 5
5has to do with the Proposal format. Proposal
6submission will be in two parts. Technical Proposal;
7we would like the Technical Proposal, as I said before,
8through Citrix ShareFile. However, if you want to send
9the Proposal in, please contact me. Financial
10Proposals should not be sent through Citrix ShareFile.
11Financial Proposals should not be sent through Citrix
12ShareFile. Please send those to me by mail or hand-
13delivery. So I'm on Section 5 here. So if you are a
14Offeror proposing to serve one program category in one
15geographical location, you've got to send in one
16Proposal. If you are sending in for one program
17category in more than one geographical location, you
18are still submitting one Proposal, but you are sending
19in two separate -- it should be Attachment P's which
20are RCC Program Service Forms. So if you are an
21Offeror that wants to submit for multiple or one
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1category -- more than one program category in a single
2geographical location, you will be sending in two
3Proposals, so you'll be sending one for each program.
4For each program you're sending in a different
5Proposal. And the last one is Offeror's proposing to
6serve multiple RCC program categories located in more
7than one region. So you are sending in a different
8Proposal for each program essentially.
9 All right. Section 5.2. Please don't send
10anything by fax or e-mail. Please provide no pricing
11information on the Technical Proposal. When you send
12through Citrix ShareFile, if you already have a Citrix
13ID, a current log-on, then you have to send the
14Technical Proposal -- you can do it through your
15current log-on, but you have to send it to our folder,
16so make sure it's marked "RFP" and, you know, just
17submit it there. If you don't have a log-on to the
18system, please contact me and I will get you one, try
19to get you some instructions on how to submit
20proposals.
21 All right. Please send your Proposals in on
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1time. If they are not on time, then I think I have to
2declare them not on time. It's not what I want to do.
3Please make sure your Technical Proposal is password-
4protected, and I will reach out to you to get the
5password. Let's see here. Technical Proposal
6submissions should consist of Microsoft Word -- one
7Technical Proposal in Microsoft Word, one in Adobe PDF,
8and one also in Adobe PDF with your confidential and
9proprietary information redacted, so that's your PIA
10copy there. All right. Try to put the name of the
11program and the jurisdiction in the -- in the file name
12for us so that we can -- so we'll have them.
13 Financial Proposal submissions. Like I said,
14please send them in by hand-delivery or mail to me, to
15311 West Saratoga Street. Let's see here. If you are
16submitting a budget, and I'll go into detail about this
17a little later -- if you're submitting a budget to me,
18you need to submit two originals -- two original signed
19and dated budgets, and then also a CD or a DVD of the
20budget, which is -- the exact same thing that you would
21send to IRC you're going to be sending to me, but
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1that's only if you're sending a budget, and I'll get
2into that in a little bit.
3 Let me go over Technical Proposal first.
4Technical Proposal. And I'm on Section 5.3. So you're
5going to be responding to Section 2 and Section 3 of
6the RFP. What I would do and what we're going to ask
7you to do is I would respond to each section, section
8by section, so that it's really easy for us to review.
9If you could just put like a section -- you know,
10Section 2.1 or whatever, you can -- if you could
11respond to that section, just go through it that way,
12and that way your Proposal is organized and it's easy
13for the Evaluation Committee to see exactly how you
14responded to each requirement in the RFP. So I would
15do that for Sections 2 and 3.
16 Please note your Technical Proposal should be
17broken down into tabs. Tab A is your Title Page and
18Table of Contents. Tab A-1 is your confidential and
19proprietary information. Okay. Tab B is your
20Transmittal Letter. Please remember to acknowledge
21receipt of the addenda, your -- the question and
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1response documents, as well as any amendments.
2 Tab C is your Executive Summary, and we need
3-- we need the service -- the program and the regions
4that you're -- that you're going to be providing
5services for. We need that in the Executive Summary.
6All right. Tab D, that's Minimum Qualifications.
7You're going to be putting your licenses there. And
8Tab E, this is -- this is your -- this is the main part
9of your response. This is where you're going to be
10responding to each section of the Scope of Work,
11Sections 2 and 3. And you will receive -- well,
12Proposals that -- you know, you're going to explain how
13the work is done essentially. Proposals -- you can
14either say we're going to agree to this requirement or
15you can say exactly how you're going to do it, and
16those Proposals will be deemed better.
17 All right. I'm on Tab F, which is Experience
18and Qualifications of Proposed Staff. There is one Key
19Personnel for this RFP and that's your Certified
20Program Administrator, so please submit the
21documentation that we need for your Certified Program
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1Administrator. You should have one for each of the
2programs that you're applying for. Also, if you are a
3QRTP provider, please provide information about your
4registered or licensed nursing and clinical staff.
5 All right. I am on Tab G, Offeror
6Qualifications and Capabilities. Please give us your
7past experience there. References; please just send us
8your information -- oh, I'm sorry -- the information
9for three references -- for these three references and
10we will contact them. Your list of current and prior
11State contracts, so please list any contracts that you
12have with us already there. Financial Capability;
13you're going to be putting your financial statements
14there. Certificate of Insurance; we'd like a copy of
15that. Tab L; please list your subcontractors and the
16type of work they'll be doing. Tab M is your Legal
17Action Summary. And Tab N is Economic Benefit Factors.
18Please describe how your program will benefit the State
19of Maryland. All right. Almost done with the
20Technical Proposal. Tab O; that's where you're going
21to put all your affidavits. And that's it for the
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1Technical Proposal.
2 Your Financial Proposal; so you're going to
3be sending those to me, and some of you are going to be
4sending a rate letter, some of you are going to be
5sending a budget, so you should know who you are. For
6-- if you have 2020 IRC rate letter, just please send
7that to me, and that'll be your Financial Proposal. If
8you are an Offeror proposing to serve a new program --
9so if it's a new program, then you're going to be
10sending me what you would normally send the IRC; you're
11going to be sending the budget, two originals, as well
12as a CD. So, yeah, please note that. That's Section
135.43 and 5.44 of the RFP. All right. That's it for
14Section 5.
15 Section 6. As I said before, this is a
16Request for Proposals, so there will be an Evaluation
17Committee to evaluate your Proposals. We evaluate the
18Technical Proposal first. During that evaluation of
19Technical Proposals we'll have oral presentations,
20which we'll add to your Proposal. We then rank the
21Technical Proposals, and then we open up your Financial
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1Proposals, but -- one second. I'm sorry.
2 When we rank the Technical Proposals, we're
3going to be using the following evaluation criteria.
4So the first evaluation criteria -- and this is Section
56.2, and these are listed in order of importance. This
6is how we're going to evaluate your Technical Proposal.
7The first one is Offerors who have been certified and
8accredited as QRTP providers under the FFPSA. That's
9your first evaluation criteria.
10 The second one is your response to the Scope
11of Work, and we're going to -- we're going to look at a
12number of subcriteria under this. This is your -- this
13is Section -- Tab B of your Technical Proposal. We're
14going to look at your methodology, your proposed
15services; how they align with the proposed LOIs; how
16your proposed services align with our Ready by 21
17initiative; your methodology to -- used to implement
18services and programs that assist children at
19developing the necessary age-appropriate skills, as
20outlined in our policies; how your proposed services
21align with the Department's IPM, and that's in Section
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12.37; and also your methodology used to demonstrate
2that the Offeror's organization has implemented a
3family-centered child focus model, including
4maintenance of a -- of community connections, as
5described in the Community Integration section. So
6those are things we're going to be looking for.
7 The third evaluation are the Performance
8Reports. The fourth one is the Experience and
9Qualifications of Proposed Staff. That's your
10Certified Program Administrator. And the last two
11evaluation criteria are your Offeror Qualifications
12Capabilities and Economic Benefit to the State. So as
13I was saying before, we get your Technical Proposals
14in, we have an Evaluation Committee that reviews them,
15and then we rank your Technical Proposals. After we
16rank the Technical Proposals, we'll open your
17Financials, and your financial ranking will be based on
18the provider rates from IRC. And so after we -- after
19we rank the Financials, we're going to do an overall
20ranking, and then from that overall ranking -- the
21overall ranking will be determined, and we're going to
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1give more weight for the for the Technical Proposal
2ranking than the Financial Proposal ranking, so
3Technical outweighs Financial in the ultimate decision.
4So I think that concludes our presentation of the RFP.
5Are there any questions?
6 MS. JOHNSON: Good morning. I just wanted to
7make one clarification. When Ms. Graves gave the
8Living Wage information, she gave you the Tier 2,
9stating that it's currently $10.10. As you all are
10well aware -- $10.70 -- I'm sorry -- but as you all are
11well aware, during the legislative session this year
12Maryland passed -- the Senate proposed -- they approved
13a bill to increase the State minimum wage for companies
14with at least 14 employees from the 10.70 to $15 an
15hour by the year -- within a five-year period, in 2025.
16So, with that, effective January the 1st, the minimum
17wage will increase to $11 per hour. That being stated,
18it solely will be on Tier 2, so I just wanted to make
19that clarification.
20 MR. KANG: Yeah. And the Living Wage program
21is very important to us, and I trust that everyone out
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1there is paying everybody a Living Wage to do their
2work. So are there any questions for the RFP? We're
3going to use the mics I think.
4 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi. Thank you for going
5over everything. In terms of the QRTPs, so if you're
6not currently accredited, the wait time is extensive.
7Is there any way to get accredited prior to submitting
8this? So I'm a little concerned about that being the
9first thing that's considered, because there's also a
10huge financial cost to it. So how does that balance
11out for the nonprofits that are not accredited, and
12then what if we become accredited or we become QRTPs?
13 MR. KANG: I'm going to let Debbie answer all
14the QRTP questions. It's Debbie Marini from SSA.
15 MS. MARINI: All right. First of all, thank
16you for your question. I wanted to just say that --
17one thing, just to open up, 'cause I know there's a lot
18of questions about QRTP, and I also want to say that
19it's difficult with the RFP process, you know, to --
20especially with the changes that are coming down with
21the Children's Bureaus and Family First, to capture
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1everything timingwise, so I just want to be clear that
2we will be making clarifications and we're answering
3your questions as they come with the clarifications
4that we're getting from the Children's Bureau as well
5and to convey that, while I know that the Family First
6QRTP requirements are quite extensive and an
7opportunity for us all to I guess focus on best
8practices and look at aligning not just what you all
9are doing at your facilities, but also the way in which
10we refer our youth to you, that that is an effort that
11we're making from the program standpoint at DHS and
12SSA, and so I just want to assure you that I know that
13those pieces are happening at the same time, and that
14while the RFP may not have captured all of that -- it's
15difficult to do in a document like that -- we look
16forward to continuing to partner with you on this
17process.
18 In terms of the accreditation pieces, in
19answer to your question, we do recognize that it takes
20time and resources to become accredited. We do not
21have a way around requiring that as -- in order to
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1become a QRTP. That is a Family First requirement to
2be considered as a QRTP. In terms of the question
3about whether when you become accredited, that you're
4making efforts to becoming accredited, I'm actually
5going to ask -- I'm not sure whether that would need to
6be considered in the next RFP. I am not clear -- I'm
7not sure on that, so I'm going to either defer, if
8somebody knows the answer, or get back to you on that
9piece of it. But I do know that for those of you --
10for this RFP, my understanding is that you would need
11to have the accreditation in order to be considered in
12that status at this time.
13 AUDIENCE MEMBER: And I think equally
14important though is, if that's the first thing that's
15being considered and given the most weight, it puts the
16people that are not QRTPs at a disadvantage, and it's
17impossible to become a QRTP in that time frame. So is
18there any consideration around --
19 MS. MARINI: The only other clarification I
20can give to this (indiscernible) is we just received
21clarification and we're going to be responding to the
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1question that came about regarding the wording in the
2RFP where -- the question was, QRTP accreditation is
3not a category, and so we're getting ready to submit
4our response to that to say that DHS has just received
5clarification from the Children's Bureau and the
6statute does not require that a child care institution
7has to be accredited as a QRTP, but only that it is a
8program accredited by one of the -- one of the
9accreditation bodies, if that makes sense. So
10accreditation as a QRTP is not a requirement, but
11accreditation from one of the bodies, and we will be
12responding to that. We will be responding with the
13Children's Bureau's statute sections referencing that.
14 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay.
15 MS. ECTOR: Just to try and answer your
16question, the RFP has a requirement that if there's any
17provider that is certified as a QRTP (indiscernible)
18then submit that certificate with your Proposal. If
19there is a provider that may be in the process of
20becoming a QRTP, then you would submit your proposal
21based on those requirements, whatever the Family First
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1Act requires. Whatever you have submitted or intend to
2submit for certification, that's what your Proposal
3would look like. Submit it to the Department. Let the
4Department know that you are under consideration for a
5QRTP. You identify your QRT program as your intended
6program, and it will be reviewed in that manner. It
7will be given preference because the Department needs
8QRT programs because of the statute. They're moving in
9a different direction, and so we do need those
10providers and there will be a preference for those
11providers. If we don't get any, then we don't get any.
12Then we will just review the Proposals for whatever
13category or whatever jurisdiction as they come in. If
14you are in the process now or start the process, you
15have until the Department makes a recommendation for
16award to get your certification. I don't know how long
17it takes, but if you are in the process now, you
18probably have until April, May, at the time of
19recommendation to become certified.
20 MS. MARINI: Thank you.
21 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Can you also -- I just want
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1to clarify the no reject policy. Does that mean that
2everything that's referred to us there's not an option
3to reject?
4 MS. WALKER: I just want to go into the RFP.
5What section was that?
6 AUDIENCE MEMBER: It's on page ten, 2.3.5.B.
7 MS. WALKER: I think we answered that in our
8questions.
9 MR. KANG: Yeah. We answered that in our
10questions. If the child doesn't meet your provider
11profile, then it's okay, you can reject. That's
12correct.
13 MS. WALKER: Yes. Right. That was Question
14-- I'm sorry -- that was Question 10 under the series
15one that was released or published. And so if the --
16you may reject a youth if she -- if he or she does not
17fit your provider profile. And that's under your
182.3.5; that's about the no reject policy.
19 AUDIENCE MEMBER: And then I had submitted a
20question about the travel reimbursement, but the answer
21was a little confusing. It does say that there is no
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1reimbursement for travel, that we're responsible for
2transportation, so are we submitting that in our budget
3or on the --
4 MR. KANG: Right.
5 MS. WALKER: Yes.
6 AUDIENCE MEMBER: So travel is reimbursed?
7 MS. WALKER: Travel will be submitted with
8your budget.
9 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay.
10 MR. BADLEY: Good afternoon. Tom Badley,
11Cedar Ridge. I had a question about the ratios. You
12say the minimum is two kids on -- or two staff on duty
13at all times. Does that include overnight staff?
14 MR. KANG: For overnight?
15 MR. BADLEY: Yes.
16 MR. KANG: I received your question. I think
17we're going to look at that and we're going to have to
18get back to you on that. Yeah, we're working on it
19right now.
20 MR. BADLEY: And also in the same area, it
21says male and female, you must have the ability to
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1accept (indiscernible) and I don't know if that means
2we have to change anything.
3 MR. KANG: I'm not sure what you're referring
4to there.
5 MR. BADLEY: Well, it says you must be able
6to have the ability to serve male and female youth ages
714 to 20.
8 MR. KANG: Okay. I'm sorry. I know you sent
9that question to me yesterday, but I will -- do you
10have a section number there that you're looking at?
11 MR. BADLEY: Yes, 2.3.22.3.E.
12 (Whereupon, there was a discussion off the
13record between staff regarding answer to question.)
14 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Ardena --
15 MS. WALKER: Yes.
16 AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- it's answered on page
17seven of eight of the questions.
18 MS. WALKER: Thank you.
19 AUDIENCE MEMBER: I submitted the question,
20"DETP requirements state 'must serve male and female.'
21Can a vendor serve one gender at a location or must
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1they serve both at the location?" "The vendor can
2serve one gender at a location, as described."
3 MS. WALKER: Thank you.
4 MR. BADLEY: I just wanted to make sure that
5applied to the TTH's and group homes?
6 MS. WALKER: Yes.
7 MR. BADLEY: Does that apply to all ages?
8 MS. WALKER: Yes.
9 MR. BADLEY: Okay.
10 MR. KANG: Any other questions?
11 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good morning.
12 MR. KANG: Good morning.
13 AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have a question about the
14MBE requirement.
15 MR. KANG: Yeah.
16 AUDIENCE MEMBER: I wanted to know if -- you
17said something about 25 or more beds per program. Is
18it per program or is it the whole -- across all the
19programs that you're submitting the RFP for?
20 MR. KANG: Actually, I'm sorry. I don't know
21the answer to that.
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1 MS. WALKER: I don't either.
2 MR. KANG: Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, we'll put
3that one in writing. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, we'll get
4back to you.
5 AUDIENCE MEMBER: And then I had another
6question about the VSBEs. Is that something new?
7That's something new, right?
8 MR. KANG: It's relatively new to the State,
9yes.
10 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. And you said that's
11across any of the RFP you have to submit one percent,
12right, for every program?
13 MR. KANG: Yes, for every program, yes.
14 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Another question I had is,
15can the Certified Program Administrator be the same for
16all the Proposals?
17 MR. KANG: It said in the Proposal that you
18would need a different Certified Program Administrator.
19 AUDIENCE MEMBER: For every proposal?
20 MR. KANG: Actually, I'm going to defer to
21SSA on this.
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1 MS. WALKER: I'm sorry. So your question is,
2can the Certified Administrator -- say you want to
3apply for multiple programs and can that Certified
4Administrator be the Certified Administrator for all of
5the programs?
6 AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's correct.
7 MS. WALKER: Is that the question?
8 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Uh-huh.
9 MS. WALKER: And so at this point I -- let me
10get back to you on that question. I don't think so.
11I'm going to say it's no, because they are different
12programs. I just can't --
13 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. Because what if you
14have an organization that only has one Certified
15Program Administrator but you have multiple programs?
16 MS. WALKER: Let me -- Aretha, you want to
17take that? Is Licensing here?
18 MS. ECTOR: Is anyone here from Licensing
19that would like to address that question? Thank you.
20 MR. THOMAS: It's never been a requirement to
21have more than one Certified Residential Program
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1Administrator; just one per provider to oversee all of
2the sites and so forth.
3 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you, guys, for
4answering all of our questions. My first one is I
5think on page 13. For Section 2.3.14.A, the statement
6ends with the word "and", and I was wondering if there
7was more to that statement that we needed to know.
8 MS. WALKER: What was the section again?
9 AUDIENCE MEMBER: On "A".
10 MR. KANG: I'll look into it and see if it
11printed wrong or something.
12 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you.
13 MR. KANG: Okay.
14 AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have three more. Who
15will serve as the State Project Manager and in what
16department of SSA will that person reside?
17 MS. WALKER: I will be serving as the State
18Project Officer, and it'll be under the SSA Contracts
19and Monitoring.
20 AUDIENCE MEMBER: For Section 3.11,
21substitution of the Key Personnel, with the State
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1Project Manager approval requirements that have been
2added, there in one of the sections is a two-week
3requirement to fill open positions for such positions
4as your RCC PA, your clinicians, and your nurses, and
5those historically have been very difficult positions
6to fill. If we can demonstrate a good faith effort to
7fill the position and have internal people substituting
8in that position, will that be acceptable as part of
9the Contract?
10 MS. WALKER: I think we will make that
11determined on a case by case basis, so as that occurs,
12then the requirement under the RFP is to still notify
13me, the State Project Officer, and then have that
14discussion, and then that determination will be made.
15 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. And my final
16question is regarding the MBE goal. It was clarified
17at a recent RFP meeting that the MBE is a goal and the
18VSBE are goals and not requirements, but, in reading
19the Contract, there are liquidated damages that can be
20assessed in the Contract, and it says they can be, not
21will be. So in what circumstances would SSA opt to
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1enact those liquidated damages and what would
2(indiscernible) the threshold of good faith in
3determining that?
4 MS. WALKER: We have an MBE liaison and
5coordinator, and I'm probably going to defer that
6question to her, so if you could put that question in
7writing and we will get our MBE liaison/representative
8to answer that.
9 MS. JOHNSON: Can I?
10 MS. WALKER: Sure.
11 MS. JOHNSON: Thank you. So for the MBE,
12liquidated damages are usually applied on a case by
13case basis, but that's upon your good effort that you
14showed that you tried to comply with the goal, so if
15you try to get MBEs and you show that, that's the first
16step. But if you have an MBE goal, and, for example,
17the MBE is not working out for some reason and you try
18to work with them to comply with the goal, you've done
19everything you can to try to reach that goal and you're
20unable to do that, but if we see that you aren't doing
21everything you can or you're not paying your MBE --
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1they've provided services and you're not paying them,
2that's a reason for liquidated damages possibly being
3sought, because what we would do is, if you did not
4meet the goal and we ask you for a Corrective Action
5Plan on how you would intend to meet the goal, you're
6still not meeting that goal, we don't see a good faith
7effort that you're attempting to meet the goal, then we
8may apply liquidated damages that way. And I want to
9make sure that you're clear and you understand what I'm
10getting at. I'm not sure who asked the question. Did
11I answer your question?
12 AUDIENCE MEMBER: I don't want to take over
13the room. Yes, but the question is, so in the last
14contract I have a history of fires, as I was attempting
15in good faith to meet the requirement and then
16escalated (indiscernible) through the MBE Office
17stating that the next step could be terminating the
18contract, and so we modified our business arrangement
19and we made a business decision to try to meet the
20goal. And, with the new RFP, we're looking at our
21business practices and what we want to sustain and what
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1we want to do differently in the welfare of children,
2and it may require us to move away from one of our MBE
3providers for that, which would we mean we fall under
4the MBE goal again, which we would try to regroup in
5another effort or with a new MBE subcontractor, but
6what would be visible in your office would be we met
7our goal, now we're not meeting our goal. And there is
8a concern that there would be an effort to -- if it
9took another year or two to get that back up to where
10we are, that now there is an assessment of damages for
11that, which was not in the last contract.
12 MS. JOHNSON: Again, a good faith effort.
13You have to show a good faith effort. That means that
14you made good tries to reach the goal. You have to
15show that. If we think you're attempting to do all
16that you can do to reach that goal, liquidated damages
17would not apply.
18 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay.
19 MS. JOHNSON: But if we see that you aren't
20doing that (indiscernible) --
21 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. Thank you.
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1 MS. JOHNSON: You're welcome.
2 AUDIENCE MEMBER: I had sent a question in,
3but I'm still a little confused about the ratio,
4because some of the ratio is -- for example, for group
5homes, it says four to one, and then it says during the
6day it has to be two to one, that the COMAR regs are
7different, so what -- based on this RFP, we have to
8submit with these ratio guidelines?
9 MR. KANG: Right.
10 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Even though -- so like for
11the group home, where it says four to one and it says
12you have to have -- for every kid, you have to have two
13staff, so then that would be a two to one?
14 MR. KANG: I'm not understanding.
15 MS. WALKER: What she's saying -- what
16(indiscernible) saying and what the question is, is
17there are different ratios established for each program
18type. However, the State is requiring that there be
19two staff for every one child, so I know it kind of
20sounds kind of confusing. So while the ratio may be
21say one -- four to one, there must always be two
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1employees on duty at all times.
2 AUDIENCE MEMBER: So then it wouldn't be a
3four to one ratio; it would be a four to two ratio,
4even though it says four to one?
5 MS. WALKER: Right. And I think we responded
6to that question, but, essentially, there must always
7be two employees per one kid.
8 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. And so -- and I was
9just confused, because COMAR says something different,
10so this is essentially overriding COMAR?
11 MS. WALKER: It's the State requirement --
12 AUDIENCE MEMBER: It's a requirement.
13 MS. WALKER: -- to have two employees per
14every one kid.
15 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. And so in terms of
16budget submission, obviously, we're going to have to --
17 MS. WALKER: Build that in your budget.
18 AUDIENCE MEMBER: And -- okay. And so the --
19it's the expectation -- then obviously that's supported
20in the budget (indiscernible) --
21 MS. WALKER: That's going to be a
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1requirement, and you're going to have to, you know,
2put it in your budget so that it's supported, but it's
3still two employees to one kid.
4 AUDIENCE MEMBER: And then other -- similar
5with the LOIs, some of the LOIs are jumping up, so some
6of the LOIs for, say, therapeutic group homes that
7didn't previously require on-site nursing is now --
8since the LOI is increasing, so is it the same concept,
9that we're just going with --
10 MS. WALKER: I can defer that question to
11Licensing regarding the level of intensity and the
12changes.
13 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay.
14 MS. MARINI: I think there's a question over
15here that --
16 MS. CHAPMAN: I asked (indiscernible)
17essentially, because I didn't get the answers to the
18first questions that were sent out (indiscernible).
19The first one, I'm trying to understand the 5.4.3,
20which leads to the Offeror's approved 2020 IRC rate
21letter. I'm trying to understand, that rate letter
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1(indiscernible) and if we submit that, we would not
2have the option refine the budget based on the ratio,
3on (indiscernible) they're a little bit more
4sophisticated than what our model is, there would be a
5cost impact. So I'm kind of confused about the 2020
6rate and it's approval before we submit it. Can
7someone clarify that for me?
8 MS. WALKER: Yes. So for your submission
9purposes for the RFP, the FY 20 rate is essentially
10going to be a place hold. That's really what it's
11going to be for your submission package, but you
12attended -- or the IRC had three separate meetings in
13reference to the FY 21 submissions, and so trying to
14give some more detail in reference to that, so you're
15really want to be doing two things. You're going to
16basically submit the FY 20 rate for current providers.
17That's going to be listed in your Financial. And then
18you're going to be -- if you're a current provider and
19you're adding a new program, then you're going to be
20submitting that budget to the IRC and to Sang as well.
21So you are, in essence -- this RFP is considered the FY
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121 Proposal, and so you would have or would be basing
2your budget based on your submission -- your Technical
3submissions in this RFP, so you're doing both.
4 MS. CHAPMAN: So we're only submitting the
5current approved rates for this Proposal
6(indiscernible) budget.
7 MS. WALKER: For the Proposal.
8Okay. So now what you're doing is this. You're
9submitting the FY 20 Rate Letter with your Proposal.
10That's says, okay, that's my Financial. However, in
11order to get or obtain an FY 21 rating, then you would
12follow the requirements of the IRC to obtain your FY 21
13rate and --
14 MS. CHAPMAN: Okay. Got it. And that would
15be (indiscernible) the enhancement of the one that you
16submitted already?
17 MS. WALKER: Say that one more time.
18 MS. CHAPMAN: So that would include the
19enhancement of the program that you are resubmitting
20with the ratio expectation?
21 MS. WALKER: Yes, ma'am.
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1 MS. CHAPMAN: And then the rate expectation?
2 MS. WALKER: Yes.
3 MS. CHAPMAN: -- and then the enhancement
4expectation, the family engagement and any treatment
5expectations?
6 MS. WALKER: Yes.
7 MS. CHAPMAN: Okay. Thank you. The second
8question, regarding the gender issue, we're seeing a
9lot more transkids and we get transgirls -- actually,
10transboys -- they're girls going to boys. Would that
11be okay in a high intensity level that is not
12specializing but integrating those kids into our
13current population or do we separate them in a
14specialty model or can we mainstream them in with other
15youth, which is what we are actually doing now?
16 MS. MARINI: Yeah. I would think it's on a
17case by case basis, Sheryl. We would have to examine
18that, but I know that there is -- and I'm not sure on
19-- with OLM if there's a response, but I know that we
20are looking at making sure that you have a policy
21related to those youth and how they will be handled and
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1how they will be, you know, incorporated into your
2programming, and so that's the primary piece, and then,
3of course, examining whether or not you're following
4that protocol and whether the -- our Licensing and
5Monitoring is reviewing it with you and insuring that
6that youth is safe and, you know, supported.
7 MS. CHAPMAN: And my final question, at least
8at this point, speaks to we are now really
9mainstreaming and we're being held appropriately
10accountable for the certification of child care youth
11workers and administrators. Is there any expectation
12(indiscernible) recruit them and then pay them with the
13current salaries that would be the standard across the
14State? In certain geographical (indiscernible) you're
15creating a challenge on the retention of the
16professionals (indiscernible) -- is there any
17expectation that this RFP is going to accommodate some
18professional increase on the same workers other than
19the two percent cost-of-living increases that we are
20looking at (indiscernible) -- I know this is probably
21(indiscernible) question, but I was wondering
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1(indiscernible) in terms of the market impact of the
2certification, professionalizing counselors.
3 MS. WALKER: (Indiscernible) respond to that
4particular question, but I believe the response that
5you received before (indiscernible) the increase in the
6minimum wage increases, things like that. And maybe
7I'm not the person to answer that particular question,
8but feel free to write it in and we'll find, you know,
9an answer for you.
10 MS. CHAPMAN: Well, maybe (indiscernible) we
11went through the non-preferred status, which simply
12allows the regular rate shows up (indiscernible) and
13frequently for me that been (indiscernible) because
14we're trying to maintain staff and we have to
15compensate with (indiscernible). What would be a non-
16preferred bias in this approach? There's an
17expectation for us to hold the cost down
18(indiscernible) because we've been penalized for paying
19(indiscernible) --
20 MS. WALKER: That's really not a question for
21SSA, because SSA does not determine the rate for the
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1budget. It's an IRC matter and its committee that
2determines what the rates will be and what's
3(indiscernible). They determine whether your project
4is approved or not, not SSA.
5 MS. CHAPMAN: Okay. Because in the past
6throughout the nonpreferred status issue, which has
7been bounced around (indiscernible) go ahead and do
8that and then we're told that we're not (indiscernible)
9so -- but that will go to IRC is what you're saying?
10 MS. WALKER: Right.
11 MS. CHAPMAN: Okay.
12 MS. WALKER: I want to call Karen, if you
13wanted to respond to her question.
14 MS. POWELL: So as you submit your records to
15the IRC, as we said in our provider meeting, please put
16your actual cost and any changes in your expenses,
17based on the requirements for the RFP, and the IRC will
18consider those budgets based on what your submissions
19are.
20 AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have a few questions.
21The first question. There were several references made
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1to the ages of 14 through 20. Currently on licenses or
2(indiscernible) it's 13 through 21. Is that going to
3require the licensing to change?
4 MS. WALKER: Andre?
5 MR. THOMAS: (Indiscernible response.)
6 AUDIENCE MEMBER: The other question I had --
7 MS. WALKER: Excuse me. Wait a minute. What
8was that? Andre, get the mic, so that way everybody
9can hear your response.
10 MR. THOMAS: So based on the RFP, your
11licensing should have the ages of what --
12 AUDIENCE MEMBER: 14 to 20?
13 MR. THOMAS: -- 14 through 21.
14 MS. WALKER: 20.
15 AUDIENCE MEMBER: And I have another
16question.
17 (Whereupon, there was a discussion off the
18record clarifying the section to refer to.)
19 MS. WALKER: Section 2. He's talking about
20the age ranges on the different programs throughout
21Section 2 in the age group 14 through 20. And what his
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1question was, was that the license has age 13 through
221. And so Andre -- you know, I wanted Andre to
3respond to his question as to -- and Andre's response
4was that, as far as this RFP is concerned, then that
5age range should match the ages for those programs in
6the RFP.
7 AUDIENCE MEMBER: So with that, I just want
8to be clear that when providers get calls or referrals
9for any kids ages 13 --
10 MS. WALKER: That's typically what's called a
11variance, and initially that's coordinated between SSA
12and Licensing. So, Andre, would you like to respond to
13-- he's asking Licensing questions here.
14 AUDIENCE MEMBER: So if a provider receives a
15referral or a call to take a kid age 13, will that
16require a waiver?
17 MS. WALKER: Yes, it does.
18 AUDIENCE MEMBER: And my other question --
19and I'm sorry I can't remember what section it referred
20to, but it was earlier on in the opening of the
21conference, and that was "based upon the needs of the
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1RFP" was stated, so that was with regards to the client
2profile I believe or the kid profile based upon the
3needs of the RFP. How does that correspond to the
4(indiscernible) what we have in our provider profile or
5the level of intensities, because we make that referral
6that's reflective of the needs of the RFP, but, as a
7provider, we also have a provider profile. What would
8be -- I don't think it's -- it could be related to the
9no reject, but that's not the context I'm asking the
10question in.
11 MS. WALKER: Could you put that question in
12writing, because the syllabus -- I want to make sure I
13respond appropriately, so if you could just kind of
14send us that in writing, because I don't have the
15section you're referring to, so I can't really -- you
16know, I can't really respond to it.
17 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. It was earlier on in
18Mr. Kang's part of the (indiscernible) in the first
19section of the RFP and he said based upon the needs of
20the RFP.
21 MS. WALKER: Sang, he's saying it's something
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1that -- when you presented. He's asking a question.
2He can't remember what section, but you said earlier on
3it was based on the needs of the RFP.
4 MR. KANG: Right. What section are you
5referring to?
6 MS. WALKER: He doesn't know what section.
7 AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm sorry. I didn't write
8the section down. It was earlier on when you talked
9about the types of youth referred to programs and it
10was a requirement based upon the needs of the RFP.
11That was the reference you made. And I just wanted to
12make sure that --
13 MR. KANG: I said that?
14 AUDIENCE MEMBER: It was nine or ten. It was
15page nine.
16 MR. KANG: Page nine. Okay.
17 (Cross-talk between audience and staff
18regarding page numbers in RFP.)
19 MS. ECTOR: I think the numbers that are
20requested on the types of programs are certainly
21indicated in the RFP and based on the needs of the
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1State SSA. However, with respect to referrals,
2children will be referred to your program based on your
3provider profile. The other question about the age
4grouping, when you send that in, definitely reference
5the section, because the only section I see that talks
6about age is the DETP has specific age groups, and then
7there's a suggested grouping of kids in group homes and
8it says 14 to 17 and then it goes up, so make sure you
9reference the section you were referring to, because I
10don't see where it requires these certain age groups,
11other than that limited DETP program.
12 MR. HUBNER: Hi. This is Louis Hubner with
13The Children's Guild. A question with regard to
14ratios. Simple example, to the extent that we have
15eight children in one house, all asleep, eight
16children, we're having four staff?
17 MS. WALKER: So you're talking in the middle
18of the night and the ratio is one to eight?
19 MR. HUBNER: If I have eight children,
20they're all asleep, it's two o'clock in the morning,
21what is my staffing requirement?
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1 MS. WALKER: If they say there needs to be
2two staff on duty at all times, then it would be two to
3eight.
4 MR. HUBNER: Okay. It's not two to one then
5for 24 hour staff? If it's two to one, I need four
6staff?
7 MS. WALKER: No.
8 MR. KANG: What program are you talking
9about?
10 MS. MARINI: What programs?
11 MR. HUBNER: Therapeutic group home.
12 MS. WALKER: Therapeutic group home.
13 MR. HUBNER: I thought I heard -- I though it
14would be four to one, but later I thought I heard I
15thought I heard him say maybe it's two to one during
16the night, so I'm just trying to get that clarified.
17 (Whereupon, there was cross-talk regarding
18question.)
19 MR. KANG: Okay. Yeah. Can you send that
20one in writing? Yeah, you're right.
21 AUDIENCE MEMBER: May I -- the issue with
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1waiting for that in writing is December 16th we have to
2have our staffing patterns to the IRC based on what
3we're going to propose, correct? And so my question is
4how do we get this to you in writing, how do we get the
5response and have enough time to prepare our budgets
6responsibly to meet that December 16th, time frame?
7 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Or is there any option to
8push back that December 16th?
9 MS. WALKER: That's not an SSA -- a response
10for SSA. That would come from Licensing. Currently --
11 MS. ECTOR: Well, I mean, thank you for
12letting us know about the December 16th. We'll get
13that out to you. The question that we're considering
14is the overnight ratio. During the day, it's still two
15staff must be present. We are -- as they indicated,
16we'll consider whether that same requirement is
17necessary for overnight or get that out as soon as we
18can within the next day or two.
19 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Can I follow up on that?
20 MR. KANG: Yes.
21 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Because If you have two
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1kids -- two kids -- or three kids you're supposed to
2have two staff, right? So with six kids, we're
3supposed to have four staff, right, and (indiscernible
4due to cross-talk of audience) -- with eight kids in
5the daytime, how many staff do we need?
6 MS. WALKER: Look at your staffing ratios.
7 MS. ECTOR: Staffing ratios based on levels
8of care.
9 MS. WALKER: Right.
10 MS. ECTOR: Look at that ratio. If you have
11eight children for one staff person, that's what the
12level of care is. SSA's requirement is that you have
13another staff person, so it's eight to two. And part
14of that is if there's an emergency, something happens
15that one staff person has to leave, the kids are left
16alone. So it's eight residents, one staff person plus
17one staff one person, so it's eight to two. The level
18of care ratio does not change.
19 MS. WALKER: Thank you. Any other questions?
20 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Just a follow-up with that.
21Just operationally, I understand having extra staff on
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1at all times, but people are always out in the
2community. That means leaving one staff back in the
3unit. Is that also applicable here or is it just
4overall on shifts you have to that ratio?
5 MS. WALKER: Yes, that's just based on the
6shift.
7 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you. And just
8another follow-up on that. How does that apply for
9transportation? So if you're -- if two staff need to
10be with one -- at least one -- at least two staff are
11left with one child at all times, what if they're
12transporting, do you need two staff for transport?
13 MS. WALKER: No.
14 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. I have another
15question also about the ages on the licensure. If your
16-- so if your license is beyond that 14 to 20 age range
17that's required within this RFP, are you able to serve
18youth outside of that 14 to 20 age range within the RFP
19contracted programs?
20 MS. WALKER: Andre, you want to answer that
21question? I would say -- my response would be no,
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1because the age requirements are stated within the RFP.
2Now, again, with the other gentleman that asked the
3question if there was a 13 year old, these are -- you
4now, there are variance requirements for things that
5happen that OLM decides, so, Andre, do you want to
6answer that question?
7 MR. THOMAS: That question would need to be
8posed to us in writing. Good answers.
9 MS. WALKER: Andre, I didn't hear your
10response. We didn't hear it up here.
11 MR. THOMAS: I need people to put your
12questions in writing to us for a response.
13 MS. WALKER: Okay. Okay.
14 AUDIENCE MEMBER: One other question.
15Related to the Key Personnel and the approval for the
16clinical and the nursing staff, again, it's really
17clearly laid out in the solicitation what the
18contractor's responsibility is, but just with the
19challenging workforce environment, how can we -- what's
20the time frame we can expect to get a response to be
21sent in for approval for hiring for these positions?
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1 MS. WALKER: Debbie, she's talking about the
2QRTP for the nursing staff.
3 MS. MARINI: I'm sorry. You asked what --
4you asked what is the requirement for hiring if you
5don't already have them on --
6 AUDIENCE MEMBER: What would be the time
7frame that we can expect to get approval to hire the
8Key Personnel that is -- we need to have that approval
9before we can hire them from the -- I thought it was
10the State Project Manager.
11 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, Key Personnel. It's
12under the Key Personnel section that if we want to
13substitute one of our Key Personnel, there's
14requirements for within 30 days of the contract; then
15there's requirements within the contract. I thought it
16said 10 days, but did we have to submit within 10 days?
17 AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Indiscernible) on the
18contractor's side it was clear about like how long we
19had to permit that. I was just wondering, because the
20market's so competitive right now and we have to offer
21very quickly these positions, when we could expect to
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1get a response for approving those positions to offer.
2 MS. MARINI: Well, I think I'm understanding
3-- I understand the question and I understand the
4change in practice, so I would say that we would need
5to get back to you with -- if it's not clear in the RFP
6how long the Project Manager would take to get back to
7you on the approval, we will clarify that.
8 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. Thank you. I just
9have one more question about the rates and the budget
10submission. So I understand that we have a 2020 rate
11for our current program; that's what we submit. But if
12we are -- as an agency, we have multiple locations --
13we are proposing to build a program that we have a rate
14for but at a different location, so at a new location
15it's going to be a new program. Should that be our
16rate for the program we offer somewhere else or should
17that be a budget that gets submitted?
18 MS. WALKER: Karen. IRC, can you get the
19mic?
20 MS. POWELL: Going into that in two ways.
21One, I'd defer to the requirements for the RFP for the
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1financial requirements, but if you are submitting a new
2program that is different than what you are currently
3offering, then you will need to submit that to the IRC
4by February 15th and a request for us to consider a new
5rate, so it's two separate steps. So follow what the
6RFP is asking you to do, but if you are asking for a
7different rate for a new program, then submit that to
8the IRC by February 15th.
9 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you. For -- again on
10page 77, for the RFP requirements for Key Personnel,
11letter "G", numbers three and four, we have to include
12three references for Key Personnel. Is that the same
13as our references; we just provide you the contact
14information and the references would be done that way
15or is that us providing reference -- written reference
16letters for those personnel?
17 MR. KANG: No. You're just giving us contact
18information so that we can contact the references.
19 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you. And for number
20four, "Include letters of intended commitment to work
21on the project, including letters from any proposed
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1subcontractors." Subcontractors I don't have a problem
2with. Asking our clinicians and our nursing staff to
3sign letters of commitment that they will continue to
4work at our agency gets a little dicey, because then it
5is deemed -- are they under a contract with us, so my
6HR Department is a little concerned about us requiring
7our personnel to write a -- to sign a letter of intent
8to continue with us for a time period, as that seems to
9get -- and on our part as well, within a new realm of
10Human Resources.
11 MR. KANG: Can you put that one in writing to
12me?
13 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Sure.
14 MR. KANG: Yeah. We'll take care of it.
15 AUDIENCE MEMBER: And I promise only two
16more. In terms of the financial, when you're ranking
17the financials, if we're just submitting a rate letter,
18how is -- what is the ranking based on?
19 MR. KANG: Your Financial Proposals -- or
20your financial ranking will be based on your provider
21rates.
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1 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Right, but so like --
2 MR. KANG: It'll be your FY 21 provider
3rates.
4 AUDIENCE MEMBER: So -- but does that carry a
5certain amount of weight, so if, what, you have a lower
6rate you get lower points or a higher rate you get more
7points?
8 MR. KANG: Lower rates would be higher ranked
9and -- the highest ranked would be the lowest rate.
10 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. And then just
11logistically, in terms of time frames, we're submitting
12this is in February. When will we get the final
13verification of if we're awarded a contract or not?
14 MS. JOHNSON: You'll get that information
15once the evaluations have been completed and the
16recommendations have been approved.
17 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Like will it come out
18before the usual (indiscernible) at the end or --
19 MS. JOHNSON: That depends upon how long it
20takes us to evaluate all of the Proposals.
21 MS. ECTOR: And just to follow up on the
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1substitution of personnel issue, the Department is not
2necessarily approving your hires. That's not what the
3Department does. But the Department does want notice
4if you are substituting Key Personnel, which is that
5program mechanism, and part of that is because it's an
6evaluation criteria, and if you propose, for instance,
7one Program Manager for purposes of the evaluation and
8then after awarding the contract that person is gone,
9we have concerns about that, because we've seen that
10kind of bait and switch, but the Department wants to
11know this; or if someone leaves because they resign and
12have another job, the Department needs notice of that
13and that substitution. Ideally, if you can do it 15
14days in advance (indiscernible) if not, because
15(indiscernible) get it in when you can. The Department
16will acknowledge that notice, but we are not approving
17your hires.
18 AUDIENCE MEMBER: So just one last
19clarification about the rate issue. So I understand
20this lady's question earlier. There's, at least in
21part, some amount of points that are being -- that are
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1considered regarding the 20 rate -- FY 20 rate. So you
2have a program, you submit your FY 20 rate letter; that
3is considered in the evaluation and, ultimately, the
4award of a contract, but that FY 20 rate is in no way
5related to the Technical Proposal that was submitted or
6FY 21, and -- I mean, I would contend that we will see
7rates escalate because of some of the changes in the
8requirements of this RFP, some of the ratio changes,
9providers who aren't accredited, who aren't a QRTP that
10are moving in that direction and that comes with a
11cost, so when they go through IRC for their 21 rate,
12it's going to be more than the FY 20 letter, but that's
13just being considered when making an award, and so I'm
14just -- I'm trying to understand how that makes sense.
15 MR. KANG: Your financial ranking will be
16based on FY 21 rates. That FY 20 rate that you're
17sending to me, that's just like a placeholder. That's
18your Financial Proposal sent to me.
19 AUDIENCE MEMBER: So, ultimately, you will
20wait until FY 21 rates are assessed?
21 MR. KANG: Right. And so if you have a
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1current program, you're going to be sending that rate
2letter to me and you're going to send your budget to
3IRC. The IRC's going to give you the FY 21 letter and
4then everything will be based on FY 21 rates.
5 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay.
6 AUDIENCE MEMBER: So that gets back to the
7evaluation period. In recent years, the letters from
8the IRC have not been received until mid-June.
9 MR. KANG: Right.
10 AUDIENCE MEMBER: And July 1st is
11(indiscernible) so if we are waiting for evaluation on
12FY 21 rates --
13 MR. KANG: Right.
14 AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- it feels that logic
15would preclude us from having an answer before July 1st
16on the RFP.
17 MR. KANG: Your current contracts will
18probably be extended a little bit.
19 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. I had a second
20question on the Key Personnel. I apologize. Coming
21back to -- I did read and it does not say, technically,
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1that the State Project Manager is approving our hires,
2but I think the confusion comes from the State Project
3Manager will notify the contractor in writing of the
4receipt or the denial for a specified time. So there
5is an implication that if we submit someone to replace
6-- if I need to replace somebody, that there is a
7chance for denial of that person.
8 MS. WALKER: And I believe that denial would
9be based on them not meeting the requirements of the
10RFP; that's what that means.
11 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. Got it. Thank you.
12 AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have a question. And I
13apologize if this was already answered and I may have
14missed it. Can you clarify in the previous question
15and answer responses, question and response number 26,
16does this mean -- is this stating, in this current RFP,
17if want to add new programs, you're only able to
18respond to the RFP based on the current licensed
19programs; you're not able to request any new programs
20under your agency?
21 MS. WALKER: This RFP is for current
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1providers and you are able to expand, yes.
2 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay.
3 MR. THOMAS: I need to let everyone know that
4when you submit your proposal and the Letter of Intent
5that goes through -- that comes to the Office of
6Licensing and Monitoring, it should be addressed to
7Helen Murray-Miller. She'll be your contact at OLM,
8Helen Murray-Miller.
9 MS. WALKER: We just had a question up front
10here.
11 MR. LABULE: Good afternoon. This is Joseph
12Labule with Second Family. We provide medically
13fragile services and we have nurses as employees. Are
14they considered Key Personnel?
15 MS. WALKER: Your nurses -- okay. So the Key
16Personnel under this RFP would be the Administrator,
17and then the QRTP, that's your nursing and licensed
18status, so if you're going to be a QRTP-certified
19provider then, yes, they would be considered Key
20Personnel.
21 MR. KANG: Hold on. You don't have to send
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1the resumes for the nurses though. They're not
2technically Key Personnel. I mean, they're key to your
3project, but the only Key Personnel is the Certified
4Program Administrator.
5 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Not if you're a QRTP. It
6specifically says on page 77 --
7 MS. WALKER: Right.
8 AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- that, "For QRTP
9providers, Offerors shall propose their registered or
10licensed nursing and clinical staff who provide care
11within the scope of their practice as Key Personnel."
12 MS. WALKER: Right.
13 AUDIENCE MEMBER: So that means all of my
14resumes, all the references, and Letters of Intent for
15my nurses, my clinicians, and my RCCPA.
16 MS. WALKER: Your Key Personnel, under the
17RFP, is the Contract -- the Administrator, and then if
18you are a QRTP (indiscernible) but as -- under the
19second frame of his question regarded a medically
20fragile program, and so they're not QRTP-certified. So
21your Key Personnel would be your Administrator.
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1 MR. LABULE: I have another question. This
2relates to the MBE goal. For nonprofits, a lot of the
3funds go to pay salaries. We're not allowed to
4consider this towards the MBE goal?
5 MS. WALKER: I didn't hear you, sir. Could
6you say it one more time.
7 MR. LABULE: For nonprofits, a lot of the
8funds to pay salaries to staff. We're not allowed to
9consider that towards the MBE goal?
10 MS. WALKER: Well, the MBE goal is a
11requirement for any provider having 25 or more beds,
12and that comes from the Governor's Office of Small
13Business Administration.
14 MR. LABULE: Yeah, I know, but, as I said,
15for nonprofits, you know (indiscernible) so how can we
16be expected to meet five percent goals, I mean
17(indiscernible) are part of the MBE goal?
18 MS. WALKER: Well, Sandy, I can defer to you,
19but I believe the last response was as long as you're
20showing due diligence.
21 MS. JOHNSON: So nonprofits can no longer be
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1certified as MBEs as of 2015. February of 2015,
2nonprofits can no longer be considered as certified
3MBEs.
4 MR. LABULE: Yeah, I mean, you know, we still
5have the five percent goal to meet, correct?
6 MS. JOHNSON: A nonprofit still has to meet
7the goal. That's correct.
8 MR. LABULE: Yeah. So my question is if I
9run out of funds (indiscernible) we pay salaries to
10staff, so in order to meet that five percent goal, can
11I consider the staff salaries as part of meeting that
12goal? (Indiscernible) might hurt the employees.
13 MS. JOHNSON: You must make a good faith
14effort to meet the five percent goal set
15(indiscernible) so if you're proposing beds of 25 or
16more, you're required to comply with the MBE.
17 MR. LABULE: Thank you.
18 MS. WALKER: Anymore questions?
19 (No response.)
20 MR. KANG: So if you want a written response
21to your questions, please give them to me in writing.
HUNT REPORTING COMPANY
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410-766-HUNT (4868)
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95
1So if some of the questions haven't been answered,
2please send them to me, because it's going to take time
3otherwise. And the question about the overnight ratio,
4we'll get that to you as soon as possible, next day or
5so. Other than that, thank you all for attending the
6pre-proposal conference. I hope everyone has a good
7day.
8 (Whereupon, at 12:40 p.m., the pre-proposal
9conference was concluded.)
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HUNT REPORTING COMPANY
Court Reporting and Litigation Support
Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia
410-766-HUNT (4868)
1-800-950-DEPO (3376)

CERTIFICATE OF NOTARY
I, Deborah B. Gauthier, Notary Public, before
whom the foregoing pre-proposal conference was held, do
hereby certify that said pre-proposal conference is a
true record of the proceedings; that I am neither
counsel for, related to, nor employed by any of the
parties to this action, nor financially or otherwise
interested in the outcome of the action; and that the
pre-proposal conference was reduced to typewriting by
me or under my direction.
This certification is expressly withdrawn
upon the disassembly or photocopying of the foregoing
transcript, including exhibits, unless disassembly or
photocopying is done under the auspices of Hunt
Reporting Company, and the signature and original seal
is attached thereto.

DEBORAH B. GAUTHIER,
Notary Public in and for the
State of Maryland
My Commission Expires: October 17, 2019
HUNT REPORTING COMPANY
Court Reporting and Litigation Support
Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia
410-766-HUNT (4868)
1-800-950-DEPO (3376)