Title
Proposing an amendment to Section 8-200 of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter permitting the use of electronic submissions to improve the bidding process, and providing for the submission of the amendment to the electors of Philadelphia.
Body
WHEREAS, Under Section 6 of the First Class City Home Rule Act (53 P.S. §13106), an amendment to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter may be proposed by a resolution of the Council of the City of Philadelphia adopted with the concurrence of two-thirds of its elected members; now therefore
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That the following amendment to Article VIII of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter is hereby proposed and shall be submitted to the electors of the City on an election date designated by ordinance:
ARTICLE VIII
PROVISIONS OF GENERAL APPLICATION
* * *
CHAPTER 2
CONTRACTS, PROCUREMENT,
PROPERTY AND RECORDS
Section 8-200. Contracts.
* * *
(2) If any purchase or contract for which competitive bidding is required involves an expenditure of more than ten thousand ($10,000) dollars, which amount shall be adjusted every five (5) fiscal years as rounded to the nearest one thousand ($1,000) dollars to reflect the percentage change in the most recently published Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) All Items Index, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the following procedure shall be applicable:
(a) The Procurement Department shall advertise for sealed bids at least once a week for two weeks in one of the three newspapers having the largest paid circulation in the City and in such other newspapers as it deems necessary. "Sealed bid" may include, if authorized by the Department, an electronic submission, so long as the Department is able to maintain the confidentiality of the electronic bid until the time of bid opening.
* * *
(b) Bids shall publicly be opened and tabulated in the presence of a representative of the City Controller at the time specified for their opening. In addition or in the alternative, the Department may utilize any procedure for competitive electronic bidding that is available to purchasing agencies of the Commonwealth, including but not limited to competitive electronic auction bidding; provided that notice of the Department's invitation to bid is given in the manner provided in subsection (a) and a representative of the City Controller monitors and may audit all aspects of the process.
The Department may reject all bids if it shall deem it in the interest of the City so to do. Otherwise the contract shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder.
* * *
____________________________
Explanation:
Strikethrough indicates matter to be deleted.
Italics indicate new matter added.
End