Fowler Municipal Code Ch. 4 Procurement/Procedures for Public Projects

This chapter is adopted to implement the procedures for contracting for public projects as authorized by the Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Act.

(Ord. No. 2020-03, § 2, 5-5-2020)

For the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise apparent from the context, certain words and phrases used in this chapter are defined as follows.

(a) "Contractors list" shall mean a list of qualified contractors, identified according to categories of work. The minimum criteria for the development and maintenance of the list shall be determined by the California Uniform Construction Cost Accounting Commission.

(b) "Public project" is as defined in Section 22002 of the Public Contract Code, and means any of the following, but does not include "maintenance work":

(1) Construction, reconstruction, erection, alteration, renovation, improvement, demolition, and repair work involving any publicly owned, leased, or operated facility.

(2) Painting or repainting of any publicly owned, leased, or operated facility.

(c) "Maintenance work" includes all of the following:

(1) Routine, recurring, and usual work for the preservation or protection of any publicly owned or publicly operated facility.

(2) Minor repainting.

(3) Resurfacing of streets and highways at less than one inch.

(4) Landscape maintenance, including mowing, watering, trimming, pruning, planting, replacement of plants, and servicing of irrigation and sprinkler systems.

(5) Work performed to keep, operate, and maintain publicly owned water, power, or waste disposal systems.

(d) "Facility" is as defined in Section 22002 of the Public Contract Code, and means any plant, building, structure, ground facility, real property, streets and highways, or other public work improvement.

(Ord. No. 2020-03, § 2, 5-5-2020)

The dollar amount thresholds provided in this chapter shall automatically adjust to the dollar amount thresholds provided under Public Contract Code Section 22032 upon the effectiveness of any adjustment notification by the State Controller in accordance with Public Contract Code Section 22020, without the necessity of amending this chapter or any section or subdivision herein to reflect any such adjustment.

(a) Public projects of Sixty Thousand Dollars ($60,000.00) or less may be performed by City employees by force account, by negotiated contract, or by purchase order. Notwithstanding any provision in the Fowler Municipal Code to the contrary, and provided the expenditure is within the budget limitation, the City Manager is authorized to approve the use of City employees for public projects, and may approve and sign any contract or purchase order for public projects not exceeding $60,000.00 provided the City Manager reports the approval of any such contract or purchase order to the City Council at the next available City Council meeting.

(b) Except as provided in subdivision (4) below, public projects of Two Hundred Thousand Dollars ($200,000.00) or less may be let to contract by informal bidding procedures as follows:

(1) Informal Bid Procedures. Public projects, in accordance with the limits listed in Section 22032 of the Public Contract Code, may be let to contract by informal procedures as set forth in Section 22032, et seq., of the Public Contract Code.

(2) Contractors List. A list of qualified contractors shall be developed and maintained in accordance with the provisions of Section 22034 of the Public Contract Code and criteria promulgated from time to time by the California Uniform Construction Cost Accounting Commission.

(3) Notice Inviting Informal Bids. A notice inviting informal bids shall be prepared, which notice shall describe the project in general terms, describe how to obtain more detailed information about the project, and state the time and place for the submission of bids. The notice shall be mailed, not less than ten (10) calendar days before bids are due, to either all contractors on the Contractors list for the category of work to be bid, or to and to all construction trade journals as specified by the California Uniform Construction Cost Accounting Commission in accordance with Section 22036 of the Public Contract Code. Additional contractors and/or construction trade journals may be notified at the discretion of the department soliciting bids, provided, however:

(A) If there is no Contractors list maintained by the City for the particular category of work to be performed, the notice shall be sent only to the construction trade journals specified by the Commission.

(B) If the product or service is proprietary in nature such that it can be obtained only from a certain contractor or contractors, the notice may be sent exclusively to such contractor or contractors.

(4) Award of Contracts. Contracts for public projects in excess of $60,000.00 shall be awarded by the City Council. If all bids received are in excess of $200,000.00, the City Council may, by adoption of a resolution by four-fifths vote, award the contract, at $212,500.00 or less, to the lowest responsible bidder, if it determines the project cost estimate was reasonable.

(c) Public projects of more than Two Hundred Thousand dollars ($200,000.00) shall, except as otherwise provided in this section, be let to contract by formal bidding procedure in accordance with applicable provisions of the Public Contract Code, including, but not limited to, Public Contract Code Section 22037.

(Ord. No. 2020-03, § 2, 5-5-2020)

If any section, subsection, phrase, or clause of this chapter is for any reason held to be invalid, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this chapter. The City Council hereby declares that it would have adopted this chapter and each subsection, phrase, or clause thereof irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, phrases, or clauses be declared invalid.

(Ord. No. 2020-03, § 2, 5-5-2020)