WATSONVILLE — Most of Watsonville’s water, sewer and road projects are running behind schedule and over budget in Watsonville, and city staff wants to change when union labor is required, but the City Council put off any decision at it’s Oct. 14 meeting and will bring the issue back for discussion on Nov. 5.
Since 2014, Watsonville has worked under a Project Labor Agreement with the Monterey/Santa Cruz Counties Building and Construction Trades Council. The agreement sets rules for wages, hiring, and union work on large city projects. But city staff say the current agreement has become too restrictive and is partly to blame for long delays and high costs.
In the past decade, several important water, sewer, and building projects have either received no bids or bids far higher than city estimates. Among the stalled or overpriced projects:
- The Corralitos Creek Water Treatment Plant, estimated at $3 million, got two bids — the lowest was $5.1 million, 71% over the estimate.
- The Miles Lane Sewer Pump Station project received no bids, even after being rebid.
- The Water Well #4 Pump Station was estimated at $3 million, but drew only one bid for $5.6 million.
- The Landfill Phase III Closure and Phase IV Opening was expected to cost $7.2 million; the only bid came in at $12.6 million, 76% above the estimate.
- The Wastewater Treatment Facility Electrical Hazard Mitigation Project was estimated at $19 million, but received one bid for $26 million.
There are other problems with the PLA. For instance, nearly all city projects now exceed $600,000, the amount that automatically triggers the PLA. Staff would like to raise that threshold to $1.5 million as the average project now costs $2.5 million. The biggest change staff recommended was to exempt water and sewer projects from the PLA.
“We don’t have problems bidding our roadway and civil projects, it’s only wastewater and water where we’re really having trouble getting at least three bids, and bids that are competitive,” said Danielle Green, assistant director of public works and utilities for the city of Watsonville.
If the staff plan had been approved, it would have change how Watsonville manages its public construction projects — moving from a one-size-fits-all requirement to a more flexible system aimed at saving money and completing work faster. Staff’s idea, however, appeared dead on arrival. Several of the council members said they were union members or supported unions, and were not in favor of getting rid of the PLA, only amending it.
“My husband is an active union member. My family has been represented by the UFW for quite some time, so I understand and value what labor unions do for our community, so I couldn’t support repealing the PLA,” said Mayor Maria Orozco to applause.
Instead of changing the PLA, council members questioned the city’s bidding requirements. Current requirements follow Caltrans standards, a higher standard that most local municipalities do not follow. Green told the council that the city’s standard basically just required bidders to have completed two similar projects in the past seven years, but Mayor Mario Orozco took issue with that description.
Orozco read the city’s bidding requirements, which in pretty complicated language boiled down to the bidder needing to show two similar projects completed in the past seven years that had a budget equal or greater than the project being bid on, and five other similar projects completed in the past seven years that were half the size of the project being bid on.
“It’s very different from Santa Cruz, which simply says a bidder needs five years experience completing jobs of a similar nature, or the City of Monterey, which requires a bidder to simply have built three similar projects,” she said. “So for you to say it just requires two projects, I don’t think that’s accurate.”
Union members packed the council chambers and would clap and applaud comments they liked, and shouted at and booed council members they didn’t agree with. Casey Van Den Heuvel, a representative of the Monterey/Santa Cruz Building & Construction Trades Council, was leading the union members and actually negotiated on the terms of the new PLA with council members. Those that took a harder line, were publicly booed.
“I’m trying to come to a solution and I’m trying to negotiate with you,” said Council Member Jimmy Dutra, who tried to pin the union leader down on certain terms when union members began shouting at him.
Van Den Heuvel was clear that he did not want the PLA repealed, and added that he did not want a new PLA to have any requirement that a project needed three bids, otherwise it could be bid by a non-union contractor. He also wanted the new PLA to require the city to adopt regional standards, and drop Caltrans standards, which could affect projects’ eligibility for state grants. Council appeared to give him the upper hand in the negotiations.
“I think we can come up with very viable options that you are gonna like — or not gonna like,” he said.