Thanks to SUCA/NUCA FL Advocacy,
St. Pete City Council Favorably
Recommends Amending RFP
Ordinance to include OJT
By Kari Hebrank
& Scott Jenkins,
Carlton Fields
In recent months, the St.
Petersburg City Council changed
their ordinances regarding
Requests for Proposals (RFP)
on Public Works projects to
require that bidders have an
apprenticeship program in place
for all construction trades. As
you know, this is problematic for
underground utility contractors,
as nearly all do not have
recognized apprenticeship
programs and instead rely on
On-The-Job Training Programs
(OJT) as authorized by the Florida
Department of Transportation.
This new mandate created
problems for our members
interested in St. Petersburg city
projects because they could not
qualify to bid and for the City
because they were not receiving
enough bidders on utility projects.
In July and early August, with
the help of Tim Carmichael of
Associated Construction Products,
SUCA Executive Director Theresa
Mannix and Kevin McLaughlin
of Rowland Inc., your government
relations team lobbied the City
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DITCHMEN • SEPTEMBER 2019
Council and staff to have the
ordinance amended to include
OJT programs. We are happy
to report that, on August 1 st , the
City Council began the process
of amending the ordinance
to address our concerns on
this issue. The Council is now
including “company- sponsored
training programs and on-the-job
training programs (such as Florida
Department of Transportation On-
the-Job Training Program)” in the
“Apprentice” definition. It will be
up to city staff to confirm that an
apprenticeship program does not
exist.
During the August meeting there
was no opposition regarding the
changes from neither City Council
members nor the public. During
the meeting, NUCA FL lobbyist
Scott Jenkins went on record in
support of the changes that are
being made.
Other components of the
ordinance with respect to
construction include: