With NUCA FL Involvement,
Port Orange Amends RFP to be
Compliant with State Law
By Scott Jenkins,
Carlton Fields
As we have previously discussed
in the Ditchmen, many local
governments have issued Public
Works Requests for Proposals
(RFPs) that are not compliant
with law by limiting bidder to
general contractors. Through
our members’ experiences from
throughout the state, we know
some of these non-compliant
RFPs are caused by simple cutting
and pasting errors from old RFPs
or a lack of understanding that the
different types of contractors are
in fact defined in statute. “General
Contractor” is not a catch-all term,
for example.
Recently, your state government
relations team, Scott Jenkins and
Kari Hebrank, were made aware of
an issue with a City of Port Orange
RFP that is in violation of state law.
The RFP to replace and aging
water main again used the term,
“commercial general contractor.”
A licensed Underground Utility
Contractor could perform the
work as well and should be
included in the RFP. As you may
know, Florida Statute Section
255.0992 (2) (b) states:
10
DITCHMEN • SEPTEMBER 2019
The state or any political
subdivision that contracts for
a public works project may
not prohibit any contractor,
subcontractor, or material supplier
or carrier able to perform such
work who is qualified, licensed, or
certified as required by state law to
perform such work from submitting
a bid on the public works project.
By limiting RFPs to General
Contractors, this disqualifies
our licensed Utility Contractors
from bidding on the jobs unless
they also have a GC license or
are subcontracted by a General
Contractor.
If the non-compliance is
purposeful, the motives for
local governments to limit their
applicant population is unclear
but can lead people to believe
that what might exclude one type
of contractor might be purposely
benefitting another. We hope this
is not the case.
In response to concerns raised
in a meeting with Secretary
Beshears by the NUCA FL
Government Affairs team, the