Design-Build Sustainability Course

Design-Build Sustainability Course

When:  September 16-17, 2010 (8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Thursday; 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Friday)

Where:  Seattle, Washington (221 Yale Avenue N., Suite 400, Skanska Building USA)

Cost:  $575 for DBIA members; $875 for non-members

Speaker:  Kevin O'Donnell

Sponsored by:  Design-Build Institute of America

For more information and to register, click here.

Multiple Violations of Bid Laws by Fire District

The Ferry/Okanogan County (WA) Fire Protection District No. 13 was the subject of a recent audit by the Washington State Auditor's Office.  

The audit finding noted multiple areas where the Fire District was out of compliance with basic public works bidding requirements on the construction of a new fire hall, including the following:

• Retainage:  Withheld 10% retainage from the contractor, instead of the 5% maximum permitted by RCW 60.28.011.

• Retainage Release:  Released retainage to the contractor without obtaining approval from the State Department of Revenue that taxes had been paid, as required by RCW 60.28.060.

• Change Orders:  Permitted the contractor to complete work on six change orders before the change orders were approved by the District's board.

• Consultant Selection:  Selected a local contractor to provide "architectural and construction oversight" but did not comply with selection procedures of chapter 39.80 RCW, or actually enter into a contract.  If I understand the facts correctly, I don't think the Fire District was required to comply with the consultant selection procedures of chapter 39.80 RCW.  This law only applies when a public agency selects a firm to perform work that must be performed by licensed or registered architects, engineers, landscape architects, or land surveyors.  Providing construction oversight is not solely the purview of architects, and in fact, the Fire District didn't hire an architect, but a local contractor.  The fact that the District failed to execute a contract for the work is a problem.

Small Works Roster:  In addition, the District did not advertise annually for the district's Small Works Roster, nor post a list of contracts awarded annually under the Small Works Roster, as required by RCW 39.04.200.

Training Needed for District:  The Fire District did not provide a response to the audit findings.  The auditor noted that neither the District staff or Board members had adequate knowledge of state bidding laws, and recommended the District obtain training so they could comply with the requirements.

Webinar: Bulletproof Your Bidding Process: Keys to Minimize Liability

I will be teaching at 1 hour webinar on a variety of public bidding issues.

Subject: Bulletproof Your Bidding Process: Keys to Minimize Liability 

When: August 12, 2010 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (Eastern Time).

Cost:  $199

Outline of Webinar:  Here are some of the subjects I'll be covering.

• Bid receipt and opening issues
• Managing addenda
• Mandatory pre-bid meetings
• Common bid irregularities
• Difference between material and immaterial irregularities
• Bidder responsibility criteria
• What bidding error can be corrected
• Managing requests for bid withdrawal (claims of error)
• Bid protests

More Information and Registration:  Visit the website of Government Educator, who is sponsoring the webinar.

Questions:  Please contact me if you have any questions about the webinar.

City Fails to Check Federal Debarment Status of Non-Profit Agency

The City of Mount Vernon, Washington was the subject of a recent audit finding by the Washington State Auditor's Office for failing to have adequate internal controls in place to verify that recipients of federal funds were not debarred or suspended from federal contracting.

The failure to check debarment status for any contract of $25,000 or more is one of the most common audit findings against public agencies.  

Mount Vernon received over a half million dollars in Community Development Block Grant funds in 2009, of which almost $60,000 went to a non-profit agency.  The City failed to check whether the non-profit was debarred or suspended under federal regulations.  To read the three page audit finding, click here.

 

Checking the Debarment Status:  The debarment check can be accomplished by either obtaining a written certification that the firm (or in this case, non-profit agency) is not debarred or suspended, or by checking the debarment status on the federal government's debarment website:  http://www.epls.gov.

Tip:  If you receive any federal funds for your agency, remember to read and comply with all of the terms of the grant agreement, which may include provisions besides doing a debarment check. 

New Prevailing Wages Effective September 1, 2010

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) published new prevailing wage rates on August 2, 2010 that will become effective on September 1, 2010.  Click here for L&I's prevailing wage page.

Bid Submittal Deadline:  The prevailing wage rates for a project are those in effect on the bid submittal deadline for the project.  Thus, for any project with a bid submittal deadline of September 1, 2010 or later, the new wage rates will need to be included in the bidding documents, by addendum if necessary.

New L&I Website for Rates:  L&I has also implemented a new system for looking up and printing prevailing wages rates.  Click here for instructions and help about using the new system.  From a quick review of the new system, it appears to be more cumbersome for public agencies who are required to print and include prevailing wages in the bidding documents.  I would be interested in hearing what public agencies think of the new system.

Helpful Links

If you've never looked at the Online Reference page on my website, you might want to see if there are any useful links there that can help you in your work.

The following is the general outline of major categories of the links:

• General Reference
• Laws and Regulations
• Business Reference Searches
• Construction
• Construction Standard Specifications
• Prevailing Wages
• Architectural and Engineering
• Rosters and Blanket Contracts
• Procurement and Contracting
• Risk Management
• Government Agencies
• Public Housing Organizations
• Government Associations
• Training and Conferences
• Contracting and Procurement Jobs

Please contact me if you find any broken links, or if you have any suggestions for other useful links to add to the list.

Retainage Release Update from Dept. of Labor and Industries (WA)

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) currently has a backlog of a little over 60 days from the date they receive a request for retainage release from a public agency until they send their approval.  As of last week, L&I informed me they had a little over 600 Requests for Release that had not been acted upon.

Notification Process of Missing Affidavits:  If there are missing Affidavits of Wages Paid for the contractor or any subcontractors, it may take longer for L&I to respond.  L&I is planning to implement soon a new process on notifying parties of missing Affidavits.  Their plan is as follows:

• They will call the subcontractor with a missing Affidavit as soon as L&I staff are aware it is missing.
• After 30 days, if the Affidavit is still missing, L&I will contact the general or prime contractor to notify them that the subcontractor has not filed the Affidavit.
• After 60 days, L&I will contact the public agency to let them know what Affidavits are still missing.

Streamlining Efforts:  L&I is continuing to evaluate their process to try to streamline the review of Requests for Release.  L&I has recently shifted the task of entering Requests for Release into their database to administrative support staff, instead of the two full time staff who review the Requests.  Thus, Requests for Release are being entered into the database quickly.  L&I is also considering other steps to make the process more timely.

What Can Public Agencies Do?  To help expedite L&I's review, if public agencies write the Affidavit of Wages Paid number on the Request for Release form, that will save L&I time and result in quicker processing of the release letters.

Combined Release Form:  L&I is having discussions with the Department of Revenue and Employment Security Department about moving forward with a combined release form for public agencies to complete.