Bill Text: NY A08864 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Requires public notice and comment for any contract for goods, services or construction to be awarded by other than competitive sealed bidding or competitive sealed bids from prequalified vendors in excess of a threshold established by the procurement policy board by rule; provides for the repeal of such provisions upon the expiration thereof.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Passed) 2024-11-22 - signed chap.483 [A08864 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A08864-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8864

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 18, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced by M. of A. RAJKUMAR -- read once and referred to the Commit-
          tee on Cities

        AN  ACT to amend the New York city charter, in relation to public notice
          and comment for certain contracts; and providing  for  the  repeal  of
          certain provisions upon expiration thereof

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Section 326 of the New York city  charter,  as  amended  by
     2  local  law  number  19  of  the  city  of New York for the year 2004, is
     3  amended to read as follows:
     4    § 326. Public [hearings] notice and comment  on  contract  awards.  a.
     5  Prior  to entering into any contract for goods, services or construction
     6  to be awarded by other than competitive sealed  bidding  or  competitive
     7  sealed  bids  from prequalified vendors, the value of which exceeds [one
     8  hundred thousand dollars] a threshold  established  by  the  procurement
     9  policy  board  by  rule,  the agency shall [upon reasonable public] give
    10  notice [conduct a public hearing  to  receive  testimony  regarding  the
    11  proposed  contract.  Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, if within a
    12  period of time after such notice, which period of time shall  be  deter-
    13  mined  by the procurement policy board, no individual requests an oppor-
    14  tunity to speak at such a  public  hearing  with  respect  to  any  such
    15  proposed  contract  the  value  of  which  does  not  exceed one million
    16  dollars, then such public hearing need not be  conducted]  in  the  City
    17  Record  that  comments  on the proposed contract may be submitted online
    18  for a period of time, determined by the procurement policy board in  its
    19  discretion  by  rule, provided that such period of time shall be no less
    20  than seven days and shall commence no earlier than the date such  notice
    21  is  given.  In  establishing  a  threshold pursuant to this section, the
    22  procurement policy board  shall  consider  factors  including,  but  not
    23  limited  to,  the  need for efficiency and transparency in city procure-
    24  ments. The procurement policy board may by rule exempt from this  public
    25  [hearing]  notice  and  comment requirement contracts to be let which do
    26  not differ materially in terms and conditions, as defined by the  board,
    27  from  contracts  currently  held  by  the city where the parties to such

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD11214-01-3
        A. 8864                             2

     1  contracts are the same; provided, that under no  circumstance  may  such
     2  exemption apply to any contract in value exceeding ten million dollars.
     3    b. The requirements of this section shall not apply to any procurement
     4  (i)  let  pursuant  to  a  finding  of  an emergency under section three
     5  hundred fifteen, (ii) required to be made on an accelerated basis due to
     6  markets which experience significant, short-term price fluctuations,  as
     7  identified  by  rule  of  the board, or (iii) where [a] public [hearing]
     8  notice pursuant to this section would disclose  litigation  strategy  or
     9  otherwise impair the conduct of litigation by the city.
    10    §  2. No later than September 30, 2025, and no later than September 30
    11  of each year thereafter, the mayor's office of contract services of  the
    12  city  of  New York shall submit to the governor, the temporary president
    13  of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the mayor of the city of New
    14  York, and the comptroller of the city of New York a report  relating  to
    15  public  notice and comment on contracts of the city of New York pursuant
    16  to section 326 of the New York city charter. Such report shall  include,
    17  but  need  not  be  limited to, the number of contracts for which public
    18  notice and comment was provided pursuant  to  such  section  during  the
    19  previous fiscal year, the dollar value of any such contract, and whether
    20  the  threshold  established pursuant to such section was modified during
    21  the previous fiscal year and if so, the value of the threshold following
    22  such modification.
    23    § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
    24  it shall have become a law; provided however, that section two  of  this
    25  act shall expire and be deemed repealed October 1, 2030. Effective imme-
    26  diately,  the  affected  agencies of the city of New York, including but
    27  not limited to, the procurement  policy  board,  may  take  any  actions
    28  necessary  to  effectuate the provisions of this act prior to its effec-
    29  tive date.