SB 5418, a bill impacting city public works project bid limits, was passed by the Legislature last week after the Senate concurred on amendments in the House.
Under the final version of the bill, contract thresholds are increased when competitive bidding is required for a first-class city, second-class city, code city or town as follows:
- First-class cities:
- The estimated cost is $150,000 or more and involves more than one craft or trade; or
- The estimated cost is $75,500 or more and involves a single craft or trade, or the public works is street signalization or street lighting.
- Second-class cities, code cities or towns:
- The estimated cost is $116,155 or more and involves more than one craft or trade; or
- The estimated cost is $75,500 or more and involves a single craft or trade, or the public works is street signalization or street lighting.
The final version of the bill also includes the following components:
- State agencies and local governments may use the small works roster process for projects estimated to cost $350,000 or less-- this is an increase of $50,000. Governments may choose to solicit bids from less than all the appropriate contracts on an appropriate small works roster for projects estimated to cost between $250,000 and $350,000.
- As an alternative to awarding competitive public works contracts to the lowest responsible bidder, second-class and code cities may award the contract to a responsive bid that meets responsible bidder criteria and is within 5% of the lowest bid, if certain conditions are met.
- Requires that after a bid is awarded for a project, all bids received are open for public inspection and made available upon request.
- Authorizes state agencies and local governments to use the limited public works process to solicit and award small works roster contracts to minibusinesses and microbusinesses.
A previous version of the bill required local governments that use the small works roster to obtain quotes from either all of the appropriate contractors on the list, or at least five contractors who have indicated they are capable of performing the work. This language was removed in the final bill to reflect the feedback from small cities and towns.
The bill is now headed to the Governor for signature.