Questions Related to Call for Survey Firms (Community, CPD Officers)
1. Will the facilitator’s age, gender, or ethnicity play a role in the selection process?
No, it is more important to us that the moderator/facilitator be able to connect with the specific groups than that they fit any specific profile.
2. How many firms were invited to submit proposals?
This is an open process and invitations are not required for a response, we did send notices that the bids were open to eight different prospective providers.
3. Is there a budget and if so, what is it?
The reasonableness of the cost proposed will be considered, as well the details and specifics that support the cost proposed. You can submit a range based on the number and cost per focus group.
4. How many people from CPMT will observe the groups? (Assuming we hold the groups in a focus group facility with a 2-way mirror.)
Up to two (2) members of the CPMT may be in-person observers. More than that number will be like an audience and that is counter to the process. With a two-way mirror, there may be 2 or more CPMT observers.
5. Is the Cleveland Division of Police aware of and supportive of these focus groups?
Yes, they have had the opportunity to review the call for firms and agreed to the condition in the Consent Decree.
6. Will CPMT provide the selected firm with access to the Cleveland Division of Police for purposes of recruiting police officers?
Yes, and the CPMT will assist with the access and support the selected firm in that process
7. Are we permitted to pay incentives to police officers?
No, we do not anticipate incentives will be paid to police officers.
8. In the call for proposals document related to the police officer focus groups, on Page 2, 6th bullet, it says: “A draft script with different language for different ranks of officers for the moderators use in the focus group,”. Please explain what this means. It would be unusual to provide any type of work product before the job was awarded or before the research team had the opportunity to meet with the client team to ask questions.
In submitted proposals, we would like to get a sense of the firms understanding of the issues. The best way to do this is to have firms provide a few questions they anticipate asking in the focus groups so that we can assess their understanding of the issues.
9. Are there other ethnicities that are desired to be represented other than Hispanics and African Americans? Will most or all but one of the 4-6 ethnic focus groups be conducted with African Americans? Will Hispanic group(s) would be moderated mostly in English by a bilingual moderator? Or do you envision one or more groups will be moderated mostly in Spanish by a bilingual moderator? If the latter, will you need a bilingual translator as well who will sit with the clients/audience behind the glass and help to communicate the parts of the discussion(s) in Spanish to the observers?
We expect the ethnic focus groups to be conducted primarily with Blacks and Hispanics. It is important to us that the moderator/facilitator be able to connect with the specific groups to adequately capture their perspectives. As such, we would expect some of the Hispanic focus groups to be conducted in Spanish as there may be some variance in English proficiency for some of the attendees. We can coordinate with the selected firm on the best way to manager the observation process. We are only expecting ~2 observers per session and we do have Spanish-speaking members of the monitoring team who may be available to serve as translators for observers.
10. Providing references to prior similar work may violate client confidentiality. Can we provide references for other work that doesn’t violate client confidentiality?
We understand the sensitivity surrounding client confidentiality. While providing references for previous similar work is preferable, other references are also welcome. Generally speaking, we would like to talk to prior organizations who have used the services of our bidders to get a clearer sense of their experiences.