Innovative Program Creates Prime Contracting Opportunities
Community Level Contracting Program
Created by the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works( DPW), the innovative community level contracting( CLC) program creates prime contractor opportunities for small, local and diverse construction contractors, resulting in three major areas of benefit to contractors, taxpayers, and communities.
First, by breaking down portions of large construction projects into smaller work packages, small, local, and diverse contractors get the opportunity to bid, manage, and complete project work as prime contractors, instead of being limited to working only as subcontractors to large construction firms. Acting as prime contractors allows them to gain experience leading public works projects, earn higher profit margins, and build their business capacities to better position themselves when competing for future public works contracts.
Second, by providing access for more companies to bid on public works projects, the city creates a more diverse and larger pool of competing firms, which encourages greater creativity and innovation and can lead to lower contracting costs, thereby saving taxpayer money.
Third, the CLC program creates equitable job opportunities in local communities, which fosters more robust local economies – a multiplicative impact of keeping contracting dollars local.
For all of these reasons, the CLC is an innovative model program benefiting the public agency, regional contractors, taxpayers and surrounding communities. If replicated by other
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