County, City, School District, and University Bid Protests in Florida

The 72-hour and 10-day deadlines in section 120.57(3), Florida Statutes, were written for state agencies. Florida’s universities, school districts, counties, and cities also buy through competitive solicitations, and their decisions can also be protested, but the deadlines, the bond, the decision-maker, and the court that reviews the result can all be different. The first job in any protest outside a state agency is to find out which rules apply.

To discuss a protest involving a school district, university, county, or city in any part of Florida, telephone 850-567-8445 or send us a message with the form on this page.

School Districts

A local school district is an “educational unit,” and educational units are agencies under the Administrative Procedure Act (section 120.52(1) and (6), Florida Statutes). A protest of a school board’s purchasing decision therefore generally follows section 120.57(3): 72 hours for the notice, 10 days for the formal written protest, and a hearing before an administrative law judge if facts are in dispute. School board purchasing itself is governed by State Board of Education rule 6A-1.012, Florida Administrative Code, and by each board’s own policies.

For example, a protest of a school board’s request for proposals was heard by an administrative law judge, and the appellate court applied section 120.57(3)(f) to it. Bright House Networks v. AT&T Corp., 205 So. 3d 837, 839–40 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016). The standards described on our page on the bid protest process therefore apply to school board protests as well.

The bond can be different too. When a school board, a community college board of trustees, or a state university board of trustees uses the chapter 120 procedures for a protest of a competitively bid contract under chapter 1013 (educational facilities) or chapter 255 (public buildings), it may require the protester to post a bond set by section 255.0516, Florida Statutes: for projects valued above $500,000, the greater of $25,000 or 2 percent of the lowest accepted bid; for other projects, 5 percent of the lowest accepted bid.

Mr. Woodring dealt with purchasing at all three levels of Florida’s education system, the state, the universities, and the school boards, while he was the Department of Education’s General Counsel.

State Universities

State universities purchase under regulations of the Florida Board of Governors and of each university’s board of trustees, not under chapter 287. Board of Governors Regulation 18.002 sets the protest procedure. A notice of intent to protest is due within 72 hours after the decision, or the specification, is posted. The formal protest, together with the solicitation protest bond required by Regulation 18.003, is due within 10 days after the notice was filed. Failure to file any of the three on time waives the protest.

The 72 hours is counted differently than for a state agency. The regulation does not leave weekends out of the count; if the period ends on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.

A protest with no disputed material facts is decided in a summary proceeding by a university official. One with disputed facts is referred to a quasi-judicial officer, who may be an administrative law judge. The standards resemble those for state agencies, but court review does not: it is by petition for certiorari to the circuit court, filed within 30 days after the university’s final decision. Regulation 18.002 was most recently amended on June 25, 2026, so descriptions written before then may be out of date. The Board of Governors’ first General Counsel was Mr. Woodring.

For a hearing on disputed facts, Regulation 18.002 adopts the state agency standard. The protester has the burden of proof, and the question is whether the proposed university action was clearly erroneous, contrary to competition, arbitrary, or capricious; a decision to reject all responses is reviewed for whether it is illegal, arbitrary, dishonest, or fraudulent (Board of Governors Regulation 18.002(13)(f) and (g)).

Counties and Cities

Counties are subject to the Administrative Procedure Act only where a law expressly makes them so, and municipalities are excluded from its definition of “agency” (section 120.52(1)). County and city protests are therefore governed by the local procurement code or ordinance and by the solicitation document, and local rules vary widely. Common differences include:

• A shorter time to protest, sometimes counted in business days from the posting of the recommendation or award
• A filing fee or bond set by local ordinance
• A decision by the purchasing director, the manager, a hearing officer, or the commission itself, instead of an administrative law judge
• Limits on communication with officials and staff during the solicitation, often called a cone of silence
• Court review, where it is available, that begins in circuit court

Because the local rules control, the solicitation and the procurement code should be read the day the solicitation is released, not the day the award is announced.

The standard is different too. Section 120.57(3) does not govern a county or city protest, so its test does not apply. The Florida Supreme Court has held that a public body has wide discretion in soliciting and accepting bids, and that its decision, “when based on an honest exercise of this discretion, will not be overturned by a court even if it may appear erroneous and even if reasonable persons may disagree.” Liberty Cnty. v. Baxter’s Asphalt & Concrete, Inc., 421 So. 2d 505, 507 (Fla. 1982). Such a decision can be overturned on a showing of illegality, fraud, oppression, or misconduct. Dep’t of Transp. v. Groves-Watkins Constructors, 530 So. 2d 912, 913 (Fla. 1988). A city’s attempted award based on scoring criteria that were not in the bid documents, for example, was held arbitrary and capricious and enjoined. City of Sweetwater v. Solo Constr. Corp., 823 So. 2d 798, 800–03 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002).

A county or city award is challenged in circuit court, usually by an action for an injunction or a declaratory judgment, not by a petition for certiorari, because awarding a contract is an executive act rather than a quasi-judicial one. Monroe Cnty. v. Kearns Constr. Co., 426 So. 3d 622, 624, 626 (Fla. 3d DCA 2025). Some local codes also set their own standard for protest hearings, and it should be checked at the outset.

Other Public Bodies

Water management districts are covered by the state bond statute (section 287.042(2)(c)). Other public entities, including special districts, authorities, and Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, purchase under their own statutes and rules. In one large Citizens procurement we worked on, a third of the competing vendors were out of the running before a single response had been evaluated.

First Questions in Any Protest Outside a State Agency

• Which statute, rule, regulation, or ordinance governs this purchaser?
• What event starts the protest period, and how are the days counted?
• Is a bond or filing fee required, and in what amount?
• Who decides the protest, and is there a hearing?
• Does filing a protest stop the award?
• Where does court review go, and how soon must it be sought?

Talk to Us About a Local or Education Procurement

We represent vendors in procurements and protests before school districts, universities, counties, and cities throughout Florida. Reach us by telephone at 850-567-8445, by email at Info@woodringlawfirm.com, or by the form on this page.