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Committee advances measure to require upfront disclosure of bidder fees in public procurement
Summary
The Senate State Affairs Committee voted to send RS32282 to print after Sen. Doug Ricks said the proposal would require that certain consultant fees be disclosed and factored into bid scoring so school districts and other public entities know fuller project costs up front.
The Senate State Affairs Committee on Monday advanced RS32282, a proposal introduced by Sen. Doug Ricks, R‑District 34, that would require procurement solicitations to disclose selected consultant and professional-service fees up front and to count those fees in bid scoring.
The proposal targets fees added by engineering, architectural, landscape architectural, construction management and land‑surveying firms after a bidder is selected. "The school district doesn't really know exactly what the total cost is gonna be because that is not disclosed upfront," Ricks said while describing how post‑award add‑on fees can increase a project's cost and complicate bond planning.
Why it matters: Ricks told the committee the change is aimed at improving transparency for school districts and other public agencies preparing bonds or capital projects. Under the draft language he presented, an offeror's stated fee for the listed services would count toward the procurement scoring; the bill text cited in committee specifies that 25% of the overall scoring (line 7) would be determined by the fee component.
Ricks described typical practice: a district solicits bids, selects a general bidder, and then receives separate fee quotes from professional service firms that can add several percentage points to the overall cost. "It could be 3%. It could be up to 7 or 8 or 9% we've seen," he said, arguing that disclosing those fees up front would allow better comparison of total project cost among competing proposals.
Motion and outcome: Senator Berndt moved and Senator Den Hartog seconded that RS32282 be sent to print. The committee voice vote recorded no opposition and the motion carried.
What the measure would do: As described in the committee presentation, the draft language would require disclosure of certain consultant fees in procurement documents and incorporate a bidder's disclosed fee into the evaluation scoring. The chair and members did not detail implementation steps or fiscal estimates for state agencies beyond Ricks' statement that the change applies broadly to state procurement and that the focus of his remarks was on school construction bids.
The committee did not take further substantive testimony on the measure during this hearing; proponents and adversaries were not recorded as testifying.
Next steps: The measure was sent to print for further drafting and committee consideration.
