How do you get one of those no bid contracts anyway?

There’s been a lot of talk about no-bid contracts around the city lately.

There was the $7.5 million no-bid contract awarded by the school district to a firm in Mt. Airy to install surveillance cameras in schools labeled “persistently dangerous.”

Then there were the multiple no-bid contracts granted by the Sheriff’s Office to Reach Communications, an outside company with connections to former Sheriff John Green.

Then there was the no-bid contract that acting Sheriff Barbara Deeley wanted to award to another politically connected firm to clean up the mess partially caused by the no-bid contracts the Sheriff had with Reach.

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Competitively bidding for a contract sounds hard — you have to be qualified, your company has to be in good financial condition, and you need a good professional reputation. And on top of all that, you need the lowest bid!

No-bid contracts, on the other hand, sound easy.

This gives the It’s Our Money team an idea.

Listen in as Ben and Doron plot to secure a no-bid contract with city government … until their boss, Sandra Shea, comes along and tells them that they don’t really understand how contracting works.

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