The City of Latrobe may make contracts for lawful
purposes and for the purposes of carrying into execution the provisions
of the Home Rule Charter of the City Latrobe and laws of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania to which the City may be subject.
[Amended 2-13-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-3]
No employee, professional service provider, member or members of Council shall evade the provisions of §
12-2 hereof as to advertising for bids, by purchasing or contracting for services and personal properties piecemeal for the purpose of obtaining prices under $10,000 upon which transactions should, in the exercise of reasonable discretion and prudence, be conducted as one transaction amounting to more than $10,000. This provision is intended to make unlawful the evading of telephonic quotations or advertising requirements by making a series of purchases or contracts, each for less than the quotation or advertising requirement price, or by making several simultaneous purchases or contracts, each below said price, when, in either case, the transactions involved should have been made as one transaction for one price. Any employee, professional service provider, or member of Council who so acts in violation of this provision and who knows that the transaction upon which he or she so acts is a part of a larger transaction and that it is being divided in order to evade the requirements as to quotations or advertising for bids shall be jointly and severally subject to surcharge. Whenever it shall appear that a member of Council may have voted in violation of this section, but the purchase or contract on which he so voted was not approved by Council, this section shall be inapplicable.
[Amended 2-13-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-3]
Except as otherwise provided in this act, no
City official either elected or appointed, who knows or who by the
exercise of reasonable diligence could know, shall be interested to
any appreciable degree either directly or indirectly in any purchase
made or contract entered into or expenditure of money made by the
City or relating to the business of the City, involving the expenditure
by the City of more than $10,000 in any calendar year, but this limitation
shall not apply to cases where such officer or appointee of the City
is an employee of the person, firm or corporation to which the money
is to be paid in a capacity with no possible influence on the transaction
and in which he cannot be possibly benefited thereby either financially
or otherwise. But in the case of a Councilman or Mayor, if he knows
that he is within the exception just mentioned he shall so inform
Council and shall refrain from voting on the expenditure or any ordinance
relating thereto, and shall in no manner participate therein. Any
official or appointee who shall knowingly violate the provisions of
this section shall be subject to surcharge to the extent of the damage
shown to be thereby sustained by the City and to ouster from office
and shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof
shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding $ 1,000, or not exceeding
one hundred eighty days' imprisonment, or both.
[Amended 2-13-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-3]
In the preparation for the erection, construction
and alteration of any public building, when the entire cost of such
work shall exceed $10,000, the architect, engineer or other person
preparing such specifications may, if so requested by the City Council,
prepare separate specifications for the plumbing, heating, ventilating
and electrical work. The person or persons authorized to enter into
contracts for the erection, construction or alteration of such public
buildings may, if such separate specifications shall have been proposed,
receive separate bids upon each of said branches of work, and shall
thereupon award the contract for the same to the lowest responsible
bidder for each of said branches.
[Amended 3-13-2000 by Ord. No. 2000-6; 2-13-2012 by Ord. No.
2012-3]
A. It shall be the duty of the City to require any person,
copartnership, association, or corporation entering into a contract
with such City for the construction, erection, installation, completion,
alteration, repair of, or addition to, any public work or improvement
of any kind whatsoever, where the amount of such contract is in excess
of $18,500, before commencing work under such contract, to execute
and deliver to such City, in addition to any other bond which may
now or hereafter be required by law to be given in connection with
such contract, an additional bond for the use of any and every person,
copartnership, association, or corporation interested, in a sum not
less than 50% and not more than 110% of the contract price, as such
City may prescribe, having its surety thereon one or more surety companies
legally authorized to do business in this commonwealth, conditioned
for the prompt payment of all material furnished and labor supplied
or performed in the prosecution of the work, whether or not the said
material or labor enter into and become component parts of the work
or improvement contemplated. Such additional bond shall be deposited
with and held by the City for the use of any party interested therein.
Every such additional bond shall provide that every person, copartnership,
association, or corporation, who, whether as subcontractor or otherwise,
has furnished material or supplied or performed labor in the prosecution
of the work as above provided, and who has not been paid therefor,
may sue in assumpsit on said additional bond, in the name of the City,
for his, their or its use and prosecute the same to final judgment
for such sum or sums as may be justly due him, them or it and have
execution thereof, provided that the City shall not be liable for
the payment of any costs or expense of any suit.
B. For those contracts less than $18,501, the above described
bond or bonds may be required, in such amounts as may be deemed proper,
by the City Manager, or the City Manager's designee.
Every contract for or on behalf of any City
for the construction, alteration or repair of any public building
or public work may contain provisions by which the contractor agrees
that:
A. In the hiring of employees for the performance of
work under such contract or any subcontract hereunder, no contractor,
subcontractor or any person acting on behalf of such contractor or
subcontractor shall by reason of race, creed or color discriminate
against any person who is qualified and available to perform the work
to which the employment relates;
B. No contractor, subcontractor or any person on his
behalf shall, in any manner, discriminate against or intimidate any
employee hired for the performance of work under his contract on account
of race, creed or color;
C. There may be deducted, from the amount payable to
the contractor under such contract, a penalty of $5 for each person
for each calendar day during which such person was discriminated against
or intimated in violation of the provision of the contract; and
D. Such contract may be canceled or terminated by the
City and all money due or to become due thereunder may be forfeited
for a second or any subsequent violation of the terms or conditions
of this part of the contract.
Every bidder who submits a bid pursuant to competitive
bidding, when required by the City in the bid specifications, shall
submit a completed noncollusion affidavit. Failure to submit the affidavit
with the bid shall be a technical deficiency which may be corrected,
at the discretion of the City, within a time period specified by the
City after the opening of bids. Failure to submit the same within
the designated time period shall be an automatic grounds for rejection
of the bid. The City may reject a bid at the time of bid opening for
failure to include the noncollusion affidavit if such action is in
the best interest of the City in expediting the process for bidding
and awarding of contract.
[Added 3-13-2000 by Ord. No. 2000-6]
Purchases of materials and/or supplies through and from any council of governments to which the City is authorized to belong, or any cooperative purchasing program between the City and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, shall be exempt from the bidding/quotation provisions of this chapter, §
12-2A through
F.
[Added 3-13-2000 by Ord. No. 2000-6;
amended 2-13-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-3]
All contracts for the purchase of materials,
supplies or services, in excess of $18,500 shall be deemed to be a
contract properly approved by Council under the Home Rule Charter,
Section 707 (3) and shall be executed or signed by the Mayor. All
other contracts in excess of $10,000, but less than $18,501, which
are not individually approved by Council, may be signed by the Mayor
or the City Manager. Any contract below the amount of $10,001 may
be signed by the Mayor, the City Manager or the Director of any Department,
with the approval of the City Manager.
[Added 2-13-2012 by Ord.
No. 2012-3]
Adjustments to base amounts specified under §
12-2A and
B shall be made as follows:
A. The Department of Labor and Industry shall determine the percentage
change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Customers: All Items
(CPI-U) for the United States City Average as published by the United
States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the twelve-month
period ending September 30, 2012, and for each successive twelve-month
period thereafter.
B. If the Department determines that there is no positive percentage
change, then no adjustment to the base amounts shall occur for the
relevant time period provided for in this section.
C. Preliminary adjusted amounts.
(1) If the department determines that there is a positive percentage change in the first year that the determination is made under Subsection
A, the positive percentage change shall be multiplied by each base amount, and the products shall be added to the base amounts, respectively, and the sums shall be preliminary adjusted amounts.
(2) The preliminary adjusted amounts shall be rounded to the nearest $100 to determine the final adjusted base amounts for purposes of §
12-2A and
B.
D. In each successive year in which there is a positive percentage change in the CPI-U for the United States City Average, the positive percentage change shall be multiplied by the most recent preliminary adjusted amounts, and the products shall be added to the preliminary adjusted amount of the prior year to calculate the preliminary adjusted amounts for the current year. The sums thereof shall be rounded to the nearest $100 to determine the new final adjusted base amounts for purposes of §
12-2A and
B.
E. The determinations and adjustments required under this subsection
shall be made in the period between October 1 and November 15 of the
year following the effective date of this section and annually between
October 1 and November 15 of each year thereafter.
F. The final adjusted base amounts and new final adjusted base amounts obtained under Subsections
C and
D shall become effective January 1 for the calendar year following the year in which the determination required under Subsection
A is made.
G. The Department shall publish notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin prior to January 1 of each calendar year of the annual percentage change determined under Subsection
A and the unadjusted or final adjusted base amounts determined under Subsections
C and
D at which competitive bidding is required under §
12-2A and written or telephonic price quotations are required under §
12-2B, respectively, for the calendar year beginning the first day of January after publication of the notice. The notice shall include a written and illustrative explanation of the calculations performed by the Department in establishing the unadjusted or final adjusted base amounts under this section for the ensuing calendar year.
H. The annual increase in the preliminary adjusted base amounts obtained under Subsections
C and
D shall not exceed 3%.