BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 1347
AUTHOR: Anderson
AMENDED: March 25, 2014
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 30, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira
SUBJECT : School district public works contracts.
SUMMARY
This bill requires a school district to post the final
contract awarded for any publicly bid public construction
or improvement of $5,000 or more on the district's Internet
Web site.
BACKGROUND
Existing law, the California Public Records Act (CPRA)
governs the disclosure of information collected and
maintained by public agencies. Generally, all public
records are accessible to the public upon request, unless
the record requested is exempt from public disclosure.
There are 30 general categories of documents or information
that are exempt from disclosure, essentially due to the
character of the information. Unless it is shown that the
public's interest in disclosure outweighs the public's
interest in non-disclosure of the information, the exempt
information may be withheld by the public agency that has
custody of the information. (Government Code � 6250, et
al)
Current law requires the governing board of a school
district, to competitively bid, and award to the lowest
responsible bidder, any contract for a public project (as
defined) with an expenditure of $15,000 or more. (Public
Contract Code � 20111)
Current law authorizes the local governing board of a
school district to enter into a contract for construction,
reconstruction, erection, alteration, renovation,
improvement, demolition, and repair work involving any
SB 1347
Page 2
publicly owned, leased, or operated facility involving an
expenditure of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) or more,
to the lowest responsible bidder and outlines various
procedures to be followed. (Public Contract Code �
20110-20118.4)
ANALYSIS
This bill requires a school district to post on its
website, at its next regular update, every publicly bid
public works construction or improvement contract awarded
for $5,000 or more.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, current
law does not provide for easy public access to copies
of construction/remodeling contracts of $5000 or more.
Requiring that contracts be posted on the district's
website would increase the transparency of government
and public awareness of the use of tax dollars. This
bill seeks to update the format in which these
contracts are available to ensure that what is already
available in paper format can be accessed online.
2) What is currently required ? Disclosure of information
on awarded contracts is currently generally provided
in two ways:
a) As each contract must be reviewed and
adopted by the local governing board, the minutes
of school board meetings, which are generally
posted on a district's website, will include a
list of contracts reviewed and approved by the
Board. While it can be argued that this
information can be obtained by a review of the
minutes of the meeting of the school board,
posting a list of these contracts on the
district's website could facilitate access and
transparency for the public.
b) Disclosure of the details of an individual
contract, as required by this bill is generally
done in compliance with a Public Records Act
(PRA) request. When such a request is received,
the district is required to redact any
SB 1347
Page 3
proprietary, trade secret, or otherwise legally
privileged or confidential information from
contracts before making the document available.
This bill requires the automatic posting of each
individual contract, whether or not a PRA request is
received, creating significant and potentially
unnecessary expense for districts to review and redact
confidential information from every contract prior to
posting. Staff recommends the bill be amended to
delete the requirement that individual contracts be
posted and instead require that a list of contracts
awarded be posted on the district's website.
3) Posting in perpetuity ? As currently drafted, the
posting of contracts that meet the bill's criteria
would be required indefinitely. Staff recommends the
bill be amended to narrow its provisions and require
that a list of contracts awarded in the prior year be
posted.
4) Charter Schools ? In a prior form, this bill's
provisions applied to all local agencies. While the
bill has been narrowed to apply to school districts,
it is unclear why other K-12 educational agencies are
not included.
Current law exempts charter schools from most state
statutes governing school districts. Charter schools
are currently exempt from Education and Public
Contract Code provisions applicable to the
construction of school facilities unless these
activities are undertaken with state funds, in which
case they would be subject to public contract code
provisions and be required to comply with public bid
provisions. Staff recommends the bill be amended to
require that charter schools that enter into publicly
bid construction or improvement contracts of $5,000 or
more be required to comply with the bill's provisions.
SUPPORT
Air Conditioning Trade Association
Associated Builders and Contractors - San Diego Chapter
Associated Builders and Contractors, (ABC California)
SB 1347
Page 4
Gems Environmental Management Services, Inc.
Western Electrical Contractors Association
Nine individual letters
OPPOSITION
California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO)
Coalition for Adequate School Housing
Los Angeles Unified School District
San Diego Unified School District