Agenda - 01-22-2015 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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20 1 projects and to what extent it is allowable for the County to require payment of a living wage by 2 contractors. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Commissioner Dorosin said he would like some clarification on the living wage issue. He supports the idea, but he is confused about when this is permissible, and he would like more information from John Roberts on this issue, and what the motion does related to that. . John Roberts said in 2013 the legislature passed some amended language that allows Counties to contract with private entities, but it states that they may not require a living wage as a condition of bidding on a contract. He said a living wage requirement could probably be added to any contract that is under the bidding threshold. Commissioner Dorosin said if a contract is put out to bid, the County cannot say that a vendor must pay a certain amount to its workers in order to get the contract, but the County could specify for a preference for working with contractors that pay a living wage. He said if the lowest bid came in, and it was a contractor who pays the federal minimum wage, the County would be required to accept that bid. John Roberts said yes, the County can put a preferential statement in any contract, but per state statute the lowest responsive, responsible bid must be accepted. Commissioner Dorosin asked if bids are solicited for projects that fall below the threshold of needing to go out to bid. John Roberts said there are typically requests for proposals that are similar to bids, but for smaller contracts those generally are not bid at all. He said small projects would be anything under $25,000 to $35,000. Commissioner Dorosin asked if the County is subject to the same requirement to pick the lowest bidder in the case of a request for proposal (RFP) for these smaller projects. John Roberts said no, that requirement is only for actual bidding contracts. Commissioner Dorosin asked Commissioner Jacobs if his motion is asking that an RFP be done for the picnic and parking areas for this project. Commissioner Jacobs said they had asked staff to work with the attorney to determine whether a living wage can be required for those projects. He said his original motion was to have in writing the answers to the exact questions that the attorney just articulated, in order to have a policy that the County can adopt instead of going through this for every contract. He said since this project will be done prior to the adoption of any policy, he was giving John Roberts the maximum room to work with staff on these two projects. He said the attorney would be the best one to determine what is required. Chair McKee said he has a problem with the motion and he would like to separate the two motions for the project and the living wage. Commissioner Jacobs and Commissioner Price agreed to this. John Roberts said the motion can be amended through friendly amendment. A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Price to authorize staff to proceed with the described actions to open the park on a limited basis with a target date of March 2015. VOTE: UNANIMOUS A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Dorosin to direct staff to work with the County attorney to determine on which projects and to what extent it is allowable for the Board to require payment of a living wage by contractors.