Community Engagement Facilitator ? Gross Reservoir Mitigation Fund

Non-Mandatory Pre-Proposal Meeting
Potential bidders interested in learning more about the Gross Reservoir Community Impact Mitigation Fund are invited to attend a “pre-proposal” meeting to learn more about the history of the Gross Reservoir Impact Mitigation fund and the challenges and opportunities that this facilitation proposal offers.

Monday, December 19, 2022, at 2 p.m.

Register at any time:

https://boco.org/RFP-7400-22 *

*After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Purpose
The Boulder County Commissioners’ Office is seeking an experienced, professional facilitator to help convene and coordinate a temporary (short-term/3 to 4 months) community representative working group to solicit ideas and propose solutions for how to distribute a portion of a $5 million community impact mitigation fund for community residents impacted by Denver Water’s Gross Reservoir Expansion Project. A schedule of +/- 100 hours over a timeframe of four months (January through April 2023) is anticipated to complete the proposed project.

The working group will serve as a focus group for feedback on potential formulas for disbursement of the funds over a period of at least two months within the timeframe of February through April 2023. Planning for the focus group facilitation will take place in January and early February 2023. Two to three meetings with the community working group are anticipated. At least one of the community meetings will take place in person; The remainder of the meetings will take place virtually using Zoom.

Background: Denver Water is closing out the first year of a multi-year large-scale industrial construction project in rural/mountainous Boulder County. The project is designed to increase the capacity of its wholly owned Gross Reservoir by raising the height of the existing dam by more than 100 feet. (Gross Reservoir is located in the southernmost central area of Boulder County and is close to the borders of Gilpin, Clear Creek, and Jefferson Counties.)

Boulder County is not a party to the construction project, but Boulder County residents are experiencing the negative impacts of such a large-scale industrial construction project in their rural, forested community. Denver Water has provided a $5 million “community impact mitigation fund” to help try to alleviate some of the dust, noise, visual, traffic, and air quality impacts for area residents. Denver Water has tasked Boulder County (government) to determine how best to distribute proceeds from the fund.

Boulder County has collected quantitative air quality, noise, and visual impact data regarding the construction impacts for the surrounding community along with anecdotal and qualitative information about the impacts from the surrounding communities.

In the spring of 2023, Boulder County will begin to distribute funds from the $5 million community impact mitigation fund directly to affected residents.

Before any money is distributed from the fund, Boulder County wants to hear directly from community representatives about their thoughts on the fair and equitable distribution of the funds. Working with a professional facilitator, Boulder County would like to convene a representative “working group” to serve as a focus group for the impacted areas around Gross Reservoir.

The facilitator will help Boulder County:

• Design a fair process to include representative community perspectives on the best way to distribute funds from the $5 million community impact mitigation fund.
• Facilitate in-person and virtual focus group meetings to inform community representatives of the process and ask them to weigh in on potential solutions for how to distribute the funds equitably and fairly, according to both qualitative and quantitative analysis.
• Manage different perspectives and facilitate varying levels of anxiety, anger, and a sense of loss (personally, and for the environmental/natural impacts to the community) due to the destructive nature of the Gross Reservoir Expansion Project.

For more Information about the Gross Dam construction project, visit:

• Denver Water’s project website: GrossReservoir.org .
• Boulder County’s Gross Reservoir Community Impact Mitigation Fund webpage: boco.org/grossreservoir .

1.Non-Mandatory Pre-Proposal Meeting
Potential bidders interested in learning more about the Gross Reservoir Community Impact Mitigation Fund are invited to attend a “pre-proposal” meeting to learn more about the history of the Gross Reservoir Impact Mitigation fund and the challenges and opportunities that this facilitation proposal offers.

Date (Virtual – see cover page for link to join via Zoom):

Monday, December 19, 2022, at 2 p.m.

(Note: The meeting is expected to last no longer than one hour.)

2.Written Inquiries

All inquiries regarding this RFP will be submitted via email to the Boulder County Purchasing Office at purchasing@bouldercounty.org on or before 2 p.m. December 27, 2022. A response from the county to all inquiries will be posted and sent via email no later than December 29, 2022.

Do not contact any other county department or personnel with questions or for information regarding this solicitation.

3.Submittal Instructions

Submittals are due at the email box only, listed below, for time and date recording on or before 2 p.m. Mountain Time on January 9, 2023. Vendors must answer whether line-item pricing information submitted with a bid is confidential or closely held.

Please note that email responses to this solicitation are limited to a maximum of 50MB capacity.

NO ZIP FILES OR LINKS TO EXTERNAL SITES WILL BE ACCEPTED. THIS INCLUDES GOOGLE DOCS AND SIMILAR SITES. ALL SUBMITTALS MUST BE RECEIVED AS AN ATTACHMENT (E.G. PDF, WORD, EXCEL).

Electronic Submittals must be received in the email box listed below. Submittals sent to any other box will NOT be forwarded or accepted. This email box is only accessed on the due date of your questions or proposals. Please use the Delivery Receipt option to verify receipt of your email. It is the sole responsibility of the proposer to ensure their documents are received before the deadline specified above. Boulder County does not accept responsibility under any circumstance for delayed or failed email or mailed submittals.

Email: purchasing@bouldercounty.org ; identified as RFP # 7400-22 in the subject line.

All RFPs must be received, and time and date recorded by authorized county staff by the above due date and time. Sole responsibility rests with the proposer to see that their RFP response is received on time at the stated location(s). Any responses received after due date and time will be returned to the proposer.

RFP #7400-22