Off-Site Prefab Bill Passes Legislature; AGC Seeks Veto
AGC-opposed legislation requires general and subcontractors on non-transportation related public works projects over $1 million to submit to the state information regarding any off-site prefabricated nonstandard project-specific items produced outside Washington.
The bill SB 2805 passed both the House and the Senate. AGC will urge Gov. Chris Gregoire to veto it. An action alert will be emailed in the near future requesting member involvement in that effort as well. Click here if you haven’t signed up to receive the alerts.
The information that must be provided is: (1) the total cost of the public works project; (2) the contract value including labor and materials of the off- site prefabricated nonstandard project specific items produced outside Washington; and (3) the name address and federal employer identification number of the contractor that produced the items.
The information must be reported to the awarding agency and to Labor and Industries which forwards it annually to the Capital Projects Advisory Review Board (CPARB) for hearings.
Firms that violate the requirements more than once will no longer meet the responsible bidder criteria and qualify to be awarded a public works project.
The bill was improved during the legislative process but is still unworkable. For example the definition for off-site prefabricated nonstandard project-specific items is unclear to contractors or awarding agencies. Plus AGC is concerned that the state will be spending scarce resources – about $600000 – to administer a requirement that will provide no useful information and that the measure could ultimately trigger reciprocal action from neighboring states.
Amendments supported by AGC exempt WSDOT and local transportation projects from the requirement and sunset the requirement at the end of 2013 rather than 2015.
For more information contact AGC’s Legislative Counsel Van Collins at 360-352-5000.