Answering Service for Public Utilities Department

Collier County Public Utilities Department is seeking an after-hours, weekend, and holiday telephone answering service to support customer inquiries related to potable water, irrigation water, wastewater, solid waste collection, utility billing, customer service, and capital improvement projects. The solicitation, numbered 26-8670, was posted on July 13, 2026, with responses due by August 13, 2026, and is open to all qualified vendors without specific set-aside preferences. Vendors must submit proposals electronically through the County’s procurement portal and are required to meet numerous compliance obligations, including E-Verify enrollment, submission of a business tax receipt, and completion of background checks for all employees, which must include federal, state, and local law enforcement record searches, FBI fingerprinting, and credit history verification. All personnel must wear County-issued ID badges while on property and contractors must notify the Facilities Management Division within four hours of any employee separation, with failure to comply incurring a $500 penalty per incident. The contract requires full adherence to Florida statutes, OSHA, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as County policies CMAs 5402, 5403, and 5405. Bidders may propose equal or similar products as alternatives, and the County retains the right to approve substitutions. The service will be evaluated based on ten non-price factors, including cost management, schedule adherence, work quality, communication, risk management, and overall customer satisfaction, each scored on a 1–10 scale with no assigned weights, indicating a best-value trade-off approach. Invoicing must be sent electronically to bccapclerk@collier.gov and must include the purchase order number and a service description, with sales tax explicitly excluded. Payment follows the Local Government Prompt Payment Act. The contractor must maintain records for at least four years, comply with Collier County Ordinance 2004-52, and ensure all equipment and services meet industry-standard performance levels. There is no defined contract value, and no formal contract type is specified, with performance governed by individual purchase orders issued under the agreement. The place of performance is located within Collier County, Florida, and all shipments are FOB destination, transferring risk to the County only upon delivery.