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Bellflower amends public-works rules: design-build, best-value and prevailing wage limits shifted under charter
Summary
Council adopted urgency changes to the municipal code to let the city use best-value procurement, allow design-build for projects of any size, and narrow where prevailing wage applies, implementing powers from the new city charter.
The Bellflower City Council on Monday approved an urgency ordinance and introduced a related ordinance that substantially rewrites the city’s public works contracting rules to implement the new city charter.
City staff and the city attorney told the council the amendments would let Bellflower use best-value procurement rather than awarding strictly to the lowest responsible bidder, permit design-build delivery for public projects of any size, and clarify when prevailing wages must be paid.
“Just as a general law city, you’re limited to doing the design build process, to projects that are $1,000,000 or more,” the public works presenter said. “So as a charter city, we have no limit there.” The change removes the state-imposed $1 million minimum for design-build and allows the city to choose that delivery method for smaller projects.
Staff also proposed a narrow carve-out: projects implemented strictly as economic development incentives or for nuisance abatement would not automatically trigger prevailing-wage rules, though classic public works (streets, sidewalks, buildings paid in whole or part with public funds) remain subject to prevailing wage. The proposal would also delegate certain authorities to the city engineer and raise administrative thresholds so some capital-improvement projects can be solicited and awarded without repeated council actions.
Council voted unanimously to adopt urgency Ordinance No. 1440 and introduce Ordinance No. 1441 (Chapter 3.30 amendments). Councilmembers said the changes are intended to speed delivery of capital projects, support small-business development, and reduce duplicative red tape while preserving prevailing-wage protections for core public works.
Staff said the city will still require prevailing wages for classic public-works projects as defined in the ordinance, and that the new rules deliberately allow council discretion to require prevailing wage in certain economic-development cases if desired. The city will return with code updates and implementation steps as the ordinances proceed to their next formal reading.
