Johnson County Underestimated Business Finance 2024
Summary
A Request for Proposals from Johnson County, Iowa for an ARPA Underestimated Business Finance Program, published March 28, 2024, with proposals due April 25, 2024 and project initiation set for July 1, 2024. The RFP cites an Inclusive Economic Development Plan commissioned in 2021 that examined COVID-19 impacts on underestimated businesses and disparities in Paycheck Protection Program funding. It seeks a consultant to identify eligible small businesses under U.S. Treasury criteria, create and administer a financial program such as grants, and complete expenditures by June 30, 2026. Proposals are scored on experience at 40%, methodology at 35%, capacity at 15% and cost at 10%. The proposed cost may not exceed $500,000, with 10% to 20% allowed for administrative costs.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Full text
Johnson County, Iowa
Request for Proposals
ARPA Underestimated Business Finance Program
Procurement Timeline
RFP Publish Date March 28, 2024
RFP Pre-Bid Meeting April 12, 2024
Proposal Due Date April 25, 2024
Project Initiation July 1, 2024
1
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
ARPA Underestimated Business Finance Program
According to the 2021 Big Ideas for Small Business: A Five-step Roadmap for Rebuilding the U.S. Small-
business Sector, reviving entrepreneurship, and closing the racial wealth gap”, published by Drexel
University and Yale, “The COVID-19 crisis has devastated Main Street small businesses across America.
Since February 2020, almost a quarter of all U.S. small businesses have closed at least temporarily. In the
hardest hit sectors, like restaurants, hotels, and retail, the numbers are far higher. In September 2020,
Yelp reported that for businesses on its platform, more than half (60%) of closures were permanent.
According to Womply data, it has been estimated that 185,000 small businesses — one in seven
nationally — had shut down permanently by the end of August 2020. Those closures have left millions of
Americans out of work and transformed lively neighborhoods around the country into retail ghost
towns, destroying the wealth built by many families over generations in the process.
In 2021, the Multicultural Development Center of Iowa, Greater Iowa City Inc., (formerly the Iowa City
Area Development Group and the Iowa City Area Business Partnership) and GreenState Credit Union
commissioned an Inclusive Economic Development Plan in Johnson County. This plan generated baseline
data for understanding the impacts of COVID-19 on locally owned, underestimated businesses
(‘underestimated’ is used here to include Black, Indigenous, People of Color, People with Disabilities,
Immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people), through multilingual, online, and in-person surveys, phone calls, and
several locally-lead focus groups. This plan also included federally reported data from two local banks,
Midwest One Bank and GreenState Credit Union, to identify and understand lending practices to
underestimated businesses, particularly during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A stark
difference identified was the disparity between small businesses that received funding from the federal
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and those that did not, many of which were underestimated
businesses. The state of Iowa received millions of dollars for the PPP and yet, “only $50,000 was made
available to underestimated business owners affected by COVID-19, and only 33% of the county support
institutions provided relief funds to business owners. (p.33)” The Inclusive Economic Development Plan
provides further information on the barriers and gaps that local underestimated businesses face, such
as, high rents, gaps in resource information, and a lack of access and relationships to financial and
business support systems, to name a few.
The Johnson County Board of Supervisors recognizes that many small businesses in Johnson County
were impacted by COVID-19 and has allocated funding to create an ARPA Underestimated Business
Finance Program (AUBFP) to address some of these gaps and barriers.
This program will:
➢ Utilize the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s definitions to determine eligible small businesses
that experienced negative economic impacts or disproportionate impacts of the pandemic.
➢ Create a program that provides financial resources to eligible small businesses via a program
that can include grants to mitigate financial hardship, such as by supporting payroll and
benefits, costs to retain employees, and mortgage, rent, utility, and other operating costs.
2
Pre-Bid Meeting
Consultants interested in submitting proposals are encouraged to attend a Pre-Bid meeting scheduled
for April 12, 2024, from 2 pm - 3 pm. The meeting will be held at the following location and will be
recorded and made available to applicants:
Johnson County Health and Human Services Building
Second Floor, Room 203 C
855 S Dubuque St, Iowa City, IA 52240
Or attend virtually here:
Microsoft Teams Meeting
Meeting ID: 243 669 620 651
Passcode: p83T8a
RFP Q&A
Questions that arise after the Pre-Bid meeting should be submitted in writing to staff at the following
email address: grants@johnsoncountyiowa.gov, no later than 4:30 pm on April 12, 2024. All questions
and answers will be distributed to consultants who attend the Pre-Bid meeting.
RFP Submittal
Electronic copies should be submitted as a PDF with the subject line, “ARPA Underestimated Business
Financial Program.” Submissions should be sent to staff, at the following email address:
grants@johnsoncountyiowa.gov, no later than 4:30 pm on April 25, 2024. All consultants will be
notified in writing regarding the results of the selection process.
A summary of the procurement process for this project is as follows:
- March 28, 2024 RFP published
- April 12, 2024 RFP pre-bid meeting
- April 12, 2024 Questions submitted in writing
- April 18, 2024 Submitted questions answered
- April 25, 2024 Proposal Due Date
- April 25—May 10, 2024 Proposals ranked by selection committee
- May, 2024 Risk Assessments
- June 2024 Contract approval
3
- July 1, 2024 Project Initiation
*All dates are subject to change.
Evaluation
Each proposal will be reviewed by an evaluation team, composed of Johnson County Board staff and
leadership. Each proposal will be scored relative to all other proposals on the basis of the evaluation
criteria listed below. Consultants may be contacted during this process to clarify items in their proposals.
Experience: 40%
Methodology: 35%
Capacity and Leveraged Resources: 15%
Cost: 10%
RFP Required Items
The Johnson County Board of Supervisors reserves the right to reject any and all proposals or to waive
any irregularities in any proposal if judged to be in the best interest of the county and the planning
process. This RFP does not oblige the county to offer a contract to any firm, nor pay any cost incurred in
the preparation of proposals submitted in response to this request. All information and material
submitted in this request will become property of the Johnson County Supervisors.
The checklist of items required for proposal submission:
1. Company Contact Information
2. Statement of Qualifications
3. Proposed Methodology to Complete Scope of Work
4. Plan Development Milestones and Timeline
5. Proposed Cost of Services
Proposals should respond to each of the items listed in Sections I – V, following the outline presented
here.
I. Company Contact Information
1. Provide company name, Tax ID Number, and Unique Entity ID.
2. Include the name, address, email, and phone number for staff designated as the project
lead.
II. Statement of Qualifications
4
1. Demonstration of past work with underestimated businesses, including a description of previous
projects and experience. Links to completed plans and projects should be provided.
2. Description of organizational capacity (and sub-consulting staff) to complete all necessary
services.
3. Experience with administering federally funded programs.
4. Qualifications and experience of staff anticipated to be assigned work for this project, including
total hours and percentage of time committed to the project.
5. References, including contact information from previous clients of related work within the past
five years.
6. Evidence of ability to work within tight time constraints and the earliest date available to
assume these duties.
III. Proposed Methodology and Scope of Work
At a minimum, the consultant must accomplish the outcomes listed below. Your organization’s
methodology should explain your planned approach to each of the following:
1. Identify eligible small businesses that were negatively impacted by the pandemic or
disproportionately impacted in Johnson County, Iowa. The U.S Treasury has outlined these
criteria that must be followed:
a. “Small Business” definition:
i. Have no more than 500 employees, or if applicable, the size standard in number
of employees established by the Administrator of the Small Business
Administration for the industry in which the business concern or organization
operates, and
ii. Are a small business concern as defined in section 3 of the Small Business Act
(which includes, among other requirements, that the business is independently
owned and operated and is not dominant in its field of operation)
b. “Impacted Small Business” considerations:
i. Decreased revenue or gross receipts
ii. Financial insecurity
iii. Increased costs
iv. Capacity to weather financial hardship
v. Challenges covering payroll, rent or mortgage, and other operating costs
c. “Disproportionately Impacted Small Business” considerations:
i. Small business operating Qualified Census Tracts
ii. Small businesses operated by Tribal governments or on Tribal lands
iii. Small businesses operating in the U.S. territories
2. Create a financial program to address economic disparities for impacted or disproportionately
impacted small businesses (the distinction between those categories is listed above). This
program can include:
a. For Impacted Small Businesses:
i. Grants to mitigate financial hardship, such as by supporting payroll and benefits,
costs to retain employees, and mortgage, rent, utility, and other operating costs
ii. Technical assistance, counseling, or other services to support business planning
b. For Disproportionately Impacted Small Businesses:
5
i. Rehabilitation of commercial properties, storefront improvements & façade,
improvements
ii. Technical assistance, business incubators & grants for start-up or expansion
costs for small businesses
iii. Support for microbusinesses, including financial, childcare, and transportation
costs
3. Create a project work plan with SMART goals to reach planned targets by June 30, 2026.
4. Present periodic findings and work to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors and staff for
final approval of allocated funding.
5. Administer the financial program following ARPA guidelines, including 2 CFR 200, by June 30,
2026.
The tasks and deliverables specifically for the consultant, to support the scope of work methodology
above, are outlined below:
1. Serve as a central point of contact for local small businesses and county staff. Lead, manage,
assemble, organize, and compile data as they are developed.
2. Develop program to provide eligible financial assistance to local small businesses impacted by
COVID-19.
3. Develop and finalize the AUBFP goals, objectives, actions, and priorities with input from county
staff.
4. Present information to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors and staff at agreed upon
milestones.
5. Provide opportunities for feedback from the Johnson County Board of Supervisors and staff and
incorporate that feedback into the final AUBFP.
6. Prepare and deliver the final AUBFP document and summary PowerPoint presentation.
7. Develop outreach materials in concert with our Communications staff to solicit support and buy-
in as well as raise community and public awareness about the AUBFP.
8. Execute the financing program.
IV. Plan Development Milestones and Timeline
The development and execution of this program is expected to take 24 months. Indicate
milestones within a timeline that include:
1. Meetings with county staff. Johnson County staff plans to host a kickoff meeting to introduce
the consultant to key stakeholders the Board of Supervisors would like included in the process in
summer 2024.
2. Outreach and engagement with local businesses
3. Draft finance program
4. Final finance program expenditures are expected to be completed on or before June 30, 2026.
5. Presentation to Johnson County Board of Supervisors
6
V. Proposed Cost of Services
Proposals to Johnson County Board of Supervisors should include the proposed cost to
accomplish the scope of work for activities outlined above not to exceed $500,000.
Bidders are allowed to incorporate 10% to 20% of the project budget for administrative costs.
Project cannot duplicate services already supported by federal funding, including the City of
Iowa City’s Inclusive Economic Development Support for Underestimated Businesses and
Entrepreneurs Program.
7
File and source
- File
- johnson-county-underestimated-business-finance-2024.pdf
- Size
- 200,304 bytes
- SHA-256
- 24e7357afd31b245da94038fa5c65222b373a5d6abc59065d2e85e0eed66b264
- Original
- www.johnsoncountyiowa.gov