BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2161
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 28, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2161 (Fong) - As Amended: April 14, 2010
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:8-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires the governing board of a school district, for
the purposes of securing bids for the construction of school
facilities, to post a bid notice on the district's Internet
website. Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines "construction of school facilities," as work under a
contract involving an expenditure of $15,000 or more, which
falls within the definition of "public project," as specified.
2)Requires a school district, if it does not maintain an
Internet website, to post the bid notice on another website or
electronic portal, including one maintained by the county
superintendent of schools. This measure also requires the bid
notice on the county website to be placed at least once a week
for two weeks.
3)Authorizes small school district (with 1,500 average daily
attendance or less) to post a bid notice on another Internet
website in lieu of the district's website, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT
GF/98 state reimbursable mandated costs, of approximately
$480,000, to complete the requirements of this bill. This cost
assumes approximately 10 hours per year in school district staff
time.
AB 2161
Page 2
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . Currently, school districts are only required to
post a notice calling for bids in a newspaper of general
circulation within the school district. Statute also
authorizes districts to post this notice on their Internet
website or through an electronic portal and accept bids
electronically.
According to the author, this bill, sponsored by the State
Building Construction and Trade Council of California, "will
help school districts with a limited pool of newspapers reach
a wider audience and ensure a healthy number of bids on public
works projects. Currently, almost all school districts have
their own website. It is important to utilize the Internet as
a legitimate source for circulating public works information
to reach the greatest number of qualified competitors."
2)Previous legislation .
a) AB 701 (Fong) required school district governing boards
to post a notice for bids on its Internet website or
through an electronic portal and sunset the current
requirement for districts to post this information in a
newspaper of general circulation on July 1, 2014, as
specified. This bill was held on this committee's Suspense
File in last year.
This bill maintains the current requirement of noticing
bids in a newspaper and limits the posting of notices on
the Internet to construction bids, as specified.
b) AB 490 (Parra) required a school district to mail a
notice for contract bids to specified construction trade
journals at least 30 calendar days before the opening date
of the bids. This bill was vetoed in September 2005, with
the following message:
"Nothing in current law precludes a school district from
sending bid notices to construction trade journals. In
fact, current law already requires school districts to
advertise bidding opportunities in newspapers of general
AB 2161
Page 3
circulation and allows them to post a notice on the
districts website or electronic portal. This bill would
require school districts to send bill notices directly to
construction trade journals. Mandating this practice will
simply result in a reimbursable cost to prepare and mail
the additional bid notices."
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081