The florida sunshine law and evaluation committees Available to Purchase

Within each political subdivision of the state of Florida, there is an ordinance which applies to the procurement of goods and services for agencies under its jurisdiction. One common requirement in all these ordinances is the use of the Request for Proposal when purchasing goods or services above a given threshold. In contrast to an Invitation to Bid, the RFP is structured in such a way as to allow other criteria to be evaluated, along with the bottom line price submitted by vendors. The issue in this analysis is whether each meeting of the evaluation committee set up to review these criteria is subject to Florida’s Sunshine Law. Several court decisions and opinions of Attorneys General have held that meetings of ad-hoc committees, advisory committees, and other panels of staff or non-staff members are subject to the Sunshine Law. It appears clear, after a discussion of a few cases relating to the Sunshine Law, that any agency procurement officer must be very careful to avoid even the suggestion of making any recommendation outside of the public view. Public notice should be posted at least seventy-two hours prior to any meeting of the committee. Only by closely adhering to both the letter and the intent of the law will procurement officers avoid having their agency brought into court for a violation of the Sunshine Law.