Proposed Oceanside, Calif. Charter Has Unprecedented Taxpayer Protections for Fair and Open Bid Competition
On Wednesday, December 16, the Oceanside City Council voted to place a proposed city charter (Proposed Charter Text) on the June 2010 ballot for Oceanside voters to consider. This charter includes a guarantee of fair and open bid competition for city construction contracts that is based on ten year-old language in Section 4-113 of the City of Fresno Municipal Code entitled “Prohibition of Project Labor Agreements.” This is good, solid language th…
Top Union Official In San Diego Believes Voters Don’t Get it!
Several polls taken in San Diego County over the past year consistently indicate that more than 90 percent of voters agree with the very basic statement that taxpayers get the best quality construction for the best price when contracts are bid under fair and open competition, without requirements that contractors must sign special agreements with labor unions. (The remaining ten percent that oppose this statement generally indicate themselves to…
Santa Barbara County Business Leaders Rally for Fair and Open Bid Competition
Proponents of fair and open bid competition in Santa Barbara County, California gathered March 10th at the county administrative building to protest a proposed project labor agreement for future county construction. On a 3-0 vote with two absences, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted on February 16 to negotiate a PLA for with the Tri-County Building and Construction Trades Council for future county construction. To hide the PLA, t…
Same Principles, Different Place: PLAs in California’s Inland Empire
Reporters for the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper connected the dots and exposed how construction unions are now trying to use project labor agreements to win control of projects in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties (known as the “Inland Empire” region of California). The March 20, 2010 article “Project Labor Agreements Spark Debate at Three Inland Agencies in One Week” reports that on March 16 the elected boards of three local governmen…
Unions Fail in Effort to Recall Fiscally Conservative Councilman in Oceanside, CA
On Tuesday, December 8, voters in the City of Oceanside, California soundly repudiated the union political agenda by rejecting a union-backed and union-funded recall effort against Councilman Jerry Kern. As California Republican Party Chairman wrote on December 9 in www.FlashReport.org: In a crushing defeat that will cause reassessment of labor’s political muscle locally, the union-led recall attempt of Republican Councilman Jerry Kern was overwh…
Citizens of Chula Vista Will Vote on Fair and Open Competition Ordinance
The ABC San Diego Chapter announced on August 14 that the San Diego County Registrar of Voters had determined there were enough signatures for a Fair and Open Competition Ordinance voter initiative to qualify for the June 8, 2010 ballot. This ordinance would ensure that all responsible and capable contractors would be encouraged to bid on city-funded construction projects. Local media coverage of the initiative having enough signatures for the ba…
Update: PLAs Are About Politics: the California Experience
After twelve years of fighting Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) at local governments in California, I’ve developed a set of axioms based on my experiences. One of these axioms is that PLAs are about politics, not logic. After all, what kind of logic would lead an elected official to establish work conditions that would discourage perfectly qualified, experienced local contractors from bidding on a taxpayer-funded job? PLAs are about giving politic…
San Diego Labor Council Runs TV Commercial in Spanish Comparing Proposed Fair and Open Competition Ordinance to Arizona Immigration Law
How can you tell when a political campaign is falling apart with the knowledge of certain defeat? In the case of the union campaign to prevent voter approval of Proposition G in the City of Chula Vista, union leaders are now so desperate to save their special interest backroom deals (called “Project Labor Agreements”) that they are running commercials on Spanish television broadcasts claiming that Proposition G is the same as the new law enacted…
Sacramento Publically-Owned Utility Lets Staff Make Key Contracting Decisions – Including PLA Mandates – with No Board or Ratepayer Scrutiny
Last night (September 2), the board of directors of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) had an unexpected and unscheduled hour-long inquiry into its contracting practices, including district mandates for contractors to sign project labor agreements (PLAs) with unions in order to work on two specific large projects. We learned that the elected board of this publicly-owned utility allows staff to make key decisions regarding contractin…
Momentum Builds for Passage of Proposition A in San Diego County
San Diego County voters are preparing to vote YES on Proposition A, which would amend the county charter to prohibit the county government from entering into contracts that require construction companies to sign Project Labor Agreements with unions. On October 9, the San Diego Union-Tribune noted that Proposition A “might be the easiest decision on the November 2 ballot.” Its explanation of support for Proposition A is concise and definitive: Ant…