Government Relations
UW System Position on Bills Introduced in the Legislature During the 2009-2010 Session
Pending Legislation
AB 427
Full Description
(Black/Risser, by request of the Building Commission) Under current law, contracts for work on state construction projects that cost more than $40,000 must be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder and must be preceded by public notice and a public bidding process. If bids are required to be solicited and the estimated cost of a project exceeds $150,000, the Department of Administration (DOA) must solicit single and separate bids on each portion of the work that DOA designates.
The bill permits DOA either to: 1) solicit both single and separate bids on any division of the work it designates; or 2) solicit only single bids on all divisions of the work that DOA designates.
The bill also enables DOA to utilize “construction-manager-at-risk” procedure whereby DOA hires a manager to provide pre-construction services and to manage the construction process. DOA may provide that notice and bidding requirements and other laws governing construction procedures do not apply to a specific project constructed using this new contracting procedure.
The legislation specifies and standardizes subcontractor protections enforced under single-prime contracts in administrative rule. DOA would also be permitted to require each bidder on a project to submit with its bid a list of its subcontractors to be used on the project.
UW System Position
SUPPORT: This proposal will streamline project management in state facilities to save time, reduce administration, and increase accountability. The bill would treat the three most common project delivery methods equally in the statutes.
Wisconsin is well behind other states in utilizing a variety of competitive project delivery methods to gain value and efficiency in state building projects. Forty-six other states make use of a variety of delivery methods as standard practice. In addition, Wisconsin municipalities, technical college districts, K-12 school districts are not subject to restricted delivery methods.
The bill would save time and reduce administration by requiring the Department of Administration to prepare, process, and manage fewer contracts per project. Accountability for project management would increase because projects would have a single entity contractually responsible for the project schedule, budget, and site management.
AB 427 and SB 298 are consistent with previous recommendations passed by the Board of Regents.