CMAA November 07, 2018 Long Beach California Best Practices & Deadly Sins of Proposal Writing: Increase your odds of getting shortlisted! Al Bazzi, MSc, PE, ENV SP City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Street and Services Principal Civil Engineer

Outline City Organization City of Los Angeles Opportunities Advertising for proposals What happens before you submit How to write a compelling proposal that could beat the competition The fate of your proposal Outline

Bureau of Street Lighting Bureau of Street Services Organization Mayor Department of Public Works Bureau of Sanitation Bureau of Street Lighting Bureau of Street Services Bureau of Contract Administration Other Departments: Personnel Planning ITA General Services Housing Aging Emergency Management Building and Safety Transportation Zoo LAWA Harbor DWP Library Rec and Parks Fire/Police Others Bureau of Engineering Treatment Plants Design/Construction Sewer Design Emergency Sewer Repairs Clean Water Bond Parks LA River Geotechnical Engineering Metro Transit Real Estate Sixth Street Viaduct Street Improvements Stormwater (Flood Control) Structural Engineering Bridges BSS Engineering Division: CIP (Capital Imp Program) – Design CIP (Capital Imp Program)-Construction Accelerated Transit Projects Street Furniture Program Surface Transportation Program Bikeway Program

City of Los Angeles Opportunities Proposals: Prequalifications Task Order Solicitations (TOS) Funding and grant applications Award applications

City of Los Angeles Opportunities Prequalifications: On-Call list for work segments Technical Staff Augmentation Scientific Construction: Design-Bid-Build Design-Build Emergency On-Call Contracts CMGC/CMAR Progressive Design Build

City of Los Angeles Opportunities Task Order Solicitations (TOS) Work segments: Technical Staff augmentation Scientific

City of Los Angeles Opportunities Assistance as appropriate: Funding/Grants Applications Award Applications

Advertising for Proposals New Opportunities: City utilizes BAVN , Business Assistance Virtual Network https://www.labavn.org Pre-qualified On-Call Consultants or Contractors Lists Sole Source RFP Top 3

What happens before you submit Pre-proposal Meeting Deadlines and Delivery address Questions

When to Contact the City? Is it ok to contact the City before the TOS is on the street?

How to write a compelling proposal that could beat competition Organizing Proposal Strategy Proposal writing Winning

Organizing Proposal (15 pages) Introduction/Executive Summary Objective Relevance to the City Approach and methodology An evaluation of your company’s strengths and weaknesses Know your competition’s strong and weak points. Who will do what.

Strategy City proposals are reviewed based on the criteria: 1. Merit 2. Broader Impact to make it more competitive For an extra edge New approach Interdisciplinary teams and Technical Advisory / Expert Team is usually very attractive for us

Proposal Writing Tips for writing a compelling proposal can be found the following link, developed by Stanford University https://doresearch.stanford.edu/research-scholarship/about-proposal-process Stick with the specified format: Organize the proposal to effortlessly guide reviewers through it This facilitates an efficient evaluation process and saves reviewers from hunting for critical information (eliminates cranky reviewer syndrome) Provide a summary for each section of the proposal

Proposal Writing Propose what is requested Don’t propose more work than can be done during the project period Be careful with your assumptions Highlight your best reference project Bring the team to the interview

Proposal Writing Keep it simple Make one point in each paragraph, this is key for readability Keep sentences to 20 words or less Use the active, rather than passive voice Make it attractive Know who the review panel is

Proposal Writing Use concise and clear writing Provide easy access to references Make your points as direct as possible Avoid jargon or excessive details Spell out all acronyms on first page Be consistent with terms, references and writing style

The Fate of Your Proposal City establishes panel Panel members review proposals, prepare written reviews Panel members interview proposers, prepare more written reviews Panel members meet, compile written reviews and make recommendations to the selecting officer. Proposer is notified if selected or not.

Thank You Al.Bazzi@Lacity.Org