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18663 | Mr. Viaming responded the City would not want to have a hard deadline and have to race to be covered by a project agreement; stated bid specifications have to be done right and bidders need to be notified that an agreement exists which has required terms and conditions; lead time is needed; encouraged starting as early as possible because what will happen in negotiations is not known; further stated more time is needed if hard elements are being negotiated; not getting an Agreement done in time and running into a problem is an unacceptable risk; the City may run out of time and not reach an Agreement or end up making a concession. Vice Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft inquired whether negotiations should start six months or a year prior to construction in the example of a new bond funded facility. Mr. Viaming responded other agencies often start in advance of a bond measure vote and have the agreements in place; stated six months, or slightly longer, should be provided for negotiations; six months is more than enough time for most agreements, unless there is something particularly difficult. Councilmember Chen inquired whether there is an overlapping common denominator in most PLAs, such as hiring local, minority or women contractors. Mr. Viaming responded in the affirmative; stated typical provisions include: scope, strike/lock out, referrals, dispute resolution, and safety; said items are typically covered at a macro level; then, local matters include start times, daily machinations and paydays; the agreement standardizes certain things; social progress provisions are generally included in more urban Project Agreements and are becoming more typical in the interior Bay Area, but not rural areas. Councilmember Chen stated the City of Berkeley addressed a citywide PLA a year and a half ago; inquired what is the general trend and whether any other cities are considering citywide PLAs. Mr. Viaming responded that he does not know. Councilmember Chen stated an argument against PLAs is the inability for non-union workers and contractors to compete; inquired how to respond to said argument. Mr. Viaming responded the argument comes up all the time; inability to bid on a "union" project is fundamentally not true; stated PLAs for public entities are open to union and non-union; the California Supreme Court in a San Francisco Airport case determined a contractor can decide whether or not to bid on a project; whether union or non-union specific work conditions are required of any bidder; projects are open and available to all contractors; provided an example of a bond funded community college project with a large number of non-union contractors performing work under a Project Agreement; the other argument is cost claiming non-union contractors have to add money to bids because they will have to pay more; reviewed how benefits are structured and Special Meeting Alameda City Council 2 September 24, 2013 |