the-administration-of-the-public-private-partnership

MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE FIA/ORA 15-001-S THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP REQUEST FOR GRANT PROPOSALS 311 W. Saratoga Street 9th Floor Conference Room Baltimore, Maryland 21201 Tuesday, November 18, 2014 ATTENDANCE: AGENCY: Elsa Singleton, Procurement Manager/Officer Ann Flagg, Director of Maryland Office for Refugees and Asylees Martin Ford, Deputy Director, Maryland Office for Refugees and Asylees ATTENDEES: Debbie Austin, DHR Adrienne Bennett, Office of Refugees and Asylees Lisa Byrd, International Rescue Committee Ruben Chandrasekar, IRC Elizabeth Chernin, Office of Refugees and Asylees Floor de Ruijter, IRC Jackie Love-Baker, Lutheran Social Services Scott Moore, Office of the Attorney General Mamadou Sy, Lutheran Social Services Reported by: Carol O’Brocki, Notary Public Hunt Reporting Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland 3 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (10:07 a.m.) 3 MS. SINGLETON: Good morning, everyone, and 4welcome to the Department of Human Resources. I hope 5you don’t mind if I sit. Once again, my name is Elsa 6Singleton, and today we will share information with you 7concerning the request for grant proposals for the 8Administration of the Public Private Partnership. The 9Agency Control Number for this RFGP is FIA/ORA 15-001. 10 Please note that this conference is being 11transcribed. When asking questions, please identify 12yourself for the record each time you ask a question, 13and we would ask that you hold all of your questions 14until the end of the presentation, and then you’ll be 15given an ample opportunity to ask them. 16 I did receive several questions all at once 17last night, so you can ask them now, and anything we 18can’t give you an answer to will be posted on the DHR 19website. In fact, all answers to all questions will be 20posted on the DHR website. 21 As soon as possible after this conference, a 4 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1copy of the transcript, all questions and responses, a 2list of attendees, as well as any amendments to the RFGP 3will also be posted on the DHR website. 4 I’d like to do some introductions right now. 5Once again, my name is Elsa Singleton. I’m a DHR 6Procurement Manager and the Procurement Officer for this 7procurement. And to my right? 8 MS. FLAGG: Ann Flagg, Director of the 9Maryland Office for Refugees and Asylees. 10 MR. FORD: And I’m Martin Ford, Deputy 11Director, Maryland Office for Refugees and Asylees. 12 MS. SINGLETON: And real quickly, if we could 13just go around the room and identify yourselves and your 14organizations. 15 MR. SY: I’m Mamadou Sy. I’m the Director of 16Refugee and Immigrant Services with Lutheran Social 17Services. 18 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Jackie Love-Baker, also from 19Lutheran Social Services. 20 MS. BYRD: Lisa Byrd, the International Rescue 21Committee. 5 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1 MR. CHANDRASEKAR: Rubin Chandrasekar, IRC. 2 MS. DE RUIJTER: Floor de Ruijter, IRC. 3 MS. CHERNIN: Elizabeth Chernin, Office of 4Refugees and Asylees. 5 MS. BENNETT: Adrienne Bennett, Office of 6Refugees and Asylees. 7 MR. MOORE: Scott Moore, Attorney General’s 8Office. 9 MS. SINGLETON: Thank you, everyone. I would 10like to start now with Section One, which is the general 11information summary statement. The Department of Human 12Resources, Maryland Office for Refugees and Asylees is 13issuing this request for grant proposals to provide 14refugee transitional cash assistance and related 15adjustment services to eligible refugees and asylees 16under a public/private partnership in six jurisdictions 17of the Baltimore metropolitan area, and two suburban 18Washington counties. 19 The Baltimore metropolitan area counties are: 20Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll, 21Harford, and Howard counties, and the two Washington 6 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1suburban counties are: Montgomery County and Prince 2George’s County. 3 It is the State’s intention to obtain services 4as specified in the RFGP for grants between selected 5applicants and the State. The anticipated duration of 6services to be provided under this grant is ten months, 7beginning on or about December 1, 2014, and ending 8September 30, 2015. 9 The Department intends to make two awards -- 10one for the Baltimore Resettlement Center, and one for 11the Suburban Washington Resettlement Center. However, 12the Department could award a single grantee both grants. 13 Applicants either directly or through their 14subcontractors must be able to provide all services and 15meet all of the requirements requested in this 16solicitation, and the successful applicant shall remain 17responsible for the grant performance, regardless of 18subcontractor participation in the work. 19 The sole point of contact in the State for the 20purposes of this RFGP is myself. I’m the Procurement 21Officer and my name and address and contact information 7 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1is listed in the RFP. 2 And I’d like to talk about something very 3important now -- the proposal due date and time. 4Proposals in the number and form set forth in Section 54.2 must be received by the Procurement Officer at the 6address listed on the key information summary sheet, no 7later than 3:00 p.m. local time on Monday, December 1, 82014 in order to be considered. Please do not be late. 9I cannot accept your proposal if it’s late, even if it’s 10one minute late. The Code of Maryland Regulations will 11not allow me to accept it. So to avoid all of that, 12please be on time. 13 Traffic problems, any other -- I mean, they’re 14good excuses but it’s not going to -- I cannot accept 15your proposal, okay? So please be on time. Even 16personal reasons, I cannot accept your proposal. So 17please be on time. And once again, the proposal due 18date and time is 3:00 p.m. on Monday, December 1, 2014. 19 Applicants mailing proposals should allow 20sufficient delivery time to ensure timely receipt by the 21Procurement Officer. Proposals may not be submitted by 8 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1email or facsimile, and proposals will not be opened 2publicly. And we ask a favor. If you are not 3responding or you did not intend to respond to this 4solicitation, we ask that you submit a Notice to Vendors 5form, which includes your company information, and the 6reason you’re not going to respond, such as too busy, 7cannot meet the requirements, et cetera. This form is 8located in the RFGP immediately in the front, right 9behind the title page. 10 By submitting a proposal in response to this 11RFGP, an applicant, if selected for award, shall be 12deemed to have accepted the terms and conditions of the 13RFGP and the grant. Any proposer who takes exception to 14these terms may be rejected. A proposal submitted by an 15applicant must be accompanied by a completed bid 16proposal affidavit, and a copy of this affidavit is 17included as Attachment B in the RFGP. 18 I’d like to talk now about Section 1.22, 19Compliance with Laws and Arrearages. By submitting a 20proposal and responses, RFGP, the applicant, if selected 21for award, agrees that it will comply with all Federal, 9 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1State, and local laws applicable to its activities and 2obligations under the grant. So when you submit a RFGP, 3each applicant represents that he is not in arrears in 4the payment of any obligations due or owing to the 5State, including the payment of taxes, employee 6benefits. If you are it may prohibit you from being 7awarded the grant. 8 Before a business entity can do business in 9the State, it must be registered with the Maryland State 10Department of Assessments and Taxation. It is strongly 11recommended that any potential applicant complete 12registration prior to the due date for receipt of 13proposals. If you fail to do so, it may disqualify an 14otherwise successful applicant from final consideration 15and recommendation for grant award. 16 Section 1.29, Conflict of Interest and 17Disclosure. Applicants shall complete and sign the 18Conflict of Interest affidavit disclosure and submit it 19with the proposal. All applicants are advised that if a 20grant is awarded as a result of this solicitation, the 21successful grantee’s personnel who perform the work 10 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1under this grant shall be required to complete 2agreements substantially similar to the Conflict of 3Interest affidavit. There is also a non-disclosure 4agreement. All applicants are advised that this 5solicitation and any resulting grants are subject to the 6terms of a non-disclosure agreement, and that’s 7contained in the RFGP in Section J. 8 Section 1.32, Location and Performance of 9Services. The applicant is required to complete the 10location of performance of services disclosure and that 11is Attachment I, and that, too, must be provided with 12the proposal. 13 Section 2, the Minimum Qualifications. There 14is only one, and that is the applicant shall be an 15office or an affiliate of a voluntary resettlement 16agency that is currently providing services under 17Maryland’s Public/Private Partnership. 18 I would like to turn it over now to the 19Maryland Office for Refugees and Asylees, and they will 20speak with you regarding the requirements for this RFGP. 21 MS. FLAGG: Thank you, Elsa. 11 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1 MS. SINGLETON: Sure. 2 MS. FLAGG: Congratulations on making it 3through the 105 page solicitation that we have provided 4to you. I think Elsa did a great job covering the basic 5requirements, so I wanted to just touch very briefly on 6the programmatic and outreach requirements that we’re 7looking for. 8 You know, not to regurgitate what’s on here, 9but just to sort of highlight the operational 10requirements we’re looking for to negotiate with the 11Center’s existing landlord, or to find a new space if an 12agreement cannot be reached to maintain services for a 13one-stop center, to manage the space allocation with 14that Center with existing partners, to timely pay the 15Center’s rent and utility expenses, ensure maintenance, 16work with LORA (phonetic) if there are any alterations 17or renovations that will be required, manage the 18security -- fiscal security and information security 19plan for the Center, work with us on any vendor payment 20over $500. 21 Obviously like we’ve done for many years, make 12 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1sure that there’s a brochure for each voluntary agency, 2obviously in languages appropriate to the refugee 3population served at the time, ensuring that each client 4has both a PPP participant agreement form as well as a 5family self-sufficiency plan in the file. 6 I think most of you are familiar with how RTCA 7is administered, so I will not go over that in any great 8detail today, but to say that probably the largest 9feature of this scope of work is administration of the 10refugee transitional cash assistance program. So, 11ensuring that eligibility is -- eligibility 12documentation is completed and that payments are made to 13the clients in a timely and accurate manner, and 14ensuring that any conciliation measures or any dispute 15resolutions are managing between the partners and with 16our office. 17 So I think that’s about it -- oh, and of 18course ensuring that sub-agreements are developed with 19each of the other voluntary agencies. 20 A little bit about performance measures, 21because this is something that is somewhat new for those 13 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1of us who’ve been involved in this program before. We 2are implementing performance measures that are somewhat 3more similar to how DHR contracts with other vendors for 4these types of services, including 100 percent of RTCA 5recipients meet the grantees’ eligibility criteria, some 6reference to error rates -- keeping error rates under 7four percent -- just sort of our standard DHR. 8 We can talk a little bit more as time goes on 9about how those things would tabulated. One hundred 10percent of client payments -- overpayments or 11underpayments are resolved in less than 30 days from 12discovery of error, and 100 percent of clients receive a 13redetermination by the beginning of the fifth month of 14RTCA payment. 15 And I guess just the reporting -- it’s worth 16mentioning the ORR sixth trimester performance reporting 17is a requirement that all of you are familiar with now, 18but ensuring that that gets complied and sent to our 19office by the deadlines listed in this report, the RTC - 20- opening or closing report. And the comment I’ll make 21about that is that we are intending to transition to the 14 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1electronic case management software. So there may be 2some modification over the course of the award with 3regard to how this report will be collected, but that’s 4-- so we wrote this for our current state, which is 5we’re still expecting those opening and closure reports 6to come to our office. But that’s something that may be 7subject to negotiation, you know, over the course of the 8year. 9 Monthly expenditure reports -- we are 10increasing the information we’re requesting in the 11expenditure reports moving forward. We would like to 12see detailed financial information associated, and not 13simple line item charges. So we do want an additional 14level of detail to support the invoicing. Additionally 15we want some documentation and this is, of course, 16subject to negotiated related to staff time and effort 17-- time sheets, et cetera, that can support the salary 18charges that are going to be charged against this claim. 19 And then an annual financial audit report or 20financial review, which is sent to us when you get it or 21when we ask for it. So that’s about it for the 15 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1reporting. Is there anything I missed overall, Martin? 2 MR. FORD: No, I don’t think so. Ordinarily 3at these meetings we’d have someone -- some agency 4representing someone who didn’t know about refugee 5resettlement, but since this is exclusive to actual 6VOLAGS (phonetic), already operating in Maryland, I 7don’t think there’s much need for background. 8 The only people -- even the people who aren’t 9directly involved in resettlement -- people like Elsa -- 10they now are experts in resettling from working through 11this RFP with us. So I want to thank them. Maybe the 12only person who doesn’t know anything is the 13transcriber. But I don’t mean that in a derogatory 14sense. 15 The only thing I would add would be the 16importance in developing your plan -- really digging out 17the Code of Federal Regulations and referring to it and 18making that explicit in stating your plan, because it’s 19so important to what we do. 20 MS. FLAGG: Actually, Martin, I’m really glad 21you mentioned that because that’s another point that’s 16 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1referenced in here that is extremely important and very 2different from the arrangement in years prior that we 3are requiring that the expenses are in compliance with 4State Letter 1213 (phonetic), which -- we’ve got this on 5here, right? 6 MS. SINGLETON: Yeah, I think so. 7 MS. FLAGG: I think so, too. It’s available 8on ORR’s website, but if you needed a link to it just 9let me know, but it really outlines very specifically 10what charges are allowable in terms of RTC 11administration and, you know, I know we’ve discussed 12this before, but it is substantially more than what we 13had been charging to RTC administration in years prior. 14 So just be sure that whatever expenses and 15services you’re including are referenced and eligible, 16both in the regs but also in supplemental State policy, 17like 1213, issued by ORR. 18 MS. SINGLETON: All right. Anything else 19you’d like to share? 20 MR. FORD: Well, to preface the questions we 21may not have the answers right, but we will. As Elsa 17 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1will confirm, we will get them to you if we don’t. 2 MS. SINGLETON: Okay. Thank you so much. I’d 3like to talk a little bit about how you should prepare 4your proposal, and I don’t want to bore you but some of 5these items are very important. So if you’ll just be a 6little patient with me. I think that some of your 7questions that I received last night will be answered in 8what I’m getting ready to say. 9 So we’ll start with two-part submission. When 10you submit your proposals, they are submitted in 11separate volumes. So there’s a technical proposal, 12that’s Volume One; and there’s a financial proposal, 13that’s Volume Two. 14 Now, Volume One, the technical proposals, and 15Volume Two, they’re sealed separately from one another. 16It is preferred but not required that the name, email 17address, and telephone number of the applicant be 18included on the outside of the packaging for each 19volume. Each volume should contain an unbound original 20so identified, and four copies. So that would be each 21volume shall contain an unbound original so identified 18 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1and four copies. So an original technical and four 2copies, and an original financial and four copies. 3 The State’s preference is for the two sealed 4volumes to be submitted together in a single package 5including a label that gives the RFGP title and number, 6name and address of the applicant, and the closing date 7and time for the receipt of the proposals. And all of 8the proposals are addressed to me at the address given 9in the RFP. 10 Now something that’s relatively new is we’re 11requiring that an electronic version -- a CD or a DPD of 12the technical proposal in Microsoft Word format be 13enclosed with the original technical proposal. 14 MS. BYRD: In Excel Word format? 15 MS. SINGLETON: Yes. And an electronic 16version of the CD -- I’m sorry -- an electronic version 17of the financial proposal. Okay? Now here it says it 18can be a Word or a Microsoft Excel. 19 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Do you prefer Excel? 20 MS. SINGLETON: If you would put that in 21Microsoft Excel. It must be enclosed with the original 19 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1financial proposal. Then we also ask for a second 2electronic version of Volumes One and Two, in a 3searchable Adobe format in case we receive a Public 4Information Act request. And I’m not going to go into 5that right now, but if you have any questions about that 6I can talk to you about how that works. 7 And all pages of both proposal volumes should 8be numbered consecutively, so 1 through 100, regardless 9of what it is, or 1 through 50 -- just consecutively. 10You may either mail or hand-deliver your proposal. If 11you choose to use the U.S. Postal Service for delivery, 12we recommend that you use Express Mail, Priority Mail, 13or Certified Mail, as these are the only forms for which 14both the date and time of the receipt can be verified. 15 In the technical proposal, no pricing 16information is to be included -- in the technical 17proposal. Pricing information is only to be included in 18the financial proposal. 19 I’d like to talk about how your technical 20proposal should be set up. There were some questions 21about the tabs and what should be in each tab, so I’ll 20 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1try and answer that now. 2 The technical proposal shall include the 3following documents and information, or as specified. 4Each section of the technical proposal shall be 5separated by a tab as follows: The title page and the 6table of contents, that’s submitted under Tab A. The 7Claim of Confidentiality, that’s submitted under Tab A1. 8The Transmittal Letter is submitted under Tab B. The 9Executive Summary, Tab C. The Minimum Qualifications 10document, that’s submitted under Tab D. 11 The applicant’s technical response to the 12RFGP, Requirements and Proposed Work Plan -- that’s 13submitted under Tab E. Tab F will hold the Applicant’s 14Qualifications and Capabilities. Tab G will have the 15Experience and Qualifications of Proposed Staff, 16including Proposed Sub-Recipients. 17 The List of Current or Prior State Grants is 18to be submitted under Tab H. Financial Capability, 19that’s submitted under Tab I. Certificates of 20Insurance, under Tab J. Any subcontractors you intend 21to use will be submitted under Tab K, and any pending 21 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1legal action will be submitted under Tab L. And under 2Tab M is additional required technical submissions, and 3there was a typo in there, I believe. So it talks about 4a list of documents and it says it should be submitted 5under Tab M, but then it said to submit it under Tab O. 6It’s Tab M. 7 Okay. And the RFP goes into these tabs in 8great detail, but I don’t want to take up the time right 9now reading it word-for-word. So if you have any 10questions about it, please feel free to ask me and I 11will get back to you. 12 The financial proposal, of course, is under a 13separate sealed cover from the technical proposal, and 14as I said, it has an original and four copies. The 15financial proposal contains all price information. The 16applicant shall complete the financial proposal only as 17provided in the financial proposal instructions and the 18financial proposal form itself. 19 I know that the Maryland Office of Refugees 20and Asylees took great pains in preparing the financial 21proposal, so I think they did a great job. So if you 22 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1have any questions about it, you know, I’m sure they’ll 2be happy to answer them. 3 I’d like to talk a little bit about how your 4proposal will be evaluated. The evaluation of proposals 5will be performed in accordance with COMAR 21.05.03 by a 6committee established for that purpose, and based on the 7following evaluation criteria. The criteria that I’m 8going to explain to you now is in descending order of 9importance, so the most important criteria is first. 10 The applicant’s technical response to the RFG 11requirements and work plan, and I’d like to say a little 12bit about that. I know you all are familiar with the 13work to be done on this RFGP, but it’s important that 14you answer each and every requirement, even if you get 15tired of writing, even if you figure, oh, DHR knows me. 16They know my work. 17 It is not enough to say that you will comply; 18you must say how you will comply to that RFG 19requirement. And it goes into more detail in the RFGP, 20but that’s that basis of it. Just don’t say that you’re 21going to do it -- oh, State of Maryland, I’m going to do 23 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1it. Say how you’re going to do it, and that will cut 2down on the number of questions we have to come back to 3you for. 4 So, once again, the application’s technical 5response is the most important criteria. The next one 6is applicant qualifications and capabilities, and the 7last is experience and qualifications. 8 After completion of the technical proposal and 9the financial proposal evaluation and rankings, each 10applicant will receive an overall ranking. The 11Procurement Officer will recommend award of the grant to 12the responsible applicant that submitted a proposal 13determined to be most advantageous to the State. In 14making this most advantageous determination, technical 15factors will receive greater weight than financial 16factors. 17 That concludes our overview of the RFGP, and 18we’ll be happy to entertain any questions you may have 19at this time. 20 MS. LOVE-BAKER: I’m Lisa. Are you open the 21day after Thanksgiving? 24 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1 MS. SINGLETON: We are not. The State is 2closed, I believe, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Why 3are you -- I mean, do you need -- 4 MS. LOVE-BAKER: I wanted to turn it in early. 5 MS. FLAGG: No, we’re not here. 6 MS. LOVE-BAKER: I may have missed it, but 7could you direct me to Attachment Q, and I’m Jackie 8Love-Baker from Lutheran Social Services. 9 MS. SINGLETON: I sure can. It probably 10doesn’t look the way you think it should look, or the 11way an attachment would look, but it’s the last page of 12the RFP. 13 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Right. I see it right here. 14Thank you. 15 MS. SINGLETON: Okay. And it has the 16landlord’s names for both locations and the square 17footage. Is that good? 18 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Great. Yes, thank you. 19 MS. SINGLETON: You’re welcome. Yes? 20 MS. BYRD: If there’s something that doesn’t 21apply under a tab, do you want -- do you still want the 25 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1tab there, like -- 2 MS. SINGLETON: What did you have in mind, or 3just in general? 4 MS. BYRD: Like the legal action. 5 MS. SINGLETON: Oh, still answer that. So we 6still want a tab and say my organization has no legal -- 7pending legal actions or whatever. 8 MS. BYRD: Okay. 9 MS. DE RUIJTER: Well, I have several 10questions, but -- 11 MS. SINGLETON: That’s okay. 12 MS. DE RUIJTER: So, the first one is can an 13agency be listed as a subcontractor on one proposal and 14still submit their own proposal? So when you’re talking 15about submitting one proposal, is that as a primary 16applicant? 17 MS. SINGLETON: Are the answers yes? 18 MR. MOORE: Scott Moore, Assistant Attorney 19General. Yes, that’s my understanding and chime in if 20they disagree. It’s my understanding that, yes, you can 21submit one proposal as a primary (indiscernible) or 26 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1operation, but also be included in the proposal 2(indiscernible) given the requirements for the sub. 3It’s the recipient agreements. 4 MS. SINGLETON: Okay. Thank you. 5 MS. DE RUIJTER: And then what happens if an 6agency does not provide a Letter of Intent? Can they be 7added to the contract once the award is announced? 8 MS. SINGLETON: Is a Letter of Intent 9required, Scott? 10 MR. MOORE: In some circumstances, it could, 11yes it is. And if we don’t have an answer to that now 12we can just come back to it in writing. 13 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Oh, were you done? 14 MS. DE RUIJTER: Oh, I’m sorry. No, go ahead. 15 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Jackie Love-Baker here again. 16If we’re interested in submitting proposed centers, do 17we need to do two separate proposals? 18 MS. SINGLETON: Yes. You will need to do two 19separate proposals. 20 MS. LOVE-BAKER: And how do you envision the 21transition happening with such a short -- since we’re 27 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1turning in the contract proposals for December 1st? You 2know, the contract is supposed to go into place that 3day. How do you envision that transferring? Is there a 4way to prepare for that? 5 MS. SINGLETON: The State is looking at its 6options right now, and you’ll be notified as soon as 7possible in writing. So, we’re looking -- correct? 8 MS. FLAGG: Yeah. 9 MS. SINGLETON: We’re looking at that right 10now, and you’ll know in ample time. 11 MS. DE RUIJTER: On the rent space allocation 12plan, what’s the percentage of rent for each center 13that’s allowable to be charged, and related to that, 14what is the basis for excluding rent from the indirect 15cost recovery? 16 MS. FLAGG: What’s the basis for that? 17 MS. DE RUIJTER: Yes. 18 MS. FLAGG: Well, first question first. We 19have not put a cap on the percent of the rental cost 20that can be charged to the project. I’m trying to think 21how to answer this. Yeah, we have not capped it. Let 28 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1me just leave it there, okay? The basis for making that 2exclusion on calculation of ICR is just this needs 3discretion. 4 MS. DE RUIJTER: Okay. And then what is the 5maximum or minimum amounts that may be paid to clients 6in employment incentives? 7 MS. FLAGG: We did not give a (indiscernible) 8to that intentionally, so that is to be considered, you 9know, this is an opportunity. We’ve been doing it the 10same way for a very long time. This is an opportunity 11for you to present another strategy, and we may have to 12negotiate if the cost is too high. But we wanted to 13invite the opportunity for everyone to just give us 14their best idea. 15 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Is there a difference between 16a subcontractor and a sub-recipient, or are those 17interchangeable terms? 18 MS. FLAGG: They should be interchangeable, 19but this would be a sub-recipient because we’ll enter 20into a grant, not a contract with the prime, correct? 21 MR. MOORE: Scott Moore, Assistant Attorney 29 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1General. As used in the proposal itself, sub- 2recipient/subcontractor are used interchangeably. 3 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Do we need details on the IT 4plan? Jackie Love-Baker here again -- or, I mean, how 5detailed do want in that in the proposal? It doesn’t 6really say we need to -- it says -- 7 MS. FLAGG: It says one needs to be developed 8for the facility -- that we will develop -- hang on. 9 MS. LOVE-BAKER: I think you did say that, but 10I just wanted to double-check that you didn’t want more 11of a plan -- 12 MS. FLAGG: Develop and institute is in the 13scope of work. So I think the best guidance is exactly 14what Elsa pointed to earlier, which is it’s not enough 15to say “we’re going to do this.” 16 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Okay. So you do want a 17developed plan, not just that we will do this, but that 18there would be something specific? 19 MS. SINGLETON: I would answer that question 20to the best of your ability that would meet the 21requirements of the RFGP. What you propose -- what is 30 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1your plan as far as IT is concerned that you believe 2will meet the requirements of the RFGP. Does that help? 3 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Yes. 4 MS. SINGLETON: Okay. 5 MS. LOVE-BAKER: It’s hard when we’re not 6writing the contract now to know what all of the details 7are to address that. We’re coming sort of from -- 8 MS. FLAGG: Again, I think it’s Elsa’s best 9advice. If you can’t tell us specifically what you 10would do tomorrow, this is how we would implement a plan 11to ensure that that deliverable has been achieved, 12right, with as much detail as you think is appropriate 13to inform us. 14 MS. DE RUIJTER: Yes. Floor de Ruijter here. 15 MS. FLAGG: It’s a dueling question. I love 16it. 17 MS. DE RUIJTER: Just about the insurance 18requirements, I think it noted in the RFP that these 19would be -- we would send them five days after the 20award. But then you mentioned that under the tab that 21we had to submit, you know, some specifics. So I was 31 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1just wondering what the specific insurance requirements 2were for the proposal itself. 3 MS. SINGLETON: That is in the RFP. 4 MS. DE RUIJTER: Right. So my question is 5during we need to submit that during the proposal or is 6it stated that we need to five days afterwards? 7 MS. SINGLETON: Oh, no, that’s -- the 8insurance is five days after. That doesn’t have to come 9with the proposal. I’m 99 percent sure, but I’ll 10confirm that. I will confirm that. 11 MS. LOVE-BAKER: This should be an easy 12question. I’m Jackie Love-Baker. I think this is an 13easy one. Do we actually need to bind tabs labeled by 14letter and then to put each section behind those tabs? 15 MS. SINGLETON: Well, that’s what I’ve seen in 16other proposals -- in other requests for proposals. 17Yes, that’s exactly what I’ve seen. 18 MS. LOVE-BAKER: When will the Center 19coordinator or receptionist positions be posted? 20 MS. FLAGG: So we can talk about that. That’s 21sort of -- as far as I’m concerned, that’s more related 32 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1to the current situation. We spoke about this a little 2bit last week. So if we can table that, since it’s not 3relevant to this. But long story short, I think 4(indiscernible) of a month posted today or yesterday. 5 MS. SINGLETON: Question? 6 MS. DE RUIJTER: Yes, I do. 7 MS. SINGLETON: Are these the ones you sent in 8last night? 9 MS. DE RUIJTER: Yes. 10 MS. SINGLETON: Oh, okay. We’ll do our best. 11 MS. DE RUIJTER: Okay. Does Moore (phonetic) 12restrict RTCA payment monthly to check only or would the 13EBT or the local pay cards be acceptable? 14 MS. FLAGG: That’s a fantastic question. I 15have no -- we will get back to you. I don’t have any 16issue with that in principle, but what I don’t know is 17if there is -- I would have to check to see if there is 18any regulation guiding that. 19 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Is there any way to get more 20details on the lease, the rent amount, in determining 21payments? 33 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1 MS. SINGLETON: We would definitely have to 2get back to you on that one. Do you know? 3 MS. FLAGG: Is that -- that’s in the tab 4included in the budget, right, Lisa? Didn’t we leave 5that line so it’s not considered -- is that -- 6 MS. CHERNIN: No. The rent and utility they 7have to provide. The only thing they will want in the 8RTCA payments are predictions, but the rent and 9utilities. 10 MS. FLAGG: So we’re definitely going to have 11to get back to you on that. 12 MS. SINGLETON: You have more? 13 MS. DE RUIJTER: I have more, yes. Is it a 14requirement of a resettlement agency to be located 15within the Center to receive funding or be part of a 16partnership? 17 MS. FLAGG: The requirements that we’ve laid 18out are just that it’s an affiliate active in the State 19of Maryland. 20 MS. DE RUIJTER: Okay. And then the self- 21sufficiency plans and other supply documents, are both 34 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1prime and sub-grantees required to use this format for 2the self-sufficiency -- 3 MS. FLAGG: So the format that we provided, I 4wouldn’t be comfortable to negotiate with the grantee, 5but I would want the same format used by all partners. 6Right? 7 MS. SINGLETON: Yeah. 8 MS. DE RUIJTER: And then the (indiscernible) 9rotation, can a resettlement agency participate in a 10(indiscernible) rotation but not be a sub-grantee? 11 MS. SINGLETON: Do you want to -- 12 MS. FLAGG: No, I just -- maybe I don’t 13understand the purpose of the question. How could an 14agency -- an agency would have to be a sub-recipient for 15the clients that they would be serving in a rotation to 16receive cash assistance. So it doesn’t -- I can’t see a 17circumstance where that would be advantageous to anyone. 18 MR. CHANDRASEKAR: I mean, there are 19circumstances where an agency may not wish to be a sub- 20grantee or particular prime -- could not respond to 21their requests to give information, right? So in other 35 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1words, if we request information as a prime as a 2(indiscernible) and the agency does not respond to your 3requests, and we get the award, what happens? 4 MS. FLAGG: We would talk about that when the 5time came, if the pre-cash would not -- could not be 6received by the agency. I mean, there would need to be 7a legal instrument and we are not in this ten-month 8period doing any direct contracting with anyone outside 9of the prime. 10 MR. CHANDRASEKAR: Yeah. I think that just 11needs to be clarified so everyone works together. 12 MS. FLAGG: And the other thing I was going to 13say about that is if there are current issues with the 14current grant -- if that’s an issue with the current 15grant, then we’ve got two weeks to deal with that -- 16three weeks, or whatever. So if this is an issue we 17don’t need to wait for a new award. Do you know what 18I’m saying? 19 MR. CHANDRASEKAR: I’m not sure. 20 MS. FLAGG: We don’t need to wait for a new 21award to deal with a current sub-recipient that you had 36 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1no difficulties managing. 2 MR. CHANDRASEKAR: I see. 3 MS. FLAGG: The point is is if there is a -- 4if you have an instrument in place right now with that 5agency and you have an issue, then let’s deal with it 6right now, sort of separate from the new -- or before we 7enter into the new award. 8 MR. CHANDRASEKAR: Okay. 9 MS. LOVE-BAKER: My question is quite minor 10after to that. I’ll give you the easy one. I just 11wanted to clarify whether or not Attachment J should 12merely be -- the NTA should really be labeled G1, and J 13is the PP Participant Agreement. I know. It’s 14technical but when it comes up -- 15 MS. SINGLETON: Can I confirm that with you 16and get back to you? 17 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Absolutely. 18 MS. SINGLETON: Because I have your question 19on the transcript, so I’ll get back to you on that. 20 MR. MOORE: Scott Moore, Attorney General’s 21Office. The MBA has, I guess, described in Section One, 37 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1it references a bad attachment label. I believe it’s 2Attachment J in Section 1 is actually Attachment G. 3That’s a typo. 4 MS. LOVE-BAKER: Great. Thank you. 5 MS. DE RUIJTER: A question about background 6checks. Is that -- could you confirm that more funding 7cannot be used for background checks as the -- I can 8read the Section 3.33, “Grantee shall secure at its own 9expense a Maryland State Police and/or an FBI background 10check.” 11 MS. SINGLETON: Please confirm that more 12funding cannot be used for background checks. 13 MS. FLAGG: More funding through this award? 14Yeah. I mean, it says at the agency’s own expense. 15 MS. DE RUIJTER: Okay. So, my last question 16is, you know, since the contracts end at the end of 17November and this is due on December 1st, how quickly 18will the decision be made and will funding be 19retroactive to December 1st? 20 MS. SINGLETON: The speed of the decision 21depends upon the amount and the complexity of the 38 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1proposals that we receive. We are well aware of the 2time frame, and we are pursuing an aggressive time frame 3to get this completed on time. However, as I said 4before, we are looking at other options and you will be 5notified if we decide to do anything differently. But I 6couldn’t give you an exact date. 7 MS. FLAGG: Yeah, to the question about 8retroactive, we don’t -- yeah, as Elsa said, we’re 9exploring options, but it is not at all our intent to 10leave anybody holding the bag on the expenses for the 11interim time. So the question of the instrument for how 12we will deal with that is still being decided, but we’re 13not going to leave the current grantees stuck with the 14expenses, if we have to push this back a few days back. 15All right? Anything else? 16 MR. SY: Yes. Mamadou Sy from Lutheran Social 17Services. My question relates to the 3.23. Obviously 18an administration -- 19 MS. FLAGG: Reference what again? I’m sorry? 20 MR. SY: 3.23. 21 MS. FLAGG: 3.23, okay. Yep? 39 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1 MR. SY: Secure a letter of intent from each 2(indiscernible) stating that they intend to provide RTCA 3services to refugees and help settle (indiscernible) in 4relation of the grant. So if we were to jump to the 5(indiscernible) that does not submit it on time for us 6to be able to include it in our proposal? 7 MS. FLAGG: So that is -- I would say if you 8have any -- submit what you have, and if there were 9challenges to that you can describe those challenges. 10That’s not something that we can -- that’s something 11that we can deal with during a negotiation period. 12 MS. SINGLETON: Once again, you know, just 13answer to the best of your ability. Answer each 14requirement thoroughly and say how you will comply with 15that. If you have -- you can write exactly what you 16just said, okay, and then we will come to you for a 17clarification. 18 Any more questions? Well, if there are no 19more questions -- do you have one more question? 20 MR. SY: I did have one. I just wanted to get 21to that section. It’s regarding negotiating with the 40 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1existing landlords. This is Mamadou from Lutheran 2Social Services. So do we -- do you want us to have a 3plan prior to -- and be part of the submission, or do 4you want -- or this should happen once an award has been 5made, in terms of outreaching to those current landlords 6and reaching for extension or looking for other options? 7 MS. SINGLETON: Is the RFP silent on that? 8 MS. FLAGG: It just says you should do it, 9right? It doesn’t say before submission or upon 10submission? 11 MS. SINGLETON: Let me consider that. 12 MR. SY: Okay. Because it’s kind of hard for 13us to establish the goals -- 14 MS. SINGLETON: Exactly. I understand. 15Additional questions? 16 MS. FLAGG: Elsa will still take your 17questions. 18 MS. SINGLETON: Well, if you have no more 19questions at this time, that will conclude our Pre- 20Proposal Conference for today. Yes, you can send me 21your questions. You have my contact information if you 41 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1think of anything else. 2 I want to remind you the closing date and time 3for proposals is Monday, December 1, 2014 at 3:00 p.m., 4and I thank you for your interest in doing business with 5the State. Have a great day. 6 (At 10:59 a.m. the meeting concluded.) 42 HUNT REPORTING COMPANY Court Reporting and Litigation Support Serving Maryland, Washington, and Virginia 410-766-HUNT (4868) 1-800-950-DEPO (3376)1 CERTIFICATE OF NOTARY 2I, CAROL O’BROCKI, the officer before whom the foregoing testimony 3was taken, do hereby certify that the witness whose testimony 4appears in the foregoing transcript was duly sworn by me; that the 5testimony of said witness was taken by me by stenomask means and 6thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under my direction; that 7said testimony is a true record of the testimony given by said 8witness; that I am neither counsel for, related to, or employed by 9any of the parties to the action in which this testimony is taken; 10and further, that I am not a relative or employee of any attorney or 11counsel employed by the parties hereto, nor financially or otherwise 12interested in the outcome of the action. 13 This certification is expressly withdrawn and denied upon the 14disassembly or photocopying of the foregoing transcript of the 15proceedings or any part thereof, including exhibits, unless said 16disassembly or photocopying is done by the undersigned court 17reporter and/or under the auspices of Hunt Reporting Company. 18 19 _____________________________ 20 CAROL O’BROCKI 21 Notary Public in and for the 22 State of Maryland 23My Commission Expires: 24