DI Good Faith Efforts Guidelines Updated_

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2 reject the bid on that basis. The contractor has the burden of demonstrating the excessiveness or unreasonableness of the MWBE’s bid or quote. Because the City must determine whether a MWBE quote was unreasonable or excessive, Contractors must provide the City with copies of each MWBE and non MWBE quote submitted to the bidder when a non-MWBE was selected over an MWBE. • A contractor may not reject a MWBE as being unqualified without sound reasons based on a thorough investigation of the MWBE’s capabilities. If a prime contractor rejects a MWBE as unqualified, the Contractor must provide the City with good reasons for this. The MWBE’s industry standing or membership in a specific group, organization, political or social affiliation (example: union v. non -union) is not a basis to reject the MWBE for lack of qualification. • The ability or desire of a prime contractor to perform the work of the contract with its own organization team does not relieve the prime contractor of the need to make good faith efforts to use MWBE sub contractors to meet the contract goal. EXAMPLE: Total Project Estimate is $500,000. An MBE goal of 5% is set for a specific portion of the project, i.e., $25,000. Only one MBE submits a quote to the prime contractor for that portion of the project, and it is $25,000. A non MWBE submits a quote of $22,000 for the same portion of the project. Rejecting the MBE quote may not meet the requirement of making a good faith effort to meet the contract goal because: 1) the MBE quote is within the goal percentage and dollar amount set for MBE participation on the project; 2) selection of the MBE quote guarantees that the contractor meets the set goal and that its bid will be deemed responsive; and 3) the difference between the MBE and non MWBE quotes is not significant in terms of the overall contract amount. If the MBE’s quote is $25,000 and the non-MWBE bid is $22,000, it may not be demonstrative of a good faith effort to reject the MBE solely because the MBE’s quote is not the lowest. The excess is not greatly significant to the total contract cost, and it could reasonably be expected to be made up elsewhere in the contract while guaranteeing full goal compliance. The above example is illustrative only. The City will make a fair and reasonable judgment as to good faith efforts based on all information and documentation provided by bidders and taking into account the Quality Quantity, and Intensity Formatted: Underline Formatted: Underline Formatted: Underline