BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1647
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1647 (Wiggins)
As Introduced February 21, 2003
Majority vote
EDUCATION 11-0 APPROPRIATIONS 24-0
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|Ayes:|Goldberg, Plescia, Cohn, | | |
| |Diaz, Garcia, Hancock, | | |
| |Liu, Mullin, Pavley, | | |
| |Reyes, Wyland | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the Department of General Services (DGS) to
study the use, and its approval, of prefabricated materials in
the construction of public schools and report its findings,
including but not limited to, an inventory of all types of
prefabricated materials submitted to DGS for approval, to the
Legislature by January 1, 2005.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes various school construction health and safety
requirements, including, but not limited to, certain
requirements that DGS approve construction plans for
compliance with prescribed seismic safety and fitness-for-use
requirements.
2)Authorizes DGS to adopt regulations for safety and design of
factory-built buildings for use as school buildings, and to
approve or reject plans and specifications submitted by
manufacturers of factory-built buildings.
3)Requires that prevailing wage be paid to employees of public
works projects and allows the Director of the Department of
Industrial Relations (DIR) to determine what constitutes a
public works project.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, unknown General Fund costs to DGS of approximately
$100,000 to comply with the provisions of this bill.
COMMENTS : On April 10, 2003, the director of DIR determined
AB 1647
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that prevailing wages must be paid to the employees of
contractors or subcontractors engaged in the off-site
fabrication or prefabrication of items specifically produced for
public works projects.
Existing state law requires that prevailing wage be paid to
employees of public works projects and provides the Director of
DIR with the ability to determine what constitutes a public
works project. Therefore, by determining that the construction
of certain off-site fabricated or prefabricated materials as
public works projects, employees involved in the fabrication or
prefabrication of these materials must be paid prevailing wages.
According to the author, the Director of DIR made the
determination that prevailing wages must be paid to the
employees of contractors and subcontractors engaged in the
off-site of items produced for public works projects based on a
situation at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. At Cuesta
College the a contractor responsible for the heating,
ventilation, and air-conditioning systems on a project did not
pay the employees prevailing wage even though the workers
fabricated the items specifically for the public works project.
The author believes that, with the passage of the school bond,
many public works projects similar to the project at Cuesta
College will soon go out to bid with the likelihood that the
plans submitted and approved by DGS, contain off-site fabricated
or prefabricated items designed especially for the project.
Without knowledge of materials approved by DGS, some school
construction projects may be in violation of prevailing wage
requirements. Therefore, this measure requires DGS to create a
list of all approved fabricated and prefabricated materials used
in school construction sites so that all participatory and
regulatory parties better understand the scope and impact of the
recent determination.
Analysis Prepared by : Mavonne Garrity / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0001320