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Fort Pierce adopts revised procurement code after debate over protest timelines and evaluation committees
Summary
On second reading the Fort Pierce City Commission approved revisions to procurement rules including a new protest-timing clarification (calendar-day calculations), allowing electronic protest filing with signature requirements, and removal of a leave-forfeiture sanction. Commissioners asked staff to produce a procedures manual with detailed evaluation-committee rules.
The Fort Pierce City Commission adopted revisions to the city's procurement code (chapter 2, article 6) on second reading after an extended question-and-answer period about protest timelines and evaluation committees.
Deputy City Manager Camille Wallace outlined changes made after the first reading: the protest provision was revised to permit a protester seven calendar days to file after notice of intent and to add a separate three-day notice requirement; the code now expressly allows electronic submission of protests (with signature requirements) and deletes a subsection that would have required forfeiture of accrued leave as a sanction, a change intended to avoid conflict with the personnel handbook. Wallace said staff will define the specific electronic-submission process in each solicitation.
Commissioners pressed staff on several operational items: whether the 7-day time is calendar or business days (staff said calendar days and noted a new section explaining how to calculate them), whether outside subject-matter experts can serve on evaluation committees (staff said outside experts raise conflict concerns but recruitment procedures can accommodate specific processes and the procedural manual will spell out committee selection and qualifications), and how protests that require additional public records will be handled (staff said the protest will be accepted and clarified in communication with the vendor).
A public commenter urged clearer definitions for "notice to protest" and formal protest language; staff acknowledged the concerns and agreed to refine the policy manual. Following discussion, Commissioner Broderick moved to approve the revisions, a motion that passed by roll-call vote of the four commissioners present.
The commission directed staff to prepare a procurement manual that will provide implementation details and committee-selection criteria, and to return to the commission for review of the manual.
What's next: Staff will prepare a procurement procedures manual and return with additional implementation details; the newly adopted code provisions take effect per the ordinance.
