SLED Opportunity · FLORIDA · PINELLAS COUNTY
AI Summary
Pinellas County seeks engineering firms for unmanned aerial services including surveys, inspections, and emergency management on an as-needed basis.
Pinellas County is looking for qualified engineering firms to provide unmanned aerial services on a continuing as-needed basis for various departments countywide.
Pinellas County utilizes unmanned aerial vehicles for various projects across the county such as topographic surveys, ecological assessments, infrastructure and construction inspections, damage assessments, and emergency management. Anticipated missions will be a mix of on-demand services for urgent short-term needs (within a 12-24 hour timeframe) and planned projects.
Please use the See What Changed link to view all the changes made by this addendum.
Corrected Contract Number on page 1 of the solicitation attachement.
Reminder, this solicitation will close tomorrow April 12, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. please be sure to finalize your responses prior to 3:00 p.m. please do not wait until the last minute to submit your response. If you have any issues with accessing the site or submitting your response please reach out to OpenGov support as soon as possible.
Please use the See What Changed link to view all the changes made by this addendum.
Submission Deadline extended one week new submission date is April 14, 2026 at 3:00 p.m.
A statement describing the Proposer’s qualifications and experience in providing the same or similar services as outlined in the RFP Scope of Work. This description should include the names of the person(s) who will provide the services, including any subcontractors, their qualifications, and the years of experience in performing this type of work/services.
Pre-populated by the Purchasing, the purpose of this criterion is to affect an equitable distribution of contracts. This criterion is evaluated based on CCNA Continuing contract value encumbered (Purchase Orders issued) to a firm during the (2) previous completed fiscal years through current to date. The points are worth 5 percent of the overall points available and are distributed as follows:
$0 - $200,000 – 5% of points available
$200,001 - $400,000 – 4% of points available
$400,001 – $600,000 – 3% of points available
$600,001- $800,000 – 2% of points available
$800,001 - $1,000,000 – 1% of points available
Over $1,000,000 – 0% of points available
Based on a typical 1,000-point evaluation scoring process, a firm deemed to be in the $0-$200,000 category threshold would be allotted 50 points etc.
Provides points pre-populated by the Purchasing Department for minority business status as designated by the Florida State Office of Supplier Diversity, Department of Management Services. If the firm, or its sub-contractors, is designated as a minority business by the Florida State Office of Supplier Diversity, Department of Management Services, 2.5% of the total evaluation points are awarded. If the firm does not have minority business status as per the Florida State Office of Supplier Diversity, Department of Management Services, 0% of the points available are awarded.25
Provides points pre-populated by the Purchasing Department. Evaluates the location of the project team relative to Pinellas County including the prime firm and project manager. If firm has an established office located in Pinellas, Manatee, Hillsborough or Pasco counties.
Did you read through and confirm that you met all of the proposal requirements?
Please Upload your COMPLETE Proposal here. Upload fee proposal separately in the next step.
Confirm that your fee proposal is not attached in your Proposal and is attached separately here.
Each bid shall be accompanied by a certified cashier’s check, or bid bond, in the amount of XXXXXof the total bid price, payable toPinellas County, as a guarantee that the bidder, if its bid is accepted, will promptly execute the Agreement. The bidder shall guarantee the total bid price for a period of 60 days from the date of the bid opening.
Please scan and upload a copy of your bid bond/cashier's check. Bidder must also MAIL bid guarantee with a postmarked date no later thanTuesday, April 14, 2026 addressed to:
Pinellas County
Deron deFreese, CPPB
400 S. Fort Harrison Ave
Clearwater,FL33756
Please have the Bidder Name, Contract Title ("Unmanned Aerial Services, Professional Engineering Services"), and Contract Number ("26-0370-RFQ-CCNAC") listed clearly on the outside of the envelope.
The contract shall be executed by the successful bidder and shall be returned, together with the Payment Bond, Performance Bond and Certificate(s) of Insurance to Pinellas County so that it is received within 14 working daysafter the bidder has received the contract for execution. Failure to do so shall be just cause for forfeiture of the proposal guaranty.
Will this solicitation require a bid bond?
Would you like to have bidders respond to an electronic pricing table through ProcureNow?
Some examples of of when to say "yes":
If you are NOT using the Electronic Pricing Table option, will you want your bidder to separate a Price Proposal from the rest of their Response? You'll want to do this if you open your bids initially WITHOUT showing price, and then come back in after a technical evaluation to unseal pricing later.
Will there be an evaluation committee to review the proposals and score them based on weights and multiple criteria?
Q (Pinellas County references): Page 17, B. 3. states, "Experience pertaining to specific Pinellas County projects may also be considered. Pinellas County staff shall not however furnish references for such projects." Please clarify if this restriction only refers to Section D - Contractor References on page 25 of the solicitation and does not apply to Form SF330 Section F Example Projects which include Project Owner's Information for reference.
A: No. It would apply to both.
Q (Volume of Work Previously Awarded by the County Criteria ): Does the Volume of Work Previously Awarded by the County scoring criteria have to do with the volume of work previously awarded to the firm as the whole or only work that is UAS/Disaster specific?
A: As a whole.
Q (Tab 6 -Include any additional information to represent your firm for consideration): Please confirm that the information requested in Tab 6 is separate from the information requested in the SF330.
A: Yes it is. The additional information tab is for anything you would like to share, that is not already part of the proposal.
Q (Proof of SBE/MBE): Does the County require proof of business licensure and Dept. of State registration with submittals from all subcontractors or only the prime?
A: Only the Prime has to provide this.
Q (No subject): Given that many firms specialize in Surveying and UAV/UAS operations but do not offer ecological, engineering, biological, or infrastructure specific services, would the County consider issuing an addendum allowing firms to submit solely for Survey + UAV services as a defined specialty within this continuing contract, reflecting the niche nature and specialized equipment of aerial LiDAR/UAS mapping?
A: No. They would need to be used as a Subconsultant under a prime firm.
Q (No subject): Because it is common industry practice for Survey/UAS firms to support (not prime) broader engineering/ecological scopes, please clarify whether the County will accept submissions where the proposing firm serves as a prime only for Surveying and UAV/UAS mapping tasks, with no sub consultants provided, and without offering the broader ecological, engineering, or infrastructure assessment services described in Section E (Items 2, 3—including water/sewer, stormwater, post disaster assessment and survey, construction inspection, shoreline/marine—and 6).
A: No. They should be used as a Subconsultant under the prime firm.
Q (No subject): Is the RFQ number 26-0370-RFQ-CCNA or 26-0370-RFQ-CCNAC? We see it both ways within the RFQ document.
A: Yes, There was a typographic error, an updated attachment has been added to the solicitation.
Q (No subject): If we are organizing our submittal following subsection 9. Submittal Requirements A.-G., within which of these A.-G. subsections should we address the 6. Evaluation Criteria items A-F ?
A: Any information that you submit that is not included in Tab's 1-5 concerning the evaluation criteria, should be included in Tab 6.
Q (REferences): Regarding the County's response to Question 1, and the requirement at Page 17, B. 3. which states, "Experience pertaining to specific Pinellas County projects may also be considered. Pinellas County staff shall not however furnish references for such projects," this seems to be a contradiction. How should a firm include projects in SF330 Section F that were performed for Pinellas County, which is requested and would strengthen the response, if we are not allowed to include the appropriate Pinellas County reference as is required by SF330 Section F?
A: There are no restrictions to Contractor reference submittal. Experience pertaining to specific Pinellas County projects may also be considered per Page 17, B. 3.
Q (DJI Ban): Page 28, II. Minimum Requirements, Item F. Can you confirm whether the prohibition on drones manufactured in “foreign countries of concern” (e.g., DJI) applies to all UAS use cases under this solicitation, or only to specific applications? Additionally, does this restriction apply to contractors/private entities, or only to governmental agencies operating under Florida law?
A: The prohibition applies to all use cases, drones used must comply with Florida state statue 934.50 and Florida administrative code 60GG-2.0075 Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Minimum Security Requirements. The prohibition applies to private firms operating on behalf of the County.
Q (Pinellas County Projects): Can the County please clarify if Pinellas County projects can be included in the SF330?
A: Please see the answer to question #9. You can include the projects but County employee's cannot be references to those projects.
Q (Due Date Extension):
A: I am emailing to ask fi you would consider extending the due date of your solicitation RFQ Title: Unmanned Aerial Services, Professional Engineering Services by one week. Considering the holiday and the extensive nature of required responses, the extra week would ensure responders are able to provide you with thorough qualifications assessments. Submission deadline has been extended to April 14, 2026 at 3:00 p.m.
SLED stands for State, Local, and Education. These are solicitations issued by state governments, counties, cities, school districts, utilities, and higher education institutions — as opposed to federal agencies.
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