[HISTORY: Adopted by the Council of the City of Schenectady as indicated in article histories.[1] Amendments noted where applicable.
GENERAL REFERENCES
Finance — See Ch. 62.
[1]
Former Ch. 62, Health and Sanitation, was repealed as follows: Art. I, Department of Health, adopted 2-9-1970 by Ord. No. 15274, repealed 8-31-1992 by Ord. No. 92-36; Art II, Home Health Agency, adopted 7-6-1981 by Ord. No. 81-71, as amended, repealed 6-10-1991 by Ord. No. 91-28; Art. III, Professional Advisory Committee, adopted 7-6-1981 by Ord. No. 81-71, as amended, repealed 6-10-1991 by Ord. No. 91-28; Art IV, Medical Advisory Committee, adopted 7-6-1981 by Ord. No. 81-71, repealed 6-10-1991 by Ord. No. 91-28. See now the County of Schenectady Health Department rules and regulations.
[Adopted 3-23-2015 by L.L. No. 3-2015]
This article shall be known as the "Schenectady Best Value Contract Award Law."
A. 
The State Legislature and the Governor approved legislation that amended § 103 of the New York State General Municipal Law to provide municipalities with greater flexibility in awarding contracts by authorizing the award of purchase contracts on the basis of best value. The state legislation requires counties with a population of less than 1,000,000 to pass a local law authorizing the use of the best value award process.
B. 
Enactment of this legislation provides additional procurement options to localities in ways that may expedite the procurement process and result in cost savings. The "best value" standard for selecting goods is critical to efforts to use strategic sourcing principles to modernize the supply chain and ensure that taxpayers obtain the highest quality goods at the lowest potential cost, while also ensuring fairness to all competitors. The federal government, approximately half of the states and many localities have added best value selection processes to their procurement options, in recognition of these advantages. With the increased complexity of the goods that municipalities must obtain in order to serve taxpayers, it is critical to consider selection and evaluation criteria that measure factors other than cost.
C. 
Taxpayers are not well served when a public procurement results in low unit costs at the outset but ultimately engenders cost escalations due to factors such as inferior quality, poor reliability and difficulty of maintenance. Best value procurement links the procurement process directly to the municipality's performance requirements, incorporating selection factors such as useful lifespan, quality and options and incentives for more-timely performance. Even if the initial expenditure is higher, considering the total value over the life of the procurement may result in a better value and long-term investment of public funds.
D. 
Best value procurement also encourages competition and, in turn, often results in better pricing, quality and customer service. Fostering healthy competition ensures that bidders will continue to strive for excellence in identifying and meeting the needs of municipalities, including such important goals as the participation of small, minority and women-owned businesses and the development of environmentally preferable goods and service delivery methods.
E. 
Best value procurement will provide much-needed flexibility in obtaining important goods at favorable prices and will reduce the time to procure such goods.
The City of Schenectady may award purchase contracts that have been procured pursuant to competitive bidding under § 103 of the New York State General Municipal Law by either lowest responsible bidder or best value.
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
BEST VALUE
The basis for awarding contracts for goods to the offerer which optimizes quality, cost and efficiency, among responsive and responsible offerers. Such basis shall reflect, wherever possible, objective and quantifiable analysis. Such basis may also identify a quantitative factor for offerers that are small businesses or certified minority- or women-owned business enterprises, as defined in Subdivisions 1, 7, 15 and 20 of § 310 of the Executive Law to be used in evaluation of offers for awarding of contracts for services.
A. 
Goods procured and awarded on the basis of best value are those that are determined to be of the highest quality while being the most cost-efficient. The determination of quality and cost-efficiency shall be based on objectively quantified and clearly described and documented criteria, which may include, but shall not be limited to, any or all of the following: cost of maintenance, proximity to the end user if distance or response time is a significant term, durability, availability of replacement parts or maintenance contractors, longer product life, product performance criteria, and quality of craftsmanship. Whenever any contract is awarded on the basis of best value instead of lowest responsible bidder, the basis for determining best value shall be thoroughly and accurately documented.
B. 
Upon awarding a contract on the basis of best value, the City must be prepared to show that the offeror is responsive and responsible and that objective and quantifiable standards were applied, whenever possible, to determine that the offer optimizes quality, cost and efficiency.
C. 
The City of Schenectady should have a written justification if it bases a best value award on criteria that are not objective and quantifiable.
If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section or part of this article or the application thereof to any person, individual, corporation, firm, partnership, entity or circumstance shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unconstitutional, such order or judgment shall not affect, impair, effect or invalidate the remainder thereof but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section or part of this article or in its application to the person, individual, corporation, firm, partnership, entity or circumstance directly involved in the controversy in which such order or judgment shall be rendered.
This article shall take effect immediately after its final adoption, filing and publication in accordance with § 27 of the Municipal Home Rule Law.