This page provides links to all of MRSC's resources related to purchasing, bidding, and contracting for local governments in Washington State.

Your Statutory Requirements

• Find Your Contracting Requirements

General Information

• Contracting and Competitive Bidding
• Procurement Policy Guidelines
• Competitive Bidding Exemptions

Services

• Architecture and Engineering Contracts
• Personal Services Contracts
• Purchased Services Contracts

Purchases

• Purchasing Goods, Equipment, Materials, and Supplies
• Intergovernmental Purchases and "Piggybacking"

Public Works

• Public Works Contracts
• Unit-Priced ("On-Call") Public Works Contracts
• Prevailing Wages
• Sales and Use Taxes in Public Works
• Guarantees, Bonds, and Retainage
• Small Public Works Rosters
• Before You Advertise a Public Works Contract
• Bidding and Awarding a Public Works Contract
• Public Works Project Closeout
• Intergovernmental Cooperation in Public Works

Publications

​MRSC has written several detailed and downloadable publications regarding purchasing and contracting.

• City Bidding Book – Addresses competitive bidding requirements and processes for purchases, services, and public works contracts.
• County Bidding Book – Addresses competitive bidding requirements and processes for purchases, services, and public works contracts.
• Contracting for Services – Guidance on selecting architectural and engineering consultants under chapter 39.80 RCW and on contracting for personal and purchased services.
• Personal Services Contracting Manual for Ports – Addresses personal services contracting requirements for port districts in chapter 53.19 RCW, adopted by the state legislature in 2008.
• Small Works Roster: A Guide for Local Governments – Comprehensive overview of small works rosters, including maintenance vs. public works, bid limits, shared rosters, sales tax issues, prevailing wages, checklists and quick tips, and much more.

Recent Blog Posts

• Recent blog posts about purchasing & contracting – Articles written by MRSC staff and contributors about specific aspects of purchasing and contracting, including best practices and new legislation. Articles are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent first.

Sample Documents

• MRSC Sample Document Library – Search for examples of procurement policies, RFPs/RFQs, bidding documents, and more

Training Opportunities

MRSC periodically produces webinars and in-person training workshops on various purchasing and contracting topics. For a list of all our upcoming trainings events, see our Training page.