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Council orders review of contracting extensions, seeks living-wage compliance and competitive rebids
Summary
The council approved a motion to study and tighten contracting extension practices to ensure compliance with living-wage and worker-retention rules and to consider rebidding contracts that pass costs to the city.
The Los Angeles City Council approved a motion sent from the Governmental Efficiency Committee asking departments to review contract-extension practices and ensure taxpayer dollars are protected when long-term contracts are extended rather than rebid.
Councilmember Chick introduced the measure, saying it would address flaws in contracting that had arisen in recent examples such as the Van Nuys airport golf course and Greek Theatre contracts. The motion asks departments to examine whether extensions trigger living-wage and worker-retention obligations and how departments handle those costs.
Councilmember Goldberg urged departments to check whether they had simply passed living-wage increases dollar-for-dollar to the city in extensions rather than requiring contractors to absorb those costs, and to rebid where appropriate. "We never intended to pay for everybody's living wage," Goldberg said, urging departments to test the marketplace before automatically extending contracts.
The measure was approved: roll call showed 11 ayes.
Why it matters: The motion seeks to clarify whether departments are protecting city residents and workers when they extend contracts and to avoid hidden costs flowing to the general fund. The directive aims to increase competition, enforce existing living-wage and retention laws, and improve transparency in contracting.
Next steps: Departments will review long-term contract extension practices and report back to the committee; the council asked that living-wage and retention compliance be explicitly reviewed in the study.
