[HISTORY: Adopted by the Council of the City
of Latrobe 4-12-1999 by Ord. No. 1999-4. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Purchasing — See Ch. 34.
The City of Latrobe may make contracts for lawful
purposes and for the purposes of carrying into execution the provisions
of the Home Rule Charter of the City Latrobe and laws of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania to which the City may be subject.
A.
All contracts or purchases in excess of $18,500, subject to the adjustment provided in Section 1402(a.2) of the Borough Code, 8 Pa.C.S.A. § 1402(a.2), except those hereinafter mentioned, shall not be made except with and from the lowest responsible bidder after due notice in one newspaper of general circulation in the City, at least two times at intervals of not less than three days where daily newspapers of general circulation are available for such publication. In case of weekly newspapers, such notice shall be published once a week for two successive weeks. The first advertisement shall not be more than 45 days and the second advertisement shall not be less than 10 days prior to the date fixed for the opening of bids. Advertisements for contracts or purchases shall also be posted in a conspicuous place within the City Municipal Building. Advertisements for contracts and purchases shall contain the date, time and location of opening of bids and shall state the amount of the performance bond determined under Subsection F. The amount of the contract shall in all cases, whether of straight sale price, conditional sale, bailment lease or otherwise, be the entire amount which the City pays to the successful bidder or his assigns in order to obtain the services or property, or both, and shall not be construed to mean only the amount which is paid to acquire title or to receive any other particular benefit or benefits of the whole bargain.
[Amended 2-13-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-3; 10-26-2020 by Ord. No. 2020-11]
B.
Written or telephonic price quotations from at least
three qualified and responsible contractors shall be requested for
all contracts that exceed $10,000 but are less than the amount requiring
advertisement and competitive bidding, or, in lieu of price quotations,
a memorandum shall be kept on file showing that fewer than three qualified
contractors exist in the market area within which it is practicable
to obtain quotations. A written record of telephonic price quotations
shall be made and shall contain at least the date of the quotation,
the name of the contractor and the contractor's representative, the
construction, reconstruction, repair, maintenance or work which was
the subject of the quotation and the price. Written price quotations,
written records of telephonic price quotations and memoranda shall
be retained for a period of three years.
[Amended 2-13-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-3]
C.
In awarding contracts, based upon competitive bidding
or telephonic price quotations, Council shall have the right to take
into consideration such other factors as the availability, cost and
quality of service in determining the lowest responsible bidder. Based
upon such other factors, and upon written opinion of the City Manager
and/or Solicitor and/or Engineer, where applicable, that it would
be in the best interest of the City to accept a higher bid, Council
may accept a bid higher than the lowest bid if such higher bid shall
not deviate more than 10% from the lowest bid. Acceptance of such
higher bid shall comply with the requirements of this chapter.
D.
The award of contracts shall only be made by public
announcement at the meeting at which bids are received, or at a subsequent
meeting, the time and place of which shall be publicly announced either
in the bid specifications or when bids are received. If for any reason
one or both of the above meetings shall not be held, the same business
may be transacted at any subsequent meeting if at least five days'
notice thereof shall be published in the newspaper aforesaid. At Council's
request, all bids advertised for shall be accompanied by cash, money
order, a certified or cashier's good faith check or a bond with corporate
surety in such amount as Council shall determine, and, when requested,
no bid shall be considered unless so accompanied.
E.
Notwithstanding Subsection D above, Council may direct that a committee of Council, a member of Council or a member of the City staff may receive, open and review bids during normal business hours and forward the information to Council for subsequent award at a public meeting. Bidders shall be notified, and other interested parties, upon request, shall be notified of the date, time and location of the opening of bids and who may be present when the bids are opened.
F.
Successful bidder.
[Amended 3-13-2000 by Ord. No. 2000-6; 2-13-2012 by Ord. No.
2012-3]
(1)
A successful bidder for any contract when advertising
is required shall be required to furnish a completion bond (with suitable
reasonable requirements guaranteeing the work to be done with sufficient
surety in an amount as determined by Council) which shall not be less
than 10% nor more than 110% of the amount of the liability under the
contract within 20 days after the contract has been awarded, unless
Council shall prescribe a shorter period of not less than 10 days,
and upon failure to furnish such bond within such time, the previous
award shall be void. Deliveries, accomplishment and guarantees may
be required in all cases of expenditures. Further, the successful
bidder may also be required to provide a performance bond, or other
type of warranty, at the discretion of Council, or Council's designee,
in such amount and upon such terms as Council may require.
[Amended 10-26-2020 by Ord. No. 2020-11]
(2)
For those contracts not in excess of $18,500, a performance
bond and/or a completion bond may be required at the discretion of
the City Manager in such amounts as the City Manager shall deem proper.
G.
The contracts of purchases made by Council, or Council's
designee, which shall not require advertising, bidding or price quotations
as hereinabove provided, are as follows:
[Amended 3-13-2000 by Ord. No. 2000-6; 2-13-2012 by Ord. No.
2012-3; 10-26-2020 by Ord. No. 2020-11]
(1)
Those for routine maintenance, repairs or replacements
for water, electric light or public works of the City, provided that
they do not constitute new additions, extensions or enlargements of
existing facilities and equipment, but a bond may be required by Council,
as in other cases of work done.
(a)
Those
for emergency maintenance, repairs or replacements for water, electricity
or public works of the borough, if they do not constitute new additions,
extensions or enlargements of existing facilities and equipment, but
security may be required by Council, as in other cases of work done.
The actual emergency and the nature of the procurement shall be stated
in a resolution by Council and adopted at the next public meeting.
(b)
Those
for the mitigation of a real or potential emergency involving a clear
and present danger to the health, safety and welfare of the residents
of the borough. For those contracts or purchases made in cases of
emergencies, the actual emergency and the nature of the procurement
shall be stated in a resolution by Council and adopted at the next
public meeting.
(2)
Those made for improvements, repairs and maintenance of any kind made or provided by the City, through its own employees, provided that all materials used for street improvement, maintenance and/or construction in excess of $10,000 be subject to the relevant price quotation or advertising requirements contained herein; and further provided that all materials used for street improvement, maintenance and/or construction in excess of the amount specified in Subsection A above shall be subject to the relevant advertisement requirements contained herein.
(3)
Those where particular types, models or pieces of
new equipment, articles, apparatus, appliances, vehicles or parts
thereof are desired by Council, which are patented and manufactured
or copyrighted products. A report shall be submitted to the City Manager
by any department director who requests purchase of a patented or
copyrighted item without seeking bids or quotations. The report shall
set forth the specific reasons for justification of the purchase under
this section.
(4)
Those for used equipment, articles, apparatus, appliances,
vehicles or parts thereof being purchased from a public entity.
(5)
Those involving any policies of insurance. or surety
company bonds; those made for public utility service under tariffs
on file with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission; those made
with another political subdivision or a county, the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, the federal government, any agency of the commonwealth
or the federal government or any municipal authority, including the
sale, leasing or loan of any supplies or materials by the commonwealth
or the federal government or their agencies. The price thereof shall
not be in excess of that fixed by the commonwealth, the federal government
or their agencies;
(6)
Those involving personal or professional services,
where a written proposal has been submitted to the City Manager;
(7)
Those
for which advertising, bidding or price quotations is not required
under Pennsylvania Law.
I.
No person, consultant, firm or corporation contracting
with the City for purposes of rendering personal or professional services
to the City shall share with any City Council member, officer or employee,
and no City Council member, officer or employee shall accept, any
portion of the compensation or fees paid by the City for contracted
services provided to the City except under the following terms or
conditions:
(1)
Full disclosure of all relevant information regarding
the sharing of the compensation or fees shall be made to the Council
of the City.
(2)
The Council of the City must approve by motion the
sharing of any fee or compensation for personal or professional services
prior to the performance of said services.
(3)
No fee or compensation for personal or professional
services may be shared except for work actually performed.
(4)
No shared fee or compensation for personal or professional
services may be paid at a rate in excess of that commensurate for
similar personal or professional services.
[Amended 2-13-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-3]
No employee, professional service provider, member or members of Council shall evade the provisions of § 12-2 hereof as to advertising for bids, by purchasing or contracting for services and personal properties piecemeal for the purpose of obtaining prices under $10,000 upon which transactions should, in the exercise of reasonable discretion and prudence, be conducted as one transaction amounting to more than $10,000. This provision is intended to make unlawful the evading of telephonic quotations or advertising requirements by making a series of purchases or contracts, each for less than the quotation or advertising requirement price, or by making several simultaneous purchases or contracts, each below said price, when, in either case, the transactions involved should have been made as one transaction for one price. Any employee, professional service provider, or member of Council who so acts in violation of this provision and who knows that the transaction upon which he or she so acts is a part of a larger transaction and that it is being divided in order to evade the requirements as to quotations or advertising for bids shall be jointly and severally subject to surcharge. Whenever it shall appear that a member of Council may have voted in violation of this section, but the purchase or contract on which he so voted was not approved by Council, this section shall be inapplicable.
[Amended 2-13-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-3]
Except as otherwise provided in this act, no
City official either elected or appointed, who knows or who by the
exercise of reasonable diligence could know, shall be interested to
any appreciable degree either directly or indirectly in any purchase
made or contract entered into or expenditure of money made by the
City or relating to the business of the City, involving the expenditure
by the City of more than $10,000 in any calendar year, but this limitation
shall not apply to cases where such officer or appointee of the City
is an employee of the person, firm or corporation to which the money
is to be paid in a capacity with no possible influence on the transaction
and in which he cannot be possibly benefited thereby either financially
or otherwise. But in the case of a Councilman or Mayor, if he knows
that he is within the exception just mentioned he shall so inform
Council and shall refrain from voting on the expenditure or any ordinance
relating thereto, and shall in no manner participate therein. Any
official or appointee who shall knowingly violate the provisions of
this section shall be subject to surcharge to the extent of the damage
shown to be thereby sustained by the City and to ouster from office
and shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof
shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding $ 1,000, or not exceeding
one hundred eighty days' imprisonment, or both.
[Amended 2-13-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-3]
In the preparation for the erection, construction
and alteration of any public building, when the entire cost of such
work shall exceed $10,000, the architect, engineer or other person
preparing such specifications may, if so requested by the City Council,
prepare separate specifications for the plumbing, heating, ventilating
and electrical work. The person or persons authorized to enter into
contracts for the erection, construction or alteration of such public
buildings may, if such separate specifications shall have been proposed,
receive separate bids upon each of said branches of work, and shall
thereupon award the contract for the same to the lowest responsible
bidder for each of said branches.
[Amended 3-13-2000 by Ord. No. 2000-6; 2-13-2012 by Ord. No.
2012-3]
A.
It shall be the duty of the City to require any person,
copartnership, association, or corporation entering into a contract
with such City for the construction, erection, installation, completion,
alteration, repair of, or addition to, any public work or improvement
of any kind whatsoever, where the amount of such contract is in excess
of $18,500, before commencing work under such contract, to execute
and deliver to such City, in addition to any other bond which may
now or hereafter be required by law to be given in connection with
such contract, an additional bond for the use of any and every person,
copartnership, association, or corporation interested, in a sum not
less than 50% and not more than 110% of the contract price, as such
City may prescribe, having its surety thereon one or more surety companies
legally authorized to do business in this commonwealth, conditioned
for the prompt payment of all material furnished and labor supplied
or performed in the prosecution of the work, whether or not the said
material or labor enter into and become component parts of the work
or improvement contemplated. Such additional bond shall be deposited
with and held by the City for the use of any party interested therein.
Every such additional bond shall provide that every person, copartnership,
association, or corporation, who, whether as subcontractor or otherwise,
has furnished material or supplied or performed labor in the prosecution
of the work as above provided, and who has not been paid therefor,
may sue in assumpsit on said additional bond, in the name of the City,
for his, their or its use and prosecute the same to final judgment
for such sum or sums as may be justly due him, them or it and have
execution thereof, provided that the City shall not be liable for
the payment of any costs or expense of any suit.
B.
For those contracts less than $18,501, the above described
bond or bonds may be required, in such amounts as may be deemed proper,
by the City Manager, or the City Manager's designee.
A.
The specifications upon which contracts are entered
into by any City for the construction, alteration or repair of any
public work or improvement may, at the option of the City Council,
contain the minimum wage or wages which may be paid by the contractor
or his subcontractors for the work performed by laborers and mechanics
employed on such public work or improvement, and such laborers and
mechanics shall in such cases be paid not less than such minimum wage
or wages.
B.
Every contract for the construction, alteration or
repair of any public work, or improvement, founded on specifications
containing any such stipulation for minimum wage or wages, shall stipulate
a penalty of any amount equal to twice the difference between the
minimum wage contained in said specifications and the wage actually
paid to each laborer mechanic for each day during which he shall have
been employed at a wage less than that prescribed in said specifications.
C.
Every officer or person designated as an inspector
of or having supervision over the work to be performed under any such
contract, in order to aid in enforcing the fulfillment thereof, shall,
upon observation or investigation, report to the City Council or agency
which let the contract all violations of minimum wage stipulations,
together with the name of each laborer or mechanic who has been paid
a wage less than prescribed by the specifications and the day or days
of such violation.
D.
All such penalties shall be withheld and deducted
for the use of the City from any moneys due the contractor by the
officer or person whose duty it shall be to authorize the payment
of such moneys due such contractor, whether the violation of the minimum
stipulation of the specifications was by the contractor or by any
of his subcontractors. If any such contractor or subcontractor subsequently
pays to all laborers and mechanics the balance of the amounts stipulated
in such contract, the City shall pay to the contractor the amounts
so withheld as penalties.
Every contract for or on behalf of any City
for the construction, alteration or repair of any public building
or public work may contain provisions by which the contractor agrees
that:
A.
In the hiring of employees for the performance of
work under such contract or any subcontract hereunder, no contractor,
subcontractor or any person acting on behalf of such contractor or
subcontractor shall by reason of race, creed or color discriminate
against any person who is qualified and available to perform the work
to which the employment relates;
B.
No contractor, subcontractor or any person on his
behalf shall, in any manner, discriminate against or intimidate any
employee hired for the performance of work under his contract on account
of race, creed or color;
C.
There may be deducted, from the amount payable to
the contractor under such contract, a penalty of $5 for each person
for each calendar day during which such person was discriminated against
or intimated in violation of the provision of the contract; and
D.
Such contract may be canceled or terminated by the
City and all money due or to become due thereunder may be forfeited
for a second or any subsequent violation of the terms or conditions
of this part of the contract.
Every bidder who submits a bid pursuant to competitive
bidding, when required by the City in the bid specifications, shall
submit a completed noncollusion affidavit. Failure to submit the affidavit
with the bid shall be a technical deficiency which may be corrected,
at the discretion of the City, within a time period specified by the
City after the opening of bids. Failure to submit the same within
the designated time period shall be an automatic grounds for rejection
of the bid. The City may reject a bid at the time of bid opening for
failure to include the noncollusion affidavit if such action is in
the best interest of the City in expediting the process for bidding
and awarding of contract.
[Added 3-13-2000 by Ord. No. 2000-6]
Purchases of materials and/or supplies through and from any council of governments to which the City is authorized to belong, or any cooperative purchasing program between the City and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, shall be exempt from the bidding/quotation provisions of this chapter, § 12-2A through F.
[Added 3-13-2000 by Ord. No. 2000-6;
amended 2-13-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-3]
All contracts for the purchase of materials,
supplies or services, in excess of $18,500 shall be deemed to be a
contract properly approved by Council under the Home Rule Charter,
Section 707 (3) and shall be executed or signed by the Mayor. All
other contracts in excess of $10,000, but less than $18,501, which
are not individually approved by Council, may be signed by the Mayor
or the City Manager. Any contract below the amount of $10,001 may
be signed by the Mayor, the City Manager or the Director of any Department,
with the approval of the City Manager.
[Added 2-13-2012 by Ord.
No. 2012-3]
A.
The Department of Labor and Industry shall determine the percentage
change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Customers: All Items
(CPI-U) for the United States City Average as published by the United
States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the twelve-month
period ending September 30, 2012, and for each successive twelve-month
period thereafter.
B.
If the Department determines that there is no positive percentage
change, then no adjustment to the base amounts shall occur for the
relevant time period provided for in this section.
C.
Preliminary adjusted amounts.
(1)
If the department determines that there is a positive percentage change in the first year that the determination is made under Subsection A, the positive percentage change shall be multiplied by each base amount, and the products shall be added to the base amounts, respectively, and the sums shall be preliminary adjusted amounts.
D.
In each successive year in which there is a positive percentage change in the CPI-U for the United States City Average, the positive percentage change shall be multiplied by the most recent preliminary adjusted amounts, and the products shall be added to the preliminary adjusted amount of the prior year to calculate the preliminary adjusted amounts for the current year. The sums thereof shall be rounded to the nearest $100 to determine the new final adjusted base amounts for purposes of § 12-2A and B.
E.
The determinations and adjustments required under this subsection
shall be made in the period between October 1 and November 15 of the
year following the effective date of this section and annually between
October 1 and November 15 of each year thereafter.
G.
The Department shall publish notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin prior to January 1 of each calendar year of the annual percentage change determined under Subsection A and the unadjusted or final adjusted base amounts determined under Subsections C and D at which competitive bidding is required under § 12-2A and written or telephonic price quotations are required under § 12-2B, respectively, for the calendar year beginning the first day of January after publication of the notice. The notice shall include a written and illustrative explanation of the calculations performed by the Department in establishing the unadjusted or final adjusted base amounts under this section for the ensuing calendar year.
