Doing Business with the City of Melbourne — Melbourne, Florida

Purchasing for the City of Melbourne runs through the Procurement Division, part of the Financial Services Department, which also oversees the city budget, utility billing, accounting and payroll. The division states its mission as fair and equitable treatment of everyone involved in public purchasing by the City, getting the most value from public funds and keeping the Melbourne procurement system one of quality and integrity. Its phone number is 321-608-7060.

The Procurement Division sits on the second floor of City Hall, 900 E. Strawbridge Avenue, in Downtown Melbourne, with hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, according to the city's Vendor Guide as read in October 2026. The guide asks companies to call ahead for an appointment rather than walk in. A second Melbourne site, the Central Warehouse on Harper Road, stocks inventory for the water and sewer utility and holds the city's sales of surplus equipment, with morning and early afternoon windows on weekdays.

The Doing Business With the City page names three places a Melbourne solicitation appears: a bulletin board in the Procurement Division at City Hall, the Demandstar website, and the legal ad section of the Florida Today newspaper. Demandstar is the electronic channel, where documents can be viewed, downloaded and printed; the Vendor Guide lists DemandStar's own help line, 1-800-711-1712, for questions about the platform rather than the city.

DemandStar describes its service as completely free for governments, with free and paid subscription packages for businesses that want automatic notices of matching bids. For a Melbourne supplier, the practical effect is that formal quotes and sealed bids handled by city procurement staff are published there, while the smallest purchases never reach the platform because department staff collect prices directly.

Melbourne sorts every purchase of equipment, materials, supplies and services into four dollar tiers set by the City of Melbourne Code of Ordinances and its Procurement Manual. A Small Purchase, up to $5,000, needs only price data that department or division staff gather from earlier purchases, from DemandStar or by phone. An Open Market Purchase, from $5,000.01 to $15,000, requires informal written quotations from at least three vendors, again collected by the buying department.

Above $15,000 the Procurement Division takes over in Melbourne. Formal Quotes, from $15,000.01 to $35,000, are solicited by division staff through Demandstar. At $35,000.01 and over, the city issues formal sealed Invitations to Bid or Requests for Proposals, which require public notice, a public opening and a formal award. At each tier staff may use piggyback opportunities, buying from a contract another government already awarded.

Formal bidding in Melbourne may be waived in three situations listed on the Doing Business page: a purchase from a governmental entity or cooperative agreement, a sole source procurement, and an emergency purchase when a threat to public health, safety or welfare exists.

Bid and proposal openings in Melbourne are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3 p.m. at City Hall, 900 E Strawbridge Avenue. A sealed bid must reach the Procurement Division and be time stamped by 3 p.m. local time on the day of the opening, and faxed bids or proposals are not accepted. Vendors may attend the public opening, which begins promptly at 3 p.m., but the Vendor Guide notes that bids are not evaluated at that time.

Some Melbourne solicitations include a pre-bid or pre-proposal meeting to walk bidders through the city's specifications, and addenda may follow from that discussion. Attendance at some of these meetings is mandatory, and a company that misses a mandatory session is barred from bidding on that solicitation.

Yes. Melbourne's Local Preference Policy favors vendors, contractors and service providers that have held a valid Local Business Tax Receipt from the City of Melbourne or Brevard County for at least one year before bid submission and whose business address is inside Melbourne city limits or Brevard County. Qualified city vendors receive a 5% preference and qualified Brevard County vendors a 2% preference. A local bidder whose price falls within that margin of the lowest responsive, responsible non-local bid is given the chance to match the low price.

The receipt behind that preference is handled by the city's Business Tax Receipts office. A Melbourne Business Tax Receipt must be obtained before a business begins operating, and Brevard County separately requires a county receipt for any business operating in the city. The initial application carries a $25 nonrefundable fee applied toward the first year's tax, the professional rate starts at $100 for one professional, and contractors must show general liability coverage of at least $300,000 per occurrence and $500,000 in annual aggregate.

The City of Melbourne requires anyone doing business with it to register as a vendor, but it does not keep a list of potential vendors, and registration papers are processed only after a city department asks for them or a company wins a competitive procurement. A registration packet includes the Vendor Registration Form, an IRS Form W-9, proof of active registration with the Florida Division of Corporations on Sunbiz, and, for service contractors, a current Certificate of Insurance. Out of state firms must register in Florida as a foreign corporation or LLC. Packets go to [email protected] or by mail to City Hall.

A numbered purchase order is the main way Melbourne commits money, and commitments made any other way are treated as unauthorized. The city asks for delivery FOB Destination, Prepaid and Allowed, with the purchase order number on every package and invoice, and itemized invoices go to the Accounting Division at City Hall. Vendors choose payment by ACH deposit, by ACI payment to a VISA card, or by paper check, and the Vendor Guide warns that a lost check can take 30 days or more to reissue. The city is exempt from federal, state and local tax, and city policy bars staff from accepting gifts or gratuities.

Melbourne pays under the Florida Prompt Payment Act. Section 218.74 of the Florida Statutes sets a local government's payment due date for goods and services other than construction at 45 days after the date fixed in section 218.73, and unpaid amounts begin earning interest 30 days after the due date at 1 percent per month, which the vendor must invoice to collect.