PUBLIC CONTRACTING:
Supplies, Equipment, Services, and Public Works
TOWN OF YOUNTVILLE
August 4, 2026
Presented by:
Gary B. Bell, Town Attorney
COLANTUONO, HIGHSMITH & WHATLEY, PC
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INTRODUCTION
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• Different from private contracting
• Prescribed processes (state law/municipal code/both)
• Process depends on the whether contract is for:
• Supplies and equipment,
• Services (general or professional/special), or
• Public works/public projects.
• Staff determines the applicable process and follows it • Town’s process mirrors process in other cities
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SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT
Government Code section 54202:
• “Every local agency [including the Town] shall adopt policies and procedures, including bidding regulations, governing purchases of supplies and equipment by the local agency.
Purchases of supplies and equipment by the local agency shall be in accordance with said duly adopted policies and in accordance with all provisions of law governing same. No policy, procedure, or regulation shall be adopted which is inconsistent or in conflict with statute.”
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SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT (Cont.)
• Policies and procedures must be adopted by ordinance. • Town has done so in Yountville Municipal Code 3.32.100 et seq. • “Supplies” means office supplies, janitorial supplies, materials, goods, tools, or other commodities used in the general conduct of the Town's business excepting supplies for a public work which is regulated under the Public Contracts Code Section 20160 et seq. (i.e., public works projects)
• “Equipment” means furnishings, machinery, vehicles, rolling stock, and other personal property used in the Town's business. 7/29/2026 © 2026 Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC 5
SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT (Cont.)
• Policies and procedures apply to “supplies and equipment” and include:
• Bidding (formal and informal),
• Cooperative purchasing (“piggybacking”),
• Sole source contracting (if only one vendor or one distributor exists for the supply or equipment),
• Emergency contracting, and
• Delegated contract authority (Town Manager approves contracts up to and including $45k; Town Council approves contracts and amendments above that amount).
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SERVICES
• Services are either “general” or “professional or special”. • Different requirements for each.
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GENERAL SERVICES
• General services “means services such as janitorial, uniform cleaning, maintenance work and other services which do not require any unique skill, special background or training.
Obtaining such services at the lowest cost is the single most important factor in selection, as opposed to personal
performance.”
• General services are subject to same policies and procedures as “supplies and equipment.”
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PROFESSIONAL/SPECIAL SERVICES
• Professional or special services “means any work performed by an attorney, doctor, architect, engineer, land surveyor, construction manager, appraiser, expert, accounting firm, planning consultant or those services such as computer services and other services which require special performance criteria, specific experience, training, personal judgment, quality of work or factors other than simply obtaining the service at the lowest cost to the Town.” • Professional or special services are subject to different policies and procedures under state law and the Yountville Municipal Code. 7/29/2026 © 2026 Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC 9
PROFESSIONAL/SPECIAL SERVICES (Cont.)
• Government Code 37103:
• “The legislative body [of the Town] may contract with any specially trained and experienced person, firm, or corporation for special services and advice in financial, economic, accounting, engineering, legal, or administrative matters. It may pay such compensation to these experts as it deems proper.”
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• Government Code 53060
• “The legislative body of any public or municipal corporation [including the Town] or district may contract with and employ any persons for the furnishing to the corporation or district special services and advice in financial, economic, accounting, engineering, legal, or administrative matters if such persons are specially trained and experienced and competent to perform the special services required. . . [¶] The legislative body of the corporation or district may pay from any available funds such compensation to such persons as it deems proper for the services rendered.”
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• Government Code 4526
• “[S]election by a . . . local agency head for professional services of private architectural, landscape architectural, engineering, environmental, land surveying, or construction project management firms shall be on the basis of demonstrated competence and on the professional qualifications necessary for the satisfactory performance of the services required. In order to implement this method of selection . . . local agency heads contracting for private architectural, landscape architectural, professional engineering, environmental, land surveying, and construction project management services may adopt by ordinance, procedures that assure that these services are engaged on the basis of demonstrated competence and qualifications for the types of services to be performed and at fair and reasonable prices to the public agencies. Furthermore, these procedures shall assure maximum participation of small business firms, as defined by the Director of General Services pursuant to Section 14837.
• In addition, these procedures shall specifically prohibit practices which might result in unlawful activity including, but not limited to, rebates, kickbacks, or other unlawful consideration, and shall specifically prohibit government agency employees from participating in the selection process when those employees have a relationship with a person or business entity seeking a contract under this section which would subject those employees to the prohibition of Section 87100.
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• Government Code 87100 is part of the Political Reform Act and prohibits a government official from making, or in any way attempt to use the public official’s official position to influence a governmental decision in which the official knows or has reason to know the official has a financial interest (source of income, real property, business entities, source of gifts over annual limit, and personal finances)
• Town has adopted procedures to prohibit this and “other unlawful consideration” through its Conflict-of-Interest Code adopted and amended every two years by the Town Council.
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• Town has adopted procedures for professional and special services in Yountville Municipal Code 3.32.500.
• These procedures do not apply to supplies and equipment, general services, or public works/public projects.
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• Yountville Municipal Code 3.32.500:
• In contracting for those professional and special services as defined in Section
3.32.020, such contracts should only be awarded to firms or persons who have demonstrated an adequate level of experience, competence, staffing and other professional qualifications necessary for more than a satisfactory performance of the services required. Once the department requesting the service has determined a firm has an adequate level of competence, the cost of the service may be considered.
However, the lowest cost may not be the sale factor in deciding which firm or whom shall be awarded the contract. It may be in the Town's best interest to award the contract to a higher priced contractor based on the scope of services available, unique skills, staffing levels, timing, prior experience, past working relationship and other factors required by the department or proposed by that contractor. The information needed for determining that level of competence, other qualifications and the procedure for selecting such services shall be determined by each Town department responsible for recommending the professional or special service contract. 7/29/2026 © 2026 Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC 15 PROFESSIONAL/SPECIAL SERVICES (Cont.)
• Yountville Municipal Code 3.32.510: “The acquiring of professional or special services shall be procured through negotiated contract and may include requests for
proposals/qualifications.”
• These contracts are not required to be competitively bid, let to the lowest responsive, responsible bidder, or procured through use of a request for proposals or request for
qualifications.
• Town Manager approves contracts up to and including $45k; Town Council approves contracts above that amount.
PUBLIC WORKS/PUBLIC PROJECTS
7/29/2026 © 2026 Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC 16 • Town is subject to the Uniform Public
Construction Cost Accounting Act (UPCCAA)
• “Design-bid-build”
• Applies to “public projects” including:
• Construction, reconstruction, erection, alteration, renovation, improvement, demolition, installation, and repair work
involving any publicly owned, leased, or operated facility. • Painting or repainting of any publicly owned, leased, or operated facility.
PUBLIC WORKS/PUBLIC PROJECTS
(Cont.)
7/29/2026 © 2026 Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC 17 • Does not apply to “maintenance work”:
• Routine, recurring, and usual work for the preservation or protection of any publicly owned or publicly operated facility for its intended purposes. • Landscape maintenance, including mowing, watering, trimming, pruning, planting, replacement of plants, and servicing of irrigation and sprinkler systems.
• Work performed to keep, operate, and maintain publicly owned water, power, or waste disposal systems, including, but not limited to, dams, reservoirs, powerplants, and electrical transmission lines of 230,000 volts and higher. • Resurfacing of streets and highways at less than one inch. • Minor repainting.
PUBLIC WORKS/PUBLIC PROJECTS
(Cont.)
7/29/2026 © 2026 Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC 18 Three levels of procurement:
• Contracts $75,000 and less: By force account,
negotiated contract, or purchase order
• No competitive bidding; approved by Town Manager
• Contracts $220,000 or less
• Informal bidding; approved by Town Council
• Contracts more than $220,000
• Formal bidding; approved by Town Council
PUBLIC WORKS/PUBLIC PROJECTS
(Cont.)
7/29/2026 © 2026 Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC 19 • If informal or formal bidding applies, must award
contract to lowest responsive, responsible bidder.
PUBLIC WORKS/PUBLIC PROJECTS
(Cont.)
7/29/2026 © 2026 Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC 20 • The responsiveness of the bidder is determined from the face of the bid and depends on their ability to submit a complete and timely proposal
• A bid may be responsive even if there is a discrepancy in the bid, as long as the discrepancy is inconsequential, in that it does not:
1. affect the amount of the bid;
2. give a bidder an advantage over others;
3. create a potential vehicle for favoritism;
4. influence potential bidders to refrain from bidding; or
5. affect the ability to make bid comparisons.
PUBLIC WORKS/PUBLIC PROJECTS
(Cont.)
7/29/2026 © 2026 Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC 21 A responsible bidder is one who can perform the
contract based on the bidder’s trustworthiness, quality, fitness, capacity, and experience. Relevant factors
include:
• Performance history;
• Reliable financial information;
• Bonding and insurance capacity;
• Public works experience;
• Personnel;
• Litigation history; and
• Professional licenses and credentials.
7/29/2026 © 2026 Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC 22 PUBLIC WORKS/PUBLIC PROJECTS (Cont.)
• If no bids are received through the formal or informal procedures, the project may be performed by force account or negotiated contract
• If after receiving bids the agency determines it can perform the work more economically by force account, it can reject all bids and adopt a resolution by four-fifths vote declaring that fact
• Emergency contracting
• Must comply with Commission’s “Cost Accounting Policies and Procedures Manual”
7/29/2026 © 2026 Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC 23 PUBLIC WORKS/PUBLIC PROJECTS (Cont.)
• Additional procurement types for public works/public
contracting:
• Design-build (Town hires a consultant to create preliminary plans, short-lists design-build entities through RFQ process, then issues RFP to award contract to design-build entity based on “low bid” or “best value” to complete design and build project; only available for projects over $1 million)
• Progressive design-build (similar but no preliminary plans and only available for projects over $5 million)
• Energy conservation contracts (design, financing, and construction of projects for conservation, cogeneration, and alternate energy supply)
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