The 2018 legislative session brought about several significant changes to public school funding, including school capital projects funded with lottery proceeds.  Section 5.3(e2) of the 2018 Appropriations Act (S.L. 2018-5) authorizes counties (not local school boards) that receive Needs-Based Public … Read more

During the final week of the recently adjourned 2017 legislative session, the General Assembly enacted S.L. 2017-193 (H161), “Divestment from Companies that Boycott Israel.” This legislation created a new Article 6G of Chapter 147 prohibiting the investment of state funds … Read more

UPDATE March 2017:  See this post for a discussion of the impact of HB2’s repeal on city and county contracting authority. UPDATED April 2016:  See Trey Allen’s blog post update for information on a recent 4th Circuit ruling that has … Read more

Since 1995, local governments have had express statutory authorization to prequalify bidders for public construction contracts under G.S. 143-135.8. If you look to this statute for guidance on the criteria or process to be used for prequalifying bidders, you will … Read more

In my last two posts, I described the new design-build and design-build bridging construction delivery methods authorized by the General Assembly during the 2013 legislative session.  This post completes our discussion of the new delivery methods by outlining the third … Read more

My last post discussed the new design-build construction method authorized by the General Assembly during the 2013 Session.  S.L. 2013-401/H857 created not only a design-build construction contracting process, but also a construction contracting process called design-build bridging.  Enacted as G.S. … Read more

Those familiar with local government construction contracting know the drill – put out an RFQ to hire an architect or engineer to design the project and then bid the construction work. But what if a local government wants to hire … Read more

The General Assembly’s crossover deadline has come and gone, so now is a good time to pause and take stock of pending legislation affecting public purchasing and contracting.  Bills proposing changes to our state’s public contracting statutes include authorizing design-build … Read more

The story goes something like this:  Jones, who is something of an eccentric guy anyway, lives in a relatively good neighborhood. But his house has never really fit into the area. His house looks like a work in progress with … Read more

Which of the following statements is true? A local government can reject a construction bid if the bidder does not list enough HUB subcontractors to meet the local government’s HUB participation goals. If a bidder forgets to identify on his … Read more