SB 918

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law provides that the Department of Transportation has full possession and control of the state highway system and associated property. Existing law authorizes the department to purchase or rent any necessary supplies, instruments, tools, equipment, and conveniences as may be necessary for the proper discharge of its duties. This bill would require the department, on or before February 1, 2015, to develop and implement an asset management program that will efficiently and effectively catalog the department's assets to ensure the most efficient usage and maintenance of those assets, and would require the department to update the program at least once every 5Â years. (2) Existing law, the State Records Management Act, imposes certain requirements on state agencies with respect to retention of records that have administrative, legal, or fiscal value. This bill would impose additional record retention requirements on the Department of Transportation with respect to documents that are associated with construction projects. The bill would provide that the department shall be liable for any loss or damage to any party resulting from failure to retain these documents, and would provide for a civil penalty of up to $500 for each occurrence of a missing document. (3) Existing law, the State Contract Act, generally provides for a contracting process by state agencies for public works of improvement via a competitive bidding process, under which bids are awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, with certain alternative bidding procedures authorized in certain cases. Existing law requires a department, as defined for purposes of the State Contract Act, including the Department of Transportation, to prepare full, complete, and accurate plans and specifications and estimates of cost before entering into any competitively bid contract for a public works project. This bill would, with respect to competitively bid projects, require the department, before it commences the design of a project's plans, to first obtain full, complete, and accurate survey information of the field conditions existing in the location where construction of the project is to be performed. The bill would also require the department, when preparing the project's plans, to use state-of-the-art design software that allows for the preparation of full, complete, and accurate plans and that does not automatically fix errors in the design but rather requires the project designer to correct errors on an individualized, contemplative basis. (4) Existing law requires the department to annually prepare and submit to the Governor a proposed budget, and to inform the California Transportation Commission of all pertinent assumptions and policy directions it intends to use in preparing the budget. Existing law also requires the department to develop budgeting, accounting, fiscal control, and management information systems in order to support its proposed budgets and to improve its program management, as specified. This bill would require the department, in preparing the proposed budget, to include detailed information about outstanding contractor claims, as defined, relating to construction projects, and to reserve sufficient moneys in each budget to pay accumulated outstanding claims, as specified, and to report on those claims and reserves in budget-related reports.