ALC-Executive Subcommittee

If you would introduce yourself a record you're recognized to explain your contract. I'm Stacy her secretary of the Arkansas department of parks heritage and tourism. Mike Preston secretary of commerce. Okay you're recognized per se. Thank you for background they were calls for a broad band master plan from legislator serving on the American rescue plane Committee on June second there's a lot of discussion regarding broadband and the June nineteenth A. L. C. meeting comments came from both house and Senate members regarding the state ship approaching including calls for master plan we had our first meeting of the broadband working group of the cabinet on July eighth. And we were heard from we heard from agency of state government that we and those who are working in the arena of connectivity in Arkansas and following that discussion and with the governor's endorsement we endeavor to work with the legislature to pursue a consultant to create a master plan for broadband deployment. It is apparent to all of us I believe that at this juncture in our state's history it is I am with this historic funding that we have available that a fresh look in a road map would be both timely and helpful. So working with the office of state procurement we explore the options available to us and we chose to follow a most advantageous proposal process we chose the map primarily because it allowed for competition the request for proposals and it was a quicker process it is a somewhat new and different process but we have worked very closely with the office of state procurement looking back at our records we estimate thirty calls or meetings with S. P. officials between August thirty first and September twenty second. As I stated we were instructed by O. S. P. to draft a scope of work that was general in nature I know the scope of work has been an issue of concern for some legislature legislate tors and as it was described to us but S. P. an agency states generally what they want and the vendors paint a picture of what they recommend according to their expertise their method R. their business model. The map is not a straight invitation for bids. Where the scope of work must be very defined and then the low bidder is selected in that process. During the map I shared at a scope of work it was a draft at the time I shared it pretty broadly including to about a dozen legislators I with my colleagues at the FNA in commerce and with the broadband office and just like with any R. F. P. there are probably many ways the scope of work could have been written and drafted and still provided the guidance necessary for an appropriate response. Could our scope of work have been improved certainly I'm quite sure it could have. Did we have any ulterior motives in drafting it the way we did absolutely not we conducted the process transparently we sought input we operated in good faith and with the guidance of the office of state procurement. In the R. F. P. there were five requirements the first one was described as data collection and analysis of current broadband availability and that's where the vendors would provide recommendations or describe their method of assessing the current connectivity landscape in Arkansas. All three of the vendors responded with some measure of field verification our boots on the ground. It was just to varying degrees the same is true for the community outreach case we required a plan for community outreach and they all provided the response but the approaches were different. According to the map process once the proposals the proposals are received there is an initial evaluation for us this technical scoring was conducted by three at I. T. experts one from each of our departments. They were evaluating these complex proposals through a technical point of view. The vendor's price offer is also factored in to create a total score according to OSP this and initial evaluation and score creates the ranking and the order in which you are going to further evaluate the proposals. So the next stap stap in the map process is the discussions phase where the secretaries became involved in further evaluation of the proposals this isn't it has an expected stab in the map process the vendors provide additional documentation in more detail about their proposal our IT experts and C. tech Haggerty were also involved in these discussions the discussions include making sure philosophies are aligned examination of all of the activities expected by the state in ensuring that the proposal fully meets the state's objectives. We follow the process carefully working closely with the office of state procurement it was transparent well documented and conducted in good faith I'm confidence that this process led us to the most advantageous proposal in an outcome that will be in the best interest of the state it is our hope that we can move forward today and engage a consultant and begin the important work of increasing connectivity in Arkansas and we are happy to answer any questions. Any questions from the executive committee members. Seeing without objection is committed this contract was stand reviewed and without seeing any further business we stand adjourned. We.