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 City of Hermosa Beach --- 10-16-97
INITIATIVE PROHIBITING THE USE OF PRIVATE DESIGN PROFESSIONALS ON STATE PROJECTS OR PROJECTS INCLUDING STATE FUNDS
Recommendation:
That the City Council adopt the attached resolution stating its opposition to the initiative sponsored by the Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG).
Background:
The state, several years ago, began the process of doing some engineering work by using outside engineering firms. These firms were selected through a proposal process. The work done was fine, on time and on budget. The engineers employed by the state have qualified this initiative for the June 1998 ballot. The attached material goes into some detail about the issue. As you know, may of our projects use state funding. We generally have private design firms submit proposals for the work. Having only the state employees do the work would slow most projects down and would drive the costs up. I believe that the City Council should take a position by adopting the attached resolution on this issue.
RESOLUTION NO. 97-
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF HERMOSA BEACH OPPOSING THE "GOVERNMENT COST SAVINGS AND TAXPAYERS PROTECTION AMENDMENT"
WHEREAS, Every day billions of dollars of critical building, engineering and design projects are underway from seismic retrofitting to flood control to schools and hospitals; and,
WHEREAS, State, regional and local governments are currently allowed the flexibility to contract with private firms, on a competitive basis, to design these projects; and,
WHEREAS, This process allows government the essential flexibility to use private firms to deliver a project on time and cost effectively; and,
WHEREAS, The so-called "Government Cost Savings and Taxpayers Protection Amendment" completely changes the process by giving the state bureaucracy a virtual monopoly on designing every project; and,
WHEREAS, This will thereby force cities, counties, schools, special districts, regional governments and even many private businesses to use the state bureaucracy to design roads, parks, hospitals, health clinics, schools, water treatment facilities, flood control walls and other critical structures - including all engineering, design, geological and environmental work; and,
WHEREAS, Virtually every school and hospital has been designed by private firms, not state government; and,
WHEREAS, The proposed initiative eliminates local control and forces communities to rely on the out-of-town state bureaucracy for the design work; and,
WHEREAS, Local governments would not be able to hold the state bureaucracy accountable; and,
WHEREAS, The initiative gives one state politician enormous power to decide who gets tens of thousands of design and building projects worth billions of dollars; and,
WHEREAS, The state controller would have to analyze tens of thousands of proposed contracts per year costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, in additional expenses; and,
WHEREAS, To meet potential workload demands, hundreds, if not thousands, of state employees would need to be employed and paid, even if no projects were underway; and,
WHEREAS, Taxpayers would pick up the tab for billions in extra costs for projects, lost jobs and more state employees to evaluate projects; and,
WHEREAS, This could mean more delays on important projects such as the Bay Bridge retrofit and the Alameda Rail Corridor in Los Angeles County.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of Hermosa Beach opposes the so-called "Government Cost Savings and Taxpayers Protection Amendment" that will cost our cities, counties, special districts and economy millions and we support the efforts of the growing coalition of Taxpayers Fed Up With More State Bureaucracy (Fed Up)!.
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