Public contracts: payment.

Existing law, until January 1, 2016, authorizes the retention proceeds withheld from any payment by an awarding entity, as described, from the original contractor, by the original contractor from any subcontractor, and by a subcontractor from any subcontractor to exceed 5% on specific projects where the director of the applicable department, as specified, has made, or the governing body of the public entity or designated official of the public entity has approved, a finding prior to the bid that the project is substantially complex and requires a higher retention and the department or public entity includes both this finding and the actual retention amount in the bid documents. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions to January 1, 2018, and, instead of requiring that the finding and actual retention amount be included in the bid documents, would require that the bid documents include details explaining the basis for the finding in addition to the actual retention amount. The bill would also require any finding by a public entity that a project is substantially complex to describe the specific project and why it is a unique project that is not regularly, customarily, or routinely performed by the agency or licensed contractors.