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Conference committee backs House language setting $1.25 million threshold for pre‑hiring owner's project manager
Summary
A legislative committee of conference agreed to adopt the House‑amended version of Senate Bill 209, retaining local control over when districts must hire an owner's project manager and raising the project threshold to $1.25 million; members debated timing, duplication of roles and reimbursement rules.
The committee of conference agreed to the House‑amended version of Senate Bill 209, keeping a local decision rule that an owner's project manager need not be hired before a school district submits its building‑aid application and setting the project threshold at $1.25 million for mandatory earlier hiring.
The decision matters because it determines when districts may seek reimbursement for an owner's project manager from state school‑building aid and whether districts must hire that manager before submitting a site design plan to the Department of Education and the School Building Authority.
Chairman Ladd, who identified himself as the education committee chair, summarized the House position: the bill's intent is to fund an owner's project manager (sometimes called the clerk of the works) out of the approved application and to permit districts to use up to 1.5% of the awarded application amount toward that cost. "This is, out of the total application, which is finally approved, you can take 1.5% of that and use that towards the cost of a project manager," he said.
Ladd and other House conferees argued the current House language protects districts and avoids duplicative hiring because local boards already contract architects or engineers to prepare the site design plan that accompanies applications. "Applications oftentimes sent in ... the site design plan is put together by individuals hired by the school district," Ladd said, and the district's contracted architect or engineer performs many of the same tasks the owner's project manager would later perform.
Senator Abbas (speaking for the Senate side) and Chairman Tom Walsh of the transportation committee said hiring an owner's project manager before applications are submitted can safeguard scarce state building‑aid dollars and prevent projects that significantly understate costs from absorbing funds unnecessarily. "When it comes to giving out grant money for school building aid, you wanna make sure it's done responsible," Walsh said, describing examples where early hiring of a construction manager helped deliver projects under budget.
The conferees also discussed Administrative Rule 321.3, which the House side cited to note that districts may hire an owner's project manager prior to contracting design services if they choose. Chairman Ladd said the House view was that hiring the project manager before an application is submitted should remain voluntary rather than mandatory.
After a recess for further consultation, conferees reported agreement to adopt the House‑amended version that raises the project threshold to $1.25 million; the committee recorded consent to return that version to both chambers for concurrence.
The committee recorded no change to the 1.5% reimbursement mechanism described in the House amendment, and members noted the owner's project manager must meet qualifications comparable to an architect or engineer as described in existing statute and administrative rule.
Looking ahead, the conferees said the adopted wording will return to each chamber for final concurrence and the state board and Department of Education will continue to review applications under existing code and oversight procedures.
