Procurement Support for California Cities

GERC provides procurement support for cities, including federal grant rules under 2 CFR 200. City purchasing teams are asked to do more with fewer staff. At the same time, solicitations are getting more complex: federal funding rules, state small business and DVBE goals, prevailing wage, local preferences and protest risk. GERC provides procurement support to California cities, counties and special districts, from drafting and reviewing RFPs and RFQs to evaluation, vendor outreach and compliance documentation.

GERC at a glance: woman-owned small business in San Bernardino. Certified by the State of California as a Small Business (Micro) and Small Business for Public Works (SB-PW), Certification ID 2045992. Registered in SAM.gov, CAGE code 11SD2. NAICS 541611, 541618 and 541690.

Procurement support for cities and public agencies

RFP and RFQ drafting and review

We draft solicitations, or review your drafts before release, to check that scope, minimum qualifications, evaluation criteria, submittal requirements and contract terms are clear, consistent and defensible. A clear solicitation brings in more responsive proposals and fewer questions and protests.

Evaluation criteria and scoring

We help you build scoring criteria and weightings that match the scope, prepare evaluator guides and score sheets, and document the evaluation so the award decision is easy to explain to council and to unsuccessful proposers.

Federally funded procurements

When a purchase uses federal grant money, it must meet the federal procurement standards in 2 CFR 200.317–200.327 and the grant’s own terms. We check solicitations against those requirements, including the required contract clauses, affirmative steps for small, minority and women’s businesses, and cost or price analysis. This is the kind of issue that comes up in single audits.

Small business, DVBE and DBE participation

We help set realistic participation goals, write outreach and good-faith-effort requirements, and review bidders’ documentation. Because we also help firms get certified, we know where the certified firms are and how to reach them.

Vendor outreach

We identify and contact qualified vendors, including certified small businesses, so your solicitation gets real competition, not one or two bids.

On-call and overflow support

For peak periods, staff vacancies or large capital programmes, we provide on-call procurement support under a task-order agreement, so your team can move work forward without a new hire.

Policy and process review

We review purchasing policies, thresholds, templates and workflows against current practice, and recommend practical changes. See also our policy research work.

Who we work with

Cities and counties across California
Special districts: water, sanitation, fire, transit, parks and ports
School and community college districts
Joint powers authorities and councils of governments

How agencies can engage us

Informal procurement. Many single projects fall below an agency’s formal bidding threshold and can be awarded on quotes.
On-call bench contracts. We respond to RFQs for on-call procurement, grant and economic consulting, and can be added to your bench.
Direct RFP. For larger engagements, we respond to your solicitation like any other vendor.

To be notified of your solicitations, add GERC to your vendor list or bidding portal under procurement, purchasing, management consulting and grant writing categories.

Conflict of interest: how we protect your procurement

California’s conflict-of-interest rules, including Government Code section 1090, can restrict a consultant who helps prepare a solicitation from bidding on the resulting contract. When we draft or review a solicitation for you, we do not propose on the resulting contract unless your counsel confirms it is permitted. We disclose any potential conflicts before we start. Your agency’s counsel makes the final call on conflict questions.

Procurement support for cities: FAQ

Can you review an RFP before we release it?

Yes. A pre-release review is our most common engagement. We usually return comments within a few business days, depending on length.

Can you help with a bid protest?

We help agencies prepare documentation and a clear record of the evaluation, which is the best defence against a protest. We are not a law firm, so legal questions go to your agency’s counsel.

Do you work outside Southern California?

Yes. We work with agencies statewide and deliver everything remotely, with on-site support across Southern California. See our service areas.

Procurement Support for California Cities and Public Agencies