Legislation Offered to Exempt School Construction from School Co-op Purchasing Program
Legislation has been offered to modify a little know group buying program that school districts have used in hopes of saving money. According to some reports, these purchasing agreements have resulted in savings for schools, but not in all cases. There have been a few cases where roof replacement costs were much higher than if the school simply bid the projects as is normally required. That has spurred Representative Jesse Topper (R) from Bedford County to introduce HB 2614, which would no longer allow the program to be used to for school construction. In his cosponsor memo, Topper writes: “I intend to introduce legislation proposing to end the use of cooperative purchasing for school district construction projects. This proposal will allow state agencies and most local agencies to continue to use cooperative purchasing as they currently do. Additionally, the bill will permit school districts to continue to utilize cooperative purchasing for the supplies and services in which it was originally intended.
School district construction projects are not one-size-fits-all purchases and, thus, are not suitable jobs for the type of contracting that cooperative purchasing facilitates. Contracts that are competitively bid are the preferred method of procurement in such situations because they allow all contract specifications to be designed precisely for the school district in question.
In 2017 the Schuylkill Technology Center located in Frackville, PA needed to replace a 90,000 square foot roof. They were offered a quote of $1.6 million ($17.77/square foot) under the cooperative purchasing program. The school board felt the co-op quote was very high, so they decided to competitively bid the project. They were provided with several bids less than $1.6 million and accepted the lowest competitive bid of $818,000 ($9.088/square foot) saving a total of $782,000.” The bill was just introduced on August 30.
Governor’s Office Publishes Regulatory Agenda
Executive Order 1996-1 requires all agencies under the jurisdiction of the Governor to submit for publication semi-annually an agenda of regulations under development or consideration. To meet this requirement, the following was published in the August 4 issue of the PA Bulletin. This Agenda represents the Administration’s present intentions regarding future regulations. The information provided is current as of July 13, 2018. The nature and complexity of an individual regulation obviously will determine whether and when any particular regulation listed (as well as any considered subsequent to publication of this Agenda) is published. Agency contacts should be contacted for more information regarding the regulation and the procedure for submitting comments.
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State Registration Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists |
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Regulation Being Considered |
Proposed Date |
Need and Legal Basis for |
Agency Contact |
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Electronic Seals and Signatures |
Fall 2018, as Proposed |
The proposed regulations would update existing regulations on seals and set forth standard requirements for electronic seals and electronic signing of design documents. The goal of this proposal is to be consistent with proposed regulations of the State Architects Licensure Board and the State Board of Landscape Architects to provide all design professionals with standards that are as consistent as possible with respect to both traditional seals and electronic seals to benefit both the design professionals and their clients. |
Jeannie Bronshtein |
Legislative Activity
The following bills of interest to PSPE have been introduced and/or acted upon in the past month.
Professional Licensure
SB 1226 RE: Disciplinary Hearings (by Sen. John Blake, et al)
Amends the act entitled “An act empowering the General Counsel or his designee to issue subpoenas for certain licensing board activities; providing for hearing examiners in the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs; providing additional powers to the Commissioner of Professional and Occupational Affairs; and further providing for civil penalties and license suspension,” further providing for hearing examiners by requiring that the respondent appear in person for a hearing conducted under this act. The bill further stipulates that an individual adversely affected by the respondent’s actions which are relevant to the disciplinary matter pending before the licensing board or commission or a hearing examiner shall have an opportunity to provide a statement concerning any loss, damages or injury suffered as a direct result of the respondent’s actions.
Introduced and referred to Senate Consumer Protection & Prof. Licensure Committee, 8/9/2018
School Construction
HB 2614 RE: Cooperative Purchasing (by Rep. Jesse Topper, et al)
Amends Title 62 (Procurement), in intergovernmental relations, prohibiting school districts from participating in, sponsoring, conducting or administering a cooperative purchasing agreement for the procurement of construction.
Filed, 8/30/2018
Copies of all bills of interest can be accessed via the Internet here.
