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Anacortes Council Adopts Purchasing Policy Updates to Reflect State Law Changes
Summary
By unanimous vote, the City Council adopted Resolution 3186 updating the city—s purchasing policy to reflect recent state law changes. Staff recommended not to enable direct contracting under the small-works roster and added apprenticeship and subcontractor-identification rules for public works bids.
The Anacortes City Council adopted Resolution 3186 on Oct. 6 to update the city—s purchasing policy, aligning city procurement procedures with recent state law changes and MRSC guidance.
City staff presented the changes
Tiffany Matson, the city—s contract specialist, outlined the proposed edits and explained most changes reflect updates in state statutes. Key policy updates presented included: - Small Works Roster: State law changes (effective July 2024) allow two options: solicit the entire roster for projects up to $350,000 or, for projects $150,000 or less, use a direct contracting option. City staff recommended not authorizing direct contracting for Anacortes owing to the administrative bandwidth required to meet rotation and reporting requirements; instead staff will continue the practice of sending solicitations to the entire roster. - Identification of subcontractors: For public-works projects over $1,000,000, bids must identify HVAC, plumbing and electrical subcontractors and those subcontractors must be licensed at the time of bid submittal; the policy was updated to reflect that requirement. - Second-lowest-bidder award: The policy adds a clear procedure to award to the second-lowest bidder under limited, statutorily allowed conditions, including written findings against the lowest bidder and the second-lowest bidder being within 5% of the lowest. - Apprenticeship utilization: The policy was updated to incorporate new apprenticeship-utilization requirements for large public-works projects that took effect in July 2024 and to list MRSC-recommended additional criteria by which the city may adjust apprentice-utilization requirements. - Contract change procedure: New guidance was added detailing who can approve field orders, change orders and contract modifications.
Council discussion and vote
Councilmembers praised staff for expanding and professionalizing the contracts program. Councilmember Walters noted the procurement process is only one cost driver and highlighted the importance of engineering quality in controlling project costs. Walters moved adoption of the resolution; the motion was seconded by Councilmember Hubick and the measure passed.
Ending
Staff said the redline and clean versions included in the council packet reflect the changes and that departments will follow the updated procedures for public-works contracting and grants management going forward.
