The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Mr. Pacheco

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
                Court assembled:

                The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the passage of the accompanying bill:

An Act Relative to Professional Services.

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PETITION OF:

 

Name:

District/Address:

Mr. Pacheco

First Plymouth and Bristol

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand and Nine

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An Act Relative to Professional Services.



                Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

"Subsection [L1] (b) of Section 1 of chapter 30B of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following clause:

(3_) a contract for the maintenance, inspection, improvement, or repair of a water tank, tower, standpipe or any facility or structure for water storage for public water supply or fire protection.  Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, a governmental body may enter into a contract for the  maintenance, inspection, improvement, or repair  of a water tank, tower, standpipe or any facility or structure for water storage for public water supply or fire protection without said contract being subject to the competitive bid process as set forth in sections thirty-eight A1/2 to thirty-eight O, inclusive, of chapter seven, section thirty-nine M of chapter thirty, or sections forty-four A to forty-four J, inclusive, of chapter one hundred and forty-nine[L2] ."

For the purposes of this act, "governmental body" shall be defined as any city, town, county, water district, fire district, authority or state agency located within the commonwealth; provided further that the term “governmental body” shall not mean the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA[L3] ). 

This act shall take effect upon passage[L4] .

 [L1]This subsection of the state procurement statute applies to government procurement of supplies and services and defines the types of government transactions that are exempt from competitive bidding.

 [L2]The referenced statutes, included in the Statutory Appendix, refer to state procurement statutes for construction contracts for public works and buildings when procured by a government body.

 [L3]This legislation was submitted last legislative session in close to its present form.  It has been modified to remove “operation” as a contracted service under the exemption to soften opposition from public sector unions.  In addition, the “Responsible Contractor” language, series of provisions for employee benefit protection, ie. Insurance, health benefits, and apprenticeship programs, has been removed.

 [L4]The operative language of this exemption, which is the broadest reach of our three proposed bills, facilities a combination exemption between services procurement statutes and construction procurement statutes for public works and buildings  necessary to allow for municipalities and non-exempt state agencies, (ie MWRA), to contract directly for the combined services that are the business and operations model for Utility Service Co.  Otherwise, procurement for Services (inspection and maintenance) are bid separately from contracts for capital repair, rehabilitation and painting.