Legislature launches pilot program allowing certain CMAS contracts

Association of California School Administrators

Legislature launches pilot program allowing CMAS contracts for installation of certain materials

August 7, 2023

Senate Bill 1422, signed by the governor in September 2022, permits state and local agencies, including school districts and community college districts, to use state-approved California Multiple Award Schedule (CMAS) contracts for the installation, or purchase and installation, of resilient flooring, carpet, lighting fixtures and synthetic turfs, which have limitations that are different from standard CMAS contracts, according to a recent client news brief from Lozano Smith.

Existing law allows local agencies to use CMAS and other state-awarded agreements for the purchase of goods, information technology and services without competitive bidding. The CMAS program, which is administered by the Department of General Services (DGS), allows a local agency to use a CMAS contract for public works so long as the total price of all public works services does not exceed the total price of the materials being purchased (i.e., does not exceed 50 percent of the contract price). For purposes of this “50 percent Rule,” a public work includes the erection, alteration, construction, improvement, or repair of any public structure, building or improvement.

Generally, a local agency should follow the DGS procedures when using a CMAS contract.

Pursuant to SB 1422, state and local agencies may now also enter CMAS “contracts for the installation, and contracts for the purchase and installation” of four categories of materials: carpet, resilient flooring, synthetic turf and lighting fixtures. By allowing CMAS contracts for installation only, the Legislature has essentially eliminated the above “50 percent Rule” for these materials.

However, in order to take advantage of these more liberal CMAS contracts, the contractor and the awarding agency must satisfy the following requirements:

The installation work cannot be performed in connection with new construction;
The contractor must provide an acknowledgment to the awarding agency that the installation is a public work for purposes of prevailing wages;
The contractor must provide an enforceable commitment it will use a skilled and trained workforce under Public Contract Code section 2601, unless the awarding agency has entered a project labor agreement that requires the contractor to be bound by that agreement;
The contract amount cannot exceed the formal competitive bidding amount for public works that otherwise would apply to the contract. For agencies that have adopted the Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Act, the formal competitive bidding threshold is $200,000; and
The state or local agency must notify the Department of Industrial Relations of the contract, no matter the size.