Centre adopts RCO; Public turns out for comments
Trending
BELLEFONTE -- The Centre County Board of Commissioners have voted 2-1 in favor of an ordinance that requires county government to accept the lowest responsible bidder on any county construction project of $250,000 or more.
The Responsible Contractor Ordinance requires the county to use contractors with at least 70% of the craft labor workforce employed on the project to be either workers who have completed an apprenticeship training program, registered apprentices enrolled in that program or a journeyman.
It was stressed multiple times during the meeting that this ordinance only applies to projects undertaken directly by Centre County. It does not apply to county endorsed or sponsored projects. It also does not apply to buildings, structures or facilities owned by others, public or private; only county-owned buildings, structures and facilities $250,000 or more that are subject to competitive bidding.
The objectives of this ordinance are: to ensure safe, timely projects per specs and codes; provide the lowest overall cost and best value to the county and taxpayers; limit project risks and protect proprietary interests; and ensure adequate development of trained, skilled workers. Contractors will be required to submit a notarized certification confirming their past performance, work history, qualifications and performance capabilities.
The ordinance contains requirements that disqualify bidders based on past performance issues, failure to meet bonding requirements and a lack of proper licenses, registrations and certificates.
A bidder, if disqualified, can still bid on projects in the future once they can meet all requirements.
The county held two public work sessions regarding this ordinance, the first on Jan. 10 and the second on May 23, in addition to Tuesday's public hearing.
There were 30 speakers and many more audience members in attendance this Tuesday as the floor was opened to the public for comments regarding the ordinance; all of the available seating in the boardroom was filled, resulting in many individuals having to go to an "overflow" room.
The public comment section of the meeting took nearly two hours, each speaker getting five minutes to speak to keep things fair. Some speakers did not take their full time slot, but were not permitted to yield their time to other speakers.
It was requested that repetitive comments were avoided as much as possible to save time; insulting, threatening or obscene comments were also prohibited. Attendees were given a number for the order in which they would speak on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Many of those speaking had great points both in favor of the ordinance and in opposition, many of which brought forth specific sections of the ordinance they disagreed with for the commissioners to take a closer look at.
The second speaker, Brandy Reiter, was in attendance on behalf of Senator Cris Dush. She first emphasized that Dush does not oppose the idea of ensuring that responsible contractors are being used for public contracts.
"(Dush) feels like contractors acting in bad faith on public projects are a legitimate and recurring problem," said Reiter. "…Dush does not feel the current responsible contractor ordinance proposed by Centre County only ensures that responsible contractors are being used. It is the senator's opinion that this ordinance will also either force contractors to use union labor or ensure that these projects are only awarded to union contractors."
Reiter gave specific talking points on sections of the ordinance Dush feels need to be revisited, noting that some of the components of the ordinance will cause more work for both the county and individual contractors.
"Senator Dush agrees with the sentiment behind the ordinance," said Reiter, "There is an issue with bad faith contractors in public works. However, (Dush) does not feel like the ordinance, as it currently reads, is fair to non-union contractors or enforceable... This RCO mandates a percentage of the craft labor workforce employed on the project shall be persons completing an apprenticeship training program... a 70 percent threshold. General contractors and subcontractors cannot meet this requirement without a labor union apprenticeship program per the RCO."
Ed Maxwell, owner of Maxwell Trucking and Excavating, was the 16th person to speak. He echoed comments made by previous speakers, specifically regarding the complexity of some jobs not equating to the cost.
"We employ about 60 people. The $250,000 threshold is not a lot of money as projects go... I think there's some more work that can be done to this ordinance to include -- not preclude -- all of us non-union workers. Unions are unions. They're here, they're strong, the room is full of them. They talk like we don't know how to do quality work, and we do not know how to do safe work," said Maxwell.
"What about the people who have worked for me that are 60 years old who have been running dozers their entire life, now they have to go back to an apprenticeship program? Their kids are 40 years old, trained by their fathers. We have this idea today that unless you have an apprenticeship program, you can't run a safe company. I disagree with that and I think my employees will. (We need to) put more work into how we can include and not drive our local non-union men away from this community," said Maxwell.
One of the more compelling comments in favor of the ordinance was from speaker #20, Zach Womer.
"The first thing I thought about when I saw this meeting was announced was that it was at 10 a.m., here. You'll notice that all the speakers before me and all the speakers after me dressed quite nicely. I came here today from a jobsite in Boalsburg. I am the only working person here, advocating for us. Next time, maybe we will have it at Sheetz at 6 a.m. and more people can be there," said Womer, adding some humor into his soon-to-be serious statement.
Womer informed the audience that he has worked construction for his entire adult life, as has his father. He said that his dad can barely walk, and held up his own hands to show the audience scars, noting broken fingers.
"We've worked for people who don't have any care about us. 33 percent of construction workers have a musculoskeletal disorder. My dad is one of those people. My childhood, my Dad couldn't throw or catch with me or do anything with me because he was hurting. A quarter of all construction workers have a substance abuse disorder. They account for the majority of workplace overdoses of opioids. Not addressing those concerns would be a great mistake," said Womer.
Once the public comment section of the meeting was concluded, the commissioners were able to make their own comments. As is the traditional order, the order began with Vice-Chair Amber Concepcion before moving on to Commissioner Steven Dershem and finally ending with Chairman Mark Higgins.
Concepcion first and foremost thanked everyone in attendance for taking time out of their day to attend the meeting; praising the robust discussion and information given, including some suggestions made about the meeting venue.
"I'd like to be really clear on why I support this Responsible Contractor Ordinance. Evidence-based policy is our best bet for improving outcomes for our constituents. I've always tried to approach major decisions through an understanding of the available data. (RCOs) protect taxpayers' investments in public facilities by establishing minimum training criteria for workers on projects that must go to the lowest bidder," said Concepcion.
Concepcion spoke about the responsibility of the officials to ensure that workplaces are safe and that taxpayers are getting what they are paying for. She spoke on the effects of RCOs in other areas of Pennsylvania, describing various requirements that are in Centre's RCO. She gave specific data -- including studies done in previous years.
"The county is right to establish benchmarks and safeguards that protect both taxpayers and workers," said Concepcion.
Dershem commented first on the fact that not all RCOs use the same language, indicating that there are many ways to look at the ordinance. He spoke about individuals who are incredible workers who would be shut out by the ordinance, indicating flaws in the ordinance that are too broad.
"If it's to flush out folks that are unethical or improper that's one conversation. If you're talking about safety that's another conversation. The initial project that we started (with) indicated that there would be an experience modification rate as a metric of how things are supposed to occur," said Dershem.
"There's a lot of nebulous pieces of this puzzle that continue to generate more and more questions... It doesn't answer the biggest issue that I have which is fairness. I know there's a lot of folks out there that don't appreciate my look at things... I have a degree from Penn State University in Labor Studies... I want you to understand I would be vehemently opposed to this even if it favored non-union folks against the trade unions," said Dershem.
"I don't know how we can continue to look at this as being fair based on a lot of the conversation we've had here today. It's going to shut out a lot of local contractors. We don't have that kind of workforce here. We're going to be tentacled out all across the state for labor because our people are shut out. I have a problem with that," said Dershem
Dershem clarified that he thought the ordinance was rushed through, and that ideas kept changing from the original conversation. He insisted one last time that they needed to rethink the ordinance, and fix the flaws he indicated.
Higgins was the final board member to speak, indicating that the majority of contractors are honest and strive to run their businesses well; the RCO is meant to protect taxpayer dollars and strengthen the community. He stressed that the ordinance covers a small portion of county projects.
"Current state legislation forces local governments to always take the low bid for large construction projects... An RCO will allow the commissioners to weed out unscrupulous bidders who low-ball bids and then create multiple change orders to improve their profit to the unfair advantage of the honest contractors. It levels the playing field for in-state smaller bidders because it makes it more difficult for large contractors to bring in out-of-state contractors and workers, therefore supporting local workers, wages and benefits," said Higgins.
He also commented that Northampton County has reported lower costs and fewer change orders on large construction projects after the RCO was implemented. Higgins also mentioned by name the five construction workers who died on the job in Centre County.
The ordinance passed in a 2-1 vote.
Though not everyone's comments are able to be published in this article due to the magnitude of the comments, the entire live stream including the public comment section is able to be viewed on C-NET's YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqLBzAN9AnI&t=5770s
The Responsible Contractor Ordinance will go into effect July 27, 2023.