Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program Support Consultant Services

The vendor is required to provide that broadband equity, access, and deployment program support consultant services to promote affordable service options while enhancing public safety, healthcare access, and workforce development.
- Related services include:
• Develop and manage a state and federally complaint state bead program and if funded the state bead match program, funded by the regional commission and specifically for the four distressed counties in state, to award matching funding to subgrantees as applicable.
• Provide guidance to an already existing grant application process and make modifications to an already existing grants management system to comply with all requirements from the initial proposal volume ii
• Create and manage state pre-qualification process as outlined in initial proposal volume ii
• Create and manage a competitive subgrantee selection process compliant with the state bead program initial proposal, state legislation, rules, and procedures and related federal legislation, rules, and guidance; including, but not limited to:
a) Calculate a statewide average price for affordable plans using customer service rate table from prospective subgrantees
b) Creating the final formula and methodology for the extremely high cost per location threshold
c) Finalizing the project area units for state
d) Running an initial $1 bid round and subsequent rounds, as necessary, of the subgrantee selection process until each pau has a grantee that will provide high-speed internet access
• Create and manage assurance activities and risk management processes to ensure funded projects adhere to state rules and are administration - compliant
• Create and develop an outreach campaign and technical assistance communication materials to support potential applicants
• Create and manage a compliance and monitoring process detailing procedures for awardee deliverables, oversight, reimbursement and approval, and process to ensure that all awardees comply with mandated program standards and agreed contractual deliverables
• Create and manage an environmental and historic preservation review process compliant with administration guidance.
• Write the final state application and other reports related to the subgrantee selection
• Be flexible and able to pivot to changing rules or guidance and support department with unforeseen challenges related to department as they arise, including new or changed guidance from the administration
• Develop and draft sops
• Comply with the initial proposal volumes
• program management services: all aspects of the state department program subgrantee selection process and, if funded, the state department match program. this includes all aspects of the initial proposal, except specific deliverables includes, but is not limited to, active participation in department meetings, reporting and data validation, presentations, and acting as a technical advisor to department employees and potential applicants
- Subgrantee selection lifecycle process:
• The bead subgrantee selection process, including all documentation and sops, must be compliant with the bead notice of funding opportunity, the initial proposal, and state and federal statutes and administrative rules
• The subgrantee selection process in its entirety, which consists of the following:
- Create activity project plan of entire end-to-end bead subgrantee selection process
- Gather process and compliance requirements as well as a framework for business and technical feasibility and viability assessment for the state bead grant system application content that incorporates the details contained within the initial proposal.
- Create a compliance checklist to ensure that state bead program subgrantee selection process abides by the principles of the bead department, including commitments to award projects that serve unserved or underserved locations, prioritizing end-to-end fiber projects unless the cost-per-location exceeds expected thresholds, among other guidelines.
- Create solicitation documentation and work with department through review and copy finalization.
- Create relevant subgrantee application process user/ applicant documentation such as, but not limited to, a subgrantee user guide, a subgrantee diagram with timeline; copy/content for public web pages and other communication materials as required.
- Create an adaptive automated application evaluation process and tool that incorporates programmatic and technical criterion and streamlines the decision-making process for award making. the evaluation process will also entail the deconfliction process outline in the department
Work with department to create formal technical evaluation scoring matrix that aligns with the preapproved matrix defined in our initial proposal volume ii
- Conduct and manage prequalification and internal application review for three grant grounds (pending assessment of the business case for a third round) of state bead program, including application intake and individual application evaluation
- Perform risk assessments of prospective bead program subrecipients to ensure their financial management systems are adequate to administer federal awards.
- Perform a thorough cost-benefit analysis following the rounds of application submissions and prior to award determination. the analysis will allow for the most efficient use of funds
- Perform an award analysis encompassing all received applications and taking into consideration the mandated bead department and department guidance, ensure the prioritization of projects is compliant with federal guidelines and state statute and have been posted for at least thirty (30) days on prior to the grant announcement
- Create a process for potential applicants with existing enforceable commitments to deploy broadband services in state for department identified in their bead proposal
- Create a report that includes the final list of proposed awardee projects to department for review and approval, after the completion of the subgrantee selection process and in consultation with department, the broadband expansion program authority, and the legal team
Work with department and legal team to negotiate contracts and ensure grantee agreements are signed and executed accordingly.
- Subgrantee outreach and technical assistance during allocation rounds
• Contractor will assist department with communicating information and delivery of technical assistance to potential state bead program applicants. this includes writing copy for websites, webinars, presentations, department, etc. successful respondent will complete the following tasks to ensure success in the final stages of the state bead program:
- Draft and develop, in collaboration with department, communications materials, not limited to press releases, department, and other collateral for prospective applicants to understand state bead program selection process.
- Assist department in the development and reviewing of training materials that will be provided to potential applicants. training material will include collateral for webinars, recorded videos, or other written material.
Provide direct technical assistance and support as requested to support department and potential applicants throughout the application process
- Bead compliance requirements and activity management: will establish a process to meet administrative and national policy requirements, including conducting necessary audits of subgrantees. this will ensure that cybersecurity measures, engineering best practices, climate resilience measures, and compliance with domestic procurement preferences, and environmental and historical preservation requirements are effectively implemented.  
 • Contractor will be responsible for the following activities:
- Coordinate with federal and state land-and-resource managing agencies or explore subcontracting vehicles to retain department-related subject matter expertise to support compliance activities, including department program management
- Coordinate with department and professional engineers, state licensing boards, or national society of professional engineers (NSPE) to appraise subgrantees/applicants technical workforce’s proficiency
- Create procedures to ensure prospective subgrantees are following through on various legal obligations, including domestic procurement preferences (“buy american” requirements) or fulfilling requirements set by the build city, buy waiver.
- Consult with the department to deliver or solicit assistance in deliverance of required environmental and historic preservation activities in accordance with department requirements.
- Create processes for local stakeholders and governments to preserve potentially impacted environmental or historic locations.
- Work with department to ensure the final proposal and program account for current and future weather- and climate-related risks to new broadband infrastructure projects
- Create contractual, enforceable agreements with awardees to preemptively protect sensitive environmental and historic locations and submit to department legal for review and approval.
- Directly communicate with and assist subgrantees to ensure compliance with all applicable environmental laws.
Review proposed contracts and purchasing documentation for compliance with programmatic rules, uniform guidance, and governmental accounting standards.
Work with department to develop monitoring plans, which may include site visits or desk reviews, technical assistance, and random sampling of compliance requirements. implementing monitoring plans will be an additional services agreement that can be agreed on upon a later date.   
Verify and validate that the project plans from subgrantees have been stamped by a licensed professional engineer
Preliminary review of the cybersecurity plans for each applicant and make recommendations on any required improvements to be accepted by department
Maintain documents provided by applicants to ensure department activities are consistent and efficiently managed.
- State bead match program will assist department in designing and implementing a competitive match award process. as of now, funding for this program has not been confirmed, and department reserves the right to decide not to proceed with the state bead match program.
• The contractor will be responsible for the following:
Concurrently, and as part of the application development for the state bead program, develop an intake form for prospective subgrantees to opt-in to request state support with any available matching funds as part of the bead application process
Assist department in creating a distribution method for eligible funds in accordance with state statute and create process for determining an exceptional financial need from potential subgrantees
Identify, as applicable, broadband infrastructure projects chosen through the state bead subgrantee selection process for bead funding that would benefit from additional state funds
- Contract Period/Term: 6 Month
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: February 18, 2025