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House Bill 1694 |
House Author: Coleman |
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Effective: 9-1-11 |
Senate Sponsor: West |
House Bill 1694 amends provisions of the Local Government Code relating to the purchasing and contracting authority of certain governmental entities. The bill, among other provisions:
· adds payment by an electronic transfer or check as a form of payment for a purchase made by a county purchasing agent, reimbursement to a municipality's purchasing agent for making a purchase for a county, and payment of a county purchasing agent's salary
· removes confinement in a county jail as a penalty for a misdemeanor offense of violating provisions relating to county purchasing agents
· prohibits procedures for the use of a county purchasing card from avoiding competitive bidding requirements
· revises provisions relating to a purchasing agent carrying out the functions of a county auditor and a county auditor carrying out the functions of a purchasing agent
· authorizes certain counties to procure an item using the competitive procurement procedures and requires the commissioners court of a county without a purchasing agent to adopt competitive procurement procedures
· revises provisions relating to the notice of a county purchase
· authorizes a county to negotiate an agreement with a cooperative contract vendor for the vendor to purchase or accept as trade used county equipment
· expands to all counties the applicability of certain provisions relating to a pre-bid conference
· specifies that bids opened by the county required to be kept on file and available for inspection must be kept on file and available until the first anniversary of the date of opening and makes opened bids subject to state open records law
· revises provisions relating to the award of a contract to a bidder who is not the lowest dollar bidder
· repeals the definition of "comparable health insurance coverage" and in certain provisions replaces the term with the term "reasonable health insurance coverage"
· expands to all counties the authority to select an appropriately licensed insurance agent as the sole broker of record to obtain proposals and coverages for insurance
· prohibits an authorized officer from making a purchase on behalf of a county until the officer provides to the county judge a signed acknowledgment that the officer has read and understands provisions relating to the purchasing and contracting authority of counties
· provides that an additional purpose of the Certificate of Obligation Act of 1971 is to provide a procedure for certain financing that is an alternative to the more cumbersome procedure under provisions governing the purchasing and contracting authority of counties
· makes provisions relating to design-build procedures for certain civil works projects applicable to a board of trustees under Transportation Code provisions relating to harbor and port facilities in certain municipalities
· repeals certain provisions relating to the alternative multistep competitive proposal procedure in certain counties and to certain offenses relating to competitive bidding requirements and competitive procurement requirements