BILL NUMBER: S8303

SPONSOR: COMRIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public authorities law, in relation to increasing
the small purchase threshold for purchase contracts of the New York city
school construction authority

 
PURPOSE:

To increase the New York city school construction authority's small
purchase threshold for purchase contracts.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one of the bill would amend paragraph a of subdivision 2 of
section 1734 of the Public Authorities Law to authorize the School
Construction Authority (SCA) to make procurements of supplies, materials
or equipment in an amount not exceeding $100,000 without a formal
competitive process, increasing the current threshold of $10,000.

              

Section two provides that this act would take effect immediately.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

An increase to the SCA's small purchase threshold from $10,000 to
$100,000 would help provide flexibility and efficiency by allowing the
SCA to negotiate directly with appropriate vendors more quickly.  The
SCA is presently limited in its ability to enter into relatively small
purchase contracts without going through the public bidding process.
While the SCA may award a purchase contract under $1.5 million to a
business certified as a minority- or women-owned business enterprise
(MWBE), where no MWBEs are available, the SCA must use the public
bidding process for any purchase contract exceeding $10,000. The benefit
of the public bidding process is often far outweighed by the cost and
time spent on the implementation of the solicitation itself. By way of
example, the SCA's recent public bidding process for a service provider
to offer mandatory environmental and occupational training courses with
an estimated expenditure of only $50,000 took over a year to complete.
Similarly, a recent public bidding process for a service provider to
install and maintain drinking water systems with an estimated expendi-
ture of $60,000 took three months. If the SCA's small purchase threshold
were increased to $100,000, these contracts could have been n egotiated
and issued within a few weeks with the same outcome.

The SCA's small purchase threshold has not been increased from its pres-
ent threshold of $10,000 since the SCA Law was adopted in 1988, and has
become increasingly problematic over the years. This bill would neither
affect MWBE participation nor diminish transparency in SCA procurements,
but would make the contracting process much more efficient, thereby
creating a substantial public benefit. Further, a small purchase thresh-
old of $100,000 would align SCA's threshold with that of New York City
agencies.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

This is a new bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

There is no fiscal impact.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act would take effect immediately.