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Building Trades applauds taxpayer protections in school construction
December 15, 2011 (San Diego) – San Diego Unified School District voted unanimously yesterday to extend the Project Stabilization Agreement (PSA) to all projects funded by Proposition S and state funds. This extension ensures that local jobs goals for residents of the county, as well as those from the district, and from targeted disadvantaged communities, will continue to be pursued for most of the school construction projects.
In addition, the agreement also includes taxpayer protection provisions, under Senate Bill 922 that will go into effect on January 1, 2012. At the same time, the school district is expected to realize significant savings under Assembly Bill 436 with the labor agreement’s compliance program.
According to an independent study that the San Diego Unified School District released last week, the PSA has produced the benefits it promised without impacting the cost or quality of the construction. The study found:
- SDUSD set ambitious goals to hire local workers, and so far these goals are on track. Over the two years, an impressive 18 percent of all workers are from economically disadvantaged ZIP codes that SDUSD targeted, 30 percent of workers live within the district, and 94 percent of workers live in San Diego County. In 2011, workers from low-income SDUSD ZIP codes represented 41 percent of all workers, exceeding the aggressive PSA goal of 35 percent.
- There was no change in project cost between PSA and non-PSA projects. The mean winning bid on the PSA projects is the same as the mean winning bid on the comparable non-PSA projects — both are approximately $4.3 million.
- The number of bidders is lower (an average of 6.2 bidders per project), but it is still a competitive number and has had no impact on cost or construction quality.
- PSA projects are on average completing faster than non-PSA projects. Under the PSA, SDUSD is saving on average 51 days per project.
The extension of the PSA allows the school district residents to realize the taxpayer benefits, and put local people to work in much-needed construction careers.
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