House Bill 72 is one of those procedural bills that govern some of the mundane work of government, such contract bidding for the government’s procurement of goods, contractural services, public works contracts and professional services. Why this bill is of interest is that it will require that each county be treated the same in the bidding process, which I think is a good reform. This bill has already passed the House unanimously and will likely sail through the Senate too in the next week.
First, it raises the public bidding thresholds for county governments to match the bidding thresholds set forth in the law for the state and removes the exemption provided for Kent County.
Second, this bill grants Sussex County the same power and authority with respect to sole source procurement, emergency needs, contract performance, multiple source contracting as granted to the State. This authority is already granted to the government of New Castle County and Kent County.
Finally, this bill grants Sussex County the same power and authority as Kent County and New Castle County to grant contracts without requesting competitive bids and without awarding such contract to the lowest bidder when such contracts are for engineering, legal or other professional services requiring special skills or training. Further, this modifies the procedure by which the Financial Officer of Sussex County may award public contracts and aligns it with the procurement procedure set forth for New Castle and Kent Counties and the State.
| House Bill 72 – Reforming the County Contract Bidding Process | Currrent Status – House Passed 38-0-3. Senate Elections & Government Affairs 3/16/23 |
| House Sponsors – Dorsey-Walker, Harris, Lambert, Moore, Wilson-Anton // Hilovsky, Short | Senate Sponsors – Pinkney |
| House Yes Votes – Baumbach Bolden Bush Carson Cooke Dorsey-Walker Griffith Harris Heffernan Johnson Lambert Longhurst Lynn Matthews Minor-Brown Moore Morrison Osienski Phillips Romer Schwartzkopf Williams Wilson-Anton // Briggs King Collins Dukes Gray Hensley Hilovsky Morris Postles Ramone Short Shupe Smith Spiegelman Vanderwende Yearick | Senate Yes Votes – |
| House No Votes – None | Senate No Votes – |
| House Absents or Not Voting – Chukwuocha, Neal, Parker Selby | Senate Absent or Not Voting – |
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