Bill Text: NY A08864 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Requires public notice and comment for any contract for goods, services or construction to be awarded by other than competitive sealed bidding or competitive sealed bids from prequalified vendors in excess of a threshold established by the procurement policy board by rule; provides for the repeal of such provisions upon the expiration thereof.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Passed) 2024-11-22 - signed chap.483 [A08864 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A08864-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         8864--A

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 18, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M. of A. RAJKUMAR, SEAWRIGHT, TAYLOR, TAPIA -- read once
          and referred to the Committee on Cities -- committee discharged,  bill
          amended,  ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
          tee

        AN ACT to amend the New York city charter, in relation to public  notice
          and  comment  for  certain  contracts; and providing for the repeal of
          such provisions upon expiration thereof

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  Section  326  of the New York city charter, as amended by
     2  local law number 19 of the city of  New  York  for  the  year  2004,  is
     3  amended to read as follows:
     4    §  326.  Public  [hearings]  notice and comment on contract awards. a.
     5  Prior to entering into any contract for goods, services or  construction
     6  to  be  awarded  by other than competitive sealed bidding or competitive
     7  sealed bids from prequalified vendors, the value of  which  exceeds  one
     8  hundred thousand dollars, the agency shall [upon reasonable public] give
     9  notice  [conduct  a  public  hearing  to receive testimony regarding the
    10  proposed contract. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, if  within  a
    11  period  of  time after such notice, which period of time shall be deter-
    12  mined by the procurement policy board, no individual requests an  oppor-
    13  tunity  to  speak  at  such  a  public  hearing with respect to any such
    14  proposed contract the  value  of  which  does  not  exceed  one  million
    15  dollars,  then  such  public  hearing need not be conducted] in the City
    16  Record that comments on the proposed contract may  be  submitted  online
    17  for  a  period  of  time  of not less than seven days, determined by the
    18  procurement policy board by rule, provided  that  such  period  of  time
    19  shall  commence  no  earlier  than  the  date  such notice is given.   A
    20  description of the scope of work and key terms of the contract shall  be
    21  included  in such notice which shall at minimum include:  (i) the agency
    22  name, (ii) the procurement identification  number(PIN),  (iii)  a  brief
    23  description  of the goods, services, or construction to be procured, and
    24  method of source selection, (iv) the name and address  of  the  proposed
    25  vendor  and  location of the proposed program, project, or worksite, and

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD11214-04-4
        A. 8864--A                          2

     1  (v) the dollar amount of the proposed contract. The  procurement  policy
     2  board  may  by rule exempt from this public [hearing] notice and comment
     3  requirement contracts to be let which do not differ materially in  terms
     4  and  conditions,  as defined by the board, from contracts currently held
     5  by the city where the parties to such contracts are the same;  provided,
     6  that  under  no circumstance may such exemption apply to any contract in
     7  value exceeding ten million dollars.
     8    b. The requirements of this section shall not apply to any procurement
     9  (i) let pursuant to a  finding  of  an  emergency  under  section  three
    10  hundred fifteen, (ii) required to be made on an accelerated basis due to
    11  markets  which experience significant, short-term price fluctuations, as
    12  identified by rule of the board, or (iii)  where  [a]  public  [hearing]
    13  notice  pursuant  to  this section would disclose litigation strategy or
    14  otherwise impair the conduct of litigation by the city.
    15    § 2. No later than September 30, 2025, and no later than September  30
    16  of  each year thereafter, the mayor's office of contract services of the
    17  city of New York shall submit to the governor, the  temporary  president
    18  of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the mayor of the city of New
    19  York,  and  the comptroller of the city of New York a report relating to
    20  public notice and comment on contracts of the city of New York  pursuant
    21  to  section 326 of the New York city charter. Such report shall include,
    22  but need not be limited to, the number of  contracts  for  which  public
    23  notice  and  comment  was  provided  pursuant to such section during the
    24  previous fiscal year, the dollar value of any such contract, and whether
    25  the threshold established pursuant to such section was  modified  during
    26  the previous fiscal year and if so, the value of the threshold following
    27  such modification.
    28    § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
    29  it shall have become a law and shall expire and be deemed repealed Octo-
    30  ber 1, 2030. Effective immediately, the affected agencies of the city of
    31  New  York,  including  but not limited to, the procurement policy board,
    32  may take any actions necessary to effectuate the provisions of this  act
    33  prior to its effective date.