Firms interested in providing engineering, architectural, survey and construction management professional services to MSD must be prequalified. To become prequalified, a firm must submit a completed Engineering Service Questionnaire and Insurance Certificate, which is to be updated annually. The insurance certificate shall indicate compliance with all the District´s current insurance requirements, including professional liability limits. The annual qualification forms will be used to formulate a pre-qualification list of consultants to be considered in the selection of firms to provide professional services as required.

Prequalification requirements include the following:

1. The firm must have a full time office within the District boundary. The office shall have the capabilities and staff to produce an engineering product, such as construction drawings, easement plats, surveys, reports and other related engineering work. It must be open and manned during normal company work hours and serve as a profit center for the company.
   
   
2. The firm must have at least one engineer registered in the State of Missouri on staff to be responsible for and to seal all design and specification work.
   
   
3. The firm must be qualified and experienced in civil or environmental engineering work. To be considered qualified, a consulting firm must provide verifiable documentation of design experience in the area of expertise necessary for the size and discipline of the proposed project to be considered. This will generally consist of the design of sanitary sewers, sewage treatment facilities, pump stations, infrastructure rehabilitation, and storm drainage facilities such as sewers, culverts, channels, detention basins, overflow structures and land or topographic surveys.
   
   

Contracts in the amount of $50,000 or more for engineering, survey, and geotechnical services for design of construction, reconstruction, alteration and/or repair of public works for The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District shall include at least 10% participation of the total Contract by Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) consultant(s) and contractor(s). This standard of utilization also applies to Disadvantaged Business Enterprises.

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the project and the technical approach to be utilized.
   
2. Identify the Project Manager & project team.
   
3. List personnel availability and work loads.
   
4. State the length of Project Design Schedule.
   
5. State related project experience and past performance of firm.
   
6. Provide MWBE participation.
   
7. Provide limits of Professional Liability Insurance and ability to meet all other insurance requirements.
   
8. Provide a list of sub-consultants to be used.
   
   

1. For estimated fees that exceed $100,000:
   
   
   1. For projects that exceed $100,000 but less than $500,000 in estimated fees, not less than two projects will be selected for proposals from the consultants on the current pre-qualified list. Those consultants that can meet all the District´s insurance requirements, including the required professional liability/errors and omissions coverages and annual aggregate requirements will be considered for an applicable selection list;
      
      or
      
      For projects that exceed $500,000 in estimated fees, the District will identify projects requiring outside consultant services, requests for qualifications (RFQs) and will solicit pre-qualified consultants that have interest in being considered for any/or all projects.
      
      
   2. A committee consisting of the Director of Engineering, the Assistant Director of Engineering (Planning), the Director of Operations, the Director of Human Resources and the Manager of Diversity Programs (comprising a Short List Committee) shall prepare a short list of at least three (3) consultants from a list of pre-qualified consultants that have submitted a proposal for an identified project. If a project receives proposals from less than three qualified consultants, consultants who were not selected for any projects may be asked to submit on the project based on the consultant´s general qualifications. Consideration will be given to recent history of past opportunities and project awards, past performance on District projects, expertise of the firm, ability to meet the District´s insurance requirements, and the level of participation and capacity of MBE/WBE firms.
      
      
   3. Request for Proposals (RFP) shall besent to the short listed firms. When more than one project is included in the RFP, a priority will be indicated for each project for the consultant´s and Selection Committee´s reference.
      
      
   4. All proposals will be date stamped upon receipt by the District. Proposals not submitted on time will not be eligible for consideration.
      
      
   5. The composition of the Selection Committee shall not include any members of the Short List Committee unless it is deemed necessary by the Executive Director. The Selection Committee shall consist of the Assistant Directors of Engineering (Design & Program Management), and three Assistant/Associate Directors or Managers from the Engineering or the Operations Department. For engineering design projects, all members must be registered professional engineers. On projects involving the design of pump stations, the Assistant Director of Engineering who manages the pump station review Engineer will solicit his input during the consultant RFP evaluation process. For surveying projects, the Manager of Survey/Right-of-Way and the Survey Manager will replace two Assistant/Associate Directors or Managers from the Engineering or the Operations Department. The Selection Committee will consist of at least five individuals. The Manager of Diversity Programs will rate MBE/WBE participation to provide consistency and compliance for District MBE/WBE goals. These ratings will be added to the selection committee members' ratings.
      
      
   6. Using a point system, all proposals shall be evaluated based upon each consultant's understanding of the project, technical and managerial approaches, personnel available, workload, project design schedule, past performance and ability to meet the District´s MWBE goal. The selection of consultants shall be based on the highest number of first place selections by the Selection Committee. In case of a tie, the total number of points shall decide the consultant to be awarded the project. The other consultants shall be placed on the District´s list for consideration to design future smaller projects.
      
      
   7. The District will request a fee proposal from the selected consultants. The proposals shall include a re-statement of the definition of the project scope, technical and management approaches, project manager and staffing, schedule and MWBE subcontractors. Fees shall be submitted on a lump sum or cost plus fixed fee basis as directed by the District. Contracts shall be negotiated to ensure the best and fairest rates are obtained by the District for the services required.
      
      
   8. If a reasonable contract cannot be negotiated, for a project, the District will repeat this process with the next eligible consultant. If no contract can be negotiated, then the procurement process will be repeated with all new consultants.
      
      
   9. The Fee Proposal will become part of the approved contract for each project, which will be submitted to the Board of Trustees for confirmation.
      
      
   10. The Notice to Proceed with the services shall be sent with the signed contracts only after District Board approval and verification of proper and current insurance requirements by the Office of General Counsel. During each project´s work period a suspense file of all insurance certificates and their expiration dates will be maintained so that the consultant may be notified by the District to submit new certificates in a timely manner, preventing a lapse of coverages. These certificates also will be verified by the Office of General Counsel.
       
       
   11. In special cases, for unusual or unique projects, negotiations with qualified consultants, who do not have offices in St. Louis, will be under taken only after written justification by the Selection Committee and the approval of the Executive Director.
       
       
   12. Upon project completion the District will prepare a performance evaluation on the quality of the design services completed to include the consultant´s ability to meet all schedules, and design the project within budget requirements. The consultant shall be briefed and the evaluations shall be filed for use infuture selection processes.
       
       
2. Any proposed design project in which the design fee is estimated to be $100,000 or less shall have a consultant selected by the following procedures:
   
   
   1. Those consultants not selected for a project will be placed on a list with their point evaluation for possible future selection during the fiscal year on smaller projects.
      
      
   2. This list of consultants, not selected through the previous selection procedure, shall be considered for other projects by the Short List Committee with selections based on their highest points received on the previous ratings and their expertise to provide the services required. If there are no qualified names on the list, the Short List Committee shall recommend a consultant from the original pre-qualified list of all consultants. A copy of the selection list or other reason for selection will be placed in the project´s contract file.
      
      
   3. This select list will be maintained until the next selection process. Consultants on the short list for smaller projects still are eligible for future consideration on larger projects as previously indicated.
      

A public hearing is held each April to present the District´s proposed Operating Budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Input from MSD customers is encouraged. The fiscal year for the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is the period July 1st of each calendar year through June 30th of the following calendar year (Example: FY ´06 = July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006).

Shortly after adoption by the Board of Trustees, copies of the annual budget supplement titled "Capital Improvement and Replacement Program" are available. This supplement lists projects for the upcoming year and proposed projects for four years forward. This information may be viewed on the MSD website.