CIFAC NEWS

CIFAC Rescues L.A. ARRA Projects; $99 Million to Bid

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA – The City of Los Angeles was allocated $120 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to stimulate job growth through public works construction projects. ARRA required that projects funded by this stimulus money be competitively bid. In the first round of funding, the City of Los Angeles asked for a $30 million waiver for a variety of street and road paving jobs around the City. City officials asking for waivers for all of these projects was based on their assertion that they could do it more cheaply using city staff (force account) and that they had already invested money in supplies. ARRA funds come from the Federal Highway Administration who delegated authority to Caltrans to grant the waivers.

CIFAC jumped on the case to prevent the City from doing all of the $120 million worth of work by force account. With much persistence, and with the help of contractors, CIFAC was able to show Caltrans what was at stake. Caltrans, after months of silence, issued a decision that allowed the City of Los Angeles to continue with $21 million worth of work because they had already purchased all the materials, but required that they bid $9 million and said that the rest of the $90 million in projects be put out to competitive bid.

Around the State

Riley-Spring 2010

The Mendocino County Department of Transportation faxed and requested informal bids from a number of contractors. The project was to install eight test wells on County property to monitor fuel infiltration into the groundwater. CIFAC was contacted after a number of items were missing from the bid request documents. Riley spoke to the County and was told that they would issue an addendum and postpone the bid date. The County then informed one contractor that he could do things in a different way than was specified in the documents. CIFAC sent a letter to the County notifying them that this information must be available to all bidders, and that they must issue another addendum and extend the bid date as per the Public Contract Code. read more in our newsletter

“Watchdog howls over justice center work”

As a result of Michelle Tuckers action, this was printed on the front page of the Union Democrat newspaper on May 26th, 2010. The Article follows:

The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved paying the Tuolumne Utilities District for work that will provide water and sewer service to a proposed law and justice center along Old Wards Ferry Road.
The move was unanimous, but not without controversy. Michelle Tucker, of the Construction Industry Force Account Council, an industry watchdog group, told supervisors the project should go out to bid.
As proposed, the project essentially amounts to a change order to an existing infrastructure project that will accommodate a new Lowe’s store near the Crossroads shopping center. California Gold Development Corp. is the project’s contractor. read more in our newsletter

Riverside County Seeks Charter

Shari Pence noticed that Riverside County is proposing a measure to adopt a charter in a special election consolidated with the statewide general election on November 2, 2010. Although County Counsel has confirmed it is a single issue charter dealing with filling a vacancy on the Board, CIFAC’s concern is the initiation of a process which will allow self government. But it also contains language that incorporates all of the counties current rules. Once a charter is approved, the Board of Supervisors will have the opportunity to present changes that could adversely affect the construction industry. How many charter entities have ultimately claimed exemption from competitive bidding and prevailing wage laws?.

CIFAC is seeking participation from our networking partners to formulate an opposition to appear as argument to the proposed charter in the County’s Sample Ballot and Information Pamphlet. Please contact Shari Pence, Southern Region Field Representative, CIFAC, immediately for further information as the deadline for submission is August 16, 2010.

Our New Force in Southern California

One of the first projects Cindy checked on was a project between the City of Los Angeles, Union Pacific Railroad Company and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company using unknown labor for the re-construction and rehabilitation of 36 highway rail grade crossings funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funds. This project is estimated to be $7,932,000. The investigation was resolved with the Department of Transportation verifying that the identified railroad crossings are completely within the railroads’ right-of-ways and that only the railroad may perform the work, using railroad employees and railroad contractors. The railroad estimates that 42 jobs will be created by the use of the funds and project. read more in our newsletter