The Virginia Public Procurement Act (“VPPA”) governs the contractual relationships between the Commonwealth and its subdivisions and the businesses and individuals that provide them goods and services. It also provides the mechanism for the appeal of certain decisions by public bodies as well as a method by which a county can exempt itself from certain provisions of the VPPA. A case out of the Fairfax County Circuit Court examined the intersection of these two ideas.
In Biscayne Contractors v. Fairfax County, the Court considered the argument made by Fairfax County that despite the Plaintiff’s appeal to Circuit Court within 6 months of the Board of Supervisor’s decision denying its claim in a manner consistent with the VPPA, the Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. The Court then analyzed both the VPPA (concluding that Fairfax had exempted itself from all aspects of the VPPA from which it could exempt itself) and the Fairfax Purchasing Resolution (which provided that the County Purchasing Agent’s decision shall be final unless appealed within 6 months of the written decision per the VPPA and that no court action can start prior to exhausting all statutory requirements had been met) to determine if the decision by the Board triggered the 6 month appeal time.
The Court then looked at the fact that the Purchasing Resolution incorporated the statutory appeal requirements of the VPPA and the definitions of “Public Body” to determine if the decision of the Purchasing Agent qualified as a decision by a Public Body. In doing so, the Court held that the Purchasing Agent was not a “Public Body” and the Board of Supervisors was a “Public Body.” Therefore, the Court concluded, the appeal was timely and the Court had jurisdiction.
Needless to say, the opinion itself gets much more detailed than this so please read it carefully for yourself. Further, these types of nested analyses of statutes and county action require the assistance of an experienced Virginia construction attorney to help follow all of the winding threads found in the code and county ordinances.
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