The Town of Miami Lakes requires a banking institution to manage the Town's daily banking requirements, including, but not limited to, account management, secured electronic wire transfers, ACH payments, ACH receipts, ACH fraud, electronic approval workflows, positive pay, competitive bank accounts, optional sub-accounts, sophisticated online services, and other banking services as-needed. The Town also desires a banking institute that is a proven community partner and will offer support to the Town for various public events.
The Town issued Request for Proposals (“RFP”) 2018-19 for Banking Services on May 9, 2018. The RFP was advertised in the Miami Daily Business Review, posted to DemandStar, Public Purchase, and posted in the Government Center Lobby.

To qualify for award, prospective Proposers were required to:
1. Be designated by the State of Florida as a qualified public depository pursuant to Florida Statutes § 280; and
2. Be a banking institution certified to do business in the State of Florida; and
3. Have a headquarters, or at least one (1) branch facility located within a ten (10) mile radius of the Town's Government Center, located at 6601 Main Street, Miami Lakes, Florida 33014, or, if the headquarters of the banking institution or its branch facilities are not located within a ten (10) mile radius of the Town's Government Center, Proposer must address how they will (i) provide ready access to the Town, and (ii) offer the full range of Banking Services requested in the RFP.

On the date of the proposal deadline, May 30, 2018, we received three (3) proposals from the following Proposers:
1. Bank United, Inc. (“Bank United”)
2. City National Bank, N.A. (“CNB”)
3. Florida Community Bank, N.A. (“FCB”)

An Evaluation Committee was appointed, comprised of the following members:
1. Ismael Diaz, Chief Financial Officer, Town of Miami Lakes
2. Andrea Agha, Deputy Town Manager, Town of Miami Lakes
3. Joaquin Medina, SVP Client Management, Apollo Bank
4. Andre L. Teixeira, Chief Financial Officer, Graham Companies, Inc.
5. Mara Falero, VP Marketing & Communications, JetStream Federal Credit Union

Procurement performed a due diligence review of the proposals for responsiveness and found that review of each proposal did not reveal any material defects in the proposal, nor in the Proposers' qualifications. Each Proposer is designated by the State of Florida as a qualified public depository, is certified to do business in Florida, and has a headquarters or branch facility within ten (10) miles of the Town's Government Center. No Proposer's appeared on the State or Federal debarred vendors lists, nor were there any cases within their litigation history that would indicate issues with past performance. Procurement did not find any issues that would indicate any Proposer was incapable of performing the services.

The Evaluation Committee was provided the responsive proposals and met on July 3, 2018, to evaluate and rank the proposals. One member of the Evaluation Committee, Andre L. Teixeira, recused himself before the selection meeting due to a conflict of interest with one of the Proposers.
Before discussing the proposals, the Committee had a discussion on the potential conflict with another Committee member, Mara Falero. The issue was raised that because Ms. Falero is an employee of JetStream Federal Credit Union, which was mentioned in one of the proposals as a potential future community partner to City National Bank, that she should not participate in the selection of the Town's banking institution. The Committee discussed the relationship and took a vote on whether the relationship constituted a conflict of interest. The Committee voted 3 to 1 in favor of no conflict of interest.

The remaining Committee members discussed the proposals and moved to establish the following ranking at the conclusion of the meeting:
1. Bank United – 387 points
2. FCB – 269.6 points
3. CNB – 199.2 points

The Evaluation Committee found Bank United's proposal was the most beneficial to the Town. Overall, Bank United's proposal was the most detailed response to the solicitation. Bank United's proposal set itself apart in a number of ways, including its interest rate on checking and savings accounts, its benefits for Town employees, convenient location, and investment within the community.
Bank United offered checking and savings accounts that both earn interest on available balances. The checking account interest rate is pegged to the fed funds rate less 75bps, which at the time of this writing is at 1.00% APY, on the total balance. This means most of the Town's bank fees would be covered by earned interest. For the savings account, Bank United is offering the Town a liquid savings account to hold excess funds not required to offset fees. This account will earn interest at a rate of 1.75% APY, again on the total available balance. Bank United will adjust this rate quarterly to reflect market conditions. By comparison, both CNB and FCB's proposals offer interest only on the balance in excess of $1.5 million, which could result in very little interest generated for the Town after emergency events when reserves are low.

Bank United's proposal provided for several benefits to Town employees in its “BankUnited at Work” solution, which offers employees free checking, online banking, standard checks, and standard size safe deposit boxes. Of all three proposals, Bank United provided the most information with respect to employee benefits.
The Committee also noted several other positive aspects of Bank United's proposal such as its offer of fixed pricing for the next five years, its convenient location within the Town, and its long-term employees working at its local location.

In addition to its proposal, Bank United applied for and received local preference on this solicitation. Bank United is headquartered in Miami Lakes and its closest location is at 15201 NW 67th Avenue, Miami Lakes, Florida 33014, within the Town's boundaries. Local preference is worth five percent (5%) of the total points available for a solicitation. In this case, local preference was worth 20 points.
The Committee found CNB's proposal felt standard and less particularized to the Town and its needs. CNB's closest location is further than Bank United and the Committee noted it would be less convenient for Town employees. As noted above, CNB's interest rate is tied to Fed Funds minus 25 bps, which would make the interest rate 1.5% at the time of this writing, however, the rate only applies to balances in excess of $1.5 million. Another concern the Committee noted was recent transition efforts CNB is making as it is in the process of acquiring another bank and moving to a new online platform. The Committee found the Town has a high likelihood of encountering difficulties with service as CNB implements many of the changes to its organization.

Finally, the Committee discussed FCB's proposal and found it to be a strong offer. The Committee found FCB to have a high-quality treasury platform and customer service. The personnel leading FCB's government services team has a great depth of experience as well. Overall, FCB's proposal was competitive, but the Committee found Bank United's proposal had an edge due to its convenient location for Town Employees, its record of community involvement, and its offer of 1% APY interest on the total checking balance instead of FCB's offer of 1.4% on the excess of $1.5 million.
After reviewing each proposal, the Committee scored the proposals and totaled their scores to establish the ranking stated above. The Committee then moved to recommend awarding a contract to the highest ranked proposer, Bank United.

On July 9th, after the initial meeting, the Town was notified that a package containing a submittal from Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (“Wells Fargo”) was delivered to the Town on May 29, 2018, a day before the deadline for submittals. The Town signed for and received the package, however, it was not appropriately labeled as a submittal for RFP 2018-19 and was not subsequently delivered to the Procurement Department until July 11, 2018. Considering the timely delivery of Wells Fargo's submittal, the previous Evaluation Committee recommendation was rescinded, and another meeting was scheduled for August 2, 2018, to evaluate Wells Fargo's proposal.

Wells Fargo is our current banking services provider and the Town has not had significant issues with our service. In its Proposal, Wells Fargo offered the Town a competitive earnings credit rate of 0.60% with a 0.25% interest earned on excess balances. Wells Fargo is also offering complimentary business process review and to cover the cost of the Town's banking supplies. With regards to online platforms, the Committee found Wells Fargo had the strongest platform for offering online banking services compared with the other proposals.

After a discussion on the merits of the Wells Fargo proposal, the Evaluation Committee proceeded to score the technical component of the proposal. Once the technical proposal was scored, the points allocated for the price proposals were recalculated to include Wells Fargo's price proposal. The Committee established the following ranking once all the points were totaled:
1. Bank United – 380 points
2. Wells Fargo – 365 points
3. FCB – 262.6 points
4. CNB – 194.36 points

During continued discussion after the ranking had been established, the Committee noted the fifteen-point spread between the first and second ranked Proposers. Without the twenty (20) Local Preference points, Bank United would be the second-ranked Proposer with 360 points. The discussion also focused on the high cost and staff time required to transition the Town's funds from its current incumbent bank, Wells Fargo, to another bank. In response, the Committee held a vote to determine which Proposer to recommend for award of a contract, in which the Committee voted to award to Wells Fargo.

Notwithstanding the Committee's discussion after establishing the ranking, I recommend awarding a contract to the highest-ranked Proposer according to the established point values, which in this instance is Bank United. The Evaluation Committee is responsible for the assessment of proposals and allocation of points in accordance with the RFP and the Town Code. The allocation of local preference points is made pursuant to the terms of the RFP and Section 13 of Town Ordinance 17-203. When the Evaluation Committee voted to recommend the second-ranked Proposer contrary to the allocation of local preference points, it exceeded its authority. Therefore, it is recommend that the Town Council authorize the Town Manager to execute a contract with the highest-ranked Proposer, which in this instance is Bank United.