§ 4.08.080. Authority to contract for professional services.

A.

General Authority. Contracts for legal services, medical services, accounting services, fiscal agents, financial advisors or advisory services, educational consultants, architectural services, engineering services, and similar services by professional persons or groups of high ethical standards, shall not be based on competitive sealed bids, but shall be awarded on the basis of recognized competence and integrity.

B.

Contracts for Professional Services as described above shall be awarded pursuant to regulations adopted by the standards board and shall be approved by the mayor. The board's regulations may exempt such services from the requirements of centralized purchasing.

C.

Contracts for Legal Services. Services of special counsel shall be obtained pursuant to Section 8.607 of the Metropolitan Charter. No contract for the services of legal counsel may be awarded without the approval of the director of law, except for special counsel for the metropolitan council.

D.

Independent Audit Firm. The services of an independent audit firm shall be obtained pursuant to Section 6.15 of the Metropolitan Charter.

E.

Contracts for information management services, including, but not limited to, computer program analyst services shall, be procured through a request for proposals process. The request for proposals process will invite prospective proposers to participate and will indicate the service requirements and the factors used for evaluating the proposals. Such factors shall include cost, vendor's qualifications and any additional factor or factors deemed relevant by the procuring entity for the procurement of the service; cost is not to be the sole criteria for evaluation. The contract for such services will be awarded to the best evaluated, responsive proposer.

(Ord. 92-456 § 1, 1992; Ord. 92-210 § 1 (2-302), 1992)