AB 1734

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) The Small Business Procurement and Contract Act requires the Director of General Services and the heads of other state agencies that enter into contracts for the provision of goods, services, and information technology and for the construction of state facilities to establish goals for the participation of small businesses in these contracts, to provide for small business preference in the award of these contracts, to give special consideration and special assistance to small businesses, and, whenever possible, to make awards to small businesses, as specified. This bill would require all state agencies, departments, boards, and commissions to establish and achieve an annual goal of 25% small business participation in state procurements and contracts, to ensure that the state's procurement and contract processes are administered in order to meet or exceed the goal, and to report to the Director of General Services statistics regarding small business participation in the agency's procurements and contracts. The bill would require the Department of General Services to monitor the progress of the agencies toward meeting the goal and to provide this information to the Office of Small Business Advocate. The bill would also require a state agency, department, board, or commission that has not achieved the goal by the close of the fiscal year to submit a corrective action plan to the Department of General Services within 45 days. The bill would require the department, in collaboration with the Office of Small Business Advocate, to undertake reasonable means to assist agencies in improving small business participation in their contracting. The bill would require all state agencies, departments, boards, and commissions to work with the department to help small businesses market their products, goods, and services to the state by providing access to information about current bid opportunities on their Internet Web sites. The bill would also require the Office of Small Business Advocate within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development to collaborate with the Department of General Services to cooperatively enhance the state's small business program by helping small businesses access capital and other financial resources necessary to successfully fulfill state contracts. The bill would apply to all state public entities that receive state public funding, including the California State University, the University of California, and the California Community Colleges. In calculating the total amount of contracting covered by this bill, the California State University, the University of California, and the California Community Colleges would only be required to meet the 25% goal for state funding used in contracting. (2) Existing law requires a state agency, department, officer, or other state governmental entity, to meet an annual statewide participation goal of not less than 3% for disabled veteran business enterprises for specified contracts entered into by the awarding department during the year. The bill would gradually increase that participation goal to 5% by the 2017–18 fiscal year. The bill would require contracts awarded by any state agency, department, officer, or other state governmental entity for goods, services, or information technology for which the expected bid could be over $100,000,000 to have this participation goal, unless the Department of General Services certifies, prior to the issuance of bid requests, that the state agency, department, officer, or other state governmental entity met its disabled veteran business enterprise goal in prior fiscal years, as specified, and will likely meet its disabled veteran business enterprise goal in the current fiscal year. (3) Existing law requires the Director of General Services to adopt written policies and guidelines for state contracting that would provide a disabled veteran business enterprise participation incentive to bidders. The bill would require the incentive provided to a disabled veteran business enterprise prime contractor to be higher than the incentive provided to a prime contractor that is not a disabled veteran business enterprise but that has agreed to use a disabled veteran business enterprise subcontractor. (4) Existing law specifies the duties of the Department of Veterans Affairs with respect to the implementation of the Disabled Veteran Enterprise Program, including, among other things, a requirement to establish a system to track the effectiveness of its efforts to promote the program. The bill would require the department to include in the tracking system a record of those businesses that became certified disabled veteran business enterprises and participated in a state contract within 2 years following the date of a promotional effort. (5) Existing law requires the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs to appoint a California Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program Advocate, and each awarding department to appoint an agency Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program Advocate, and requires each advocate to perform certain duties relating to the implementation of the of the Disabled Veteran Enterprise Program. This bill would require the California Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program advocate to perform additional duties, including meeting regularly with, and assisting, agency Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program Advocates, serving as an advocate for the disabled veteran business enterprises, and reporting to the Office of Small Business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Services, as specified. This bill would also require each agency Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program Advocate to perform additional duties, including maintaining records of promotional efforts hosted or attended by each agency Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program Advocate, as specified, and indicating which of these businesses became certified disabled veteran business enterprises and participated in a state contract. (6) Existing law requires the Department of General Services to make available a report on state agency contracting activity containing certain information. This bill would require the department, for any contracting activity occurring on or after July 1, 2015, to include in that report information of the use of disabled veteran business enterprise utilization plans, as specified. The bill would prohibit the department from approving a vendor's utilization plan unless the vendor agrees to provide the department with any information the department deems necessary to meet these reporting requirements.