STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1831 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 17, 2019 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. MAGNARELLI, HUNTER -- read once and referred to the Committee on Local Governments AN ACT to amend the general municipal law, in relation to modernizing and increasing the transparency of local government procurement of goods and services The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 the "local government procurement modernization and transparency act". 3 § 2. Section 103 of the general municipal law is amended by adding a 4 new subdivision 17 to read as follows: 5 17. (a) As an alternative to the notice procedure set forth in subdi- 6 vision two of this section, a political subdivision may provide notice 7 of requests for bids by posting the requests on the New York State 8 Contract Reporter website. In addition, the municipality must post 9 notice of requests for bids on a website maintained by the political 10 subdivision itself. Before a political subdivision may utilize the 11 online notification method outlined in this subdivision, the political 12 subdivision must adopt a local law which provides that all requests for 13 bids will be posted online pursuant to the procedures outlined in this 14 subdivision. After a political subdivision adopts a local law pursuant 15 to this paragraph, notice of the local law's adoption must be published 16 once a week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circu- 17 lation within the political subdivision. In addition, a political subdi- 18 vision must continuously and conspicuously post on its website that 19 notices of requests for bids are posted online with a link to the 20 webpage where current and previous requests for bids have been posted. 21 (b) Once a political subdivision has designated the online bid notifi- 22 cation process as the method for requesting bids, each request for bids 23 must be continuously posted for at least five consecutive days on both 24 the political subdivision's website and the New York State Contract EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD00649-01-9A. 1831 2 1 Reporter website before the bid opening deadline. For the purpose of 2 calculating the number of days, the first day the request for bids is 3 posted online may not be counted but the day of the bid opening may be 4 counted. The website posting must include the bid specifications, unless 5 it is infeasible to post the bid specifications on the website in which 6 case a summary of the request for bids must be posted online with a 7 statement that the complete bid specifications are available in the 8 office of the clerk of the political subdivision. The website posting 9 must also include a statement indicating the address to which bids must 10 be delivered and a statement of the date, time, and place where the bids 11 will be publicly opened and read. 12 (c) Nothing in this subdivision precludes a political subdivision from 13 publicizing notices of a request for bids in other manners in addition 14 to the methods outlined in this subdivision. Nothing in this subdivision 15 precludes a newspaper from publishing information of its own accord 16 regarding any political subdivision's notice of request for bids or 17 request for proposals. 18 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.