Excellent advocacy work was done in Sacramento by our members as well as SEIU 521, 721 and 221 to move our bill limiting contracting out of public services out of the Senate Governance and Finance Committee.

Members have been working in Sacramento to pass this bill to hold counties and private contractors accountable to the public.

The bill, AB1250, will help protect our jobs from being outsourced through bate- and-switch bids that are awarded low and end up with high costs to taxpayers. It’s common-sense legislation that seeks to make the contracting-out practice more honest.

“These requirements already exist for state services, libraries, and schools. AB1250 simply extends these requirements to counties,” said SEIU 1021 member Rod Marusic, an Ownership Specialist with the Sonoma County Clerk Recorder Assessor’s Office.“ “I am not against contracting out, but private companies have been winning public contracts by placing artificially low bids and then submitting “change orders” that increase the cost of the project for taxpayers,” continued Rod.

Counties are waging a misleading campaign against this bill. We will need to turn out in force when the bill is heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee in a few weeks.

What you can do now:

Write or call your legislator. Tell them to vote YES on AB 1250 to protect our community services and tax dollars
Sign the petition in support of AB 1250.