LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Meeting Date: June 12, 2025
Subject: Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for State and Federal Advocacy Services
Submitted For: Legislation Committee
Department: County Administrator's Office
Referral Name: RFQ for State and Federal Advocacy Services
Presenter: E. Struthers
Contact: (925) 655-2045
Referral History:
The County currently contracts with two firms to provide State and Federal advocacy and governmental relations services. Nielsen Merksamer provides State advocacy services in Sacramento. The firm has served as the County's State advocates since 2002. Thorn Run Partners provides the County's federal advocates in Washington, DC. While Thorn Run as a firm has only served as the County's federal advocate since 2022, partner Paul Schlesinger has represented the County for approximately 24 years through his tenure at Thorn Run and his prior firm, Alcalde & Fay. Both State and Federal advocacy contracts currently expire on June 30, 2025.
Under the direction of the Legislation Committee, the County recently issued two requests for qualifications (RFQs) to solicit proposals for advocacy services in April in order to ensure continuous representation.
Referral Update:
The calendar of major events related to the RFQs is below:
Event
Date/Location
Request Issued
April 16, 2025
Written Questions Due
by 12:00 p.m. (noon) on April 28, 2025
Response Due (initial)
by 12:00 p.m. (noon) on May 6, 2025
Response Due (extended)
by 12:00 p.m. (noon) on May 12, 2025
Interviews
Week of May 19, 2025 via Zoom
Legislation Committee Recommendation
June 12, 2025
Board Award Date
June 24, 2025
Contract Start Date
July 1, 2025
Summary of RFQ Process
On Monday, May 12, 2025 at noon, the requests for qualifications (RFQs) for state and federal Legislative Advocacy Services closed. This is following a one-week extension provided in an effort to receive additional responses.
Two separate RFQs were posted to BidNet: one for State services, and one for Fede...
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