Resident warns county against lowering PLA threshold; raises concerns about change orders and legal-fee increases

Bruce Patterson of Garwood told the board he opposes lowering the county's PLA (project labor agreement) threshold from $5,000,000 to $3,000,000, saying the change would harm immigrant workers and raise costs for taxpayers. He identified himself as having 40 years' experience working in union contracting and summarized several points from a letter he said he had submitted to the board.

"Opposing the lowering of your county PLA union work requirement threshold from 5,000,000 to 3,000,000. This is a poor and foolish policy move and no substantial benefit for our workers in the county," Patterson said, arguing the inflation-adjusted threshold should be nearer $9,000,000 and warning lower thresholds could impose 7–10% higher costs on union jobs that would ultimately burden taxpayers.

Patterson also questioned several resolutions on the agenda: he asked what Reso 491 (which he said concerns housing inmates) funds are for, why Reso 492 raises on-call environmental-service fees (from $15 to $30), why Reso 496 adds another change order to Grove Contractors' Ashbrook Clubhouse repairs (describing roughly $500,000 in cumulative change orders), and whether the county performed demand studies before approving tennis and pickleball courts at Oak Ridge Park. He requested the board "walk back" plans to lower the PLA threshold and consider alternatives. The manager and county counsel provided high-level answers on the record about the nature of the contract increases and the Clark Reservoir litigation costs handled by Taylor Law Group; the transcript did not include a detailed contract justification or a separate roll-call vote for each questioned line item.