Business Member Procurement Committee

Transcription

1 American Public ransportation Association 2012 Rail Conference Dallas, X Business Member Procurement Committee Hyatt Regency Dallas Hotel Sunday, June 3, 2012 Cockrell, Atrium Level 10:30 a.m. 12 noon

2 Business Member Procurement Committee Welcome and Introductions Bob Brownstein APA Anti rust Statement: March 11, 2012 ~~ 12:30 PM State Room ~~ JW Marriott Hotel Agenda he cardinal rule in keeping association s operations within anti-trust laws is that there should be no agreements express or implied which restrain the member s freedom to make independent decisions in matters that affect competition. Each member must be completely independent to set prices, establish production and sales levels, choose the markets in which he or she will operate and select his or her customers and suppliers. Meeting Notes from March 2012 meeting Attachment 1 Procurement Standards Status Bus RFP o o Light Rail RFP o o o Upcoming raining sessions July 31 August 1 Boston August 27 Washington State ransit Association September Baltimore Experience on the use of the RFP Program Session at Rail Conference Meeting with vehicle procurement consultants Experience on the use of the RFP Senate Appropriations Committee language Attachment 2 rends in the Dynamic Market Attachment 3 Regulations and/or Dear Colleague letters FA Regional raining Workshop June B Report from the working group to further refine the issues list and develop action plans to address Discussion of Other Committee Actions or Projects Up Coming Conferences Other Business

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4 Business Member Procurement Committee March 11, 2012 Meeting Notes Attachment 3 he meeting was called to order by committee chair Bob Brownstein. Present at the meeting were members Joel Abraman, Kevin Adams, John Andreas, John Andrews, John Barberis, Keith Britton, Buddy Coleman, Joe Gibson, Angela Iannuzziello, Jack Martinson, Janet Rogers, Pat Scully, Paul Smith, Jeff Wharton, Chuck Wochele, Robert Zimmerman, Jttendra omar, Lee Kemp, Stan Grill, Vicki Porter, Eve Williams, Raquel Olivier, John Walsh, Catherine ran, Freddie Fuller, MaryAnn Collier, and Linda Bohlinger. Also present were James Harper (FA), Paul Larrousse (NI) and Fran Hooper (APA). he APA Anti rust Statement was read and the Meeting Notes from the January, 2012 meeting were approved. Paul Larrousse was introduced to report on the NI Bus Procurement course. He reported that the course was funded by FA and that the first offering of the course was in May 2011 in Los Angeles. Since that offering, courses have been held in locations around the country. he course instructors are Charlie Kalb and Margaret Merhoff, and APA staff and representatives from a bus OEM company also participate as instructors. he OEM presentation is not a commercial but rather their perspective on the procurement process. Six additional offerings will be held in the future and the OEMs will have at least two opportunities to participate. he next class will be in Boston on July 31 and August 1. he FA Report was given by Jim Harper. He noted that small agencies have problems buying buses and that FA staff had been having conversations with GSA for several years to permit transit agencies to buy buses from the federal supply schedule with a cap of 50 buses being considered. Due to changes in GSA personnel the conversations have continued and currently legal issues are being considered but there are also GSA policy issues and OMB approval which need to be addressed as well. He also reported that the next FA regional procurement technical assistance conference will be held in Boston, hopefully in the next two months. he conference covers documentation, 4220 issues, balancing state and federal requirements and other issues that agency procurement staff need to be reminded about. He reported on a bus option issue raised in the January meeting, noting that it was a 12 bus agency that sent out a solicitation for 12 buses with 200 options. Since 4220 prohibits arbitrary options, FA regional staff had worked with the agency and the solicitation was re-issued correctly. Members noted that there was an electric bus RFP with a 1 or 2 bus base bid and a 200 bus option, and that in the last 10 years manufacturers had benefited from options contracts but that it was now killing competition. Harper also reported that regional procurement staff was now being hired by FA, particularly to administer PMO contracts but also to have third party contract specialists in each region except the Kansas City office. A contractor is doing the work and the staff they are using have

5 10 to 27 years of experience in either DOD or civilian contracting and they are learning he contractor reports to him. Members noted that recently there have been several RFPs which included unlimited liability and consequential damages clauses, and large companies have been going after small contracts due to the economy. Staff reported that there was a new on-line tool for agencies to use in developing a bus RFP. It will be included in the NI course offering and the FA regional procurement meetings. Members talked about how the SBPG s were being used, reporting that the large agencies know about the guidelines but are not using them but that more small and mid-sized agencies are using them, and that large agencies tend to have onerous terms with an imbalance in the risk areas. Members noted that there is a cost to onerous risk terms and that 100% performance bonds are being requested. Kevin Adams noted that there was a lot of interest in development of a standard contract services RFP. Others noted that dumping was going on by suppliers who bid excessively below the competition because they needed work. he chair noted that a list of continuing procurement issues had been discussed at the January committee meeting and that he wanted to establish a working group to suggest strategies that could answer the problems that had been identified. he issues included: 1. RFP awards that end up being low bid awards 2. Slow pay 3. Construction bonding requirements being used for rolling stock procurements and the lack of understanding about the difference, 4. Shifting risk such as demanding third party indemnification requirements that underwriters won t cover 5. Budget related issues a. renegotiating rate caps b. placing limits on profit c. retention d. scope creep e. onerous &Cs f. give-backs 6. Lack of experience and industry knowledge with new personnel Members noted that this could help move the issues forward, and that some of the issues like risk allocation and givebacks were complicated by not knowing who to target or educate to work with on them. Vicki Porter will chair the working group and the following members expressed interest in participating: Stan Grill, Jack Martinson, Jttendra omar, John Andreas, Paul Smith, Kevin Adams, Janet Rogers, Joe Gibson, Jeff Wharton, Bob Brownstein, Frank Martin, Raquel Olivier and Buddy Coleman.

6 he chair requested that the work group flesh out the issues and start to discuss a framework for defining actions that could be taken to address the issues before the next meeting in Dallas. Staff discussed the development of a procurement hot topics page on the APA website to consolidate things that are currently scattered around the website, provide links to resources elsewhere such as the FA helpline and to provide a forum to explore procurement issues in greater detail. Members that said they would work on this effort included Bob Brownstein and Frank Martin. he chair asked about the status of the FA Best Practices Manual update. Jim Harper said that the group has been established and topics for inclusion are being considered and that there was no money for participant travel at this point in time. he meeting was adjourned.

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11 Business Members Procurement Committee rends in the Dynamic Market Attachment 3 Joe Gibson: Fleet Defect language in the bus contracts. he issue is two fold: the major component suppliers do not recognize fleet defect and transit authorities require fleet defect at 10% 15 % versus 20% which is typical for bus orders over 50 units. he bus manufacturer is left with all the risk and the component supplier gets the reward. Customers are asking for extended warranties not available from the component suppliers which require the bus manufacturers to take on this risk to provide the required warranty Paul Smith: Fleet defects. I will come prepared to describe the issue and impact and potential solutions Stan Rosenblum: We have a design to budget provision that is extremely onerous and difficult to manage.