How Did TDS-IS Qualify Under the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Competitive RFP?

Direct Answer

TDS-IS was pre-qualified by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) under competitive RFP #5-2021 in 2021 as a vendor eligible to be assigned project tasks across five IT services categories: Information Security Services, Network Support Services, Consulting Services, Training Services, and Server and Application Implementation. The RFP was issued and evaluated under the Kentucky Model Procurement Code (KRS Chapter 45A) and the LFUCG Code of Ordinances, with award discipline managed through the LFUCG Division of Central Purchasing. The renewal solicitation, RFP #12-2026, was submitted by TDS-IS in 2026 to remain in the qualified vendor pool for the next contract cycle.

For the complete portfolio context, read What Past Performance Does TDS-IS Bring to Federal IT Acquisitions?, the pillar guide that places this engagement alongside VA Contract 36C25821P0341 and the Montgomery County Fiscal Court engagement.

What Is the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government?

LFUCG is the unified city-county government for Lexington and Fayette County, Kentucky. The unified-government structure was established in 1974 and consolidates the City of Lexington and Fayette County into a single legal entity covering approximately 285 square miles and a population of approximately 320,000. As a SLED jurisdiction, LFUCG operates departments that span police, fire, public works, parks and recreation, planning, finance, and information technology. Federal funding flows into LFUCG through Department of Justice grants, Department of Transportation grants, and Department of Housing and Urban Development pass-throughs, all of which require statutory procurement compliance to remain in good standing.

Procurement at LFUCG is governed by two layered authorities. The first is the Kentucky Model Procurement Code at KRS Chapter 45A, which Kentucky local governments may opt to follow and which provides a public-bid framework analogous to federal procurement discipline. The second is the LFUCG Code of Ordinances Title III (Administration), which establishes the LFUCG Division of Central Purchasing and codifies competitive solicitation, RFP, and emergency-procurement procedures specific to the unified government.

What Is the Scope of TDS-IS's LFUCG Pre-Qualification?

The LFUCG vendor-pool model under RFP #5-2021 pre-qualifies vendors across defined service categories. Once pre-qualified, vendors may be assigned individual project tasks during the contract period based on qualifications, cost, and timeline at the time of need. TDS-IS qualified across five service categories under RFP #5-2021, and proposed the same five categories under RFP #12-2026.

Information Security Services. Policy development and review, security planning and risk analysis aligned to NIST SP 800-30, penetration testing and vulnerability assessment, risk management and compliance against frameworks including NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, CIS Controls v8, and ISO 27001, security audits and remediation, end-user security training, Zero Trust architecture design under NIST SP 800-207, SIEM/SOAR implementation on Microsoft Sentinel and Splunk, and EDR/XDR deployment on Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

Network Support Services. Microsoft Active Directory and Entra ID administration with hybrid identity through Azure AD Connect, Microsoft Windows Server administration, VMware vSphere/vCenter infrastructure operations, network architecture and design across LAN, WAN, and wireless, and SD-WAN with network segmentation aligned to compliance frameworks including HIPAA and PCI.

Consulting Services. Disaster recovery and business continuity planning with healthcare-grade Recovery Time Objective definitions, technical requirements gathering, IT strategic planning and three-year roadmaps, IT governance and compliance program management, IT project management under both Agile and PMI methodologies, and enterprise architecture and cloud strategy with Azure and Microsoft 365 adoption planning.

Training Services. Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online curriculum, Microsoft Project Online training, Azure Fundamentals and advanced services, and cybersecurity awareness training including Zero Trust principles for non-technical staff.

Server and Application Implementation. Microsoft SharePoint Online and hybrid deployments, Microsoft Exchange Online cloud-first deployments, Microsoft Windows Server builds and hardening per CIS benchmarks, and VMware vSphere/vCenter environment standup and version upgrades.

What Does Pre-Qualified Vendor Status Signal to a Federal Evaluator?

Federal contracting officers and prime contractor BD leads regularly weigh state and local government competitive procurement records as relevant past performance under FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iv), which permits the contracting officer to consider past performance information from any source determined relevant. The relevance of a SLED pre-qualification turns on three signals.

Procurement-discipline analog. A SLED competitive RFP issued under a published procurement code (here, KRS Chapter 45A and the LFUCG Code of Ordinances Title III) provides procurement-discipline equivalence to federal acquisition rules. RFP procedures, evaluation criteria, public-record disclosure, and protest pathways at the SLED level mirror the discipline a contracting officer expects under FAR Parts 13, 15, and 33. A vendor that competed and qualified under those rules has demonstrated the same documentation, compliance, and past-performance reference discipline that a federal SAP or Part 15 acquisition would require. Best-practice references for SLED procurement are documented at the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP).

Vendor-pool readiness across five service categories. Pre-qualification across five service categories signals that LFUCG's evaluators accepted TDS-IS's capability documentation, references, financial position, insurance coverage, and security posture for the breadth of mid-size SLED IT operations. A vendor that pre-qualifies across all five is operating at a documented capability surface that translates directly into mid-size federal civilian agency or DoD support office work.

Renewal-cycle continuity. Submitting a proposal for the renewal RFP #12-2026 keeps TDS-IS continuously engaged with the LFUCG procurement office across two contract cycles. Continuity of pre-qualification through a renewal cycle indicates that the vendor maintained the underlying compliance posture (insurance, certification, financial standing, references) required to remain bid-eligible.

Transparency on the deliverables-based engagement model. The LFUCG model is a deliverables-based vendor pool, meaning pre-qualification creates eligibility but project-task assignment occurs separately and is competitive among pool vendors at the time of need. As of April 2026, no project tasks have been assigned to TDS-IS under RFP #5-2021. The TDS-IS LFUCG record is therefore a procurement-discipline-and-qualification record, not a project-delivery record. Federal evaluators weighing this engagement should weight it as such.

How Will TDS-IS Engage on LFUCG Project Work When Assigned?

The LFUCG deliverables-based engagement model assigns project tasks to pre-qualified pool vendors based on qualifications, cost, and timeline at the time of need. The TDS-IS engagement model proposed under RFP #12-2026 is built around four discrete phases that map to that delivery cadence.

Phase 1: Statement of Work. TDS-IS will produce a SOW within 3-5 business days of project notification (or immediately for emergencies) defining objectives, deliverables, milestone timeline, named staffing plan, assumptions, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.

Phase 2: Project Execution. A named project lead is assigned per engagement. Weekly status reporting is the default cadence. Agile methodology applies to iterative work; waterfall applies to fixed-scope deliverables. Change management process governs any scope modification.

Phase 3: Knowledge Transfer. Deliverables include documentation suitable for LFUCG staff to maintain and operate. Hands-on training sessions are part of every engagement. Runbooks and SOPs are delivered for operational processes.

Phase 4: Closeout. Final deliverable review and acceptance, lessons learned documentation, and transition support for handoff to LFUCG internal staff or other vendors.

Response time targets proposed at LFUCG: emergency / P1 (service outage, security incident) within 1 hour; urgent / P2 (degraded service, high-impact issue) within 4 hours; standard / P3 (non-urgent project work) next business day. The majority of TDS-IS LFUCG project work would be delivered remotely using secure, audited remote access. On-site delivery in Lexington is coordinated as needed.

What Is TDS-IS's Cybersecurity Posture for LFUCG Work?

TDS-IS operates in alignment with six security frameworks across all client engagements, with each framework mapped to LFUCG-relevant work. NIST CSF 2.0 is the primary risk-management framework. CIS Controls v8 (Implementation Groups 1 and 2) drives endpoint hardening, access control, and vulnerability management. The HIPAA Security Rule at 45 CFR Part 164 is implemented for healthcare-adjacent work. NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 is the control framework referenced for federal and government client architectures. NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2 covers Controlled Unclassified Information protection. NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture is applied to identity and access management designs using Microsoft Entra ID Conditional Access and device compliance.

Operational practices include 24/7 monitoring via RMM, SIEM (Microsoft Sentinel), and EDR (Microsoft Defender for Endpoint); documented incident response procedures with defined escalation paths; vulnerability management on a scheduled cadence using Tenable Nessus; identity and access management with MFA enforced on all administrative and remote access; Privileged Identity Management (PIM); endpoint protection with attack surface reduction rules; data protection via BitLocker encryption, Azure Information Protection, and DLP policies in Microsoft 365; and personnel background checks per the LFUCG NDA requirement.

How Can a Federal Buyer Verify This Engagement?

Verification runs through three independent channels. The first is the LFUCG Division of Central Purchasing, which maintains the public record for awarded contracts and active solicitations. The second is the Kentucky Open Records Act (KRS 61.870 et seq.), which provides a statutory request mechanism for any record held by an LFUCG public agency. The third is reference through TDS-IS at [email protected]; customer-side reference contact is arranged on request rather than published on this page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government a federal customer? No. LFUCG is the unified city-county government for Lexington and Fayette County, Kentucky. It is a State, Local, and Education (SLED) jurisdiction operating under the Kentucky Model Procurement Code at KRS Chapter 45A and the LFUCG Code of Ordinances. It is not a federal customer.

Can a federal contracting officer use SLED qualification under LFUCG RFP #5-2021 as past performance during source selection? Under FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iv), a contracting officer may consider past performance information from any source the CO determines relevant. Pre-qualification under a competitive SLED RFP, governed by a published procurement code that mirrors federal procurement discipline, is one form of relevant past performance. The federal contracting officer makes the relevance determination case-by-case, and TDS-IS is transparent about the distinction between pre-qualification (achieved under RFP #5-2021) and project-task delivery (which occurs after task assignment in the LFUCG deliverables-based engagement model).

What does pre-qualified vendor status mean under LFUCG RFP #5-2021? LFUCG operates a deliverables-based vendor pool model. RFP #5-2021 pre-qualified TDS-IS as a vendor eligible to be assigned individual project tasks during the contract period. Project tasks are assigned to pool vendors based on qualifications, cost, and timeline at the time of need. TDS-IS submitted RFP #12-2026 to remain in the qualified vendor pool for the next contract cycle.

Has TDS-IS been assigned project tasks under RFP #5-2021? No project tasks have been assigned to TDS-IS under RFP #5-2021 as of April 2026. The LFUCG record is a procurement-discipline-and-qualification record, not a project-delivery record. TDS-IS submitted RFP #12-2026 to remain in the qualified vendor pool for the next cycle.

TDS-IS as an SDVOSB IT Provider with SLED Procurement-Qualification Experience

Trinity Data Solutions and IT Services, LLC (TDS-IS) is a certified SDVOSB and VOSB managed IT services provider. CAGE 8J6T6. UEI H883URPYC4J7. The LFUCG pre-qualification is one of three documented past-performance records summarized in the pillar guide at What Past Performance Does TDS-IS Bring to Federal IT Acquisitions?

For federal contracting officers running source selection on civilian agency IT acquisitions where SLED procurement-discipline experience is a relevant factor, for SLED procurement officers in jurisdictions that recognize cross-jurisdictional pre-qualification as a quality signal, and for prime contractor BD leads evaluating SDVOSB IT subs with multi-tier (federal + SLED) procurement experience, the LFUCG record establishes the SLED-qualification side of the past-performance matrix.

View the TDS-IS capability statement at tds-is.com/capability-statement, or contact us through the contact page to discuss a specific opportunity.