Enables the city of Rochester to prefer minority and women-owned businesses in awarding public contracts where the contract for purchase of commodities and/or services is in the amount of $100,000 or less and a disparity in procurement opportunities has been documented for the type of such commodities and/or services for which the city is contracting.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
829
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 5, 2011
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GANTT -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Local Governments
AN ACT to amend the general municipal law, in relation to giving the
city of Rochester the power to prefer minority and women-owned busi-
nesses in awarding public contracts
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 103 of the general municipal law,
2 as amended by section 1 of part FF of chapter 56 of the laws of 2010, is
3 amended to read as follows:
4 1. Except as otherwise expressly provided by an act of the legislature
5 or by a local law adopted prior to September first, nineteen hundred
6 fifty-three, all contracts for public work involving an expenditure of
7 more than thirty-five thousand dollars and all purchase contracts
8 involving an expenditure of more than twenty thousand dollars, shall be
9 awarded by the appropriate officer, board or agency of a political
10 subdivision or of any district therein including but not limited to a
11 soil conservation district, to the lowest responsible bidder furnishing
12 the required security after advertisement for sealed bids in the manner
13 provided by this section. In any case where a responsible bidder's gross
14 price is reducible by an allowance for the value of used machinery,
15 equipment, apparatus or tools to be traded in by a political subdivi-
16 sion, the gross price shall be reduced by the amount of such allowance,
17 for the purpose of determining the low bid. In cases where two or more
18 responsible bidders furnishing the required security submit identical
19 bids as to price, such officer, board or agency may award the contract
20 to any of such bidders. Such officer, board or agency may, in his or her
21 or its discretion, reject all bids and readvertise for new bids in the
22 manner provided by this section; provided, however, that in the city of
23 Rochester, for public works and purchase contracts up to one hundred
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03386-01-1
A. 829 2
1 thousand dollars, such contracts may be awarded to a minority or woman-
2 owned business certified as such by the state of New York and located
3 within the Rochester metropolitan statistical area, as long as such
4 award is based on contractor submissions in response to a request for
5 proposals and made pursuant to a minority and woman-owned business
6 enterprise program lawfully adopted by the city of Rochester. In deter-
7 mining whether a purchase is an expenditure within the discretionary
8 threshold amounts established by this subdivision, the officer, board or
9 agency of a political subdivision or of any district therein shall
10 consider the reasonably expected aggregate amount of all purchases of
11 the same commodities, services or technology to be made within the
12 twelve-month period commencing on the date of purchase. Purchases of
13 commodities, services or technology shall not be artificially divided
14 for the purpose of satisfying the discretionary buying thresholds estab-
15 lished by this subdivision. A change to or a renewal of a discretionary
16 purchase shall not be permitted if the change or renewal would bring the
17 reasonably expected aggregate amount of all purchases of the same
18 commodities, services or technology from the same provider within the
19 twelve-month period commencing on the date of the first purchase to an
20 amount greater than the discretionary buying threshold amount. For
21 purposes of this section, "sealed bids", as that term applies to
22 purchase contracts, shall include bids submitted in an electronic format
23 including submission of the statement of non-collusion required by
24 section one hundred three-d of this article, provided that the governing
25 board of the political subdivision or district, by resolution, has
26 authorized the receipt of bids in such format. Submission in electronic
27 format may, for technology contracts only, be required as the sole meth-
28 od for the submission of bids. Bids submitted in an electronic format
29 shall be transmitted by bidders to the receiving device designated by
30 the political subdivision or district. Any method used to receive elec-
31 tronic bids shall comply with article three of the state technology law,
32 and any rules and regulations promulgated and guidelines developed ther-
33 eunder and, at a minimum, must (a) document the time and date of receipt
34 of each bid received electronically; (b) authenticate the identity of
35 the sender; (c) ensure the security of the information transmitted; and
36 (d) ensure the confidentiality of the bid until the time and date estab-
37 lished for the opening of bids. The timely submission of an electronic
38 bid in compliance with instructions provided for such submission in the
39 advertisement for bids and/or the specifications shall be the responsi-
40 bility solely of each bidder or prospective bidder. No political subdi-
41 vision or district therein shall incur any liability from delays of or
42 interruptions in the receiving device designated for the submission and
43 receipt of electronic bids.
44 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that the amend-
45 ments to subdivision 1 of section 103 of the general municipal law made
46 by section one of this act shall not affect the expiration of such
47 subdivision and shall be deemed to expire therewith.
