BILL ANALYSIS
------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1215|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1215
Author: Price (D), et al
Amended: 4/28/10
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMM : 7-1, 4/20/10
AYES: Lowenthal, Huff, DeSaulnier, Kehoe, Oropeza, Pavley,
Simitian
NOES: Ashburn
NO VOTE RECORDED: Harman
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Department of Transportation: architectural
and engineering
services
SOURCE : San Francisco Black Chamber of Commerce
DIGEST : This bill authorizes the Department of
Transportation to establish prequalified lists of firms
providing architectural and engineering services.
ANALYSIS : In 2000, the voters approved Proposition 35,
the Public Works Projects and the Use of Private
Contractors for Architectural and Engineering Services to
amend the California Constitution to permit all public
agencies in the state, including the Department of
Transportation (Caltrans), to contract with qualified
architectural and engineering firms for professional
CONTINUED
SB 1215
Page
2
services on all public works projects. Proposition 35
defined in statue architectural and engineering services to
include architectural, landscape architectural,
environmental, engineering, land surveying, and
construction management services.
Existing law provides the services shall be procured in a
fair, competitive process and prohibits public employees
from participating in the selection process if they have
any financial interest or business relationship with the
firms competing for the services.
Caltrans has promulgated, consistent with the
Administrative Procedures Act (APA), an extensive body of
regulations that implement exiting contracting law. For
example, in terms of qualifications of firms, the
regulations state the following:
The [selection] criteria shall include such factors as
professional excellence, demonstrated competence,
specialized experience of the firm, education and
experience of key personnel to be assigned, staff
capability, workload, ability to meet schedules,
nature and quality of completed work, reliability and
continuity of the firm and/or subcontractors,
location, or other considerations deemed relevant.
Such factors shall be weighted by the Director
according to the nature of the project, the needs of
the state and complexity and special requirements of
the specific project.
In terms of ensuring the participation of small business,
the regulations require Caltrans to publish solicitations
for services in the state's Contract Register, follow the
requirements established by the Department of General
Services for retaining small businesses, and mandate that
the Caltrans director participate in outreach activities
soliciting small business participation in seeking
architectural and engineering services with Caltrans.
This bill:
1. Provides, at the "election" of Caltrans, that it shall
advertise to contract for the following categories of
SB 1215
Page
3
professional services: architectural, engineering,
environmental planning, landscape architectural, or land
surveying services in a manner consistent with the
contracting law this bill creates.
2. Defines terms, including creating definitions for:
A. Small projects as projects with an estimated value
of greater than $5,000 but less than $500,000.
B. Medium projects as projects with an estimated value
of greater than $500,000 but less than $5 million.
C. Large projects as projects with an estimated value
in excess of $5 million.
3. Establishes a separate Caltrans contracting category for
contracts having an estimated value of greater than
$5,000, but less than $250,000 and awarded to certified
small businesses, including microbusinesses and disabled
veteran business enterprises.
4. Requires Caltrans to establish evaluation criteria and
advertise for firms to provide services in order to
create a prequalified list of architectural and
engineering firms for each category of service and for
small, medium, and large projects for each of Caltrans
12 districts.
5. Requires the qualified list of firms to contain no less
than three firms and that the firms be ranked and the
list be maintained for no less than two years.
6. Authorizes Caltrans to contact the top three
prequalified firms on the list for a specified category
to determine availability for negotiating an acceptable
price. If the price negotiation with the first ranked
firm is unsuccessful, Caltrans can proceed down the list
successively until it successfully negotiates an
acceptable price.
7. Limits firms to being on one list per category for each
of Caltrans 12 districts.
SB 1215
Page
4
8. Prohibits the development of a new contract list for a
category and for a contract size in a district from
being developed until 90 percent of the anticipated
workload has been contracted or two years has expired,
whichever occurs first.
9. Authorizes Caltrans to negotiate with a qualified firm
for an amount determined to be fair and reasonable.
Once a contract is negotiated with a firm, it shall move
to the bottom of a prequalified list.
10.Requires Caltrans to submit a report to the Legislature
on or before January 1, 2014 evaluating the performance
of this procurement process, including the number of
small, medium, and large projects, the firms awarded
contracts, and an assessment of the prequalification
process.
11.Sunsets this bill on January 1, 2014.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/10/10)
San Francisco Black Chamber of Commerce (source)
Asian American Architects and Engineers
Asian Business Community Development, Inc.
Hispanic Contractors Association
Hispanic Engineers Business Corporation
YEI, Inc.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
Caltrans buys more than $200 million in engineering
services each year from private firms, but fewer than 10
firms receive more than half of the work. This bill seeks
to enable small businesses to compete for Caltrans
engineering contracts by allowing Caltrans the ability to
establish prequalification lists of architectural and
engineering firms for small, medium, and large contracts.
JA:nl 5/11/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SB 1215
Page
5
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****