Clark County asks to make job-order contracting pilot permanent to speed routine maintenance and expand subcontractor work

Clark County asked the Nevada Senate Committee on Government Affairs to remove a sunset on a pilot program that lets the county use job order contracting (JOC) to perform routine maintenance, repairs and other minor construction work more quickly than traditional design-bid-build procurement.

Under the pilot, county officials said JOC has shortened turnaround times for small-to-midsize maintenance projects from about 30–40 months under traditional procurement to roughly seven months, and has helped route work to subcontractors: Clark County reported more than 50% subcontractor participation and an average utilization of disadvantaged businesses above 10% during the pilot. County witnesses also said the county placed approximately $36 million of JOC work across three years and has capped the program at $25 million per year.

Nut graf: Proponents said making the program permanent will maintain a tool for rapid response to routine repairs while continuing outreach and reporting measures to build capacity among smaller, diverse contractors and apprentices. Some senators pressed county representatives for clearer demographic reporting about which minority- or women-owned businesses received specific work under the pilot.

Joanna Jacob and John Advent presented the bill for Clark County and described the scope of the county’s facilities: roughly 519 county-owned and leased buildings (about 6.1 million square feet), 120 parks covering about 5,200 acres, and an active capital portfolio. Advent told the committee that during the pilot JOC projects "turn around and complete in about 7 months," compared with multi-year timelines for some design-build projects.

Subcontractors and industry groups testified in support. Anne Barnett of the Nevada Contractors Association said JOC "has proven to be an effective, efficient tool for Clark County to meet ongoing construction and maintenance needs, especially for our smaller critical projects that keep public facilities running." Small contractors that had participated said the program allowed them to build a track record and increase bonding capacity; several witnesses noted apprenticeship opportunities, and one contractor said 33% of hours on JOC projects were performed by apprentices.

Senator Neal pushed county presenters on reporting: the current law requires reporting on whether participating contractors are minority-, women-, veteran- or disabled-owned; she said pilot reports treated those categories as voluntary and aggregated them, making it hard to see which demographic groups received specific work. County counsel and presenters said they had provided the categories asked for in the report but acknowledged room to improve the reporting format and committed to work with the senator to produce more detailed demographic data in future reports and in the re-bid of the program.

County attorneys noted safeguards included in the statute and implementing policy: bids for general contractors are advertised and qualified; JOC is intended for minor construction and not to supplant competitive low-bid procurement for major projects; the county requires a minimum level of subcontracting (50% of work subcontracted) and has protections that certain specialty work be subcontracted rather than self-performed by the general contractor. Reports produced during the pilot will continue quarterly to the local governing body and to the Legislature.

Supporters urged the committee to remove the sunset and allow the county and participating cities to continue using JOC; opponents did not appear in committee. The hearing closed without a committee vote.