Schools Construction Manager Talks Role of Local Businesses in School Projects

At the last San Bruno Park School District meeting, the board had a discussion about what role local businesses should have in construction projects throughout the district. Todd Lee, whose company Greystone West manages all the construction projects for the school district, gave a report to the board about the viability of that idea. San Bruno Patch caught up with Lee to follow up on the discussion. The following is the interview.

San Bruno Patch: I first wanted to follow up by asking you to reiterate what prompted this discussion.

Todd Lee: The school board expressed a desire to keep the local dollars invested in school projects as much as possible so that jobs stay local and purchases stay local. We don't want $20 million in the schools, and all the money is going to businesses in Sacramento.

We explored legal ways within the public contract code to accomplish that. What we found is that there are not a whole lot of good ways to get that done.

In enterprise zones such as Oakland, East Palo Alto or San Francisco, they have incentives or provide advantages to local contractors. So, for example, if you're in Oakland and you're bidding on a public project and you're a small local business, you get a 5 percent bid advantage over other contractors. Apparently, that is not legal for the (San Bruno) school district to do.

Our next angle was to provide a goal for local hiring. We thought about setting a goal that 30 percent of their employees must come from San Mateo County, which we're not required to do. But we want to get as many local contractors as we can. So we asked would they be willing to participate and would they be willing to have 30 percent of their employees be from San Mateo County. This, we believe, will make the district more attractive to a contractor.

Patch: Why is it important to try to involve local businesses in school construction projects?

TL: The schools are being maintained by local tax dollars. So the funds don't belong to the school district. They belong to the taxpayers. Since these (construction) funds come from the old school district sites, it would be nice to keep these dollars within the area.

Patch: How often do you really have a contractor bidding on a school project who's from outside the immediate area?

TL: More frequently now. You've got a construction industry that's very weak now. So you've got people who are extending their range further and further to get projects.

In 2009, we got a contract that was from Fairfield. That gives you the idea of the range. And, typically, instead of bringing in a drywall guy from San Bruno or San Mateo or South City, they're coming from Vacaville or Sacramento. So those dollars are leaving the community.

Patch: You said at the meeting that you just don't know of any general contractors with a San Bruno address that would bid on a contract for $4 million to $5 million. What did you mean?

TL: In order to bid on a school contract, you have to have payment and performance bonds. Say, for example, if have a $5 million contract, you have to put up for a payment and performance bond of $5 million, showing that you can complete the job.

You also have to have a track record of doing schools. And I'm not aware of too many general contractors with a San Bruno address that fits that category. So if you go to the greater surrounding area, you've got some folks but there are few.

In order to get competitive bids, you need at least six to ten bids. So if you restrict your geography, we're not going to have six qualified general contractors to bid on that project.