State College is considering key amendments to its Responsible Contractor Ordinance after struggling to get bidders who met its requirements since it went into effect in 2025.
Borough Council will vote during its July 20 meeting on changes to the cost value and types of projects that trigger the ordinance conditions, as well as provisions for workforce training requirements.
The Responsible Contractor Ordinance, which was approved by council in October 2024, includes requirements related to safety training and prevailing wage payments, as well as that 70% of the craft labor workforce on public works projects over $250,000 be journeypersons who have completed a state- or federally-approved apprenticeship training program or registered apprentices currently enrolled in such a program.
Proposed amendments presented by staff to council at its last two meetings would apply the RCO to borough public works building and facilities projects valued at $500,000 or more — doubling the value threshold and reducing the types of projects included. It would no longer apply to most road maintenance and paving work.
It also addresses what borough officials said have been the biggest hurdle: the requirement that 70% of craft labor on RCO projects be journeypersons or registered apprentices. The proposed amendments would allow an exemption from that requirement if a contractor meets one of three conditions:
• An Experienced Modified Rate of 1.0 or less. The EMR is a calculation “used by insurance firms to price the cost of workers’ compensation premiums and is recognized as an industry standard for safety,” according to the proposal.
• A majority of workers on job site demonstrate sufficient training or continuing education in worker classification. That includes completion or participation in a Class A
registered apprenticeship program; completion of a relevant postsecondary education degree or certificate; completion of relevant curriculum from the National Center for Construction
Education & Research; or evidence of more than 10 years of relevant job experience.
• Evidence of successful completion of a relevant public works project in the borough.
Borough Council suspended the RCO from August through December 2025 to allow for timely bidding of phase two of the Calder Way project and annual street repaving after staff had to request approval for exemptions in re-bidding on previous projects that met the threshold and received no qualified bidders. The temporary suspension was also enacted to allow time for amendments addressing the issues to be drafted.
“To date, we have one project that we have actually been able to successfully bid with the RCO standards that were in the initial ordinance, and that is the building repairs at the parking garages,” Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said during a discussion at Monday night’s council work session. “None of the other public works projects have been successful.”
Building projects with a higher cost value are “more likely” to attract bidders who meet the original RCO requirements, Fountaine said, but providing for exemptions when those bidders to not materialize will “allow a broader base of responsible contractors that can bid on projects, including many of the contractors that we have worked with in the past and that we continue to work with through this process.”
Council member Kevin Kassab said he understood the need for competitive bidding but was not in favor of the change.
“From what I understood, this was all about safety,” Kassab said. “First off, most of these places have specific safety education processes in place anyways because a lot of the insurance companies they deal with require it. Now we’ve made a decision that all the public works things like working on roads, et cetera is not a concern, but the others are. So I really have mixed feelings about that.”
Council member Matt Herndon said the changes don’t address “the main problem that we’re facing,” which is that “almost none of the contractors that we use have given their workforces this level of training.” He said he would like to see the borough work to draw in firms around Pennsylvania who do meet the conditions of the ordinance as it stands.
But Fountaine said that the borough simply hasn’t received bids from any RCO qualified contractors in most cases, and that focusing on companies that have to travel will increase costs.
“We have not received any bids from any qualified contractors,” he said. “There are none in this area that we are aware of, and paying mobilization and demobilization costs would drive the cost of construction up substantially.
He added that while construction projects in the region have seen serious accidents, there have been none on borough projects in decades
“The main issue is that the problem we’re trying to solve hasn’t been a problem in our contracts,” Fountaine said. “We have not had safety issues, and the local contractors do have safety programs that they have talked to us about. Since this went into effect, certainly, in addition to not having a safety record with contracts that we’re involved in.”
Herndon said the lack of bids could be due to the bidding process or other factors, and asked if staff could collect a list of pre-bid comments that would indicate the number of contractors not submitting bids because of the RCO.
‘The feedback we’ve gotten has been about the apprenticeship program and the prescriptive requirements in the ordinance,” Assistant Borough Manager Roger Dunlap said. “That’s been the overwhelming feedback from our folks who bid on our public housing projects, our rehab projects, and also street resurfacing reconstruction. They can’t qualify under the ordinance; they haven’t been able to. We have not awarded a contract under any of those circumstances to a qualified, responsible contractor based upon this ordinance.”
Council member Gopal Balachandran said the original RCO was “high-minded and had the best intentions,” but the need for staff to repeatedly seek approval for exemptions indicates it may need some changes.
“If we had not waived the requirements, I mean, the Action Sports Park wouldn’t have been built. There would have been other infrastructure projects that wouldn’t have been built,” Balachandran said.
He added that an unintended consequence is that the provisions box out local contractors.
“That means that local builders, or anyone who’s working and living in the area and working in these trades, are not getting employment through the contracting companies,” Balachandran said. “I think my feeling on it is that we’ve tried it. Every single time we’ve had to have anything built around here, it’s been a request to waive the requirements.
“I think it’s been a good effort, but at least for me, it seems like I’m not sure we have that much of a choice unless we want to keep coming back every couple of months with a request to waive the requirements.”
Council will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, July 20 in the Municipal Building.
