HB 3316 Passed the House and is in the Senate Business Committee. We had a hearing yesterday and will have a work session next week. Want to help? Write an email to your Senator asking them to support HB 3316!

WHAT DOES HB 3316 DO????

…Makes sure that public contracting agencies consider qualifications of design professionals before talking price…
• Federally, the Brooks Act (Public Law 92-582), also known as Qualifications Based Selection (QBS), was enacted on October 18, 1972.
• Under QBS procurement procedures, price quotations are not a consideration in the first phase of the selection process. Instead, after public solicitation for architect and engineer (A/E) services and submission of proposals, evaluations are made based on selection committee criteria, and a short-list is developed of those to be interviewed. After interviews with the firms, the selection committee ranks the most qualified firms and then begins negotiations on price with the top ranked firm.
• Fact is, materials and labor can be bid, but ideas and collaboration are more difficult. When an architect or engineer enters a project, the scope of the work has not been entirely defined; therefore, there are insufficient parameters on which to base a cost proposal. Price bidding only works when there is clearly a specified project scope, such as in the construction phase.

...Assures local governments (which the legislature began requiring use QBS in 2001) are applying the law at appropriate times and most efficiently using taxpayer dollars…
• Local governments were given a pass from this procurement process if state funds were not part of the project. This has led to confusion and circumvention. HB 3316 removes that caveat.
• The aim is to avoid reliance on low-bid choices that had proven in past projects to often be of lower quality. Choosing design services based on cost leads to confinement of ideas, costly changes and delays along the way and higher priced, less sustainable projects in the long run. Hiring the most qualified professional design services provider at a reasonable price is the best way of ensuring public dollars lead to final constructed projects that are completed on time and on budget.
• There are no additional costs imposed on the contracting agency with HB 3316 – just a required order of qualifications then cost. Contracting agencies already estimate design costs amount to about 10% of project price, so no one is in the dark about the range.

…Allows small, emerging and minority businesses more opportunities to work with public contracting agencies and build their portfolio…
• HB 3316 raises the size of contracts required to use QBS. Previously $50,000, now projects where estimated design costs are less than $100,000 (at 10% estimate commonly used, that is a $1 million project) can use other forms of procurement allowed in Oregon’s public purchasing law.
• This change will allows small and emerging firms to make proposals to public contracting agencies on smaller projects statewide.
• HB 3316 also allows for an “informal QBS process” to be used when design fees will be less than $250,000 ($2.5 million project). This process still put qualifications first, but does not require as extensive of a process as regular QBS does for larger projects.

…HIGH QUALITY PROJECTS
…MORE ACCESS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
…WISE INVESTMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS