Bids, Contracts and Procurement — Sebastian, Florida

Since April 1, 2026 the City of Sebastian posts every solicitation exclusively on its Euna eProcurement Portal, formerly Bonfire, where vendors register, download documents and submit responses.

The Sebastian Solicitation Corner states that vendors seeking bid opportunities, documents or updates must use the Euna platform to view and submit to active solicitations, and lists the Euna Service Desk at 1-800-354-8010 for help with registration or downloads (Solicitation Corner). Older work sits elsewhere: all solicitations issued before March 1, 2025 can be found on VendorLink or DemandStar.

The city's own pages are not fully in step. The Sebastian procurement FAQ still says bids and proposals must be submitted electronically via VendorLink and gives March 1, 2026 as the start of exclusive posting on Euna, a month earlier than the Solicitation Corner date (City of Sebastian procurement FAQ). The Solicitation Corner is the page that carries the portal links, so its April 1, 2026 date is the operative one for current Sebastian bids.

The Procurement Division itself works from Sebastian City Hall at 1225 Main Street, Monday through Friday 8 am to 4:30 pm, and answers vendor questions at 772-388-8231 or procurement@cityofsebastian.org (Vendor Corner). Last verified: October 10, 2026, on the City of Sebastian website.

Sebastian requires a sealed competitive solicitation for purchases over $75,000, under thresholds the Sebastian City Council revised on November 20, 2024.

The rules behind the table are set in City Code Chapter 2, Section 2-10, and the Procurement Division describes its mission as getting the most purchasing value from public funds through an open, fair and equitable competitive process (Procurement Division). The piggyback option lets Sebastian buy from a contract another government has already bid, which is how a city department can skip its own quote round.

State law sets a separate floor for construction. Section 255.20 requires a municipality to competitively award to an appropriately licensed contractor each public construction project estimated to cost more than $300,000, or more than $75,000 for electrical work (Florida Statutes, s. 255.20). Section 255.0525 requires a municipal construction bid projected over $200,000 to be advertised in a newspaper of general circulation in the county at least 21 days before bid opening, and at least 30 days before for projects over $500,000 (Florida Statutes, s. 255.0525). For a Sebastian drainage or park job, that means the Indian River County newspaper notice and the Euna posting run side by side.

Sebastian holds every solicitation opening electronically, with public notice, and for construction bids reads aloud only each vendor's name and lump sum base bid.

The Solicitation Corner gives a RingCentral meeting link and dial in number for openings, and asks anyone needing an accommodation to call the Sebastian ADA coordinator at 772-388-8226 at least 48 hours before (Solicitation Corner). There is no in person opening room at City Hall for these events.

Florida public records law shapes what the City of Sebastian can release. Sealed bids, proposals or replies received under a competitive solicitation are exempt from public records until the city gives notice of an intended decision or until 30 days after opening, whichever comes first. The exception is construction or repair of a public building or public work, where the bidder names and prices are announced at the opening, which is why the base bid figures are read on the call.

Bid security follows the same electronic path. Electronic bid or proposal security is uploaded with the response and made payable to the City of Sebastian; a bidder may instead hand deliver cash, a money order, certified check or cashier's check to the Procurement Manager at 1225 Main Street in a sealed envelope marked BID BOND before the deadline. Personal or business checks are not accepted, and missing security makes the bid non-responsive (procurement FAQ).

A business that wins a Sebastian award must complete the city's Vendor Registration Packet, carry the required insurance, follow the city's purchase order Terms and Conditions and use E-Verify.

Vendors responding to a formal Sebastian solicitation are not required to complete a Vendor Registration Packet until an award is made; the New Vendor Packet is filled out electronically through DocuSeal and includes the city's insurance requirements, and all contractors who perform services on City property must provide an insurance certificate (Vendor Corner). Purchase orders are processed electronically, the City's Terms and Conditions take precedence unless stated otherwise, and any exception needs both the Procurement Manager and the City Attorney. The City of Sebastian is exempt from sales tax and posts its Certificate of Exemption.

Bonding is set in each solicitation. Where required, a bid bond equals 5 percent of the bid, and the winner then posts payment and performance bonding equal to 100 percent of the total bid before the bid bond is returned. Questions about any open Sebastian solicitation must be emailed only to the Procurement or Contracts Manager; contact with the City Council or any other city employee is grounds for disqualification, with no exceptions (City of Sebastian procurement FAQ).

E-Verify is a state requirement. Section 448.095 says a public agency must require in any contract that the contractor and any subcontractor register with and use the E-Verify system for all new employees (Florida Statutes, s. 448.095), and the Sebastian FAQ notes the rule has bound city contractors since January 1, 2021, with terminated contractors barred from a public contract for one year.

Recent Sebastian solicitations have covered a design build Public Works Complex, citywide trash collection and the Riverview Park redesign, each ending in a council vote.

Sebastian Daily reported that City Manager Paul Carlisle began bidding a design build contract for a new Public Works Complex after he joined the city in 2018, that Wright Construction Group was awarded the contract by the city council in 2019, and that the council approved the $9.1 million complex at Sebastian Municipal Airport on February 24, 2021 (Sebastian Daily).

Competition can be thin. On April 13, 2023 Sebastian Daily reported that only three trash companies, including Waste Management, responded to the city's bid for trash pickup, and that the council chose a mandatory Universal option with Waste Management on a 3-2 vote (Sebastian Daily). The next large job on the calendar is the riverfront: Sebastian Daily reported on January 19, 2026 that bidding for Riverview Park Phase I would run from October to December 2026, with construction from March 2027 to March 2028 (Sebastian Daily).

The Sebastian purchasing office has outside recognition: the Procurement Division received the Achievement of Excellence in Procurement award from the National Purchasing Institute for its first year, and the Universal Public Procurement Certification Council agency certification for a second consecutive year.

The City of Sebastian sells surplus property, including retired police vehicles, furniture, tools and technology equipment, through online auctions on GovDeals.

The Sebastian Surplus Auction page links to the current list of city items up for internet auction, and the Procurement Division at 1225 Main Street handles the program (Surplus Auction). Buying runs the other way from bidding: a resident or business bids on GovDeals rather than registering as a city vendor, and no Sebastian Vendor Registration Packet is involved.