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PROPOSITION 2000 General
35 PUBLIC WORKS PROJECTS.
USE OF PRIVATE CONTRACTORS FOR ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURAL SERVICES.
Text of Proposed Law
This initiative measure is submitted to the people in accordance with the provisions of Section 8 of Article II of the California Constitution.

This initiative measure adds sections to the California Constitution and the Government Code; therefore, new provisions proposed to be added are printed in italic type to indicate that they are new.

PROPOSED LAW

FAIR COMPETITION AND TAXPAYER SAVINGS INITIATIVE

SECTION 1. TITLE

This measure shall be known and may be cited as the "Fair Competition and Taxpayer Savings Act."

SEC. 2. PURPOSE AND INTENT It is the intent of the people of the State of California in enacting this measure:

(a) To remove existing restrictions on contracting for architectural and engineering services and to allow state, regional and local governments to use qualified private architectural and engineering firms to help deliver transportation, schools, water, seismic retrofit and other infrastructure projects safely, cost effectively and on time;

(b) To encourage the kind of public/private partnerships necessary to ensure that California taxpayers benefit from the use of private sector experts to deliver transportation, schools, water, seismic retrofit and other infrastructure projects;

(c) To promote fair competition so that both public and private sector architects and engineers work smarter, more efficiently and ultimately deliver better value to taxpayers;

(d) To speed the completion of a multi-billion dollar backlog of highway, bridge, transit and other projects;

(e) To ensure that contracting for architectural and engineering services occurs through a fair, competitive selection process, free of undue political influence, to obtain the best quality and value for California taxpayers; and

(f) To ensure that private firms contracting for architectural and engineering services with governmental entities meet established design and construction standards and comply with standard accounting practices and permit financial and performance audits as necessary to ensure contract services are delivered within the agreed schedule and budget.

SEC. 3. Article XXII is added to the California Constitution, to read:

SECTION 1. The State of California and all other governmental entities, including, but not limited to, cities, counties, cities and counties, school districts and other special districts, local and regional agencies and joint power agencies, shall be allowed to contract with qualified private entities for architectural and engineering services for all public works of improvement. The choice and authority to contract shall extend to all phases of project development including permitting and environmental studies, rights-of-way services, design phase services and construction phase services. The choice and authority shall exist without regard to funding sources whether federal, state, regional, local or private, whether or not the project is programmed by a state, regional or local governmental entity, and whether or not the completed project is a part of any state owned or state operated system or facility.

SEC. 2. Nothing contained in Article VII of this Constitution shall be construed to limit, restrict or prohibit the State or any other governmental entities, including, but not limited to, cities, counties, cities and counties, school districts and other special districts, local and regional agencies and joint power agencies, from contracting with private entities for the performance of architectural and engineering services.


SEC. 4. Chapter 10.1 (commencing with Section 4529.10) is added to Division 5 of Title 1 of the Government Code, to read:

4529.10. For purposes of Article XXII of the California Constitution and this act, the term "architectural and engineering services" shall include all architectural, landscape architectural, environmental, engineering, land surveying, and construction project management services.

4529.11. All projects included in the State Transportation Improvement Program programmed and funded as interregional improvements or as regional improvements shall be subject to Article XXII of the California Constitution. The sponsoring governmental entity shall have the choice and the authority to contract with qualified private entities for architectural and engineering services. For projects programmed and funded as regional improvements, the sponsoring governmental entity shall be the regional or local project sponsor. For projects programmed and funded as interregional improvements, the sponsoring governmental entity shall be the State of California, unless there is a regional or local project sponsor, in which case the sponsoring governmental entity shall be the regional or local project sponsor. The regional or local project sponsor shall be a regional or local governmental entity.

4529.12. All architectural and engineering services shall be procured pursuant to a fair, competitive selection process which prohibits governmental agency employees from participating in the selection process when they have a financial or business relationship with any private entity seeking the contract, and the procedure shall require compliance with all laws regarding political contributions, conflicts of interest or unlawful activities.

4529.13. Nothing contained in this act shall be construed to change project design standards, seismic safety standards or project construction standards established by state, regional or local governmental entities. Nor shall any provision of this act be construed to prohibit or restrict the authority of the Legislature to statutorily provide different procurement methods for design-build projects or design-build-and-operate projects.

4529.14. Architectural and engineering services contracts procured by public agencies shall be subject to standard accounting practices and may require financial and performance audits as necessary to ensure contract services are delivered within the agreed schedule and budget.

4529.15. This act only applies to architectural and engineering services defined in Government Code Section 4529.10. Nothing contained in this act shall be construed to expand or restrict the authority of governmental entities to contract for fire, ambulance, police, sheriff, probation, corrections or other peace officer services. Nor shall anything in this act be construed to expand or restrict the authority of governmental entities to contract for education services including but not limited to, teaching services, services of classified school personnel and school administrators.

4529.16. This act shall not be applied in a manner that will result in the loss of federal funding to any governmental entity.

4529.17. The provisions of this act are severable. If any provision of this act or its application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application.

4529.18. If any act of the Legislature conflicts with the provisions of this act, this act shall prevail.

4529.19. This act shall be liberally construed to accomplish its purposes.

4529.20. This act seeks to comprehensively regulate the matters which are contained within its provisions. These are matters of statewide concern and when enacted are intended to apply to charter cities as well as all other governmental entities.


SEC. 5. This initiative may be amended to further its purposes by statute, passed in each house by roll call vote entered in the journal, two-thirds of the membership concurring, and signed by the Governor.

SEC. 6. If there is a conflicting initiative measure on the same ballot, which addresses and seeks to comprehensively regulate the same subject, only the provisions of this measure shall become operative if this measure receives the highest affirmative vote.
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