Boost to worker safety or ‘bad governance’? Commissioners are split on proposed ordinance

The Centre County Government took its first step toward adopting a Responsible Contractor Ordinance during the board of commissioners meeting Tuesday.

During a full meeting, the board voted 2-1 to advertise its proposed ordinance, which would require the county government to accept the lowest responsible bidder in any capital construction project over $250,000, with stronger guidance on what “responsible” means. The ordinance will be advertised for 30 days before the board takes a vote on adopting it. A public hearing will be held June 27, with more details on the time and location to be announced.

Commissioner Steve Dershem has been a vocal opponent of he proposed ordinance and voted against advertising it. During Tuesday’s meeting, he said the proposal would limit the availability of local contractors that would be able to bid on such projects.

“I think this ordinance is unfair and discriminates against numerous Centre County contractors and tradespeople. And I really find this to be bad governance,” Dershem said. “I’ve always tried to be fair and above board, and I’ve always taken equity and I’ve always taken fairness very seriously in my job. I’ve fought corruption over the course of many, many years ... I will tell you this is not good governance.”

Commissioners Mark Higgins and Amber Concepcion voted in favor of advertising the ordinance. If enacted, Concepcion said it would protect both the county and workers on large projects, and will ensure quality work in highly skilled technical fields is being done on county projects. Studies have also shown these types of ordinances don’t increase the cost of projects, she said.

Higgins added that it would encourage worker safety, as the employers will need to certify that all the employees on the job have had their initial 10 hours of OSHA safety training, with at least one on the job site with 30 hours.

“We did allow some flexibility for contractors, where only 70% of the workforce would need to either be a journeyperson level or graduated from an apprenticeship program or be enrolled in an apprenticeship program,” Higgins said. “....as we have additional registered apprentices on programs, it can potentially reduce the county’s overall costs because apprenticeship people in approved programs are paid less.”

Higgins stressed this ordinance would apply to only county government projects over $250,000. There have been years in the past where the county didn’t have any projects that would meet that. But, as Dershem pointed out, a $30 million project to reuse the former Centre Crest building as offices for the county government is planned to go out to bid later this summer. Higgins said they’d like to have “a lot of safety on the project” and would like the ability to turn down the lowest bidder and go with the second lowest bid if they do have concerns about the quality and legality of the lowest bidder.

Overview & revisions

Some goals of the proposed ordinance are to promote and encourage worker safety, safety training, workforce development and employment of workers within Centre County and Pennsylvania. County code requires the board to award public works contracts to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder. But there is limited guidance on what “responsible” means; that’s where the Responsible Contractor Ordinance comes into play.

With the ordinance, a contractor would submit a notarized Contractor Responsibility Certification, which confirms many facts regarding its past performance, work history, current qualification and performance capabilities.

The final draft that the board is considering has some revisions compared to the draft that was presented at a work session earlier this month, including: the language and definition around prefabrication and fabrication, training and certification, changing the time frame given for the contractor to submit a subcontractor list, and adding a section for waiver of requirements.

The proposed ordinance would, among many things, require the county to use contractors with at least 70% of the craft labor workforce employed on the project be either a journeyperson, workers who have completed an apprenticeship training program, or registered apprentices enrolled in such programs.

While a previous version of the proposal stated in lieu of the participation of an apprenticeship program, the county would accept a “successful resume of projects, documentation of the firm’s internal training program, roster of the trained (personnel) in its employ and submission of its safety program and Experience Modification Rate,” the advertised proposed ordinance does not include that.

The exclusion drew concern from several people during public comment.

“Safety is talked about a lot with this, EMR is a great way to be able to have an objective standard to measure safety,” Jim Willshier, director of government affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors Keystone chapter, said. “For it to not be in here is a big question in our mind of, if safety is the goal here, that’s a great way to measure safety and ensure it. For it to not be here, we question how important safety is with this ordinance.”

Some people who attended the last work session still had the same issues and concerns with parts of the ordinance, including lack of clarity on the fabrication and off-site fabrication part. They continued to caution the 70% of the workforce requirement could be too high and difficult for local contractors to meet.

New to the proposed ordinance is a waiver of requirements, which outlines when the requirements of the ordinance can be waived. Those two events are if the county doesn’t receive any bids by the close of the bidding period, or when the county receives only one bid for the project but it exceeds the project’s budget.

Higgins said they’re trying to be “as flexible as possible” while still encouraging workforce training, safety and allowing the county not to pick the lowest bidder if there are concerns. Dershem disagreed and said having an “escape hatch” shows the hypocrisy of the ordinance.