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(8) The City Manager may, by administrative order, establish a set of criteria of a numerical nature that may be utilized in awarding contracts hereunder. B. The contract shall be awarded by the City Manager or the City Commission, as the case may be, with reasonable promptness by appropriate written notice to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder whose bid meets the requirements and criteria set forth in the invitation for bids, ('emphasis added") As applied to the instant case, the City Manager clearly followed the above criteria in awarding Bid No. 07-10-02 to Southeastern. As set forth in the attached Exhibit "D", the City Manager A. John Szerlag recommended that Southeastern be awarded the bid because they were the most responsible bidder with the lowest price.3 Mr. Szerlag made this recommendation based on the information that he reviewed and his experience.' Notably, Mr. Szerlag's professional background includes 25 years of experience as an Executive Manager for local municipalities, during_ which time he awarded approximately $500 million worth of contracts.' Based on the information that he reviewed and his experience, Mr. Szerlag determined that Southeastern "has the capacity to complete an extremely complex project." 6 Mr. Szerlag confirmed that he considered the factors delineated in Section 62-8 of the City Code prior to recommending the bid award. Utilizing this criteria, Mr. Szerlag deemed Southeastern to be the lowest responsible and responsive bidder. In contrast, Mr. Szerlag found that Tran "failed to satisfy all the criteria set forth in Section 62-8" and more specifically "failed to demonstrate fully that it had the capacity and skill to perform the job."9 Because the City strictly followed the competitive bidding requirements set forth in Sections 62-7 and 8 of the City Code, the bid award to Southeastern should be affirmed. B. The City has the authority to select the bid that is in the best of the City under the bid documents The bid award should be affirmed for the additional reason it was consistent with the contract documents and specifications. Section 62-7 of the City Code states in relevant part that "[ajn invitation for bids (including RFPs and RFQs) shall be issued and shall include specifications and all contractual terms and conditions applicable to the procurement." In conformity with this requirement, the City issued its contract documents and specifications for Bid No. 07-10-02.10 This documentation clearly 3 See attached Exhibit "D" at ¶ I1. Id. 3 Id. at 11 3, 4 and 6. 6 Id. at id 11. 7 Id. at"J 12. 8 Id. at id 13. 91d. 10A copy of the referenced sections of the contract documents and specifications is attached hereto as Composite Exhibit "E". 4