Special to the Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE — It is a disservice to the local taxpayers and an unnecessary fear tactic that the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce misrepresented the intent and facts surrounding the proposed Responsible Bidder Ordinance (RBO) as written in the Opinion section of the Tribune-Star on March 10.
As the individual petitioner and not any particular organization as referenced for the RBO, I thank the Chamber for publicly recognizing the “wonderful training” offered through the registered Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training programs through the Department of Labor (DOL). These programs are available to any organization without regard to labor affiliation as long as they can fulfill and regularly meet minimum classroom and on-the-job training standards established by the recognized industry “referee”, the DOL.
Most programs mandate five years of training consisting of over 800 hours of classroom education and 8,000 hours of on-the-job training under the supervision of an experienced and highly skilled tradesperson. This provides local communities with an available pool of skilled and properly trained workers who have the ability to construct our local buildings and schools safely and with quality.
The RBO will actually increase competition available from qualified and responsible contractors who seek to perform work with taxpayer-funded public sector jobs. The RBO merely recognizes the importance of ensuring only the best and most qualified contractors will perform work for the taxpayers of Terre Haute. As outlined under the ordinance, contractors will have to meet minimum requirements and prove they are complying with existing and established legal obligations. Any responsible contractor could easily meet these requirements if they are currently playing by the rules. The ones who have not been following all of the laws or minimum requirements will be the ones scrambling to ensure they are indeed responsible.
The RBO declares up front to all contractors interested in bidding Terre Haute public works projects that the city is serious about ensuring all bids are submitted using a level playing field and utilizes a transparent process in the bidding jobs. During these tough economic times, some unscrupulous contractors may be inclined to take advantage of understaffed state agencies or lax enforcement of existing laws and skirt their legal obligations. We want to ensure everyone is paying their fair share of local income taxes, that all laws are being followed, and that only the contractors who are doing the right thing are awarded a contract to perform taxpayer-funded work.
Why reward contractors who are not responsible? If contractors are allowed to intentionally underbid qualified and responsible bidders, responsible contractors will no longer be able to stay competitive or even stay in business. So in fact, with state enforcement of existing laws lax, the existing process is actually eliminating the ability of qualified and responsible contractors from securing work as unscrupulous contractors under bid their competitors. The RBO gives the city representatives more control and oversight to ensure taxpayers are receiving the best value for their money.
Once all of the documents are submitted and the minimum requirements are verified, a review of the bid dollar amount will then be reviewed. There is nothing in the RBO that requires “closely held financial records” to be disclosed publicly.
There are over 50 RBOs in place across the region and with reference to Decatur repealing their RBO one fact was left out. The threshold in which the RBO “kicked-in” was set at $20,000 for project costs. Yes, that dollar amount would limit the available number of contractors. However, that could have easily been remedied by raising the limit to $150,000, which is the project cost required for the RBO to take effect in Terre Haute.
— Tom Szymanski
Business representative
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 725
