RCW 41.06.142
Purchasing services by contract -- Effect on employees in the classified service -- Criteria to be met -- Bidding -- Definitions.

(1) Any department, agency, or institution of higher education may purchase services, including services that have been customarily and historically provided by employees in the classified service under this chapter, by contracting with individuals, nonprofit organizations, businesses, employee business units, or other entities if the following criteria are met:

     (a) The invitation for bid or request for proposal contains measurable standards for the performance of the contract;

     (b) Employees in the classified service whose positions or work would be displaced by the contract are provided an opportunity to offer alternatives to purchasing services by contract and, if these alternatives are not accepted, compete for the contract under competitive contracting procedures in subsection (4) of this section;

     (c) The contract with an entity other than an employee business unit includes a provision requiring the entity to consider employment of state employees who may be displaced by the contract;

     (d) The department, agency, or institution of higher education has established a contract monitoring process to measure contract performance, costs, service delivery quality, and other contract standards, and to cancel contracts that do not meet those standards; and

     (e) The department, agency, or institution of higher education has determined that the contract results in savings or efficiency improvements. The contracting agency must consider the consequences and potential mitigation of improper or failed performance by the contractor.

     (2) Any provision contrary to or in conflict with this section in any collective bargaining agreement in effect on July 1, 2005, is not effective beyond the expiration date of the agreement.

     (3) Contracting for services that is expressly mandated by the legislature or was authorized by law prior to July 1, 2005, including contracts and agreements between public entities, shall not be subject to the processes set forth in subsections (1), (4), and (5) of this section.

     (4) Competitive contracting shall be implemented as follows:

     (a) At least ninety days prior to the date the contracting agency requests bids from private entities for a contract for services provided by classified employees, the contracting agency shall notify the classified employees whose positions or work would be displaced by the contract. The employees shall have sixty days from the date of notification to offer alternatives to purchasing services by contract, and the agency shall consider the alternatives before requesting bids.

     (b) If the employees decide to compete for the contract, they shall notify the contracting agency of their decision. Employees must form one or more employee business units for the purpose of submitting a bid or bids to perform the services.

     (c) The director of personnel, with the advice and assistance of the department of general administration, shall develop and make available to employee business units training in the bidding process and general bid preparation.

     (d) The director of general administration, with the advice and assistance of the department of personnel, shall, by rule, establish procedures to ensure that bids are submitted and evaluated in a fair and objective manner and that there exists a competitive market for the service. Such rules shall include, but not be limited to: (i) Prohibitions against participation in the bid evaluation process by employees who prepared the business unit's bid or who perform any of the services to be contracted; (ii) provisions to ensure no bidder receives an advantage over other bidders and that bid requirements are applied equitably to all parties; and (iii) procedures that require the contracting agency to receive complaints regarding the bidding process and to consider them before awarding the contract. Appeal of an agency's actions under this subsection is an adjudicative proceeding and subject to the applicable provisions of chapter 34.05 RCW, the administrative procedure act, with the final decision to be rendered by an administrative law judge assigned under chapter 34.12 RCW.

     (e) An employee business unit's bid must include the fully allocated costs of the service, including the cost of the employees' salaries and benefits, space, equipment, materials, and other costs necessary to perform the function. An employee business unit's cost shall not include the state's indirect overhead costs unless those costs can be attributed directly to the function in question and would not exist if that function were not performed in state service.

     (f) A department, agency, or institution of higher education may contract with the department of general administration to conduct the bidding process.

     (5) As used in this section:

     (a) "Employee business unit" means a group of employees who perform services to be contracted under this section and who submit a bid for the performance of those services under subsection (4) of this section.

     (b) "Indirect overhead costs" means the pro rata share of existing agency administrative salaries and benefits, and rent, equipment costs, utilities, and materials associated with those administrative functions.

     (c) "Competitive contracting" means the process by which classified employees of a department, agency, or institution of higher education compete with businesses, individuals, nonprofit organizations, or other entities for contracts authorized by subsection (1) of this section.

     (6) The requirements of this section do not apply to RCW 74.13.031(5).

[2008 c 267 § 9; 2002 c 354 § 208.]

NOTES:

     Short title -- Headings, captions not law -- Severability -- Effective dates -- 2002 c 354: See RCW 41.80.907 through 41.80.910.