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.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7383
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 22, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. SEPULVEDA -- (at request of the NYC Mayor's Office of
Contract Services) -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed
to be committed to the Committee on Cities 1
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-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11214-01-3
S. 7383 2
1 ments. The procurement policy board may by rule exempt from this public
2 [hearing] notice and comment requirement contracts to be let which do
3 not differ materially in terms and conditions, as defined by the board,
4 from contracts currently held by the city where the parties to such
5 contracts are the same; provided, that under no circumstance may such
6 exemption apply to any contract in value exceeding ten million dollars.
7 b. The requirements of this section shall not apply to any procurement
8 (i) let pursuant to a finding of an emergency under section three
9 hundred fifteen, (ii) required to be made on an accelerated basis due to
10 markets which experience significant, short-term price fluctuations, as
11 identified by rule of the board, or (iii) where [a] public [hearing]
12 notice pursuant to this section would disclose litigation strategy or
13 otherwise impair the conduct of litigation by the city.
14 § 2. No later than September 30, 2025, and no later than September 30
15 of each year thereafter, the mayor's office of contract services of the
16 city of New York shall submit to the governor, the temporary president
17 of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the mayor of the city of New
18 York, and the comptroller of the city of New York a report relating to
19 public notice and comment on contracts of the city of New York pursuant
20 to section 326 of the New York city charter. Such report shall include,
21 but need not be limited to, the number of contracts for which public
22 notice and comment was provided pursuant to such section during the
23 previous fiscal year, the dollar value of any such contract, and whether
24 the threshold established pursuant to such section was modified during
25 the previous fiscal year and if so, the value of the threshold following
26 such modification.
27 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
28 it shall have become a law; provided however, that section two of this
29 act shall expire and be deemed repealed October 1, 2030. Effective imme-
30 diately, the affected agencies of the city of New York, including but
31 not limited to, the procurement policy board, may take any actions
32 necessary to effectuate the provisions of this act prior to its effec-
33 tive date.
