Provision of Examination and Testing for Protective Services on an Annual Contract

September 9, 2026
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
RP031-26
The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners is soliciting competitive sealed proposals from qualified service
providers for the Provision of Examination and Testing for Protective Services on an Annual Contract with Four
(4) Options to Renew for the Department of Human Resources.
Proposals must be returned in a sealed container marked on the outside with the Request for Proposal number
and Company Name. Proposals will be received until 2:50 PM local time on September 28, 2026 at the Gwinnett
County Financial Services - Purchasing Division - 2nd Floor, 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30046. Any
proposal received after this date and time will not be accepted. Proposals will be publicly opened, and only names
of submitting service providers will be read at 3:00 PM. The opening will be virtual ONLY. To access the proposal
opening, click here to join, or join by dialing 1-323-676-6170. Access Code is: 622 764 154#. A list of service
providers submitting proposals will be available the following business day on our website
www.gwinnettcounty.com.
Questions regarding proposals should be directed to Diana Turner, Purchasing Associate II at Diana.
Turner@GwinnettCounty.com or by calling 770-822-8727 no later than 3:00 PM on September 17, 2026.
Proposals are legal and binding upon the proposer when submitted. One unbound single-sided original, seven
(7) copies, and one (1) digital copy on a flash drive should be submitted. Cost should be submitted in a separate
sealed envelope.
Successful services providers will be required to meet insurance requirements. The Insurance Company should
be authorized to do business in Georgia by the Georgia Insurance Department and must have an A.M. Best rating
of A-10 or higher.
Gwinnett County does not discriminate on the basis of disability in the admission or access to its programs or
activities. Any requests for reasonable accommodations required by individuals to fully participate in any open
meeting, program, or activity of Gwinnett County Government should be directed to the ADA Coordinator at the
Gwinnett County Justice and Administration Center 770-822-8165.
The written proposal documents supersede any verbal or written prior communications between the parties.
Selection criteria are outlined in the request for proposal documents. Gwinnett County reserves the right to reject
any or all proposals to waive technicalities and to make an award deemed in its best interest.
Award notification will be posted after the award on the County website, www.gwinnettcounty.com, and
companies submitting a proposal will be notified via email.
We look forward to your Proposal and appreciate your interest in Gwinnett County.
Diana Turner
Purchasing Associate II
The following pages should be returned with your proposal:
Provider Information Page, Page 9
Cost Proposal (Return in a separate envelope), Page 10
References, Pages 11-12
Code of Ethics Affidavit, Page 28
Conractor Affadavit and Agreement, Page 28

RP031-26 Page 2
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
The Board of Commissioners (the County) is soliciting responses from qualified service
providers to assist in developing and administering promotional examinations for our public
safety departments on an annual contract.
Hiring the most qualified candidates and promoting qualified individuals within the County's
Correctional Services, Fire & Emergency Services, Police Department, and Sheriff's Department
has always been one of the top priorities for the County. The County's Human Resources
Department has been using various validated competitive promotional processes to help the
County's public safety departments identify the most suitable individuals. To assess
promotional candidates' abilities, testing formats currently being used are job knowledge,
written examination and assessment centers.
1.2 Statement of Work
The service provider is expected to research and develop validated testing methodology,
process, and structure for promotions through the rank or career path of each public safety
department, and to administer the entire promotional testing process.
At the time of preparing this request for proposal (RFP), the County is unable to provide a
definite number of examinations and tests. However, in 2025, the County administered 14
promotional examinations to different levels of positions in the County's public safety
departments. There is no assurance of the number of examination processes to be awarded
annually to the selected service provider(s) since this service is performed on an as-needed
basis. A list of positions that could potentially require a promotional examination is included in
this request for proposal.
The service provider is expected to design, develop and administer the entire promotional
testing process. Depending upon the nature of the position and the results of the job analysis
study, criteria to be measured shall include, but not be limited to job performance, job
knowledge and job skills/abilities such as planning, organizing, decision making, problem
solving, delegation, etc. The test results will provide quantifiable cut-off scores to be used to
determine those candidates deemed qualified for promotion to the next rank or grade. This
group or pool of qualified candidates will be used to make final decisions by department
management for selections. Although there is no prior expectation with regard to the testing
plan and format to be used, all phases of the process shall be quantifiable, measurable, valid,
meet all legal requirements, be nondiscriminatory and provide for compliance with all pertinent
federal, state and local requirements.
The service provider is expected to disclose any use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) during the
design, develop and/or administration of the entire promotional testing process.
Departmental General Operating Guidelines, County Administrator/Human Resources Policies
and the Gwinnett County Merit Rules & Regulations will be provided upon award.
The selected service provider(s) may be asked to produce technical reports covering the
development of each task of the promotional testing process.
The service provider must be in compliance with the Gwinnett County Merit System Rules and
Regulations regarding promotional examinations as follows:

RP031-26 Page 3
(330.701) Item Challenge Procedures (Written Promotional Test) Rev 6/04, 10/08
An item challenge is a challenge to the correctness, wording, interpretation, accuracy or
sufficiency of the question or answer.
If the applicant wishes to present an item challenge, the following procedures/policies apply:
* The applicant will only be allowed to review the written examination and his/her answer
sheet immediately following the administration of the examination for the testing time
period and date that he/she is assigned. The applicant must complete and submit an
item challenge form(s) to the test administrator immediately following the review.
* Item challenge(s) will be submitted by the test administrator or designee to the following
two sources for review:
* The service provider under contract with the County that developed and
administered the examination; and
* A committee of subject matter experts (SME) selected by the department for the
purpose of evaluating item challenges. This committee will not be comprised of the
SMEs that were utilized by the promotional testing service provider to aid in
developing the examination.
* Following the review by the promotional examination sources, the sources will issue
responses to the Human Resources Director. The Human Resources Director will review
the responses of the promotional examination sources and issue a response to the
applicant(s) indicating the decision and/or if additional action is warranted.
* Item challenge process ends with no further right of appeal.
(330.702) Challenge Procedures (Promotional Job Simulation Exercise and/or Assessment
Center) Rev 6/04, 10/08
In the case of any promotional job simulation exercise or assessment center, the dimension
forms used to rate a participant's performance and the actual dimension ratings of that
participant will be made available for review by the participant following the completion of the
data compilation.
A participant may only challenge the numerical calculation of the final score from the dimension
form if they believe there is an error in the calculation. Individual dimensions and assessor
ratings shall not be challenged by the candidate - simply the final numerical calculations made
from these ratings. If, after reviewing the promotional job simulation exercises(s) and/or
assessment center rating the candidate feels there may be a valid challenge, the following
procedures/policies apply:
* Challenge(s) must be submitted to the Human Resources Director within seven (7)
calendar days from the date noted on the results notification sent to the applicant.
* The Human Resources Director will issue a response to the applicant indicating the
decision and/or if additional action is warranted.
* Challenge process ends with no further right of appeal.
The selected service provider will be required to provide written responses through Human

RP031-26 Page 4
Resources to each candidate item challenge within four working days of receiving the item
challenge(s).
Please provide detailed information on the service provider's approach/method and timeline of
designing and developing a promotional examination. The detailed pricing will be included on
the pricing schedule. The proposal must demonstrate the service provider has the credentials
and experience to provide testing services for public safety departments.
2.0. GENERAL PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS
2.1. Delivery and Submittal of Proposals
Proposals shall be submitted and identified by Section(s) submitted.
2.1.1 The proposing service provider is responsible for assuring delivery of the proposal on or
before the stated date above as well as for any associated delivery costs. Proposal shall
be submitted in sealed envelope/package. Envelope/package shall be addressed to
Gwinnett County Purchasing Division, Gwinnett County Justice & Administration
Center, Second Floor, 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville, Georgia, 30046, and shall be
identified with the proposal number, date of opening and company name on the outside.
2.1.2 One unbound single-sided marked as original, seven (7) bound double-sided copies and
one digital copy (flash drive) should be submitted. The fee schedule is to be submitted
in a separate sealed envelope and should not be included in the copies mentioned
above. All copies of the proposal must be identical. The full cost for proposal
preparation is to be borne by the proposing service provider. Proposals must be signed
in ink by a company official that has authorization to commit the company's resources.
2.1.3 Proposals submitted are not publicly available until an award is made by the the County
Board of Commissioners. All proposals and supporting materials, as well as
correspondence relating to this proposal, become the property of the County when
received. Information submitted by a proposer in the proposal process shall be subject
to disclosure after proposal award in accordance with the Georgia Open Records Act.
2.1.4 References should be provided for each section being proposed on a previous project
of similar size and scope. References should include company name, contact name and
title, mailing address, phone number, email address and scope of work performed. All
reference information provided must be current and verifiable.
2.2. Inquiries
Individuals, firms and businesses seeking an award of a the County contract may not initiate or
continue any verbal or written communications, regarding a solicitation with any County officer,
elected official, employee or other County representative without permission of the Purchasing
Associate named in the solicitation between the date of the issuance of the solicitation and the
date of the final contract award by the Board of Commissioners. Violations will be reviewed by
the Purchasing Director. If determined that such communication has compromised the
competitive process, the offer submitted by the individual, firm or business may be disqualified
from consideration for award.
2.3. Contract
A copy of a sample contract is included in the proposal for review. Red line edits to the County's
standard contract language must be provided with the service provider's proposal. The ability

RP031-26 Page 5
of the County to accept those edits will be included as part of the proposal evaluation. Any
negotiation on contractual terms must be conducted as part of the proposal evaluation process,
not after the business is awarded. The proposal submission will become part of the contract
with the County.
Failure to execute the contract within ten (10) days after the date of Notice of Award of the
contract may be just cause for the annulment of the award. At the discretion of the County, the
award may then be made to the next highest scoring service provider, or the work may be re-
solicited. The Notice to Proceed will be issued by the the County Purchasing Division once the
contract has been fully executed.
3.0 REQUIREMENTS
3.1 Proposal Submittals: Proposals shall be submitted and identified by Section(s) submitted.
A - Proposed Methodology (30 points)
* Job analysis method & process.
* Promotional test and assessment procedures and methodology to be used develop and
administer tests. Samples of similar work are required.
* Disclose the use of AI, specifically if used to create or assist in creating job analysis
method and process or in any study aids.
* Explanations of how the proposer plans to set passing scores, score tests, and validate
tests.
* Methods to familiarize candidates with the promotional testing processes.
* Recommendations for candidates' review of testing materials.
* A listing and an explanation of the resources needed from the County.
B - Service Provider Qualifications/Ability to deliver services (20 points)
* A brief company history.
* Name of company and year incorporated.
* Number of personnel (national and in Atlanta).
* Locations of facilities (cities).
* Financial position, including annual financial statement.
* Provide resumes or documentation of experience for all key individuals involved in this
project. Leading personnel of the project should have at least three years' experience in
conducting job analysis and designing and delivering assessment center activities.
* Provide a summary of all relevant cases, past or on going, which have been involved in
litigation, including the outcome or resolution.
C - Responsiveness to Contract Requirements (20 points)
* A procedure for providing periodic status updates, to occur on request.
* We must receive the service provider item written exam challenge review responses
within four working days of receiving them. Exceptions due to scheduling conflicts
should be approved in writing before the test.
* Response time for scoring written exams to be no more than one business day after
possible item challenge changes have been made. If there are no item challenges,
written test scores must be received no more than five working days after the last
written test.
* Response time for scoring assessment centers to be no more than five business days
from the last day of the assessment center.

RP031-26 Page 6
* If service providers are unavailable, their support staff should be able to contact the
service provider to receive an answer and relay to the County within 48 hours.
* Payment will not be made until services are invoiced correctly, therefore, it is imperative
that the service provider(s) work closely with the County to understand our software
program and its requirements.
* In the event multiple promotional processes are given simultaneously, the County
requires the service provider to work within the time constraints of the Human
Resources department and the specific department.
* Service provider will provide all office supplies necessary for written examinations and
assessment centers. Pricing will be included in the pricing schedule.
* The service provider will provide all proctors needed for written examinations and
assessment centers. The County Human Resources will provide the names of current
the County temporary agencies to the successful service provider(s).
* Actors are to be provided by the service provider, when needed.
* The selected service provider may be asked to submit a final project report that includes
documentation to substantiate the validity of the testing and assessment center
process for the position.
* Individual assessment center feedback reports to be provided by the service provider.
D - Performance Guarantees (10 points)
* While performance guarantees are not specifically outlined in this RFP, the service
provider will need to provide information on any performance guarantees, warranties,
and service level agreements they are willing to offer. Please also include any
additional performance guarantees the service provider offers that are not listed
below.
* The service provider should answer the following in their response:
1. What performance guarantees does the service provider offer for error-free
administration and scoring?
2. What performance guarantees does the service provider offer to ensure
unbiased scoring metrics?
3. What performance guarantees does the service provider offer for timelines and
deadlines that have been set by the Human Resources Department?
4. What performance guarantees does the service provider offer to ensure
statisitical validity and accurate content mapping via job task analysis?
E - References (10 points)
* A minimum of four (4) customer references (1 for Fire, 1 for Police, 1 for Sheriff, 1 for
Corrections) where the service provider has performed services of similar scope and
size most recently.
F - Cost (20 points)
* Cost (to be submitted in a separate sealed and labeled envelope) The cost proposal
should not be included in the technical portion of the submittal; it should be submitted
in a separate sealed envelope. Provide the proposed cost for the technical services
offered using the table below.
G - Optional Interview
* At the County's discretion or as deemed in the County's best interest, service providers
may be short-listed for an interivew.

RP031-26 Page 7
4.0 PROPOSAL EVALUATION CRITERIA
A selection committee consisting of representatives from Human Resources and the public safety
departments will carefully evaluate all responses to this proposal. Proposals will be evaluated by
section based on the responsiveness to the requirements of this proposal and the evaluation criteria
as outlined below.
Phase I Criteria Points
Allowed
A Proposed Methodology 30
B Service Provider Qualifications/Ability to Deliver Services 20
C Responsiveness to Contract Requirements 20
D Performance Guarantees 10
E References 15
Sub-Total 90
Phase II
F Cost 20
Sub-Total 110
Phase III
G Optional Interview 10
Total 120
Basis of Short-Listing / Selection
Phase I - Initially, proposals will be evaluated based on the relative responsiveness to the criteria described
above and will be scored based on the point values as shown. Please note that references, and subsequent
reference checks, are a required component of Phase I scoring.
Phase II - Service providers may be short-listed for further consideration. The Proposal Fee Schedules of
the short-listed service providers from Part I will be opened, reviewed, and scored with the lowest cost
receiving the most points and the other service providers receiving proportional points based on the
differences in proposal costs.
Phase III - At the County's discretion, or as deemed in the County's best interest, service providers may be
short-listed a second time for an interview. At this time, the County may request further information,
explanations, clarifications, presentations, interviews, or meetings with some or all of the remaining service
providers.
If interviews are necessary, details on the scoring criteria for interviews will be provided along with
notification of the scheduled interview.
All presentations/interviews will be the sole responsibility of the proposing service providers and at no cost
to the County.
If an agreement with the highest-ranked service provider cannot be reached, the County may then
negotiate with the second-ranked service provider and so on until a satisfactory agreement has been
reached.

RP031-26 Page 8
Current Gwinnett County Positions Requiring Promotional Testing
Job
Job Knowledge Assessment
Department Promotional Test
Analysis Written Center
Exam
Corrections Corporal
Corrections Sergeant
Corrections Lieutenant
Fire & Emergency Services Driver/Engineer
Fire & Emergency Services Lieutenant
Fire & Emergency Services Captain
Police Corporal
Police Sergeant
Police Lieutenant
Police Communications Officer III
Communications Officer
Police
Shift Supervisor
Communications Officer
Police
Supervisor
Sheriff Deputy Sheriff Corporal
Sheriff Deputy Sheriff Sergeant
Sheriff Deputy Sheriff Lieutenant
Sheriff Jailer Corporal
Sheriff Jailer Sergeant
Sheriff Jailer Lieutenant
Note: Any of these are subject to change due to business needs

RP031-26 Page 9
FAILURE TO RETURN THIS PAGE AS PART OF YOUR PROPOSAL DOCUMENT MAY RESULT IN THE
REJECTION OF PROPOSAL
Service Provider Information
Certification Of Non-Collusion In Proposal Preparation
Signature Date
The undersigned acknowledges receipt of the following addenda, listed by number and date as issued
appearing on each:
Addendum No. Date Addendum No. Date
In compliance with the attached specifications, the undersigned acknowledges all requirements
outlined in the "Instructions to Proposers" and all documents referred to therein. Offers and agrees, if
this Proposal is accepted by the Board of Commissioners within one hundred twenty (120) days of the
date of proposal opening, to furnish any or all of the items upon which prices are quoted, at the price
set opposite each item, delivered to the designated point(s) within the time specified in the fee
schedule.
Legal Business Name
(If your company is an LLC, you must identify all principals to include addresses and phone numbers in
your submittal)
Address
Does your company currently have a location within Gwinnett County? Yes No
Representative Signature
Printed Name
Telephone Number
Email address

RP031-26 Page 10
FAILURE TO RETURN THIS PAGE AS PART OF PROPOSAL DOCUMENT MAY RESULT IN PROPOSAL BEING
DEEMED NON-RESPONSIVE.
FEE SCHEDULE
(TO BE SUBMITED IN A SEPARATE SEALED ENVELOPE)
Approx.
Item
Description Annual Unit Price Total Price
#
Qty.
1 Job analysis study 15 each
Job knowledge written exam (to include exam
2 15 each
administration, scoring and make-up written exam)
Assessment center development/ administration
5 9 each
(including assessor training and disclose use of AI)
6 Make-up assessment center 2 each
TOTAL $
7 Review and responses to item challenges hourly $
8 Technical reports each $
9 Assessment center (2 or more days) daily $
Notes:
The County will compensate assessors for their time and professional services.
Any itemized cost (i.e. travel, supplies, proctoring, etc.) shall be included in above pricing.
The County requires pricing to remain firm for the duration of the initial term of the contract. Failure to hold
firm pricing for the initial term of the contract will be sufficient cause for the County to declare proposal non-
responsive. Contract will begin January 1, 2027 or upon award.
Unless otherwise noted, quoted prices will remain firm for four (4) additional one (1) year periods.
If a percentage increase or decrease will be a part of this bid, please note this in the space provided together
with an explanation:
Option 1 Renewal _________________% Increase _________________% Decrease
Option 2 Renewal _________________% Increase _________________% Decrease
Option 3 Renewal _________________% Increase _________________% Decrease
Option 4 Renewal _________________% Increase _________________% Decrease
Explanation: ________________________________________________________________________________________
SERVICE PROVIDER NAME _______________________________________________________________________