The City of Philadelphia flagged eleven (yes this one goes to eleven) prime contractors for flaunting the City of Philadelphia’s DBE rules according to the City of Philadelphia Office of Inspector General. According to the news release, the chief offender, William H. Betz, Inc., may have gotten off easy. According to the OIG, Betz facilitated… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Public Bidding
Subscribe to Public Bidding RSS FeedWhat Happens When Funding Runs Out for Your Project?
Posted in Public Bidding, Public ContractsHall of Fame Philadelphia Eagles radio man Merle Reese once saw a play that seemed improbably — and perhaps against the rules — to which he disclaimed “he can’t do that! Yes, he can do that!” You might be thinking the same thing when you receive notice from your federal government client that the project… Continue Reading
Are You Violating The False Claims Act?
Posted in Contracts, Davis Bacon, DBE, Public BiddingOne of the great things about living in a large city is being able to walk everywhere. I like walking because it is when I do my thinking. Sometimes I do too much thinking that it causes me to walk several blocks past my intended location. We sometimes lose focus on what is happening around… Continue Reading
Is Your Disparity Study Accurate?
Posted in DBE, Public Bidding, Public Contracts(This guest blog post from John Sullivan, Esquire, a Baltimore lawyer who specializes in DBE and MWBE disparity studies. John’s website is Croson Legal Services. He can be reached via email at jcharlessullivan@yahoo.com) For more than two decades it has been true that subcontracting goals – Disadvantaged Business Enterprise goals on federal work and Minority and… Continue Reading
PA Board of Claims Has Exclusive Jurisdiction Over Contractor Claims
Posted in Public Bidding, Public ContractsMy age makes me part of perhaps the last generation to go to college where computers, the internet, and email were not in widespread use. Before the internet age, Villanova University, where I went to undergraduate and law school, would notify students of the time and location of final exams by posting several small print… Continue Reading
DBE/MBE Goals Threaten to Make Complete Mess of Project
Posted in DBE, Public Bidding, Public ContractsHere is one I have not seen before, a project that threatens to get derailed because the general contractor proactively included M/WBE goals in its contract. The story reported in the Baltimore Business Journal involves M/WBE hiring goals in Whiting-Turner’s contract to build the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore. According to the story, Whiting Turner, the project’s general contractor,… Continue Reading
Bid Protests Are Worth It!
Posted in Public Bidding, Public ContractsSo concludes an upcoming report by the former Dan Gordon, the former head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. According to Gordon, among the pro’s of a bid protest are: Protests introduce a relatively low-cost form of accountability into acquisition systems by providing disgruntled participants a forum for airing their complaints; They can increase potential bidders’… Continue Reading
How to File a Federal Bid Protest
Posted in Public Bidding, Public ContractsIn recent years, as private work has become more scare, the competition for public projects has increased. In turn, so have the number of bid disputes challenging the awards of those public contracts. Since 2006, the number of bid protest filed with the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) has nearly doubled from approximately 1,300 protest filed… Continue Reading
Does PennDOT Know We Have a Public Private Partnership Act?
Posted in Public Bidding, Public ContractsThe Pennsylvania Department of Transportation recently released its first ever “Transportation Performance Report, a detailed rating of the state’s efforts in safety, mobility, system preservation and accountability, with the results underscoring the need for additional transportation investment.” According to the report “In the categories of system capacity enhancements, local bridge conditions, pavement reconstruction and transit infrastructure,… Continue Reading
How to Count Material Suppliers Towards DBE Goals
Posted in Contracts, Public Bidding(Note: My DBE related blog post are always among the most read. When I recently asked folks for help coming up with a future blog post topic, DBE “regular dealer” issues was a near unanimous response.) Under the Department of Transportation (“DOT”) DBE regulations, contractors can only count the value of the work actually performed by a… Continue Reading
Do Not Include This Your Next Bid
Posted in Public BiddingThe DOT Inspector General reports Luis Rodriquez is charged with making false statements in his bid for a maritime security contract by: indicated that his company could provide a private army of 3,000 men; however, his company did not have any employees, executive officers, or personnel. This begs the question: even if the company did… Continue Reading
DOL to Hold Prevailing Wage Seminar
Posted in Contracts, Davis Bacon, Public Bidding, Public ContractsThe Department of Labor is holding a seminar on the Davis Bacon Act and related federal prevailing wage laws in Philadelphia on July 10-12, 2012. To sign up for a training session, email name, title, organization, email address and training location to whdpwc@dol.com. For more information, visit http://www.dol.gov/whd/govcontracts.
The Problem With Low Bid
Posted in Contracts, Public BiddingTime and time again I see the old adage “if it is too good to be true it probably is” applying to a project gone array. This was apparently the case with the Palo Alto, CA Library project where the low bidder came in $8 million below the next low bid. Whatever dreams the local authority… Continue Reading
Florida’s Anti-Cuba Law
Posted in Public BiddingENR has an interesting article about a legal challenge to Florida’s (the State not the rapper pictured right) new law that bars the awarding of public contracts to firms that have business interests in Cuba or Syria. In the case mega-construction firm Oderbrecht seeks to invalidate the Florida law on several constitutional grounds. First, Oderbrecht… Continue Reading
Interesting Study on State of Our Water Sytems
Posted in Public Bidding, UncategorizedUnderground Construction has an article on the results of a study concerning the current state our water systems. The results are bad news for those that live in areas that are prone to water main breaks (like Philadelphia) and potential good news to the contractors that will be required to perform the work to fix,… Continue Reading
The Statutue of Repose Has Its Moment and Why You Should Care
Posted in Contracts, Public Bidding, UncategorizedMost of the attention given to our country’s aging infrastructure has concerned what we should do to fix it. Most of the attention contractors have given it has concerned how they can fix it. However, contractors should also be giving attention to their current liabilities on aging – and long ago completed – infrastructure projects. … Continue Reading
Commonwealth Court Formally Adopts Hornbook Law
Posted in Public BiddingIf you are a subcontractor that bids on public work you may wonder whether the general contractor is bound to subcontract with you if it uses your bid as part of its bid to the government authority and the authority awards the contract to the general. The definitive answer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, like… Continue Reading
Maine Considers PPP Highway
Posted in Public BiddingAdd Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) to a growing list of stage agencies considering private funding for major infrastructure projects. ENR Reports that MDOT is a $2 billion, 220-mile closed-access toll highway that would create a direct link from southwestern New Brunswick to southern Quebec.
Commonwealth Court Rules Bid Specification Concerning Performance Bond is Non-Waivable
Posted in Public BiddingLast month the Commonwealth Court issued an opinion that reiterated the need not deviate from the requirements of the bid specifications when bidding on public work. Section 1402 of the Pennsylvania Borough Code requires all contracts in excess of the base amount of $18,500 to be made to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder. Generally,… Continue Reading
The New Highway Spending Bill and the Construction Manager Project Delivery Method
Posted in Contracts, Public BiddingMost of the attention given to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (“MAP-21″) highway spending bill that the Senate recently passed has been focused on the potential stimulating effect the bill with have on the construction industry in terms of dollars that will be allocated to certain projects. Of interest to… Continue Reading
Philadelphia PLA’s: Another Setback for the 99%
Posted in Project Labor Agreements, Public BiddingYesterday CBS Philly reported that Mayor Nutter signed Executive Order 15-11 once again making project labor agreements a reality on City owned public works projects in excess of $5 million, which would require all contractors bidding on City projects to hire workers out of a local union hiring hall and abide by onerous, restrictive, and… Continue Reading
Public Bidding and Bid Protests in Pennsylvania
Posted in Public BiddingI planned a course for the Philadelphia Bar Association today called “Public Bidding and Bid Protest – A Primer on Pennsylvania Law.” A special thanks to my friend Chris McCabe – who has been mentioned before on this blog – for a thorough and interesting presentation. Chris is a “Dean” on public contracting law. Here… Continue Reading
Does the Plan to Renovate Dilworth Plaza Violate the City Charter?
Posted in Public BiddingOn his blog PhillyDeals, Joe Distefano reports that the non-profit Center City District has hired Gilbane to review bids for the taxpayer funded $50 million plan to renovate Dilworth Plaza from a concrete jungle to a place you actually want to go. So far so good. However, although taxpayer funds are being used to renovate… Continue Reading
Will Rejected Bids Lead to Increased Claims
Posted in Contracts, Delay Claims, Public BiddingWhat do the following projects have in common: the Cape May Convention Center; the Western Reserve Road Project in Ohio; and the Guantlett Community Center in Pennsylvania? They are examples of projects where all bids were rejected because they came in over budget. While there are multiple reasons for this, by far the two biggest… Continue Reading
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