LADOTD Reform Bills Move to the Senate
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The LADOTD reform bills (HB 528, HB 556, HB 640) passed off of the House Floor last week by votes of 97-0, 97-0 and 96-2 respectively. To emphasis their support for the legislation forty-four legislators co-authored HB 556 and forty-eight co-authored HB 621.
The bills have since been sent over to the Senate and will next be heard and considered in the Senate Transportation Committee. All three bills have been amended significantly since originally filed so it will be interesting to see if the Senate prefers the posture the bills are currently in or the posture they were originally filed. Although the bills have been amended to address most of our concerns, we will stay engaged to make sure these amendments are not reversed and to continue improving the legislation where possible.
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Update on ACECL Sponsored Bill
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HB 312,by Rep. Gadberry, passed out of Senate Transportation last week without opposition. The bill is pending final passage off of the Senate floor which is the last step of the legislative process.
Because we have a month left in this session, we are attempting to amend this bill to include a provision that will prohibit the use of arguably illegal and certainly overly burdensome duty to defend clauses found in some public owners' standard contracts.
As currently written, HB 312 will close a loophole in the Hammett Act by requiring QBS procurement when any public dollars (state or local) are being used for engineering, architecture or surveying. Currently, the law only states that a 'public entity' cannot consider price or price related information when selecting A/E services. Recognizing the limiting language, some public entities have required their prime designers (private entities) to solicit bids from their A/E subs after the public entity selected the prime using QBS. This is a clear circumvention of the law that will no longer be allowed when the bill passed. The legislation also adds that any private entity contracted by a public entity to deliver a project or program of project must also adhere to the Hammett Act.
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HB 633, by Rep. Jacob Braud, passed out of House Transportation today as a substitute bill. The bill, as originally filed, would have completely changed the makeup of the SLFPA-East board by replacing the current engineer and scientist seats with a CPA, an attorney, a law enforcement officer, and two at large seats.
The substitute bill aborts the original board overhaul and reinstates four of the five engineer/scientist seats to the SLFPA-East board. Keeping professional engineering representation on the board was very important to ACECL and we are happy to see the substitute bill address our concern.
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If you have any questions, concerns, or information regarding any legislative matters, please email me at bdirmann@acecl.org
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