Once again, Sacramento has taken away a little more local control from cities over their own business, thanks to approval today by Governor Jerry Brown.
Last week, the state Senate approved SB829, a labor union backed bill. The Senate’s approval of SB829 is an attempt to undercut Proposition A, the Fair and Open Competition Initiative, which is on the June ballot in San Diego.
SB829 is an attempt by labor-backed lawmakers to restrict construction funds to charter cities that refuse to consider union-friendly Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on city construction projects. Experts agree these types of agreements increase construction costs up to 15 percent. The bill, backed by the State Building & Construction Trades Unions, now gives labor unions control of local construction money and block savings for local taxpayers. SB829 was opposed by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, the League of California Cities, and the California Chamber of Commerce.
It sticks in the Libertarian Lass’s craw and it should stick in the craw of every taxpayer and voter when Sacramento legislators have the arrogance to dictate terms when local governance isn’t to their liking. In this case, we have Sacramento putting conditions on funding unless charter cities go along. No matter how much a city’s elected leaders may believe in fair and open competition, the thought of a cash-strapped city losing out on desperately needed state funds may be daunting enough to force them to submit.
Proposition A will prevent the City of San Diego from imposing mandatory PLAs on City-funded construction projects. This means equal treatment for union and non-union workers. It also requires the Mayor to post construction contracts online for public review. Proposition A is endorsed by San Diego mayoral candidates Bonnie Dumanis, Carl DeMaio, and Nathan Fletcher; In November 2010, San Diego County’s version of Proposition A passed with 76 percent of the vote and won every precinct in San Diego County. NOTHING passes in San Diego County by this kind of margin.
Late today, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said he would defend Prop A in court if voters pass the measure in June.
Scott Crosby, President of the Associated Builders and Contractors of San Diego, said, “SB829 has serious constitutional defects. However, that has not stopped some in the legislature from backing what should be a non-starter. SB829 is a power grab by Sacramento politicians that will certainly be overturned by the courts.”
“We all know this is a legislative maneuver to take local control away from San Diego and keep it in the hands of special interests,” San Diego County Senator Joel Anderson said. “It’s their drill for special interests.”
“It is extremely frustrating for local governments when the legislature places restrictions on them financially,” San Diego County Senator Mark Wyland said. “In this instance, it is their local control that we are intruding upon, and it makes no sense. Let’s not burden our cities anymore.”
Details are posted on the Fair and Open Competition website, where you can also find more information about PLAs and why Prop A needs to pass in June.
DISCLOSURE: Associated Builders and Contractors San Diego is a client of my public relations firm, Falcon Valley Group.
Comments 10
The governor signed it…
http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17512
Lorena and Evan were quick to let Gayle and us know as much on Twitter.
Author
Correct – on the heels of posting this, Governor Brown signed the bill into law. It remains to be seen exactly what happens in cities like Oceanside and Chula Vista where voters passed fair and open competition laws.
Prop A remains on the City of San Diego ballot this June, and if it passes, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith has been quoted saying he will defend it on behalf of the City. It seems this discussion is far from over.
Sacramento is not forcing cities to use PLA’s. They are not even forcing cities to consider using PLA’s. All the bill does is ensure that locally elected officials have the choice, on a project by project basis, whether or not to use a PLA.
It is also worth noting that none of the cities (or the County) that have passed the “Fair and Open Competition Ordinance” had ever mandated a PLA on a project prior to passing the ordinance.
Alger – PLease. These are NOT decisions made by governing bodies schooled in the subtalities of construction management and cost controls. They are decisions made for exactly the WRONG reason – political pressure exerted by the trade unions to structure conditons which disadvantage non-union bidders.
Remember, we have a PLA right now in San Diego that governs the installation of Audio Visual equipment. We are not talking about a multi-million dollar complex project that requires hundreds of skill laborers coodinated to ensure on time delivery but a contract worth just over 1 million – under a PLA imposed by a school board with NO experience whatsoever in construction management and in direct oppposition to their staff at the time who said they didn’t need it.
And to elaborate – what prop A does is say that such political pressure is off the table. Union and non-union contractors can compete against each other without efforts at the front end to try to disadvantage one group of bidders against the other.
Finally, just so you don’t embarass yourself Alger – if that WASN”T the reason for PLA why would the trade spend SO much time and treasure fight for these tools? You can’t imagine it is altuism? If so, I might suggest many a charity much more worthy of their invesment in time and treasure.
Erik,
If elected officials were limited to voting on issues that they were expert in and didn’t receive any political pressure on, they would have very little, if anything, to vote on.
Alger, you just described a utopia.
Michael,
Agreed. Unfortunately, we live in the real world, elected officials are expected to vote on a multitude of issues they know little about and PLA’s isn’t the only issue they are lobbied on.
Yes. But when elected officials show themselves of incapable all too often of working in the public interest we take those things “off the table” from politics. Too bad we won’t do the same with PLAs
Erik,
Who is to say what is or isn’t in the public interest and if your answer is the initiative process, are you saying that public votes are devoid of politics?