Legislative Document No. 1458 S.P. 443 In Senate, April 2, 2019
An Act To Protect Taxpayers in the Privatization of State Services
Reference to the Committee on State and Local Government suggested and ordered printed.
DAREK M. GRANT Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator BELLOWS of Kennebec. Cosponsored by Representative MARTIN of Sinclair and Senators: CLAXTON of Androscoggin, DESCHAMBAULT of York, MIRAMANT of Knox, Representatives: HANDY of Lewiston, SYLVESTER of Portland.
Printed on recycled paper 1 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
2 Sec. 1. 5 MRSA §18, sub-§1, ¶D, as enacted by PL 1979, c. 734, §2, is amended 3 to read: 4 D. "Proceeding" means a proceeding, application, request, ruling, determination, 5 award, contract, claim, controversy, charge, accusation, arrest or other matter relating 6 to governmental action or inaction, but does not include an employee bid or contract 7 to provide agency services under section 482, subsections 6 and 7. 8 Sec. 2. 5 MRSA §18-A, sub-§4, as enacted by PL 2001, c. 203, §2, is amended to 9 read:
10 4. Exemptions. This section does not apply: 11 A. To purchases by the Governor under authority of Title 1, section 814; 12 B. To contracts made with a corporation that has issued shares to the public for the 13 general benefit of that corporation; or 14 C. If an exemption is approved by the Director of the Bureau of General Services 15 within the Department of Administrative and Financial Services or the director's 16 designee based upon one of the following and if the director gives notice of the 17 granting of this exemption to all parties bidding on the contract in question with a 18 statement of the reason for the exemption and if an opportunity is provided for any 19 party to appeal the granting of the exemption: 20 (1) When the private entity or party that proposes to contract with the State and 21 that employs the executive employee, based upon all relevant facts, is the only 22 reasonably available source to provide the service or product to the State, as 23 determined by the director; or 24 (2) When the director determines that the amount of compensation to be paid to 25 the private entity or party providing the service or product to the State is de 26 minimis.; or 27 D. To a contract by employees to provide agency services under section 482, 28 subsection 7. 29 Sec. 3. 5 MRSA c. 21 is enacted to read: 30 CHAPTER 21
31 PRIVATIZATION OF AGENCY SERVICES
32 §481. Definitions
33 As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms 34 have the following meanings.
35 1. Agency. ''Agency'' means a state agency as defined in section 1552, subsection 6.
Page 1 - 129LR1091(01)-1 1 2. Business day. "Business day'' means any calendar day excluding Saturdays, 2 Sundays and legal holidays.
3 3. Contractor. "Contractor" means a nongovernmental person who has entered into 4 a privatization contract with the State.
5 4. Dependent. ''Dependent'' means the spouse or child of an employee if the spouse 6 or child would qualify for dependent status under the United States Internal Revenue 7 Code of 1986 or for whom a support order has been or could be granted under Title 19-A, 8 section 1653, subsection 2.
9 5. Employee organization. "Employee organization" means an organization that 10 has as its primary purpose the representation of employees in their employment relations 11 with an employer under Title 26, chapter 9-B.
12 6. Privatization contract. ''Privatization contract'' means an agreement or 13 combination or series of agreements by which a nongovernmental person agrees with an 14 agency to provide services that are of at least $500,000 in value as of October 1, 2019 and 15 annually increased by the amount of increase in the Consumer Price Index calculated by 16 the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics for the most recent 12- 17 month period for which data are available and that are substantially similar to and in lieu 18 of services provided, in whole or in part, by regular employees of the agency. 19 "Privatization contract" does not include: 20 A. Any subsequent agreement to a privatization contract, including any agreement 21 resulting from a rebidding of previously privatized service, or any agreement 22 renewing or extending a privatization contract; 23 B. A contract for information technology services if an employee organization agrees 24 to the terms of the contract in writing; or 25 C. An agreement solely to provide legal, management consulting, planning, 26 engineering or design services. 27 §482. Privatization contracts
28 1. Privatization contracts. Notwithstanding the provisions of chapters 155 and 156, 29 an agency entering into a privatization contract shall, in consultation with the 30 Commissioner of Administrative and Financial Services, follow the requirements of this 31 section.
32 2. Written statement of services; sealed bids; contract terms. An agency shall 33 prepare a specific written statement of the services proposed to be the subject of a 34 privatization contract, including the specific quantity and standard of quality of the 35 subject services. The agency shall solicit competitive sealed bids for the privatization 36 contracts based upon this statement. The day designated by the agency upon which it will 37 accept these sealed bids must be the same for all parties. The statement of services is a 38 public record and must be filed in the agency and with the Commissioner of 39 Administrative and Financial Services and transmitted to the Attorney General for review 40 pursuant to section 483. The term of a privatization contract may not exceed 5 years. A
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