GWAS
7/9/2026
To: Sonia Gil
Acting Purchasing Manager for the City of Pomona
Subject: Citywide Tree Maintenance and Emergency Response Services 2026-17- Section 2-
990 Formal Protest of the City's decision of Intending to Award the project to Mariposa Tree Management instead of choosing Golden West Arbor Services, lnc.'s qualified bid submittal. Golden West Arbor Services has a lower bid then Mariposa Tree Management's submittal.
To whom it may concern, thank you for the opportunity.
We are kindly requesting that you reconsider your decision on not accepting our qualified bid submittal for the project Citywide Tree Maintenance and Emergency Response Services 2026-17 as our bid submittal is lower then the potential awardee Mariposa Tree Management.
Kindly note on planet bids it shows our submission was $2,917,669.00 and Mariposa Tree Management's submission was $4,444,076. 00. We are one of the top three lowest bidders and would hope the City of Pomona will reconsider their decision or provide an explanation of why our qualified bid was not chosen. We sincerely appreciate the City of Pomona's consideration, and we look forward to hearing from you.
We thank the City for their consideration and would appreciate a response on why our bid was not chosen over the other bid submittals.
Sincerely,
Johnathan J. Orozco, Operations Manager
Golden West Arbor Services, Inc.
Golden West Arbor Services, Inc. 1568 E. Grand Ave Pomona Ca 91766 Attachment No. 4
City Hall, 505 S. Garey Ave., Box 660, Pomona, CA 91769 Pomona Vibrant Safe Beautiful
THE CITY OF
POMONA
Finance Department
July 15, 2026
VIA Electronic Mail ([email protected] and [email protected])
Jonathan Orozco
Golden West Arbor Services
Re: Response to the Bid Protest: City of Pomona/RFP No. 2026-17 Citywide Tree Maintenance and Emergency Response Service
Dear Mr. Orozco:
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with the City of Pomona’s response to your formal bid protest of the recommended award to Mariposa Tree Management, Inc. despite Golden West Arbor Services (GWAS) lower bid price.
The City of Pomona Purchasing Division is in receipt of a Notice of Protest from Golden West Arbor Services, Inc. (GWAS) regarding RFP No. 2026-17 for Citywide Tree Maintenance and Emergency Response Services. The City has reviewed GWAS’s protest and provides the following response:
Bid Protest: Selection of Mariposa Tree Management, Inc. Despite GWAS's Lower Proposed Price
City Response: The solicitation for RFP No. 2026-17 was conducted as a qualifications-based Request for Proposals (RFP), not a low-bid procurement. As stated in the RFP, the City’s recommendation for award was based on the overall qualifications of each proposer using the evaluation criteria established in Section 7.C. of the bid documents. While price was considered as part of the evaluation and assessed for reasonableness, it was only one of several evaluation criteria and was not the sole basis for award.
The City was not obligated under this RFP to recommend the proposer offering the lowest price. Rather, the evaluation process was designed to identify the proposal that provided the best overall value to the City based on its stated objectives, operational needs, and the evaluation criteria set forth in the RFP.
Consistent with the evaluation criteria, independent evaluators considered each proposer’s qualifications, experience, project approach, and references. GWAS received a lower evaluation score based on several factors, including:
City Hall, 505 S. Garey Ave., Box 660, Pomona, CA 91769 Pomona Vibrant Safe Beautiful
• Experience: The municipal projects identified by GWAS appeared to be significantly smaller in scope than the comprehensive citywide tree maintenance, palm trimming, GIS tree inventory, and emergency response services required under this RFP. • References: The RFP required proposers to provide at least three municipal references demonstrating experience performing regular tree maintenance and palm trimming services, including the scope of services and contract value. The references provided by GWAS did not demonstrate experience comparable in size and complexity to the City of Pomona’s requirements.
• Proposal: Portions of the GWAS proposal referenced the County and appeared to have been prepared for a county solicitation rather than being specifically tailored to the City of Pomona’s RFP. This affected the evaluators assessment of GWAS’s understanding of the City’s project requirements and attention to the RFP.
These factors, when considered together resulted in overall lower scores for GWAS’s proposal from independent evaluators. The recommendation for award to Mariposa Tree Management, Inc. was based on the total evaluation of each proposal in accordance with the criteria established in the RFP, not on price alone.
For all of these reasons, staff intends to standby its recommendation to award the contract to Mariposa Tree Management at the City Council meeting on July 20, 2026. Should you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sonia Gil
Acting Purchasing Manager
City of Pomona
Finance Department
copy: City Manager
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