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The use of a private planning consultant can be an efficient way of conducting a local planning project. If handled properly, consultants can be a valuable addition to the planning resources of a community. However, like any undertaking, this process has its keys to success as well as potential problem areas.

This is the first in a series of articles designed to provide an overview of the "ins and outs" of working with planning consultants. It is admittedly prepared by a planning consultant. Hopefully, however, this private sector perspective will benefit planning commissions and planning staff in the public sector.

The following are what I consider to be ten key elements to successfully getting started on a project that will involve consultants.

1. Know the Law. Many communities have local laws or regulations relating to the selection of consultants; there may also be state laws that come into play. If you have any uncertainty, consult with your legal counsel to understand the legal framework within which you operate before doing anything else.

2. Have Clear Definition of Need for Project. Before you begin a consultant selection process, your department/commission should also be clear about the scope and nature of the project. Too many communities use the consultant selection process as a means to help define a project. Unfortunately, this often leads to widely divergent proposals being submitted, which are quite difficult to compare.

3. Confirm Leadership Commitment. Related to the above, some communities use the proposal process as a way to generate local interest and agreement in engaging in a planning process. Unfortunately, this often results in confusing discussions where some decision-makers are focusing more on whether or not a planning project should be pursued rather than on selecting the most suitable consultant for the community. Before you begin a consultant selection process you should have a commitment on the part of the decision-makers that the project should be undertaken.

4. Learn from Others. Take advantage of your planning network to learn from other communities. Undoubtedly, there are other communities in your region or state that have gone through a planning process utilizing consultants. It is worth comparing notes to find out what has worked well and what has not worked well for them.

5. Establish Budget Parameters. In your research with other communities, you should be able to get a general understanding of the consulting market in your area. This should help you in developing a realistic budget for your project -- a budget that should be agreed on before you seek proposals from consultants. Note that budgets can be expressed in either dollar amounts or estimated labor hours.

Too often communities invite consultants, as part of their proposals, to tell the community how much it should spend on the project. The problem with this (similar to my earlier point about the scope of the project) is the likelihood of receiving proposals that will be quite difficult to compare.

6. Determine the Selection Process. A decision will need to be made as to how the consultant will ultimately be selected. If you have used a planning consultant before and were happy with their performance, you may wish to explore a "sole source" selection, which means that you would not go through a competitive selection process (but check that this is permissible in your jurisdiction).

If you decide on a competitive process, who will do the screening of consultants, review of qualifications, review of proposals, and interviewing? Typically a selection committee will be established that will act in an advisory capacity and may include representatives of the legislative body, the planning commission, as well as key departments such as planning, engineering, public works, etc. Also, consideration should be given as to whether citizen representatives should be on the selection committee.

7. Select the Consultant Candidates. Make a decision early in the process as to whether you will be opening the process up to any consultant that wishes to submit, or whether you wish to prescreen consultant candidates. Do you wish to invite consultants to submit on a local, regional, or national basis? Some communities have a strong preference for local consulting firms. If this is the case, it is not fair to invite national submissions by firms that have no realistic chance of success. On the other hand, some communities determine that they want a national perspective, which has obvious cost implications related to travel.

I suggest that you begin with a request for qualifications and use that as a basis to narrow the number of candidate firms that you will then request full proposals from (I'll discuss the content and process involved in RFQs and RFPs in my next column).

8. Interviews. After narrowing the candidates down to a realistic number based upon qualifications (typically this should be no more than five or six firms), you may then wish to further narrow it for the purpose of scheduling personal interviews with the consultants. For this process to be manageable the number of firms interviewed should be no more than four, preferably two or three. Scheduling more than four interviews results in a burdensome process for the local selection committee.

Considerations such as the length of the interview, the type of presentation desired, and logistics of the interview room should also be resolved beforehand.

9. Final Consultant Selection. How will the final selection be made? Will there be explicit criteria or will the process involve an open consensus building discussion? If criteria are established, what will they involve? To what extent will references, qualifications, understanding of the local community, staff availability, time proposed to be spent on-site, etc. be considered? Again, these are all matters that need to be discussed and resolved in advance.

10. Contract Negotiations. After a consultant is selected, the contract and scope of services should be carefully negotiated. Even if the process involved a full proposed scope of services, there is still the opportunity for the community to negotiate the details and content of that scope of services with the consultant. The community may conclude that it favors most of what the consultant proposed, but revisions to the scope are necessary. The cost, method of invoicing, scheduling, definition of work products, and commitment of personnel, should all be addressed in the contract.

Summing Up:

Ultimately the consultant process involves people working with people. The local community leaders should select the consultant that they are most comfortable with on a personal level. The challenge is to find the right mix of qualifications, approach and philosophy, and personality compatibility between the client and consultant.