General information:

For quotes and bids, the onus falls primarily to vendors and contractors to monitor our local newspaper, the Purchasing webpage, and stay in contact with the appropriate City/County departments based on the commodity and the respective department’s needs. Because of our decentralized nature, most all quotes and bids originate from individual departments, via phone or email (not advertised), who directly contact vendors in that field. Depending on the expected cost, Indiana code and/or local policies insists a minimum of 3 vendors be contacted. Obviously, in many services, there are more than 3 potential vendors. Staffing and other factors limit how much time can be spent notifying all who want to be. Therefore, we—Purchasing—suggest it is largely the responsibility of vendors to become known by the departments, and we assist with that as much as we can. 

The service/commodity offered by a vendor can also play a role in how the purchase is sought, as does the expected cost and funding source.

One of the goals is for City departments to utilize the vendor database for notifications and solicitations. In order for this to work, we will rely on vendors selecting appropriate commodity codes in their vendor profile. Current vendors should login and select the NIGP 5-digit code(s) associated with their business: https://selfservice.evansville.in.gov/vss/default.aspx  All new vendors will have to choose at least one as part of the self-registration process. [This is only for City.]

In most situations, projects/purchases with an expected cost over $150,000 must be advertised two times in the newspaper, at least one week apart. In most all cases where it will be advertised, the issuing departments seeks approval from the appropriate Board. You can check meetings and agendas, including archived, at https://www.evansvillegov.org/egov/apps/services/index.egov?view=detail;id=13. The primary Boards for this are Board of County Commissioners, Board of Public Works, Board of Public Safety, Board of Park Commissioners, and Evansville Water & Sewer Utility.

For construction projects (over $150,000) that involve various scopes of work, the City or EWSU usually host a pre-bid meeting. Most all are mandatory attendance for general contractors who will be bidding. EWSU always posts their projects and pre-bid meeting dates in Friday’s Courier & Press; the City, who has significantly fewer projects, posts randomly. EWSU also runs a subscription-based plan room. While subcontractors, of any scope, are not required to attend, they are encouraged and advised to do so.

Included in these large projects is a separate requirement for construction contractors, the Responsible Bidding Ordinance. The truncated explanation is all prime contractors and most construction subcontractors on public works projects where the total project is over $150,000 must be certified as Responsible Bidders. .

On projects that meet the State definition of a public work (http://iga.in.gov/legislative/laws/2020/ic/titles/036/#36-1-12-2), both the City and County have an ordinance mandating a random drug testing policy that adheres to specific stipulations. The City’s (EMC 3.95.020 https://www.codepublishing.com/IN/Evansville/html/Evansville03/Evansville0395.html) is applicable on projects starting at $10,000; the County’s (VCC 2.27.020 https://www.codepublishing.com/IN/VanderburghCounty/html/VanderburghCounty02/VanderburghCounty0227.html) starts at $20,000. The ordinances stipulate the contractor and every subcontractor doing construction work have a written drug testing policy that meets or exceeds the qualifications and criteria. Penalty for non-compliance is rejection of a bid and/or cancellation of a contract.