BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
John Vasconcellos, Chair
2003-2004 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1647
AUTHOR: Wiggins
AS INTRODUCED: February 21, 2003
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: July 2, 2003
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira
SUBJECT School Building Construction - Pre-fabricated
Materials
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of General Services to
study the use, and its approval, of prefabricated materials
in the construction of public schools and to report its
findings, as specified, to the Legislature by January 1,
2005.
BACKGROUND
Current law provides for the safety of design and
construction of factory-built buildings for use as school
buildings and directs the DGS to prescribe procedures for
the plans, specifications, methods of construction, and
estimates of costs of a factory-built school building to be
submitted to the department for approval. A factory-built
building means any building designed or intended for use as
a school building which is either wholly manufactured or is
in substantial part manufactured at an offsite location in
accordance with building standards adopted in specified
law. A manufacturer of such buildings is required to
submit to the DGS and the SDE, for approval, its plans,
specifications, methods of construction, and estimate of
cost of such buildings.
AB 1506 (Wesson, Chapter 868, Statutes of 2002) required
entities using funds from the education facilities bond
acts of 2002 and 2004 for public works projects to initiate
and enforce, or contract with a third-party to initiate and
enforce labor compliance programs. Among other things a
labor compliance program requires that the awarding body
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review, and, if appropriate, audit payroll records to
verify compliance with prevailing wage law. An awarding
body is required to make a written finding that it has
initiated and enforced a labor compliance program. If the
awarding body is a school district, the governing body of
the district must transmit a copy of the written finding to
the State Allocation Board (SAB). The SAB is prohibited
from releasing funds until the written finding has been
received.
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Requires the Department of General (DGS) services to:
a) Study the use, and its approval, of
prefabricated materials in the construction of
public schools.
b) Report its findings, to include an inventory
of all types of prefabricated materials submitted
to DGS for approval, to the Legislature by
January 1, 2005.
2) Repeals the provisions of the bill as of January 1,
2006.
STAFF COMMENTS
According to information provided by the author, the
problem which this bill attempts to address is related to
Precedential Decision #2002-064, issued by the Director of
the Department of Industrial Relations, which required that
prevailing wages be paid to the employees of contractors
and subcontractors engaged in the off-site fabrication or
pre-fabrication of items produced for public works
projects. It is unclear to staff how the bill's provisions
are related to the author's intent. What content is
expected in the study? What action is the Legislature to
consider as a result of the study? What action is DGS
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expected to take? Is the study expected to provide
information to the Department of Industrial Relations? Why
is it necessary to gather this information on all requests
submitted, versus only those approved? Staff recommends
that the bill be amended to clarify what is to be studied
and reported by DGS, and how the Legislature, or other
entities are to use the resulting information.
SUPPORT
None received
OPPOSITION
None received