Contract Prescribed Burning

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Contract Prescribed Burning
Gary Starkovich PatRick
Corporation Nov. 30-Dec. 1-2,
2004
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PatRick Corporations National Headquarters

• Wildland Prescribed
  Fire Specialists
• PO Box 758, Redmond, OR 97756

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About PatRick Corporation

• PatRick was founded in 1971
• Started contract prescribed burning in 1972.
  Since then we have had contracts with the
  following organizations.
• - Private Timber Companies and land owners
  - USDA
  Forest Service
  - USDI Bureau of Land
  Management
  - USDI US
  Fish and Wildlife Service
  - State of Oregon
• 
  

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Prescribed Fire Skills

• Prescribed Fire Leadership positions PatRick
  Corporation has on its staff
• 3 Prescribed Fire Managers Type 1 (RXM1)
• 5 Prescribed Fire Burn Boss Type 1 (RXB1)
• 1 Fire Behavior Analyst (FBAN)
• Multiple numbers of Ignition Specialists and
  Holding Specialists.

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Suppression Skills
2 Incident Commanders Type 2 (ICT2) 3
Division/Group Supervisors (DIVS) 2 Task Force
Leader (TFLD) 4 Strike Team Leader Crew (STCR) 6
Strike Team Leader Engine (STEN) 14 Crew Boss
(Single Resource) (CRWB) 14 Engine Boss (Single
Resource) (ENGB)
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Training Certification

• All viable Contractor employees meet or exceed
  the requirements outlined in NWCG Wildland and
  Prescribed Fire Qualification System Guide, PMS
  310-1, January 2000. Certification is through an
  MOU with NWCG member groups.
• The USDA and USDI along with other federal,
  state, tribal and private timber companies each
  have specific direction related to fuels
  treatment efforts. Prudent contractors are aware
  of these requirements.

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Types of projects accomplished
under contracts

• Contractors are not unlike the agencies. We are
  involved with the same type of work you are. We
  have the same skills. We are trained and
  certified as you are.

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Some of the projects contractors have completed.

• --- Fuels Management projects ---
• Large and small scale underburning projects
• Clear cut burning
• Range, meadow and brush field conversion burning
• Wetlands burning
• The viable contractors use hand, aerial,
  terra-torches and ATV mounted ignition devices.
• Machine piling and burning of piles.
• Hand piling and burning of piles.
• Fireline construction, hand and mechanized.

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Projects (cont.)

• Fuels inventory and/or establishment of photo
  plots
• Writing burn plans (complete packages)
• Location of property lines / boundaries
• Fire Safe Programs (WUI)

• --- Other Projects ---
• Thinning, tree planting, cone collection,
  pruning, clearing of utility right of ways, trail
  construction, spraying, taking over wildfires
  from the USFS after control, hurricane and space
  shuttle recovery projects.

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Types of Contracts
Request for Proposals (RFP) Best Value
Contract with Indefinite Delivery Indefinite
Quantity (IDIQ)
What is Best Value procurement?
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What Is Best Value Procurement

• Best value techniques have long been used in
  federal procurements, particularly for research
  and development where the emphasis has been on
  contractor ideas and abilities as well as cost.

• The current trend within government is to apply
  best value to other areas when it is clear that
  the government can benefit.

• The public and private sector emphasis on
  effective use of government funds and efficient
  conduction of government business has brought
  into prominence the use of best value
  procurements.

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• Best value procurements also have enjoyed long
  use within private industry. Here the past
  performance of the seller and reliability of the
  product and the firm are often the deciding
  factors. Lower costs could have been achieved by
  obtaining a product or service from another
  supplier, but industry has found that, in many
  situations, going with the low bidder is a false
  economy.
• Best value techniques for government procurements
  are more complex than for the private sector. In
  government contracting the seller has rights
  unknown in the private sector. These rights
  evolve from the wide variety of laws,
  regulations, and precedents in federal
  contracting that are designed to foster fairness
  and integrity. Yet government contracting
  officials, often justifiably, see these as
  obstacles to using best value procurements.

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• Although there is no universally accepted
  definition for best value, for purposes of this
  presentation, we will define best value as a
  process used in competitive negotiated
  contracting to select the most advantageous offer
  by evaluating and comparing factors in addition
  to cost or price.
• Best value is not
• Automatic award to the low price (with due
  consideration given to responsiveness,
  responsibility, and reasonableness) nor
• Automatic award to the lowest priced technically
  accepted proposal.
• Rather, best value is taking both price and
  preestablished nonprice factors into
  consideration in awarding a contract. In fact,
  any procurement that permits the government to
  make award to other that the lowest acceptable
  offer can be classified as a best value
  procurement.

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• Most important for business to understand is that
  best value is a process one that both an
  extraordinary degree of choice and a
  extraordinary number of ground rules to the
  government and, by extension, a different playing
  field to the offeror.
• Its worth reminding ourselves that best value is
  used only in competitive negotiated
  contracting. Sealed bids cannot be used in best
  value contracting, since the government cannot
  consider evaluation factors other than price and
  price-related factors.
• Thus, the procurement instrument used for best
  value is the request for proposal (RFP). Only the
  negotiated method of procurement may be used for
  best value procurements.

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Types of Contracts
Request for Quotes (RFQ)

• No competitive process.
• Not performance based.
• Anyone can qualify with some basic
  requirements.
• Low bid award.
• Minimum of 3 bids.

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What Makes a Contract Viable

• Quantity (number of acres)
• Economy of scale
• Dollars available (per acre cost)
• Proximity (location)
• Burning Window (continuous or broken)
• True Partnership (shared responsibilities)
• Liability (contractors, state regulations on 3rd
  party burning, Who lights the match).

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Viability (cont.)

• Local workforce availability
• Availability of facilities
• Proximity to lodging (motels)
• Feeding (restaurants)
• Local customs (No work on Sunday, etc.)

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Do you have questions?
We will be here all week to answer any specific
question you may have.
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