A California State Senate bill regarding greater public access to and greater regulation of University of California contracts was approved by the Senate Government Organization Committee earlier this week.
Authored by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), SB 1596 will specifically focus on disclosing contracts to the public and on making sure these contracts are fair and legal.
To accomplish this, all companies looking to enter contracts with the UC will have to answer a questionnaire that will weed out firms with malpractices by forcing them to account for any past bankruptcy filings, convictions or losses of permits or licenses, said Adam Keigwin, director of communications for Yee’s office.
The bill will limit all contracts to three years and will create a database of all UC contracts to be available to the public, Keigwin said. The bill is a response to recent controversies at UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis.
UCSB recently contracted with a painting company that has a history of wage and hour laws violations and bankruptcy. The company signed up to paint a large number of rooms, though it was clear that this was next to impossible with the resources it had, Keigwin said.
“One worker brought a camera in. He was told just to make the room look like it was painted. … When workers went to cash their checks, the checks bounced. (The contracted) company was nowhere to be found,” Keigwin said.
Approximately $90,000 is owed to the workers in wages, according to Keigwin’s press release.
The Graduate Students Association and the University of California Students Association have held UCSB responsible for the missing wages. Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Design and Facilities Marc Fisher has said that responsibility belonged to the contracted painting company, according to UCSB’s Daily Nexus.
Another recent contracting controversy occurred at UC Davis in 2004.
The school contracted with Sodexho, a food services provider, for more than three decades and has not offered the contract up to competitive bidding from other companies for 14 years, said Kevin Christensen, lead researcher for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
“When community and workers were raising concerns about Sodexho, (the) University announced the extension (of the) contract for another six years. … (That same year) Sodexho was loaning the University multi-millions of dollars,” Christensen said.
The UC proposed using the money for various projects, some of which never materialized, and did not provide the documentation for the finances upon request, Christensen said. UC Davis has since reached an agreement for higher wages and benefits for Sodexho workers. Their current contract continues through June 2010, according to the UC Davis News & Information Web site.
“These are taxpayer-funded contracts; taxpayers deserve to see it. Students deserve to be able to review what they are paying for,” Keigwin said.
Aside from letting the public know how its money is used, the bill will help those who provide the services.
“(The bill) will help bring better wages and better working conditions. … If record of underpaying is public, (there cannot be) secret abuse of the workforce,” said Lakesha Harrison, UCLA nurse and president of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299.
But the bill raises concern from some officials. Enacting this bill would make it difficult to process bids and would create the hassle of constantly renewing contracts due to the three-year limit, said William Propst, director of purchasing management at UCLA.
“We do have state requirements for competition. … My concern is being able to get the job done that I need to get done with the resources that I have,” Propst said. Placing more requirements on top of the existing ones in the UC process of bids for contracts would call for funding and manpower that is not necessarily available, Propst said.
“UCLA does everything consistent with the Public Records Act. If someone wants to get a copy of a contract, they can get that. (It is) different than putting all these contracts in a database,” Propst said.
The UC is currently reviewing SB 1596 but does not have an official position. The Senate Committee on Appropriations will next consider the bill.