The County of San Diego Board of Supervisors March 2 unanimously voted to enact an ordinance that ensures fair and open bid competition by banning the use of project labor agreements (PLAs) on county-funded construction projects. The ABC San Diego Chapter worked closely with allied organizations to support the proposed policy.
The board of supervisors considered putting the PLA ban on the June ballot for voters to consider, but after assessing the cost, instead decided to add a provision to the San Diego county code, citing the public’s best interest as a reason for the ban.
“To promote competition in contracting and reduce the risk of cost increases to the taxpayer, the Board of Supervisors finds and determines that it is in the public interest to prohibit the County from requiring persons or firms engaged on County construction projects from having to comply with or negotiate project labor or similar pre-hire agreements,” the ordinance states.
San Diego, the sixth most populous county in the nation, is following in the footsteps of Orange County, the fifth most populous, which banned PLAs in November 2009, and the city of Fresno, Calif., which became the first city in the country to ban PLAs in 2000.
ABC of California anticipates additional California counties and cities, such as Chula Vista and Oceanside, will consider and approve fair and open competition ordinances in the coming months, as the “
20 in 2010” campaign advances to guarantee by the end of 2010 that taxpayers in twenty local California governments get the highest quality construction at the best price.
For more information about the San Diego PLA ban, contact Scott Crosby at the ABC San Diego Chapter,
scott@abcsd.org. For more information about ABC of California’s ongoing efforts to promote fair and open competition in California, contact Kevin Dayton,
dayton@abc-cal.org.
For more information about PLAs, visit
www.thetruthaboutplas.com.