Substitute House Bill No. 5311
Special Act No. 14-18
AN ACT ESTABLISHING THE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTING AND BIDDING TRANSPARENCY WORKING GROUP.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. (Effective July 1, 2014) (a) There is established a working group to be known as the Construction Contracting and Bidding Transparency Working Group. Such working group shall study state construction contracting and subcontracting processes. As part of such study, the working group shall solicit testimony and recommendations from the public, trade associations and the general contractor and subcontractor community.
(b) The working group shall consist of the following members:
(1) The Commissioner of Administrative Services, or a designee;
(2) The Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, or a designee;
(3) The Labor Commissioner, or a designee;
(4) The president of The University of Connecticut, or a designee;
(5) The executive director of the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, or a designee;
(6) A representative of a women-owned business who is familiar with state construction contracting, who shall be appointed by the Governor;
(7) A representative of the Connecticut State Building Trades, who shall be appointed by the Governor;
(8) A representative from an organization representing general contractors, who shall be appointed by the Governor;
(9) A representative who is a construction manager-at-risk, who shall be appointed by the Governor;
(10) A representative from an organization familiar with state construction contracting processes, who shall be appointed by the speaker of the House of Representatives;
(11) A representative from a trades organization, who shall be appointed by the majority leader of the House of Representatives;
(12) A representative who is a small contractor with fewer than thirty employees, who shall be appointed by the minority leader of the House of Representatives;
(13) A representative from an organization representing subcontractors, who shall be appointed by the president pro tempore of the Senate;
(14) A representative who is a general contractor, who shall be appointed by the majority leader of the Senate;
(15) A representative from an association representing design professionals, who shall be appointed by the minority leader of the Senate;
(16) A representative from a minority-owned business who is familiar with state contracting processes, who shall be appointed by the Governor, in consultation with the chairperson of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus of the General Assembly; and
(17) A nonmanagerial employee of the Department of Administrative Services who is familiar with state construction contracting processes, who shall be appointed by the Commissioner of Administrative Services.
(c) All appointments to the working group shall be made not later than thirty days after the effective date of this section. Any vacancy shall be filled by the appointing authority. Members of the working group shall serve without compensation.
(d) The Commissioner of Administrative Services, or his designee, shall be the chairperson of the working group. The chairperson shall schedule the first meeting of the working group, which shall be held not later than sixty days after the effective date of this section.
(e) Not later than January 1, 2015, the working group shall submit a report on its findings and recommendations to the Governor and to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to government administration, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a of the general statutes. Such report shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(1) A review and analysis of the current general contractor and construction manager at risk practices for receiving subcontractor and lower tier subcontractor bid submissions on capital projects;
(2) A review of existing laws regarding state enforcement, compliance, and licensing authorities that govern general contractors, construction managers at risk and subcontractors;
(3) A review of existing construction contracting methods;
(4) Best practices for subcontractor and lower tier subcontractor bid submissions on capital projects used by other states and government jurisdictions; and
(5) Recommendations for administrative and legislative changes.
(f) The working group shall terminate on the date that it submits its report.