Revises provisions of "County College Contracts Law"; permits bidder disqualification due to prior negative experience.
What changed between versions
Section (6) was corrected to read 'The term of [such a] the disqualification shall be concurrent with the term of the suspension or debarment' instead of 'The term of the disqualification shall be concurrent...'
A legislative statement was added describing that the bill raises the public bid threshold for county colleges to $100,000 for contracts where workers are not paid under the New Jersey Prevailing Wage Act, while the prevailing wage threshold remains unchanged at its current level.
The statement describes 16 new exemptions from public advertising and bidding requirements, including electronic data services, IT, banking and investment services, energy supply, transportation, vehicle maintenance, vending services, medical testing, and others.
The statement describes a new provision allowing county colleges to purchase without public advertising for bids when the purchase is awarded through a reverse auction for utilities and other commodities.
The statement describes a change in the contract award standard for goods and services from 'lowest responsible bidder' to 'responsible bidder whose bid will be most advantageous to the county college, price and other factors considered.'
The statement describes increasing the maximum length of certain contracts from 24 to 36 consecutive months and permitting contracts up to five years for certain types, with specific maximum lengths for banking, building maintenance, and alternative energy services.
The statement describes a new provision allowing county college boards to disqualify a bidder based on prior negative experience by another public institution of higher education within the past 15 years, subject to conditions including written notice, hearing opportunity, consideration of mitigating factors, and time limits.
