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Scranton council amends Responsible Contractor Ordinance, raises threshold to widen bidder pool
Summary
The City Council adopted an amendment to Chapter 113 increasing the threshold used in the Responsible Contractor Ordinance to widen the bidder pool and reduce the number of projects that must be rebid.
The Scranton City Council on June 17 adopted an amendment to the city’s Responsible Contractor Ordinance (RCO) that raises the project-threshold used to determine when RCO certification is required.
Council members debated raising the threshold, with supporters saying the increase is intended to attract more bidders for publicly funded projects and avoid repeated bid disqualifications that delay construction. A council speaker said the change is intended to allow the city to complete projects without having to disqualify all bidders and rebid, which wastes time and money.
The council approved the change by voice/roll-call and the presiding member declared the measure adopted. Councilmembers emphasized the administration must manage change orders and oversee contracts closely so the increased threshold does not result in cost overruns.
The ordinance change is aimed at projects where the prior threshold had reduced the number of eligible bidders; council members said the adjustment will be revisited if the new threshold fails to produce the intended competitive bidding results.
The adoption was presented by the Committee on Rules; no specific numeric roll-call tally was announced in the public record during the meeting other than the chair’s declaration that the item was adopted.
