To bid or not to bid

"Relevant knowledge gained, and subsequently refreshed, is the best defense against making errors in critical areas."

When you leave the private sector and enter government, even in a local post such as PUD or Hospital Commissioner, doing business becomes far more complicated and, sometimes, hampered by all the laws, rules and regulations prescribing how nearly every activity shall be performed.

For example, I am somewhat familiar with the public bidding process and using a small works roster resulting from my time on the Hospital Board, at least I thought so.  Today, I participated in an on-line webinar conducted by the Municipal Research and Services Center, the subject being "Contracting for Services, Guidelines for Local Governments in Washington".  During the presentation, I learned even more on the complicated and sometimes confusing criteria used for acquiring services for government agencies..

For example, if your agency needs someone to shovel snow off the roof of a building, the work is subject to both bid laws and prevailing wage requirements.  If your need is to have snow plowed from the streets, this work requires neither.  The differences seem so subtle, yet has a significant impact on how the acquisition of the services is required to be processed.

For reference, I downloaded the MRSC on the subject for future reference.

Now that we have this issue cleared up??
Tony