BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2149
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Date of Hearing: April 2, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
K.H. "Katcho" Achadjian, Chair
AB 2149 (Atkins) - As Introduced: February 20, 2014
SUBJECT : The Local Agency Public Construction Act: County of
San Diego: exemption.
SUMMARY : Exempts a contract for a Regional Communications
System (RCS) for San Diego and Imperial Counties from
contracting law that otherwise applies to counties.
Specifically, this bill :
1)States that, notwithstanding any other law, the provisions of
the Local Agency Public Construction Act that apply to
counties shall not apply to a contract entered into by the
County of San Diego with a private entity for the delivery of
an RCS and any related infrastructure to be used by public
safety agencies and emergency responders located in the
Counties of Imperial and San Diego.
2)Allows the County of San Diego to use any competitive
procurement method to procure the RCS and related
infrastructure described in 1), above, including provisions of
the Local Agency Public Construction Act that apply to
counties that would otherwise apply to the County of San
Diego.
3)Finds and declares that a special law is necessary and that a
general law cannot be made applicable within the meaning of
Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution
because of the unique public safety needs in the County of San
Diego.
EXISTING LAW establishes, under the Local Agency Public
Construction Act within the Public Contract Code, the procedures
counties are required to use when soliciting and evaluating bids
or proposals for the construction of a public work or
improvement, which generally require contracts to be awarded to
the lowest responsible bidder after a competitive bidding
process.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
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COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of this bill . This bill seeks to allow the County of
San Diego to contract for the RCS without having to comply
with provisions of state law that govern the contracting
practices of counties. This bill is sponsored by the County
of San Diego.
2)Author's statement . According to the Author, "Due to
technology obsolescence and the need to support significant
user growth, San Diego County must replace the RCS in the next
few years. State law requires construction projects over a
certain dollar threshold to be procured through a competitive
bid process and awarded to the lowest responsible bidder.
However, the RCS has unique requirements because it is most
importantly a technology project. The project's construction
components represent a very small percentage of the overall
project cost.
"To ensure that the system can be selected that best meets the
region's diverse emergency communications requirements would
be to procure the RCS contract through the solicitation of
competitive proposals that would allow San Diego County to
consider price, among other factors, in its selection."
3)Background . The RCS is a public safety voice communications
system that provides radio communications for twenty-one 911
dispatch communications centers and thousands of first
responders throughout San Diego County and Imperial County.
The RCS serves law enforcement, fire services, emergency
medical providers, and a variety of public service agencies.
The system not only supports local agencies, but also state,
federal, and tribal agencies operating in the region. The RCS
provides a high level of interoperability enabling public
safety agencies in the two counties to communicate in all
types of emergencies and disaster responses.
The RCS also provides interoperable communications with public
safety systems in surrounding areas to support mutual aid and
coordinated responses with multiple agencies. This type of
interoperable regional communication is essential not only for
the daily emergencies that first responders handle, but for
catastrophic events such as the wildfires of 2003 and 2007
that require all of a region's first responders to work
together and receive the same information. The current
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system, commissioned in 1998 with a life expectancy of 15
years, operates as a wide area network with more than 50 radio
sites throughout the two counties.
The proposed project includes replacing obsolete technology,
both hardware and software, that will address redundancy of
critical components, improve radio system coverage in areas
without complete coverage, and increase system capacity to
support existing requirements and accommodate future growth.
4)State contracting law generally requires local agencies,
including counties, to procure services for construction
projects over a certain dollar amount through a competitive
bidding process that awards the contract to the bidder who
offers the lowest responsible bid. According to the sponsor,
the County of San Diego, "While generally, the competitive
bidding requirements of current law are important mechanisms
for protecting the public's interest in fair and cost
effective government contracting, in this particular instance,
they would unreasonably delay completion of the communications
system. In addition, the bidding requirements of current law
do not contemplate such a technologically advanced project.
The standard low bid arrangement simply will not yield the
best product." Supporters note that this project is primarily
a technology project that includes construction components
that represent a small percentage of the overall project cost.
They contend that San Diego County needs the authority to
consider price among other factors in its selection.
5)Previous legislation . AB 946 (B. Lowenthal), Chapter 400,
Statutes of 2011, authorized the Los Angeles Regional
Interoperable Communications System Authority (LA-RICS), a
joint powers agency, to use an alternative solicitation
process to award a contract for the design and build out of a
regional interoperable communications system and related
infrastructure. AB 946 required the solicitation process to
ensure that the contractor was selected in compliance with a
"procurement by competitive proposals" process pursuant to
federal law.
This bill, however, provides a blanket exemption from state
contracting law, stating that the County of San Diego may use
any competitive procurement method to procure the RCS and
related infrastructure including provisions of Local Agency
Public Construction Act that would otherwise apply to the
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County of San Diego. According to the author, the intent of
this bill is to "procure the RCS contract through the
solicitation of competitive proposals that would allow San
Diego County to consider price, among other factors, in its
selection." The Committee may wish to consider whether
minimum requirements for a competitive process should be
included in this legislation.
6)Arguments in support . Supporters contend that this bill is
necessary to allow the RCS to proceed in a timely and
cost-effective fashion.
7)Arguments in opposition . None on file.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
County of San Diego [SPONSOR]
Bonita-Sunnyside Fire Protection District
Calexico Fire Department
Carlsbad Police Department
Chula Vista Police Department
City of Coronado
El Cajon Police Department
Escondido Police Department
Imperial County Board of Supervisors
La Mesa Police Department
National City Fire Department
National City Police Department
Oceanside Police Department
Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department
San Diego County Chiefs' and Sheriff's Association
San Diego County Fire Chiefs' Association
San Diego County Sheriff's Department
San Diego Police Department
Urban Counties Caucus
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Angela Mapp / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958
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