§ 5471. Solicitation Process.

(a) The Office shall prepare a Solicitation each time it proposes to award Grant funds, which shall include the deadline for submission of Proposals. The Office shall be authorized in a Solicitation to limit the amount for which the Office shall provide matching funds.

(b) A Solicitation shall be mailed to every Person requesting a copy.

(c) All Proposals received by the due date and place specified in the Solicitation shall be reviewed to determine eligibility pursuant to section 5472. Applicants shall include in the Proposal package both a signed original and five copies of the Proposal. Only eligible Proposals shall be scored.

(d) The Solicitation shall describe the Region covered by each Alliance. The Proposal shall be mailed to the Alliance covering the Region where the Applicant's Project will take place. If a Project will take place in a Region not covered by an Alliance, or is statewide in nature, the proposal shall be mailed to the Office. As used in this subsection, “statewide in nature” means that a substantial portion of the Project will take place in more than one Region.

(e) The Alliances and Office shall review the Proposals assigned to each for eligibility, and evaluate and score the eligible Proposals according to the Section 5474 criteria. No two proposals shall receive the same score. Alliances and Funding Agencies shall be included as nonvoting participants in the Office review, and theOffice and Funding Agencies shall be included as nonvoting participants in the Alliance reviews.

(f) The Alliances and the Office shall forward to the Office all eligible Proposals scoring a minimum of 25 points.

(g) The Office shall establish review panels approved by the Council, including a nonvoting representative from each Alliance and two or more voting members, including one or more representatives from Funding Agencies. The review panels shall review the Proposals forwarded by the Alliances and the Office and make a single, consolidated, ranked list of Proposals complying with Section 5475(a) and is ranked according to Section 5475(b) criteria. The list shall only include Proposals for which funding is available, based upon Proposals scoring the most points. If two or more proposals near the bottom of the ranking have identical scores and if there is money to fund some but not all identically ranked proposals, then there shall be oral interviews. The purpose of the oral interviews is to re-rank the tied proposals.

(h) The Office shall forward to the Council and the Alliances the proposed funding list, with a short description of each Proposal on that list. The description shall address each of the subsection (i)(1) through (3) items. Proposals will be sent to the Council upon request.

(i) No later than 60 days following the deadline for submitting Proposals, the Council shall recommend funding for those Proposals receiving the highest ranking from the review panel, unless the Council finds that changes to the ranking are necessary due to:

(1) Failure of the Proposal to score sufficient Section 5475 points to receive funding;

(2) Conflict of interest as defined by Government Code Sections 1090 or 87100 et seq. ; or

(3) Lack of geographic diversity.

(j) The Council shall remove from the ranking any Proposal which: lacks geographic diversity, includes a conflict of interest or fails to score sufficient Section 5475 points to receive funding. The Council shall specify which standard has not been met and shall fund the next highest ranking proposal(s) which meet the subsection (i)(1) through (3) criteria.

(k) The Council shall make the recommendation in writing by mailing notification to the Applicant, the Office, the Funding Agency and the Alliances.

(l) Following the Council recommendation of a Proposal which requested Office funding, the Office and the successful Applicant shall enter into a Grant Agreement on terms mutually acceptable to all parties.

(m) At the Council funding meeting, an Alliance shall be authorized to appeal to the Council a review panel Proposal ranking or finding of eligibility. The Council shall overturn the ranking only if it finds clear and convincing evidence that the finding or ranking was unsubstantiated.

HISTORY

1. New section filed 3-7-94 as an emergency; operative 3-7-94 (Register 94, No. 10). A Certificate of Compliance must be transmitted to OAL by 9-6-94 or emergency language will be repealed by operation of law on the following day.

2. Repealed by operation of Government Code section 11346.1(g) (Register 95, No. 7).

3. New section filed 4-10-95; operative 4-10-95 pursuant to Government Code section 11343.4(d) (Register 95, No. 15).

Note

Note: Authority cited: Section 8456, Government Code. Reference: Sections 8447, 8449, 8450, 8451, 8452, 8453 and 8454, Government Code.