Every public meeting, from Planning & Zoning to Regular Town Council Meetings, requires an agenda be generated and posted before the meeting date. Currently, the Town uses two solution providers to create, stitch, post, and capture video of every meeting agenda. Town staff and Council members create items through a web portal and attach supporting documents that are later “stitched” together into a single pdf file that is posted to the Town's website and distributed to key members of a particular meeting.

In addition to agenda generation, the Town also records certain meetings that are available online live through the Town's website and various social media platforms. These recordings are subsequently linked to their respective meeting agenda, time-stamped, and archived for quick reference by staff, Councilmembers, or the public.

Recently, the Town's contract for agenda management software has expired and the company that initially provided the software has been purchased by another corporation that intends to eventually phase out the software. Simultaneously, the Town was also exploring options to provide live closed-captioning on the livestreamed recordings to better comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. These efforts were brought together to create a solicitation that was intended to elicit a single proposal that could address both.

The Town issued Request for Proposals (“RFP”) 2018-36 for Agenda Management Software on July 30, 2018. The RFP was posted to DemandStar, Public Purchase and posted in the Government Center Lobby. To qualify for award, prospective Proposers were required to:
1. Have at least five (5) years of automated agenda management experience; and
2. Have at least three (3) references in the government market (successfully completed automated agenda management projects) within the last five (5) years; and
3. Software must be ADA compliant.

On the date of the bid opening, August 21, 2018, we received three (3) Proposals from the following Proposers:
1. Carahsoft Technology, Corp. (“Carahsoft”)
2. eSCRIBE Software Ltd (“eSCRIBE”)
3. Swagit Productions (“Swagit”)

Procurement performed a due diligence review of the proposals for responsiveness and found the proposals submitted by Carahsoft and Swagit were non-responsive. Carahsoft's proposal was deemed non-responsive because it did not provide requested information about key personnel and their relevant experience, did not include three (3) verifiable references, and did not submit pricing in accordance with the RFP requirements. Similarly, Swagit's proposal was deemed non-responsive because it did not provide pricing in accordance with the RFP requirements, did not propose a solution that met every mandatory element of the statement of work, and the proposal was contingent upon the Town accepting additional terms.

The remaining proposal from eSCRIBE was responsive and met all the minimum qualifications for this solicitation. eSCRIBE has primarily been in the business of meeting management software development and sales for more than 15 years and provided the requisite three (3) verified references demonstrating implementation of similar agenda management software in the government market. Procurement did not find any issues that would indicate that eSCRIBE was incapable of providing the software solution the Town needs.

An Evaluation Committee (“Committee”) was appointed, comprised of the following members:
1. Gina Inguanzo, Town Clerk, Town of Miami Lakes
2. Marjorie Tejeda, Former Town Clerk, Town of Miami Lakes
3. Dwight S. Danie, Village Clerk, Bal Harbour Village
4. Antonio Gomez, President, Gomez Technology Solutions

The Committee met on September 27, 2018 to discuss and evaluate the responsive proposal. After a brief discussion, the Committee moved and adopted a motion to schedule a follow up presentation and demo of the software proposed by eSCRIBE.

The Committee met again on October 18, 2018 to view a presentation of eSCRIBE's proposed software. One member of the Evaluation Committee, Marjorie Tejeda, was unable to attend due to illness. The remaining Committee members, having quorum, voted to continue with the presentation. The Committee was impressed with the features allowing for enforcement of Town Clerk submittal deadlines and the administration of item approval work flows. The Committee's sentiment was that the software could improve the efficiency of the Town as an organization by encouraging management compliance with work submittals and deadlines. Furthermore, the eSCRIBE representative restated an item in its proposal that the Clerk's Office would receive full system and customer support and that training would be offered to senior staff to learn the new software.

After the presentation, the Committee felt it had a good grasp of the proposed solution and were comfortable allocating points pursuant to the RFP's evaluation criteria. The Committee briefly scored the proposal and adopted a cumulative score of 403 points for eSCRIBE. At the end of the meeting, the Committee adopted the recommendation to award a contract for the full spectrum of services listed in the RFP to eSCRIBE. Therefore, it is recommended that the Town Council authorize the Town Manager to execute a contract with eSCRIBE in the amounts first stated above.