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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 7149
January Session, 2025
LCO No. 5653
Referred to Committee on PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Introduced by:
(PD)
AN ACT CONCERNING CERTAIN MUNICIPAL CONTRACTS FOR
PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING SERVICES.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2025) (a) For the purposes of this 1
section, (1) "firm" means any individual, partnership, corporation, joint 2
venture, association or other legal entity authorized to provide 3
professional engineering services pursuant to chapter 391 of the general 4
statutes, and (2) "municipality" has the same meaning as provided in 5
section 7-148 of the general statutes. 6
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of any special act, municipal 7
charter or home rule ordinance, on and after January 1, 2026, unless any 8
provision of state or federal law, including, but not limited to, sections 9
4b-91 and 10-287 of the general statutes, requires otherwise, a 10
municipality shall utilize the process described in this section when 11
soliciting professional engineering services from any firm, if the fee for 12
such services is anticipated to exceed one hundred thousand dollars and 13
be paid, in whole or in part, with state funding. 14
(c) (1) Any municipality that requires professional engineering 15
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services, if the municipality anticipates that the fee for such services will 16
exceed one hundred thousand dollars and be paid, in whole or in part, 17
with state funding, shall provide a description of the services required 18
and solicit firms to submit a statement of qualifications for such firm, in 19
accordance with the provisions of subsection (d) of this section. Each 20
such statement of qualifications shall include, but not be limited to, (A) 21
a description of such firm, including the location of such firm's office or 22
offices and the number of years such firm has been engaged in the 23
practice of professional engineering, (B) examples of similar services 24
provided by such firm and such firm's record of past performance with 25
respect to control of costs, quality of work and cooperation with clients, 26
(C) information concerning such firm's project manager and key staff, 27
including, but not limited to, such manager and staff's education and 28
training, (D) a description of quality control measures utilized by such 29
firm, (E) a description of such firm's proposed approach to the provision 30
of the services sought by the municipality, (F) a proposed schedule for 31
the provision of such services, if applicable, and (G) any additional 32
information the municipality determines is necessary to select a firm to 33
provide such services. 34
(2) The municipality shall evaluate each statement of qualifications 35
submitted by a firm and rank each such firm based on criteria developed 36
by the municipality to evaluate each firm's qualifications. After ranking 37
each firm that submitted a statement of qualifications, the municipality 38
shall negotiate a contract for such services with the highest ranked firm 39
at a rate of compensation the municipality determines is fair and 40
reasonable in consideration of the value, scope, complexity, schedule for 41
completion and nature of such services. If the municipality is unable to 42
enter into a contract with the highest ranked firm after such negotiation, 43
the municipality may negotiate with any additional responding firms, 44
in order of such firms' ranking, in accordance with the provisions of this 45
subsection. 46
(d) Any municipality shall publish on the Internet web site of the 47
municipality: (1) A description of the professional engineering services 48
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the municipality requires and a solicitation of the submission of 49
statements of qualification by firms, including instructions for the 50
submission of such statements, (2) the criteria the municipality 51
developed for the evaluation of such firms pursuant to subsection (b) of 52
this section, and (3) upon execution of a contract with a firm for such 53
professional engineering services, a list of the firms that responded to 54
such solicitation and the ranking assigned to each such firm by the 55
municipality. 56
(e) (1) Any municipality may establish and maintain a list of firms 57
that are preapproved to provide professional engineering services for 58
the municipality. Any firm that desires to appear on such list shall 59
submit a statement of such firm's qualifications, including, but not 60
limited to, (A) a description of such firm, including the location of such 61
firm's office or offices and the number of years such firm has been 62
engaged in the practice of professional engineering, (B) examples of 63
engineering services provided by such firm and such firm's record of 64
past performance with respect to control of costs, quality of work and 65
cooperation with clients, (C) information concerning such firm's project 66
manager and key staff, including, but not limited to, such manager and 67
staff's education and training, (D) a description of quality control 68
measures utilized by such firm, (E) a description of such firm's proposed 69
approach to the provision of engineering services, and (F) any 70
additional information the municipality determines is necessary to 71
determine whether to place a firm on such list. Upon receipt of a 72
statement pursuant to this subsection, the municipality shall determine, 73
in accordance with criteria developed by the municipality, whether to 74
place such firm on the municipality's preapproved list. Any firm the 75
municipality places on such list shall submit an updated statement of 76
such firm's qualifications to the municipality not less than every five 77
years thereafter, or more frequently upon the request of the 78
municipality. 79
(2) Any municipality that requires professional engineering services 80
and has established a list of two or more firms pursuant to subdivision 81
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(1) of this subsection may, in lieu of complying with the publication 82
requirements described in subsection (d) of this section, provide each 83
firm on such list a description of the professional engineering services 84
the municipality requires and request from each such firm a proposed 85
schedule for the provision of such services, if applicable, and any 86
additional information necessary to permit the municipality to rank 87
each firm based on criteria the municipality developed pursuant to 88
subsection (c) of this section. After ranking each firm, the municipality 89
shall negotiate a contract for such services in accordance with the 90
procedures described in subsection (c) of this section. 91
(f) Any municipality that has previously executed a contract for the 92
provision of professional engineering services with a firm may negotiate 93
additional terms or a new contract with such firm for an associated 94
project. 95
Sec. 2. Subsection (b) of section 7-148v of the general statutes is 96
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 97
1, 2025): 98
(b) [Notwithstanding] Except as provided in section 1 of this act, 99
notwithstanding the provisions of the general statutes or any municipal 100
charter, special act or ordinance, any municipality may purchase 101
equipment, supplies, materials or services from a person who has a 102
contract to sell such goods or services to other state governments, 103
political subdivisions of the state, nonprofit organizations or public 104
purchasing consortia available through a regional educational service 105
center or regional council of governments, in accordance with the 106
provisions of such contract. 107
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2025 New section
Sec. 2 October 1, 2025 7-148v(b)
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Statement of Purpose:
To require municipalities to utilize a qualifications-based selection
process in awarding contracts for certain professional engineering
services.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]