SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Proposition 35 receives 55 percent of the vote in California during the recent elections. The proposition overrides constitutional restrictions to allow state and local contracting with private entities for engineering and architectural services in all phases of public works projects. It also exempts such services from constitutional requirements to use civil service workforce, and requires competitive selection process for awarding contracts. The new law mandates compliance with rules regarding conflicts of interest, political contributions, unlawful activities. Proposition 35 will also subject contracts for engineering and architectural services to standard accounting practices, with financial and performance audits where necessary.

Prompt Pay

An Idea Whose Time Has Just Arrived

TUCSON, Ariz. -Arizona's new Private Prompt Pay law, otherwise known as Senate Bill 1549, is being hailed as a major improvement in the state's labor law affecting landscape contractors. Passage of the bill is the culmination of 13 years of work on behalf of the bill's primary author, Richard Usher.

Provisions of the bill include definitions of a "construction contract," "contractor," and "subcontractor" as well as payment schedules for progress payments and terms under which a contract may be suspended. Bill Krause, chairman of the ALCA is encouraging members to study the law and know it "inside and out."

Currently, Arizona is only one of three states that has prompt pay laws concerning contractors, Maryland and Oregon being the other two. Texas is in the process of getting its own prompt pay legislation.

Washington

Initiative 745, a measure that would require that 90 percent of state and local transportation funds, including local transit taxes, excluding ferry and transit fares, be spent on road construction, improvement and maintenance, failed with 58 percent of voters casting "No" votes.

Voters in Seattle voted to expand parks and preserve open space in the city.