Traffic Relief Ahead, Yes on Proposition 35 Under California constitutional law, services provided by state agencies generally must be performed by state civil service employees. In some cases the state may contract with private firms to obtain services. However, there are limitations as to when such contracting is allowed, for example, if services needed by the state are: (1) of a temporary nature, (2) not available within the civil service, or (3) of a highly specialized or technical nature. According to the argument in favor of Proposition 35, private contracting has been further limited by several lawsuits filed by Caltrans bureaucrats.Proposition 35 would amend the State Constitution by eliminating restrictions on state, local contracting with private entities for engineering, architectural services; contracts awarded by competitive selection; bidding permitted, not required. In other words, the State Constitution would be amended to provide that in design, development and construction of public works projects, state government may choose to contract with private entities for engineering and architectural services without regard to certain existing legal restrictions, which apply to the procurement of other services.The following are the highlights of the pro and con arguments as well as some of the key supporters. A few of the pro arguments include: giving state and local governments the option of contracting out will speed projects along; will allow California to once again make use of private sector earthquake experts to ensure the safety of highways and bridges; California’s population is growing, and there is enough work for both public and private engineers and architects. A few of the arguments against include: the purpose of the measure is to benefit private engineering firms, which paid to put it on the ballot; it will take a significant amount of time to develop new regulations for the new contracting process, whi...
