Relates to the submission of electronic bids in the awarding of certain contracts in certain municipalities

2 Co-sponsors

• Martin Malavé Dilan
• John L. Sampson

BILL NUMBER:S2055A

Title of bill

An act to amend the general municipal law, in relation to letting of certain contracts

Purpose or general idea of bill

The purpose of this legislation is to authorize a pilot program for the Village of Port Chester and the City of New Rochelle to jointly conduct bidding for commodities, services and technology contracts electronically, and to conduct a limited number of reverse auctions for such municipal contracts

Summary of specific provisions

This bill would authorize a pilot program for the Village of Port Chester and the City of New Rochelle to jointly conduct cooperative electronic bidding for commodities, services, technology contracts and reverse auctions for such contracts. No more than 50 contracts would be authorized between June 1, 2014 and March 31, 2018.

Within thirty days of conducting the last auction the Chief Financial officers of Port Chester and the City of New Rochelle would be required to submit a report to the respective legislatures assessing the use of electronic submissions and recommendations regarding the use of the procurement method.

Existing law

Article 5A, subdivision 1 of section 103 of municipal Law is amended to include this provision.

Justification

Municipalities are seeking ways to increase efficiency and reduce costs. One simple method of furthering achieving this end would be to allow municipalities to only accept bids electronically. While municipalities may currently receive electronic bids the submission of bids in electronic format cannot be required as the sole method for submission of bids, and paper bids must still be accepted.

The purpose of this legislation is to authorize a pilot program for the Village of Port Chester and the City of New Rochelle to conduct a limited number of electronic bids for commodity, service and technology contracts. The program would require a report and recommendations regarding the pilot program to determine if savings could be realized by conducting electronic bidding. Port Chester and New Rochelle would be authorized to jointly conduct a limited number of electronic bids for commodity, service and technology contracts. The total number of electronic bids would be limited to 50 electronic bids and 20 reverse auctions through electronic means.

This pilot program mirrors a pilot program authorized in the 2012-2013 state budget authorizing the Office of General Services to conduct a pilot program for electronic bidding only for certain state contract. Under the proposed pilot program all existing minimum requirements for competitive bidding remain the same (e.g. "advertising in the official newspapers, public opening of bids etc"). In addition, any method used to receive electronic bids must also comply with article 3 of the "State Technology Law' (the "Electronic Signatures and Records Act") and related regulations.

Prior legislative history

(Latimer) 06/01/12- referred to local governments 06/20/12- reported referred to ways and means 06/20/12- reported referred to rules (Oppenheimer) 05/30/12- REFERRED TO CONSUMER PROTECTION 01/01/13- 12/31/13 Referred to Local Gov.

Fiscal implications

None to the state

Local fiscal implications

To be determined

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately upon becoming law