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89 California Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (2006)

handle is hein.sag/sagca0089 and id is 1 raw text is: ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OPINIONS Opinion No. 05-405-January 24, 2006 Requested by: STATE ALLOCATION BOARD Opinion by: BILL LOCKYER, Attorney General Daniel G. Stone, Deputy THE STATE ALLOCATION BOARD, has requested an opinion on the following question: May a school district, without advertising for bids, contract with another public agency to acquire factory-built modular building components for installation on a permanent foundation? CONCLUSION A school district may not, without advertising for bids, contract with another public agency to acquire factory-built modular building components for installation on a permanent foundation. ANALYSIS Under the Local Agency Public Construction Act (Pub. Contract Code, §§ 20100-20920),1 counties, cities, school districts, and other local public agencies may enter into contracts with private parties for the construction of local projects. A central requirement of this statutory scheme is that, once the local agency has provided contract specifications for a given project, the contract must be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder. The question presented for resolution is whether a school district may avoid advertising for bids by contracting with another public agency to acquire factory-built modular building components for installation on a permanent foundation. We conclude that it may not do so. Preliminarily, we note that a school district is generally required to award its contracts for a public project to the lowest responsible bidder. Subdivision (b) of section 20111 provides: The governing board shall let any contract for a public project, as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 22002, involving an expenditure of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) or more, to the lowest responsible bidder who shall give security as the board requires, or else reject all bids. All bids for construction work shall be presented under sealed cover . . . . Section 22002, subdivision (c), defines a public project as follows: 1 Hereafter, all references to the Public Contract Code are by section number only. January 2006