City of San Diego Is Revamping Contractor Outreach Program

The city of San Diego is overhauling its Subcontractor and Outreach Program (SCOPe). In the past the program has been criticized by its participants as ineffective and larger contractors as being a more bureaucracy. The proposed changes appear to be a boon to local small contractors and will require a larger effort by larger companies. According to the City's website, the SCOPe applies to City funded construction project valued over $250,000.

The major change that the city is recommending is the Mandatory submission of outreach documentation by prime contractors within 5 working days from the date of bid opening. This is a very ambitious step and I hope that it is resourced and staffed properly or it will fail. Hopefully it will get the contractors away from "Good Fake Efforts".

In the past the contractors could do the minimum or less when doing public works. This would include sending solicitations to bid to contractors that were not licensed to do the work or waiting until it was too late and too close to the bid opening for subcontractors to act.

I really hope this program can get results for the local contractors.

More information about SCOPe

The goals of the program are:

• To maximize subcontracting opportunities for all qualified and available firms
• To provide equal opportunity for all subcontractors to participate in performance of City contracts

The requirements of the program are:

• Mandatory use of subcontractors at a percentage level determined by a City engineer on a project-by-project basis
• Mandatory broad-based outreach in solicitation of sub-bids by prime contractor
• Mandatory submission of outreach documentation by prime contractors within 5 working days from the date of bid opening

Photo by Damek.