Dear Mayor and City Council (of Sacramento):

At your meeting today [Tuesday, July 30, 2019] at 2:00 pm you are being asked to reject the sole bid you received on Fire Station 14 Project.

Despite five contractors participating in the pre-bid walk you had ONE actually submit a bid, a bid that was 33% over the engineers estimate.

Last week you had to reject four bids on paving projects across the City because each of them only received ONE BID. Councilman Harris pointed out why he thought this was happening and that reason is your Project Labor Agreement (PLA).

I can confirm it was the PLA because I contacted two paving contractors who normally bid your work but who refuse to subject their workers to the conditions of your PLA and therefore are not bidding any more of your work. I can also state with certainty that the reason at least three of those who participated in the Firehouse 14 pre-bid walk but did not end up bidding that project is because of the PLA.

You were warned by a room full of workers, contractors and groups like ours what a PLA would cost you when you approved it 7-2 last year (Councilmen Harris and Warren are looking like sages right about now) but you STILL voted to approve it on all work over $1 million. You cannot even build a house for $1 million in some parts of Sacramento so this PLA really covers all your work.

We asked you to add a provision that allowed you to re-bid without a PLA if you received less than 3 bidders. You said no. We asked that this only cover projects larger than $25 million. You said no. Instead you voted to openly and explicitly discriminate against an entire class of people for political and ideological reasons. 

Adherence to big labor special interests has its costs.

Sincerely,

 
Eric Christen
Executive Director
Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction
www.opencompca.com