Compensation Study Consultant

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)
RFP No. 237-26
COMPENSATION STUDY CONSULTANT
Purchasing Analyst of Record: Andrew Miskell, CPPB
Andrew.Miskell@ThorntonCO.gov
City Hall - 2nd Floor
Contracts and Purchasing Division
9500 Civic Center Drive
Thornton, CO 80229-4326
Main Phone: (303) 538-7325

RFP No. 237-26
Compensation Study Consultant
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A.1 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:............................................................................................... 4
A.2 PURCHASING ANALYST OF RECORD: ....................................................................... 4
A.3 GENERAL SUMMARY OF PROCUREMENT NEEDS: .................................................. 4
B.1 CURRENT STATE: ......................................................................................................... 5
B.2 GOALS FROM THIS RFP: .............................................................................................. 5
B.3 SCOPE OF WORK - GENERAL PROJECT DELIVERABLES: ..................................... 6
B.4 PROJECT MEETINGS: ................................................................................................... 6
B.5 FINAL REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS: .............................................................. 7
B.6 THORNTON'S INTENDED PROEJCT MILESTONES:................................................... 7
B.7 F.O.B. POINT: ................................................................................................................. 8
B.8 PREVIOUS WORK SAMPLES: ...................................................................................... 8
B.9 VENDOR INTERVIEWS: ................................................................................................. 8
B.10 INVOICING REQUIREMENTS: ..................................................................................... 8
B.11 FUTURE WORK CONSIDERATIONS: ......................................................................... 9
B.12 VENDOR PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: ............................................................ 10
B.13 COOPERATIVE PURCHASING: ................................................................................ 10
C.1 INSTRUCTIONS FOR ANSWERING QUESTIONS: ..................................................... 11
C.2 PROPOSAL QUESTIONS: ........................................................................................... 11
D.1 PRICING INFORMATION: ............................................................................................ 15
D.2 BEST AND FINAL OFFER: ........................................................................................... 15
D.3 PRICING: ....................................................................................................................... 15
D.4 REIMBURSABLE EXPENSES: .................................................................................... 15
D.5 PROPOSAL ITEMS: ..................................................................................................... 16
E.1 PROPOSAL POSTED LOCATIONS: ............................................................................ 17
E.2 PROPOSAL QUESTIONS:............................................................................................ 17
E.3 ADDENDA: .................................................................................................................... 17
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RFP No. 237-26
Compensation Study Consultant
E.4 SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS: .................................................................................. 17
E.5 DOCUMENTS FOR FINAL VENDOR SUBMISSION: ................................................... 18
E.6 PAGE LENGTHS FOR FINAL VENDOR SUBMISSION: ............................................. 18
E.7 CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION............................................... 19
E.8 LATE PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS: ............................................................................. 20
E.9 AWARD: ........................................................................................................................ 20
E.10 ACCEPTANCE PERIOD: ............................................................................................ 20
E.11 EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS: ............................................................................... 20
E.12 EVALUATION CRITERIA: ........................................................................................... 21
E.13 POST AWARD PURCHASE ORDER: ........................................................................ 21
E.14 STANDARD PROPOSAL CONSIDERATIONS: ......................................................... 21
F.1 SAMPLE AGREEMENT: ............................................................................................... 22
G.1 ACCEPTANCE AND ADDENDA ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FORM: ............................. 23
G.2 SAMPLE AGREEMENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FORM ............................................ 24
G.3 REFERENCES AND AUTHORIZATION AND RELEASE FORM: ............................... 25
H.1 PURCHASING MANAGER FORM: .............................................................................. 26
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RFP No. 237-26
Compensation Study Consultant
SCHEDULE, PURCHASING ANALYST OF RECORD, AND GENERAL
SUMMARY OF NEEDS
A.1 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
The following is a list of important items, dates, and times that pertain to this solicitation. All
times listed below are in reference to the local Thornton, Colorado time.
Solicitation Item Date Time
Proposal Issued June 22, 2026
Deadline to Submit Additional Questions July 8, 2026 11:00 P.M.
Response to Written Questions July 13, 2026
Proposal Due Date July 21, 2026 11:00 P.M.
A.2 PURCHASING ANALYST OF RECORD:
The Purchasing Analyst of Record for this solicitation will be the central point of contact
throughout the solicitation process. All questions and inquiries must be submitted in writing via
a direct email to the Purchasing Analyst. No communication is to be directed to any other
Thornton personnel.
The Purchasing Analyst of Record's contact information is as follows:
Name: Andrew Miskell, CPPB
Title: Purchasing Manager
Email: Andrew.Miskell@ThorntonCO.gov
A.3 GENERAL SUMMARY OF PROCUREMENT NEEDS:
The City of Thornton, CO ("Thornton") is seeking Proposals from interested firms for the
purchase of services from a consulting firm that has experience performing studies on existing
compensation systems (non-software) for government clients.
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RFP No. 237-26
Compensation Study Consultant
CURRENT STATE, SCOPE OF WORK, AND SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS
B.1 CURRENT STATE:
Thornton is a home-rule city of almost one hundred fifty thousand plus (150,000+) citizens
located northeast of Denver in Adams County, Colorado, which includes four (4) wards.
Thornton is currently governed by an elected City Council of nine (9) members, which include
eight (8) ward representatives and also the Mayor, and its operations are managed by a City
Manager who serves at the pleasure of the City Council. The City of Thornton has experienced
large growth over the past forty years and is projected to become the 5th largest city in Colorado
within the next few years, with population growth projections exceeding two hundred forty
thousand (240,000) citizens by 2065.
The City completed an organizational review in mid-2025 to ensure that the City's structure
meets the current needs and priorities of the organization. As a result of that organizational
review, the City is currently in the process of restructuring the whole organization, with varying
degrees between each department. The City currently employs one thousand one hundred
seventy-nine and a half (1179.5) full-time employees, or "FTEs" with over four hundred (400) job
classifications.
The City is soliciting proposals for a study of modern and emerging compensation systems and
trends, to assist with employee attraction, retention, and development. The City is seeking
research of best practices, including effectiveness, and potential recommendations on
compensation structures that transparently illustrate trade-offs and decision-making points local
governments are facing today.
This RFP does not intend on soliciting proposals from prospective firms for compensation
software systems/platforms, nor a traditional compensation and classification study.
B.2 GOALS FROM THIS RFP:
Thornton's desired outcome from this RFP is to find a Vendor that can meet or exceed our goals
as a compensation study consulting firm. These goals include, but are not limited to:
1) Ability to partner with a consulting firm that has experience in reviewing public sector
compensation structures.
2) Providing guidance and recommendations to Thornton regarding the analysis and financial
impact of various compensation structures.
3) Conducting and analyzing results from feedback that has been solicited by the Vendor from
an employee group that has been identified by Thornton's Management team.
4) Providing recommendations to Thornton regarding compensation structures and
methodologies, including the presentation of these findings and a summary report.
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RFP No. 237-26
Compensation Study Consultant
B.3 SCOPE OF WORK - GENERAL PROJECT DELIVERABLES:
Thornton's expectation is that the awarded Vendor from this solicitation will be performing a
study that:
1) Includes compensation systems and frameworks that balance the following competing but
interrelated interests:
a) Systems to influence and reward performance (e.g. merit/lumpsum/bonus);
b) Systems to recognize service and longevity (e.g. range, structure, promotion,
progression);
c) Systems to keep up with the labor market (e.g. COLA/benchmarking process);
d) Systems that are equitable and comply with local, state, and federal law (e.g. Equal Pay
for Equal Work Act); and
e) Systems that are financially affordable and sustainable long-term.
2) Shall include solutions that have an innovative, structured approach to compensation design
that is lasting and improves transparency and consistency.
3) Will clearly identify the best practices and value tradeoffs associated with the different
compensation models, including consideration of total compensation values (fringe benefits).
4) Will have a target population that will be all City of Thornton employees, with the initial focus
on the non-union represented employees.
5) Shall outline how compensation structures can support employee development and
advancement pathways.
6) Shall focus on regular employees, but will also consider application to seasonal, and contract
employees.
The Vendor should expect to participate in meetings with key stakeholders from the City
Manager's Office and HR Division to discuss data used, key performance indicators,
findings/results, etc.
Thornton will provide copies of all salary schedules and benefits summaries for the calendar
year of 2026, including electronic copies/links to all Collective Bargaining agreements for all
unions. Thornton will also provide any other relevant information to the awarded Vendor that is
available in-house, upon request by the awarded Vendor, to complete the compensation study.
B.4 PROJECT MEETINGS:
The awarded Vendor will be expected to attend and manage the meetings for this project,
including but not limited to the sharing and collection of information, development of meeting
materials and handouts, graphic illustrations, preparing and disseminating meeting notes,
preparing presentations, reports, and recommendations for different Thornton groups of
personnel.
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RFP No. 237-26
Compensation Study Consultant
Thornton's expectation is for the awarded Vendor to attend both in-person and virtual meetings,
with the meeting style to be dependent on the audience and material to be discussed. Thornton
is generally flexible with a meeting's format (in-person or virtual); however, Thornton may require
certain meetings to be in-person meetings. Proposing Vendors are highly encouraged to address
how they would meet Thornton's needs and what their recommendations are for meetings with
Thornton's Leadership.
Upon completion of each meeting with Thornton, the Vendor will create a meeting summary and
disseminate (email) that summary to those Thornton individuals who were in attendance of the
meeting. This requirement is to ensure that there is minimal miscommunication between both
Parties during this project.
B.5 FINAL REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
The awarded Vendor will be expected to provide a final report of their process analysis, including
recommendations and potential outcomes for each recommendation, to Thornton. The final
report will be provided in conjunction with the awarded Vendor's presentation of the report to
Thornton's leadership.
Thornton's initial expectation of the report is that is should include at least the following:
* Explanation and outline of methodology used;
* Summary and assessment of the City's data relative to the market data points;
* Review of current compensation structures relative to market data points and
recommendations of any possible changes;
* Identification of key issues that may need to be addressed, such as compression, range
overlap, and other modifications;
* Recommendations that include rationale for each key issue and a proposal for
implementation; and
* Review of the City's total compensation including health benefits compared to market
data points and/or recommendations of possible change(s).
As part of the final report and recommendations, the awarded Vendor will also be expected to
provide a cost analysis and quantify projected fiscal impacts of any/all proposed
recommendations and the timeline for implementing such recommendations.
All reports provided by the Vendor to Thornton shall be in an electronic format that is usable to
Thornton (e.g., Adobe PDF, Microsoft Office, etc.) either through email or download, which shall
become the property of Thornton.
B.6 THORNTON'S INTENDED PROEJCT MILESTONES:
Thornton has listed its intended project payment milestones that it would assume to be agreeable
to the Vendor. The proposing Vendor may provide an alternative recommendation of payment
milestones, however, Thornton reserves at its sole discretion to negotiate a final set of payment
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RFP No. 237-26
Compensation Study Consultant
milestones with the awarded Vendor to find a mutually agreeable payment structure for this
project.
1) Milestone # 1 - Project initiation and kick-off meeting with stakeholders.
2) Milestone # 2 - Employee engagement, including surveys and focus groups.
3) Milestone # 3 - Analysis of research, findings and potential recommendations.
4) Milestone # 4 - Drafting and final presentation to Thornton's Leadership of findings and
recommendations.
B.7 F.O.B. POINT:
Prices quoted for all meetings, reports, deliverables, etc., shall be F.O.B. Destination and
delivered, as required, to the following points:
Thornton City Hall
9500 Civic Center Drive
Thornton, CO 80229
Attention: City Manager's Office
B.8 PREVIOUS WORK SAMPLES:
As part of their submittal in response to this RFP, proposing Vendors are required to furnish
samples of previous work/reports provided to other clients, which are to be supplied at no cost
to Thornton. Any sample submitted shall create an express warranty that the whole of the
goods and/or services shall conform to the sample submitted. Thornton will not return any
samples to the proposing Vendor at the conclusion of this solicitation.
B.9 VENDOR INTERVIEWS:
Thornton may elect to conduct Vendor interviews in order to clarify and answer additional
questions. All interviews will be held at a physical/virtual location at Thornton's sole discretion
and shall be at Thornton's decision if an interview is deemed as being necessary.
Thornton shall not compensate a proposing Vendor for any costs incurred by a Vendor that are
related to An interview conducted by Thornton during this RFP process.
B.10 INVOICING REQUIREMENTS:
Thornton's Accounts Payable Division is the only division within Thornton that issues payments
to Vendors who have submitted invoices. Thornton only issues payments from invoices and will
not issue payments to Vendors off of quotes.
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RFP No. 237-26
Compensation Study Consultant
Thornton's standard payment terms are net thirty (30) Calendar Days after receipt of an invoice.
All invoices submitted shall be emailed to AP.Invoices@ThorntonCO.gov. In lieu of email,
physical copies may be submitted to City of Thornton - Accounts Payable, 9500 Civic Center
Drive, Thornton, CO 80229-4326. Invoices sent to anyone other than Accounts Payable are not
considered to be properly submitted and will not be paid until they are properly submitted.
B.11 FUTURE WORK CONSIDERATIONS:
The Agreement that results from this solicitation with the awarded Vendor shall serve as the
basis for the agreed upon terms and conditions and general expectations for all projects under
this award. For future work, where funding has been appropriated by Thornton's City Council,
will likely follow the general process below between the awarded Vendor and Thornton:
1) An initial needs assessment and design meeting with the Thornton PM personnel that is
assigned to the project, and the Vendor personnel.
2) An initial Vendor recommendation and quoted SOW with pricing that reflects the agreement's
pricing structure and requirements that is to be sent to the Thornton PM for review.
a) Each Scope of Work shall contain at a minimum:
i) Detailed line-item pricing with units, descriptions, quantities, estimated labor hours,
etc.;
ii) Confirmation of the agreement's pricing structure having been utilized;
iii) Project schedule;
iv) Milestone payments with detailed Scope of Work deliverables under each milestone
payment; and
v) Any additional special considerations regarding the job environment.
(1) Note, it is at this stage that the PM and the Vendor may have revisions of the Scope
of Work, pricing, and any required documentation to reach a final fulfillment of
Thornton's needs.
3) Once the Thornton PM finds the quote satisfactory, the Thornton PM will enter a requisition
into Thornton's financial system for the finalized Scope of Work and pricing, which will flow
to a Contracts/Purchasing Analyst in the Contracts and Purchasing Division for review.
4) Upon review and approval from Contracts and Purchasing Division, the Purchasing Analyst
will coordinate with the Vendor to execute a signed Change Order Form.
5) Once the Change Order Form has been fully executed, the Purchasing Analyst will then
create a Purchase Order based upon the finalized Scope of Work and pricing, which the
Analyst will disseminate to the Vendor and the PM.
a) Once the Purchase Order has been issued and disseminated, the work may then proceed
between the Vendor and the Thornton PM.
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RFP No. 237-26
Compensation Study Consultant
B.12 VENDOR PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:
Thornton may administer a Vendor performance management program as part of this proposal
and resulting agreement. The purpose of this program is to create a method for documenting
and advising Thornton of exceptional performance or any problems related to the purchased
goods and services.
B.13 COOPERATIVE PURCHASING:
Thornton encourages the proper use of cooperative purchasing and reserves the right to make
results of this solicitation available to other governmental agencies seeking like equipment,
goods, or services. Other agencies using this solicitation must do so according to regulations
established by their individual organizations and accept sole responsibility for its use. The terms
and conditions of any resulting transaction shall be exclusively between the buyer and the seller.
Buyers and sellers from other municipalities and political subdivisions using this solicitation in a
cooperative or "piggy-back" fashion, agree to defend and hold harmless Thornton from any
dispute or action arising from its use.
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