ARPA Underestimated Business Finance Program

Agency:	Johnson County
State:	Iowa
Type of Government:	State & Local
Category:	R - Professional, Administrative and Management Support Services
Posted:	Mar 28, 2024
Due:	Apr 25, 2024
Publication URL:	To access bid details, please log in.

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Johnson County, Iowa

Request for Proposals

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

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.

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

- April 12, 2024

- April 18, 2024

- April 25, 2024

- April 25—May 10, 2024

- May, 2024

- June 2024

RFP published

RFP pre-bid meeting

Questions submitted in writing

Submitted questions answered

Proposal Due Date

Proposals ranked by selection committee

Risk Assessments

Contract approval

- July 1, 2024

*All dates are subject to change.

Project Initiation

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.

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

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:

This is the opportunity summary page. You are currently viewing an overview of this opportunity and a preview of the attached documentation. For more information, please visit the Publication URL Web page.

ARPA Underestimated Business Finance Program

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