🚀 go-pugleaf

Here is the SAMCAT Cellular Antenna Agent RFP we released last
week....

-- Brian Moura, City of San Carlos



        SAN MATEO CABLE TV & TELECOMMUNICATIONS AUTHORITY (SAMCAT)
        c/o City of San Carlos
        666 Elm Street
        San Carlos, CA 94070-3018
        (415) 802-4229
        
        Members:
        --------
        City of Belmont
        City of Brisbane
        City of Daly City
        Town of Hillsborough
        City of Millbrae
        City of Redwood City
        City of San Carlos
        City of San Mateo
        County of San Mateo



                                                        
                                 REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
                                 ANTENNA SITE LEASING

                                   March 27, 1996


OVERVIEW
========
The nine agencies that make up the San Mateo County Cable TV and
Telecommunications Authority (SAMCAT) are interested in soliciting
proposals from vendors who wish to represent SAMCAT in marketing 
city and county owned properties as sites for cellular and PCS 
antenna towers and panels.

SAMCAT was formed in 1989 to help nine agencies jointly manage their
cable TV franchise with TCI. Earlier this year, the Board of Directors
of SAMCAT decided to expand the organizations functions beyond the
arena of cable TV franchise management.  In the newly expanded SAMCAT
charter, the group will also be responsible for all telecommunications
functions among the participating jurisdictions.  One of the first
projects that the Board of Directors asked the staff to pursue is the
possibility of retaining a firm to represent the SAMCAT agencies for
purposes of leasing city owned property for the placement of cellular
and PCS antennas, towers, and panels. 

It is the hope of the SAMCAT Board of Directors that by retaining one
firm to represent all of the SAMCAT member agencies, that firm will
have increased bargaining power and leverage with industry players in
the cellular and PCS arena.  It is also hoped that this process will
help the industry by enabling them to obtain "one-stop shopping" for
locations for future cellular and PCS/PCN services.  It is also hoped
that this process will enable cities to co-locate these antennas and
panels in fewer locations than would otherwise be the case, and that
this will enable these agencies to bring in additional much-needed
revenue to the agencies and that there may even be some creative
opportunities by banding together in this fashion.


PROCESS
=======
The SAMCAT staff envisions that the selection process for the
representatives to represent the nine SAMCAT member agencies is as
follows:

1.      A committee of SAMCAT members drafts and prepares a Request
for Proposal (RFP) for interested vendors.

2.      The RFP is printed and sent out to interested parties.

3.      RFP replies are due back to the SAMCAT staff in 3 weeks
(4/19/96).

4.      The SAMCAT staff will then arrange for interviews with each of
the vendors who submit a proposal.

5.      The SAMCAT subcommittee on cellular antenna and PCS site
rental will interview each vendor, will check references, and will
make a recommendation to the full SAMCAT Board of Directors on which
firm should be selected for this assignment.


INFORMATION REQUESTED FROM VENDORS
==================================
Firm interested in participating in this selection process should
address the following items in their submittals:

* Vendor information
--------------------
Each vendor should provide the names and titles of the individuals
from their firm that will be working on the SAMCAT assignment.  The
vendors should also recognize that the SAMCAT selection subcommittee
will want to meet and interview these individuals during the interview
process in step #4 outlined above.

* References and previous assignments
-------------------------------------
The vendor should provide the SAMCAT subcommittee with a list of
previous assignments representing clients within the
telecommunications industry for purposes of leasing public and private
property.  This list should include names, firms, titles and phone
numbers so that the SAMCAT staff and committee members can contact
these individuals and check references.

* Proposed compensation arrangement and details
-----------------------------------------------
The vendor should outline how they propose to be compensated for this 
assignment.  We recognize the amount and compensation approaches
differ in each of the proposing firms, and therefore, the SAMCAT
cellular committee is most interested in how your firm would propose
to be compensated.

* Vendor expertise for this assignment
--------------------------------------
The SAMCAT committee would be interested in a statement from the
vendor as to the expertise that they bring to this assignment in terms
of past work and also in terms of expertise that may differentiate the
firm or be unique to that firm versus other competitors.

* Description of services
-------------------------
The vendor will provide a description of the services that they would
propose to provide to SAMCAT if they were the successful responder to
this RFP.  As this is a somewhat unique assignment, the SAMCAT
subcommittee has elected to leave this particular item open-ended in
reviewing the proposals from the vendors.

* Does the vendor represent the telecommunications industry as well?
Is this a conflict of interest?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It has come to the attention of the subcommittee that, in some cases,
individuals that may wish to represent the SAMCAT agencies for
purposes of renting city and county properties for cellular towers and
antennas may also represent the industry.  In some cases this is done
by the same staff and division while in other cases this is done by a
sister agency.  In this section, we ask vendors to tell us whether or
not this is the case with their proposal and to also explain, if it is
the case, whether or not that is an acceptable practice and whether or
not it represents a conflict of interest.

* Developing uniform ordinances
-------------------------------
The vendor should explain or discuss the desirability of working with
the SAMCAT Board of Directors in developing uniform ordinances for the
siting, approval, and lease of cellular antennas, towers, and panels.
The SAMCAT Board believes that it may be advantageous to develop such
ordinances both in terms of uniform review of proposals regardless of
location as well as being an enticement for vendors to select city
owned properties versus private properties.  We would be interested in
your comments on this item as well as any added costs for this item
versus your base proposal.

* Staff involvement
-------------------
Each vendor should talk about the amount of staff time required by
both the SAMCAT staff and the member agencies in the cellular antenna
rental process. The SAMCAT Board will be particularly interested in
proposals where staff involvement is kept to a minimum and most of the
services required to execute and manage a successful lease are handled
by the proposing firm.

* Special benefits SAMCAT may receive through group representation
------------------------------------------------------------------
Since this is a unique RFP in that the successful vendor will
represent not one but ten to twelve different agencies, the SAMCAT
Board is interested in learning what special benefits the vendor
envisions occurring as a result of this unique partnership approach to
cellular antenna rental.  In this particular item, we are looking for
vendor input since this is a relatively new process to the SAMCAT
Board and we do not have any specific ideas in mind as to what special
benefits may accrue in this process.

* Other items of interest we should consider
--------------------------------------------
In this section, we would like the vendor to add any additional
information, qualifications, or thoughts that they would have that
might lead the SAMCAT Board to select them versus another vendor.


FURTHER INFORMATION AND QUESTIONS
=================================
We appreciate your interest in this assignment.  If you have any
questions about this RFP, you can contact Brian Moura, Chair, SAMCAT
(415-802-4210) or Marge Linder, SAMCAT Coordinator (415-802-4229).