Bidder pre-qualification inches to finish line in Linn County

While the idea of a project labor agreement is falling out of favor as Linn County braces for a lawsuit from contractor associations, the county is moving closer to finalizing some form of prequalification for bidders on county building projects.

Supervisor Brent Oleson has been working with lawyers at Shuttleworth & Ingersoll to write a county ordinance that can be applied to each new building project and won't be vulnerable in court. It should go to the supervisors for approval in November.

“This process has sharpened the policy, and it's probably made us dial back some things,” Oleson said.

Pay and training requirements should make it into the final document, though he won't offer specifics, and the supervisors' last discussion with attorneys was held in closed session.

“Those will be, I think, slam dunks,” Oleson said. “We have bona fide reasons - health, welfare and safety.”

What will be more difficult is to ensure contractors are local. “Local” might mean the surrounding counties, or Eastern Iowa, or the entire region.

“It's going to be hard to say local means Cedar Rapids,” Oleson said.

The supervisors want to make sure county projects go to local contractors who train and pay their workers to certain standards.

The push has launched competing lobbying efforts by trade unions and contractor associations. Likely none of those groups will be happy with the final product, Supervisor Brent Oleson said, and groups with money and “past histories of suing” have indicated they will come after the county if supervisors approve a project labor agreement or something similar.

“I won't be pushed around by that, but I'm going to take it seriously,” he said.

Master Builders of Iowa, a Des Moines-based construction association, published a column in its quarterly publication calling the supervisors' consideration of a project labor agreement a politically-motivated back room deal with trade unions.

Scott Norvell, president of Master Builders, said he needs to see the final document before he can know whether his organization will sue Linn County.

“The proper thing to do would be to wait and see what their plan is, and then compare the plan against the statute and take it from there,” he said.

In general, however, Norvell opposes not only project labor agreements, but most forms of prequalification. Even requiring local contractors doesn't make sense, he said. Out-of-state contractors are in Iowa looking for work, and Iowa contractors are in other states doing the same.

“You have to exercise great care when you put together a prequalification program, that it really doesn't turn out to be a disqualification program,” he said. “Many have tried, no one's been successful at it.”