Amended in Assembly August 19, 2014

Amended in Assembly June 11, 2014

Amended in Senate May 27, 2014

Amended in Senate May 5, 2014

Senate Bill No. 969

Introduced by Senator DeSaulnier

(Coauthors: Senators Beall, Gaines, Galgiani, begin delete and Hancock end delete begin insert Hancock, Lara, Pavley, Roth, and Steinberg end insert )

February 10, 2014

An act to amend Sections 8847 and 8847.1 of, to amend the heading of Chapter 11 (commencing with Section 8847) of Division 1 of Title 2 of, and to add Sections 8849, 8850, and 8851 to, the Government Code, relating to public works.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 969, as amended, DeSaulnier. Public works.

Existing law generally defines “public work” as construction, alteration, demolition, installation, or repair work done under contract and paid for in whole or in part out of public funds; work done for irrigation, utility, reclamation, and improvement districts, and other districts of this type; street, sewer, or other improvement work done under the direction and supervision or by the authority of any officer or public body of the state or of any political subdivision or district thereof, and public transportation demonstration projects, as specified. Existing law, the Public Works Project Peer Review Act of 2013, authorizes a public agency principally tasked with administering, planning, developing, and operating a public works project to establish a peer review group, as defined. If a peer review group is established, existing law requires the administering agency to draft a charter, published on the agency’s Internet Web site, related to the duties of the peer review group.

This bill would authorize these provisions, instead, to be known and cited as the Public Works Project Oversight Improvement Act. The bill would define a “megaproject” as a transportation project with total estimated development and construction costs exceeding $2,500,000,000. The bill would require the agency administering a megaproject to establish a peer review group and to take specified actions to manage the risks associated with a megaproject including establishing a comprehensive risk management plan, and regularly reassessing its reserves for potential claims and unknown risks. The bill would require the agency administering a megaproject to make available to the public via its Internet Web site a list of all engineers in responsible charge of work related to the begin delete megaproject, and their qualifications. end delete begin insert megaproject. end insert Because this bill would require local agencies to perform additional duties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The heading of Chapter 11 (commencing with
Section 8847) of Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code is
amended to read:

 

Chapter  11. The Public Works Project Oversight
Improvement Act

 

SEC. 2.  

Section 8847 of the Government Code is amended to
read:

8847.  

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the
Public Works Project Oversight Improvement Act.

SEC. 3.  

Section 8847.1 of the Government Code is amended
to read:

8847.1.  

For purposes of this chapter, the following terms have
the following meanings, unless expressly stated otherwise:

(a) “Administering agency” means a public agency principally
tasked with administering, planning, developing, and operating a
public works project.

(b) “Megaproject” means a transportation project with total
estimated development and construction costs exceeding two
billion five hundred million dollars ($2,500,000,000).

(c) “Peer review group” means a group of persons qualified by
training and experience in particular scientific or technical fields
related to the public works project under review, who give expert
advice on the scientific and technical aspects of the public works
project.

SEC. 4.  

Section 8849 is added to the Government Code, to
read:

8849.  

begin insert (a) end insert begin insert   end insert To ensure that an administering agency manages the
risks associated with a megaproject, the agency shall, at a
minimum, take all of the following actions:

begin delete

(a)

end delete

begin insert (1) end insert  Establish a comprehensive risk management plan that clearly
defines roles and responsibilities for risk management and
addresses the process by which it will identify and quantify project
risks, implement and track risk response activities, and monitor
and control risks throughout the duration of the project.

begin delete

(b)

end delete

begin insert (2) end insert  Qualify the effect of identified risks in financial terms.

begin delete

(c)

end delete

begin insert (3) end insert  Develop and maintain documents to track identified risks
and related mitigation steps.

begin delete

(d)

end delete

begin insert (4) end insert  Regularly update its estimates of capital and capital outlay
support costs.

begin delete

(e)

end delete

begin insert (5) end insert  Regularly reassess its reserves for potential claims and
unknown risks, incorporating information related to risks identified
and quantified through its risk assessment process.

begin delete

(f)

end delete

begin insert (6) end insert  Regularly integrate estimates for capital, capital outlay
support costs, and contingency reserves into a programwide report.

begin insert

(b) The requirements contained in subdivision (a) shall be
deemed to have been satisfied if an administering agency is
undertaking similar activities for a megaproject as required by
any state or federal agency.

end insert

SEC. 5.  

Section 8850 is added to the Government Code, to
read:

8850.  

(a) In the case of a megaproject, an administering agency
shall establish a peer review group for the purpose of reviewing
the planning, engineering, financing, and other elements of the
agency’s plans and issuing an analysis to the agency’s governing
board, or in the case of a state agency, to the Legislature.

(b) The administering agency shall provide the peer review
group any and all information that the peer review group may
request to carry out its responsibilities.

(c) This section does not apply to any peer review group created
on or before January 1, 2014, by another provision of law.

begin insert

(d) The requirement contained in subdivision (a) shall be
deemed to have been satisfied if an administering agency has
established a peer review group for the purposes listed in that
subdivision as required by any state or federal agency.

end insert

SEC. 6.  

Section 8851 is added to the Government Code, to
read:

8851.  

In the case of a megaproject, an administering agency
shall make available to the public via its Internet Web site a list
of all engineers in responsible charge of work, as defined in Section
6703 of the Business and Professions Code, related to the
megaproject, begin delete and their qualifications. end delete begin insert including each engineer’s
license number or numbers, and license type or types, issued
pursuant to the Professional Engineers Act (Chapter 7
(commencing with Section 6700) of Division 3 of the Business and
Professions Code). end insert

SEC. 7.  

If the Commission on State Mandates determines that
this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to
local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made
pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division
4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.