The Main Thing Different About Working For A Public Client

I’ve never worked for a federal client, but numerous times for state agencies and almost as many times for city or county government. The state agencies included the Administrative Office of the Courts, School Boards, projects funded by Community Development Block Grants, and regional Agencies like planning, water and sewer districts. Finally there are the Counties and Cities. These tend to be the least bureaucratic and most like private clients except for that one thing that is common to all public clients - procurement regulations. These regulations are very similar in intent, which is preventing misuse of public funds by closing loopholes. The big difference for the architect is that several additional tasks are required and there isn't a lot of leeway in how you do them.

This link takes you to an article on the bidding process. 

Besides the procurement regs there are a few other issues that come up; they are listed here by phase.

PreDesign:

• Fee schedules for architectural services - you may find that your fee has been decided for you. This is more likely the larger the unit of government.
  
• O-A Agreement - your contract may have been standardized and may not be at all similar to AIA agreements.
  
• Selection process - this can be the biggest hurdle to getting public work. First the need to qualify, and then the competition with other firms. Once again, this is more likely the larger the unit of government.

Design:

• Agency oversight and approvals - regional and state agencies nearly always have an oversight group that you will have to submit or present drawings to.
  
• Specs front end - often larger units of government have standard bidding documents, general conditions, supplementary conditions, and construction contracts. If you care about your work product, some of these can try your patience, and take inordinately long to implement correctly.
  
• Reports to owner - there may be times when you will be expected to appear and explain the status.

Procurement:

• Bidding requirements - see the link above.
  
• Recommendation - you will almost certainly be called upon to recommend an award of contract for construction in person or in writing or both.
  
• Bid bond - a nearly universal requirement wherein the bidder provides a bond to back up his bid in case he has to decline the contract.
  
• Performance and Payment Bonds - I have seen numerous regs that call for any project over $25,000 to be bonded. This usually adds at least 1% to the construction cost for the bonds, and prevents many contractors from bidding because they can't get a bond or they have used up there bond limit on other work.
  
• Legal Ad - another universal requirement. The bidding process must be advertised in advance of the actual bidding to prevent insiders from being the only bidders.
  
• Drawing deposits - many government bodies require that plans given out on deposit rather than at the bidders cost.
  
• Bond Sale - many public projects are funded by the sale of bonds. To avoid an undue delay in awarding a construction contract you will need to coordinate the bidding with the sale of the bonds.

Construction:

• Bond-related issues for making payments - many times the bond sale that funds the project will have extra paperwork to address with each payment request by the contractor.
  
• Payment delays - there always seems to be a process for paying the contractor that takes 45 - 60 days. Your bidding documents need to spell out the timing.
  
• Change orders - any change orders need to be well documented and contain all the appropriate signatures. Political rivals can smell a poorly documented construction process. Don’t get caught in the middle.
  
• Reports to owner - there may be times when you will be expected to appear and explain the status.

Politics can be a wild card in the process. It is wise to remember the naval advice: "Loose lips sink ships."