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RESOLUTION REQUIRING ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE IN COMPETITIVE SOLICITATIONS TO CLARIFY VENDOR RESPONSIVENESS

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WHEREAS, pursuant to Sections 2-8.1 of the Code of Miami-Dade County and Administrative Order 3-38 the County uses competitive solicitation processes to select vendors for County contracts; and
WHEREAS, competitive solicitations contain forms requiring vendors submitting responses to the solicitations to provide an authorized signature certifying that the vendor�s proposal or qualifications are submitted in response to the solicitation and that they are bound by the offer submitted in response to the solicitation; and
WHEREAS, courts have found that vendors who do not provide an authorized signature binding them to the offer submitted in response to a solicitation should be deemed non-responsive absent other evidence of clear intent to be bound by their solicitation responses; and
WHEREAS, the Board of County Commissioners wants to include additional language in solicitations emphasizing to vendors that a failure to provide an authorized signature on the appropriate form may deem a vendor's response to a solicitation non-responsive,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA, that the County Mayor or his designee is hereby directed to include, in the section of the solicitation that requires a vendor�s authorized signature in all competitive solicitations, the following language in bold type with all capital letters: �THE EXECUTION OF THIS FORM CONSTITUTES THE UNEQUIVOCAL OFFER OF PROPOSER TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF ITS PROPOSAL. FAILURE TO SIGN THIS SOLICITATION WHERE INDICATED BELOW BY AN AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE SHALL RENDER THE PROPOSAL NON-RESPONSIVE. THE COUNTY MAY, HOWEVER, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, ACCEPT ANY PROPOSAL THAT INCLUDES AN EXECUTED DOCUMENT WHICH UNEQUIVOCALLY BINDS THE PROPOSER TO THE TERMS OF ITS OFFER.�