In the waning days of the Colorado legislature, lawmakers punched through a measure that will allow state agencies to waive competitive-bidding standards for high-dollar projects if they appear in danger of missing federal economic stimulus-law deadlines.
The bill, the 297th and last of the session, zipped through the House and Senate with no public scrutiny despite concerns from financial watchdogs inside state government that it could become the rule instead of the exception.
While officials with Gov. Bill Ritter’s office say they helped piece together Senate Bill 297 to create an “emergency chute” to prevent losing any of Colorado’s estimated $3 billion-plus in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, opponents say it moved too quickly for proper vetting and clashes with the open spirit of the stimulus law.
“It was part of a lot of slam-dunk stuff without good discussion at the end of the session,” said Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, who voted against the effort. The bill’s key sponsors, Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver, and Rep. Joel Judd, D-Denver, did not respond to requests from The Denver Post for comments.
The waiver, as yet unsigned by Ritter, was folded into a larger bill that allows the Governor’s Energy Office more flexibility in spending stimulus dollars through a revolving loan fund and requires the Public Utilities Commission to give special attention to renewable-energy projects.
The provision drawing the most concern gives state leaders latitude to relax guidelines promoting competitiveness and accountability in projects that can range from constructing buildings to large-scale highway work.
But the ARRA mandates “to the maximum extent possible” the use of competitive bidding procedures. And members of Congress have said open and competitive bidding is crucial, given billion of dollars wasted during the Bush administration’s reliance on no-bid contracting in Iraq and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
ARRA also has tight deadlines for obligating funds — the reason for the legislation, the governor’s staffers say. The bill says agencies can waive “state contracting requirements for contracts for such projects . . . to ensure that the moneys can be timely and efficiently expended.”
The attorney general and the state’s personnel director, among other officials, are required to sign off on the moves, in addition to providing written justifications for the basis and scope of the exemptions.
One impetus for the bill: Concerns from the Colorado Department of Transportation that the state’s “three-bid rule” might be too cumbersome in meeting ARRA deadlines — some as short as 120 days — on obligating construction funds.
Tucked into Colorado statutes, the rule holds that bids must be rejected if fewer than three bidders submit proposals on highway projects costing tens of millions of dollars. Such revisions can postpone projects for weeks or months.
“Suspension of this provision for ARRA projects will help ensure timely project start dates,” according to a memo to the governor’s economic-recovery team.
Transportation spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said her department has not confronted such a scenario, but didn’t want to confront one without leeway.
“We’re not even sure we’d utilize this law,” she said. “The only way is if we’re at a drop-dead deadline.”
Mark Cavanaugh, director of the governor’s economic-recovery team, agreed, saying “the idea here was not to have a way to get around (state law), but in those situations where our back is up against the wall, we’d have an option.”
Still, state procurement officials aired strong concerns about waiving such standards, fearing they could lead to bad precedent and widespread circumvention of rules, according to two people with knowledge of the debates who are not authorized to speak to the media. Managers in that division did not return phone calls from The Post.
Miles Moffeit: 303-954-1415 or mmoffeit@denverpost.com
