If a public improvement contract is competitively bid and all responsive bids from responsible bidders exceed the contracting agency’s cost estimate, the contracting agency, in accordance with rules adopted by the contracting agency, may negotiate with the lowest responsive, responsible bidder, prior to awarding the contract, in order to solicit value engineering and other options to attempt to bring the contract within the contracting agency’s cost estimate. A negotiation with the lowest responsive, responsible bidder under this section may not result in the award of the contract to that bidder if the scope of the project is significantly changed from the original bid proposal. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the records of a bidder used in contract negotiation under this section are not subject to public inspection until after the negotiated contract has been awarded or the negotiation process has been terminated. [2003 c.794 §106]
Section: Previous 279C.305 279C.310 279C.315 279C.320 279C.325 279C.330 279C.335 279C.340 279C.345 279C.350 279C.355 279C.360 279C.365 279C.370 279C.375 NextLast modified: August 7, 2008