A lot of municipal and county work is pay to play. The well run counties will still fire poorly performing contractors and consultants, but it will typically require getting a foot in the door.

That doesn’t work at my state’s level, but that means you have to have a very good working relationship with the project managers running the various projects. I’ve seen some project managers make contractors do parts of their job; the contractors that do will maintain a better working relationship with their project managers.