For those not familiar with Chapter 22B of the North Carolina General Statutes, this Chapter prohibits certain contract provisions by making those provisions void and unenforceable as a matter of public policy. The restrictions in Chapter 22B apply to all … Read more

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

In 2015, the General Assembly enacted the Iran Divestment Act (IDA) which prohibits state agencies and local governments from contracting with a company that the NC State Treasurer has determined invests more than $20 million dollars in the Iranian energy … 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

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

UPDATE:  The General Assembly amended the E-Verify contracting prohibition for cities and counties during the 2014 legislative session.  Under Section 13 of S.L. 2014-119,  which went into effect on October 1, 2014, the E-Verify contracting prohibition now ONLY applies to … 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