SENATE DOCKET, NO. 2578 FILED ON: 5/11/2010
SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 2424
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The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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In the Year Two Thousand Ten
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An Act Text of the Senate amendment (Ways and Means) to the House Bill relative to municipal relief (House, No 4631).
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
SECTION Chapter 10 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 52 the following section:-
Section 52A. (a) The council shall establish criteria and guidelines for state-designated cultural districts. A cultural district shall be a geographical area of a city or town with a concentration of cultural facilities located within it. Cultural districts shall attract artists and cultural enterprises to a community, encourage business and job development, establish tourist destinations, preserve and reuse historic buildings, enhance property values and foster local cultural development. The council shall assist a city or town if the city or town wishes to develop or foster a cultural district. The council shall develop an application process, with specific guidelines and criteria, for a city or town that wishes to develop or foster a cultural district. Executive branch agencies, constitutional offices and quasi-governmental agencies shall identify programs and services that support and enhance the development of cultural districts and ensure that those programs and services are accessible to such districts. The council shall consult with the Massachusetts historical commission in developing and establishing criteria and guidelines regarding preservation and reuse of historic buildings.
(b) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, executive branch agencies, constitutional offices, quasi-governmental agencies including, but not limited to, the Massachusetts cultural council and historic preservation programs, shall review and revise regulations and other economic development tools, including the evaluative criteria of such programs, in order to support and encourage the development and success of state-designated cultural districts.
SECTION Section 1 of chapter 30B of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after the word “section”, in line 6, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, the following word:- 11C or section.
SECTION Said section 1 of said chapter 30B is hereby further amended by inserting after the word “commonwealth”, in line 12, as so appearing, the following words:- except as pertains to subsection (i) of section 16.
SECTION Said section 1 of said chapter 30B, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by adding the following subsection:-
(f) This chapter shall be deemed to have been complied with on all purchases made from a vendor pursuant to a General Services Administration federal supply schedule that is available for use by governmental bodies.
SECTION Section 2 of said chapter 30B is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of “Contractor”, as so appearing, the following 2 definitions:-
“Cooperative purchasing”, procurement conducted by, or on behalf of, more than 1 public procurement unit or by a public procurement unit with an external procurement activity.
“Electronic bidding”, the electronic solicitation and receipt of offers to contract for supplies and services; provided, however, that offers may be accepted and contracts may be entered into by use of electronic bidding.
SECTION Said section 2 of said chapter 30B is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of “Employment agreement”, as so appearing, the following definition:-
“External procurement activity” means: (a) any public agency not located in this State which would qualify as a public procurement unit; (b) buying by the United States government.
SECTION Said section 2 of said chapter 30B is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of “Labor relations representative”, as so appearing, the following definition:-
“Local public procurement unit”, a political subdivision or unit thereof which expends public funds for the procurement of supplies.
SECTION Said section 2 of said chapter 30B is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of “Proposal”, as so appearing, the following definition:-
“Public procurement unit”, a local public procurement unit or a state public procurement unit.
SECTION Said section 2 of said chapter 30B is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of “Request for proposals”, as so appearing, the following definition:-
“Reverse auction”, an internet-based process used to buy supplies and services whereby the seller of the supplies or services being auctioned anonymously bid against each other until time expires and until the governmental body determines from which sellers it will buy based on the pricing obtained during the process.
SECTION Said section 2 of said chapter 30B is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of “Services”, as so appearing, the following 2 definitions:-
“Sound business practices”, ensuring the receipt of favorable prices by periodically soliciting price lists or quotes.
“State public procurement unit”, the offices of the chief procurement officers and any other purchasing agency of the commonwealth or any other state.
SECTION Section 4 of said chapter 30B, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out, in line 24, the words “generally accepted” and inserting in place thereof the following word:- sound.
SECTION Said chapter 30B is hereby further amended by inserting after section 6 the following section:-
Section 6A. (a) A chief procurement officer may enter into procurement contracts for $25,000 or more utilizing reverse auctions for the acquisition of supplies and services. The reverse auction process shall include a specification of an opening date and time when real-time electronic bids shall be accepted and shall provide that the procedure shall remain open until the designated closing date and time.
(b) All bids on reverse auctions shall be posted electronically on the internet, updated on a real-time basis, and shall allow registered bidders to lower the price of their bid below the lowest bid on the internet.
(c) The chief procurement officer shall require vendors to register before the reverse auction opening date and time and, as part of the registration, agree to any terms and conditions and other requirements of the solicitation.
(d) Any mechanism including, but not limited to, software, developed by the operational services division to conduct reverse auctions by the commonwealth, shall provide for the utilization of that mechanism by municipalities.
(e) The operational services division may assess a municipality utilizing the reverse auction mechanism a reasonable fee, calculated to compensate for any increased cost attributable to such utilization, which shall be credited to the General Fund.
(f) Reverse auctions shall not be subject to clause (1) of subsection (b) or subsection (d) of section 5 but shall be subject to all other provisions of said section 5.
SECTION Said chapter 30B is hereby further amended by adding the following section:-
Section 22. A public procurement unit may participate in, sponsor, conduct or administer a cooperative purchasing agreement for the procurement of supplies with public procurement units or external procurement activities in accordance with an agreement entered into between the participants. The public procurement unit conducting the procurement of supplies shall do so in a manner that constitutes a full and open competition.
SECTION The definition of “Regular compensation” in section 1 of chapter 32 of the General Laws, as amended by section 2 of chapter 21 of the acts of 2009, is hereby further amended by inserting after the second paragraph the following paragraph:-
Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter to the contrary, regular compensation for any person who becomes a member after July 1, 2010, shall not include salary, wages or other compensation in whatever form in any calendar year in excess of 64 per cent of the annual limitation that may be imposed under federal law on the amount of compensation that may be taken into account when calculating benefits under plans described in 26 U.S.C. 401(a) including, but not limited to, the applicable limits for any calendar year under 26 U.S.C. 401(a)(17).
SECTION Said section 1 of said chapter 32 is hereby further amended by striking out, in line 488, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, the word “may” and inserting in place thereof the following word:- shall.
SECTION Section 3 of said chapter 32, as so appearing, is hereby amended by adding the following subdivision:-
(9) Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter to the contrary, a member who is reinstated to or re-enters the active service of a governmental unit or who is eligible to receive credit for other service under this section and does not within 1 year of the date of reinstatement or re-entry either: (i) pay into the annuity savings fund of the system make-up payments of an amount equal to the accumulated regular deductions withdrawn by the member, together with buyback interest; or (ii) make provision for the repayment in installments, upon such terms and conditions as the board may prescribe, to pay into the annuity savings fund of the system make-up payments of an amount equal to the accumulated regular deductions withdrawn by the member, together with buyback interest shall, in order to be entitled to creditable service resulting from the previous employment, be required to pay actuarial assumed interest instead of buyback interest on all make-up payments.
SECTION Section 5 of said chapter 32 is hereby amended by inserting after the word “service”, in line 38, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, the following words:- , together with buyback interest, and shall satisfy the requirements for reinstatement under section 105.