With last week’s passage of HB 1621, city procurement standards will be extended and standardized in a few important
ways beginning FY 2025.
As regular Bulletin readers know, while recently in the Senate, HB 1621 was amended to delay implementation of the bill until Capital Projects Advisory Review Board (CPARB) formally reviews the legislation and makes recommendations
to the appropriate legislative committees.
Last week, the House concurred with the Senate amendment by a unanimous vote and the House speaker signed the bill. It now goes to the Senate President for signature before heading to the Gov.’s desk for final signing. Pending CPARB’s review
and recommendation, HB 1621 will take effect June 30, 2024.
As a reminder to readers, HB 1621 updates local government procurement law by each class of city.
Towns and second-class cities:
- Can complete a public work by contract or day labor without calling for bids if the estimated budget doesn’t exceed $150,000 (up from the current $116,155).
- Any purchase of supplies, material, or equipment (except for public work or improvement) with an estimated cost over $40,000 must be by contract. Any purchase of materials, supplies, or equipment estimated to cost less than $50,000 must be made using
the informal vendor list process (RCW 39.04.190).
First-class cities:
- If the lowest bidder for a city project has completed a project for that city within the previous three years which was late, over budget, or did not meet specifications, the city may choose the second lowest bidder whose bid is within 5% of the lowest
bid and meets the specified criteria.
Towns and first- and second-class cities:
- Regularly employed personnel can, without a contract, perform work that follows accepted industry practice. More specifically, they can perform work without a contract using material whose worth is under $300,000 in value. The $300,000 limit does
not include the value of the individual items of equipment.
The authority provided in HB 1621 to towns, first- and second-class cities is extended to code cities, per state law. Code cities will therefore benefit from the new power as well.
AWC supported the bill.