State legislature expands statutory design-build authority to apply to more cities and counties

Posted on April 16, 2006 by David Gehrig

Pursuant to three separate bills, the state legislature expanded existing statutory authority to award construction contracts on a design-build basis to apply to more cities and counties as of January 1, 2006. In each case, the duration of the statutory design-build authority was extended to the year 2011, and the dollar threshold was lowered to $2.5 million per project for counties. Following is a short summary of the bills:

·        AB 1329 (Wolk): This bill added section 20175 to the Public Contract Code, and authorizes cities in the counties of Solano and Yolo to award construction contracts on a design-build basis. The authority only applies to buildings and directly related improvements, and does not apply to streets, highways, public rail transit, or water resources facilities and infrastructure. The statute has a sunset provision for the year 2011.

·        AB 1511 (Evans): This bill amended section 20133 of the Public Contract Code to authorize the following counties to award construction projects on a design-build basis: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Mendocino, Napa, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo Counties. The dollar threshold was lowered from $5 million to $2.5 million, and the authority is limited to buildings or directly related improvements. The statute has a sunset provision for the year 2011.

·        SB 287 (Cox): This bill also amended section 20133 of the Public Contract Code to authorize the following additional counties to award construction projects on a design-build basis: Butte, El Dorado, Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Monterey, Orange, Placer, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Shasta, Siskiyou, Stanislaus, and Yuba Counties. 

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AG concludes documents submitted with building permit application are public records

Posted on March 10, 2006 by David Gehrig
On February 28. 2006, Attorney General Bill Lockyer issued an opinion addressing whether interim documents submitted to a city in support of a building permit application are subject to public inspection under the California Public Records Act. 
The opinion concluded that:

Interim grading documents, including geology reports, compaction reports, and soils reports, submitted by a property owner to a city's building department in conjunction with an application for a building permit are subject to public inspection and copying under the California Public Records Act at the time the documents are first received by the building department. (Attorney General Opinion 05-1004.)

The opinion rejected three potential exemptions to disclosure: 1) preliminary drafts pursuant to Government Code section 6254(a), because the records are kept in the ordinary course of business and because the exemption is limited to deliberative writings of the public agency; 2) records prohibited from disclosure under other state or federal laws pursuant to Government Code section 6254, because no other laws prohibited the disclosure; and 3) geologic and geophysical data relating to utility systems development pursuant to Government Code section 6254(e), because the documents were not obtained in confidence.
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