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BELLEFONTE -- During this week's Centre County Commissioner meeting the board voted 2-1 to advertise an ordinance that would require county government to accept the lowest responsible bidder on any construction project $250,000 or more.
The vote came after members of the public voiced their concerns about the ordinance's effect on local contractors.
The "Responsible Contractor Ordinance" requires the county to use contractors with at least 70 percent of the craft labor workforce employed on the project be either workers who have completed an apprenticeship training program, registered apprentices enrolled in that program or a journeyman.
County Administrator John Franek explained to the public what some of the changes made to the final draft of ordinance were, such as the language and definitions surrounding some of the words used, which was brought up in two previous work sessions.
There were also changes made to the time frame given for a contractor to submit a subcontractor list, and a section added for a waiver of requirements.
Previously, the proposal stated, under the "Contractor Responsibility Certifications" subsection 10B, that the county would accept "documentation, submitted as part of the firm's certification, of a successful resume of projects, documentation of the firm's internal training program, roster of the trained personnel in its employ and submission of its safety program and Experience Modification Rate (EMR)."
The ultimate goal of the ordinance is to promote worker safety, safety training, employment of workers within Centre County and workforce development as a whole. Contractors will be required to submit a notarized certification confirming their past performance, work history, qualifications and performance capabilities.
Commissioner Steven Dershem, who has a degree in labor studies, was vocal about his dislike for the proposed ordinance, vehemently voting against advertising it on the grounds that it limits local contractors from being able to bid on county projects.
"There's no fairness, there's no equity and quite frankly I think this really doesn't demonstrate good governance," Dershem said.
According to Dershem, the ordinance was even more restrictive than he'd previously expected after he looked into what contractors in Centre County qualify for work on government projects based on these restrictions.
"Are we shutting out folks from Centre County from even participating? This is a very limited and almost exclusive list of people that are qualified to work on county projects," said Dershem. "I'm very concerned that what we have here is going to limit the availability of local contractors to participate. I see here contractors that will never have a shot at working for the county government."
Commissioners Mark Higgins and Amber Concepcion, both in favor of the ordinance, explained the purpose of it being implemented.
"This ordinance protects both the county and workers on large projects... It's establishing benchmarks for participating in apprenticeship programs that are registered with the state. This helps to ensure that quality work in highly skilled and technical fields is being done on our projects. By using this third-party verification of their training, it does not require the county to then have to make its own evaluation of worker training," said Concepcion.
"Several other counties in Pennsylvania have used Responsible Contractor Ordinances successfully for years," said Higgins.
An addition made to the ordinance was a waiver of requirements, outlining when the requirements could be waived; if the county receives no bids by the closing of a bidding period or if the county receives only one bid that exceeds the project's budget.
Higgins said, "We're trying to be as flexible as possible on this while still encouraging workforce training, encouraging safety and for the county to have the ability to say, 'Yes you're the lowest bidder, but you disclosed a number of things to us that give us cause for concern.'"
"What we really have to look at, here, is you put this escape hatch in here... It almost shows the hypocrisy of the ordinance. It's saying even if we do our best and we don't get anyone, it's okay to go back to the way it was," said Dershem. "I think this is going to be dangerous."
The public comment section of the meeting found many individuals with questions and concerns about the ordinance, including questions on terminology used.
Mike Hawbaker with Glenn O Hawbaker, asked after Concepcion's experience being on the State College Area School Board during the build project with the high school, "Since that project, which is larger than the potential here, were there any problems with that not being under the Responsible Contractor Ordinance that you found while you were sitting on the school board while that facility was being built?"
Concepcion answered a simple, "No. It was very successful. We did employ for a significant amount of money Massaro Construction. They had many people on site, and we had a large facilities department in house supervising the contract. A little bit of a larger supervisory function than the county has."
Hawbaker went on to speak on the implementation and getting people onto the apprentice program.
"We're very concerned. We're starting to work with ABC right now, but we believe -- and I hope I'm not underestimating this -- but we're talking about a ramp up time of a year," he said. "Until we pull documentation together and by what we've been given by ABC in order to complete that competently and be able to sign off with a notarized statement, we're hoping we can get that accomplished in a year."
According to Hawbaker, to bring people on, record all their training and skill sets, all the work they've done in the past and get this in front of the accrediting agency leaves him unsure of whether or not they could get it done in a year.
Jim Willshier, director of government affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors Keystone chapter, said, "In the first hearing to discuss this, we said we had strong concerns about the apprenticeship threshold and that was a key component that we said we had concerns about. That is still in here. The planning department is going to have an incredible burden put on them to follow through with this."
"Safety is talked about a lot with this, EMR is a great way to be able to have an objective standard to measure safety. For it to not be in here," said Willshier, "is a big question in our mind of, if safety is the goal here, that's a great way to measure safety and ensure it. For it to not be here, we question how important safety is with this ordinance."
This ordinance will be advertised for 30 days before the board takes a vote on adopting it, and a public hearing will be held June 27 with details to come.