Civic Openness in Contract Negotiations

California’s Public Contract Code, in Division 2, Part 3, deals with contracting by local agencies. Chapter 4.5 concerns civic openness in negotiations. Section 22175 calls this chapter the “Civic Reporting Openness in Negotiations.”

Section 22176 defines the phrases “civic openness in negotiations ordinance” or “COIN ordinance” to mean an ordinance adopted by a city, county, city and county, or special district that requires specified items as a part of any collective bargaining process undertaken pursuant to the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act.

This includes the preparation of an independent economic analysis; availability for review by the public of the independent economic analysis; updating of the independent economic analysis to reflect the annual or cumulative costs of each proposal made by the public employer or recognized employee organization; report from a closed session of a meeting of the public employer’s governing body of offers, counteroffers, or supposals made by the public employer or the recognized employee organization and communicated during that closed session.

Section 22177 states that this chapter applies only to a city, county, city and county, or special district that has adopted a COIN ordinance, which is effective and operative. This chapter does not apply if the city, county, city and county, or special district suspends, repeals, or revokes its COIN ordinance. Also, this chapter does not apply to a contract if the contract is required to respond to, recover from, or mitigate the effects of any specified emergencies, or to a renewal of a contract if the employees performing the services are covered by a collective bargaining agreement that is governed by the National Labor Relations Act.

Section 22178 explains that this chapter applies to any contracts with a value of at least $250,000, and to any contracts with a person or entity, or related person or entity, with a cumulative value of at least $250,000 within the fiscal year of the city, county, city and county, or special district, being negotiated between the city, county, city and county, or special district, and any person or entity that seeks to provide services or goods to the city, county, city and county, or special district, in the following areas: accounting, financing, hardware and software maintenance, health care, human resources, human services, information technology, telecommunications, janitorial maintenance, legal services, lobbying, marketing, office equipment maintenance, passenger vehicle maintenance, property leasing, public relations, public safety, social services, transportation, or waste removal.

The city, county, city and county, or special district is required to designate an unbiased independent auditor to review the cost of any proposed contract. The independent auditor must prepare a report on the cost of the contract and provide the report to all parties and make it available to the public before the governing body takes any action to approve or disapprove the contract. The report must comply with three specified items.

In addition, the city, county, city and county, or special district must disclose all offers and counteroffers to the public within 24 hours on its Internet Web site. Also, each governing body member and staff members of governing body offices must disclose publicly all verbal, written, electronic, or other communications regarding a subject matter related to the negotiations or pending negotiations they have had with any official or unofficial representative of the private entity within 24 hours after the communication occurs.