Step 2: Normative Requirements Pass (Discussion)

Section Content:

Facts:
Engineer A, a licensed professional engineer, joins City D’s engineering department as the Assistant City Engineer, responsible for overseeing department staff, managing capital improvement programs, and supervising private development projects.
Shortly after starting, Engineer A is approached by Engineer B, also a licensed professional engineer, the owner of a local civil engineering firm, who raises concerns about City D’s contracting practices.
Engineers A and B have no historical relationship.
Engineer B alleges that City D is exclusively awarding traffic engineering contracts to Firm X and civil engineering contracts to Firm Z without utilizing the request for qualifications (RFQ) process.
Engineer B expresses frustration that this practice excludes other qualified firms from competing for City D contracts.
City D is in a jurisdiction with strong qualification-based selection (QBS) procurement laws at the state and local levels codified within the state’s professional engineering licensure laws.
Engineer A acknowledges the value of the RFQ and QBS processes in securing engineering services for public entities and commits to investigating Engineer B’s concerns.
Through the investigation, Engineer A discovers that over the past seven years, City D has awarded consultant contracts exclusively to two firms: Firm X and Firm Z.
City D hired Firm X seven years ago through an RFQ process to maintain the citywide traffic model and review traffic studies submitted by private developers.
The contract includes an option for annual extensions for up to 10 years.
The work provided by Firm X aligns with the original scope of the RFQ and the resulting contract, with four optional extensions remaining.
City D has entered into five separate contracts with Firm Z over the past six years, with no recorded issues.
Records show the first three contracts were awarded through a competitive RFQ process that attracted, on average, four submissions per advertisement.
However, the two most recent contracts were awarded solely on the approval of the City Engineer without an RFQ process, even though their dollar amounts exceeded the threshold requiring City D’s Council authorization and an RFQ process.
Engineer A brings these findings to City D’s Engineer, a licensed professional engineer, recommending improvements to address compliance concerns with the contracting process.
City D’s Engineer acknowledges that the two most recent contracts with Firm Z did not comply with contracting requirements but dismisses the need for corrective action, citing the convenience and longstanding relationship with Firm Z as justification.