Professional Training Exercise Services for Central California Intelligence Center (CCIC) - Tabletop Exercise

General work description:

The purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to define the County’s minimum requirements, solicit proposals, and gain adequate information by which the County may evaluate the services offered by Proposers that fall within the scope of services as further described within this RFP.

Sacramento County, herein known as the "County", the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office- Central California Intelligence Center (CCIC), herein referred to as the "County", is seeking proposals from qualified vendors for the following:

County is requesting proposals from qualified presenters with demonstrated experience in providing a tabletop exercise to conduct a comprehensive gap analysis to ascertain the causes and address the reported low numbers of Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) submissions to CCIC within the Sacramento Urban Security Initiative (UASI) region. Identifying underlying issues will provide the ability to enhance response capabilities and strengthen public safety responses to real-world events.

COMPANY EXPERIENCE AND QULIFICATIONS:

• Demonstrated experience in teaching courses with a nexus to Homeland Security.
• Demonstrated ability to utilize adult learning techniques.
• Previous experience, fusion centers, and/or law enforcement experience with a focus on homeland security.

Sacramento Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Tabletop Exercise

The Contractor shall perform all necessary travel, professional analysis, and work required for the preparation of the tabletop exercise.
The Contractor will conduct a tabletop exercise consistent with the Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Program (HSEEP) framework. HSEEP defines a tabletop as “a discussion-based exercise in response to a scenario, intended to generate a dialogue of various issues to facilitate a conceptual understanding, identify strengths and areas for improvement, and/or achieve changes in perceptions about plans, policies, or procedures.”

The tabletop exercise shall include facilitated meetings to assess and analyze communication pathways, protocols, and practices between CCIC and its internal and external stakeholders. The focus of the exercise is to identify communication gaps, inefficiencies, and breakdowns to improve the coordination of agency roles and responsibilities. Meetings/exercise shall evaluate current communication protocols, establish a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities, foster agency collaboration, and identify key deliverables and project milestones.

Subject must focus on program functionality and operational reporting procedures. The tabletop exercise must enhance agency alignment and communication and identify existing gaps in coordination and collaboration among stakeholders, law enforcement agencies, County Office of Emergency Services and CCIC.

The target audience for this tabletop exercise is public safety professionals and stakeholders including law enforcement officers, fire and emergency management personnel, public utility professionals and health care providers/ hospital administrators.

The expected outcome of the exercise shall produce a comprehensive communication gap analysis report summarizing key findings from the tabletop exercise. The report shall include agency personnel performance, recommendations for training, systems resource allocation, identified areas for policy or process improvement/efficiency, reporting mechanism functionality, and agency interoperability performance.

The findings outlined in the report will be utilized by CCIC for target-specific training and communication recommendations to prepare participants for the overall goal of ensuring agencies and community partners are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to adjust effectively to improve CCIC engagement and overall communication within the UASI Region.

I. MINIMUM DELIVERABLES WILL INCLUDE:

Initial coordination with CCIC and County Office of Emergency Services (OES) representative to determine stakeholders included in the final tabletop exercise.

The tabletop exercise shall include the following components:

1. Project Concept & Objective (C&O) Meeting
2. Stakeholders Project Planning Meeting (IPM)
3. Exercise Facilitation/Documents
4. After-Action Report/Improvement Plan

The Contractor will ensure each required component is included in the exercise and planning process.

Expert delivery of a quality tabletop exercise that assesses plans, policies, and procedures to evaluate, respond to, and evaluate program functionality and operational reporting procedures.

Contractor must provide/prepare exercise documents that summarize tabletop exercise concept and objectives, roles, timelines and expectations to ensure each stakeholder is kept apprised of developments throughout the planning process. Identification of existing gaps in coordination and collaboration among agencies. Recommendations for increasing inter-agency alignment and communication.

A comprehensive communication gap analysis report containing at a minimum – key findings from the tabletop exercise that include agency performance, identified areas for policy/process improvement, systems resource allocation/efficiency, reporting mechanism functionality, and agency interoperability performance.

A summarized list of training/follow-up recommendations to improve inter-agency collaboration shortfalls.

After-Action Report/Improvement Plan - Due no later than 30 days after completion of the tabletop exercise

II. COUNTY CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS

Upon selection, the exercise provider will sign a one (1)-year contract to provide up to two (2) in-person presentations of the above stated training content in Section I. This County contract will be written with the option, upon mutual agreement, to sign two (2) additional one (1)-year renewals, for a total of three (3) years, based on continued department needs and grant funds availability, or as approved by Board of Supervisors.

III. AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY

Sacramento Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) has an area of responsibility spanning the four counties of Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, and Yolo. Because of this area, training exercises may be held outside the immediate confines of Sacramento, making travel necessary.

By submitting a proposal, it is with the understanding that an exercise could be conducted in any of the UASI Region counties at any time.

IV. FINANCIAL EXPECTATIONS

When determining course costs, consider the following: mileage; airline costs; rental car costs; travel time; cost of meals, lodging, and fuel; cost of any published course materials needed to present the training curriculum. Each of these should be taken into consideration when drafting the proposal. Cost proposal must be itemized to include these items that apply to the exercise. Neither the Central California Intelligence Center nor the County of Sacramento will be responsible for additional costs outside the agreed-upon contract price.

California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) Grant Guidance dictates that all terrorism-related training must be competitively bid. In keeping with Homeland Security Grant Program requirements, this document contains the training needs for Sacramento County (herein known as the County), the Central California Intelligence Center (CCIC), and the Sacramento Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI).