No-bid public contracts: behested payments.

Existing law governs the bidding and awarding of public contracts by public entities, as defined. Existing law requires state agencies to secure at least three competitive bids or proposals for each contract, except as specified. The Political Reform Act of 1974 provides for the comprehensive regulation of campaign financing, including imposing reporting requirements on elected officials and campaign committees. In this regard, the act requires elected officials and members of the Public Utilities Commission to report behested payments from the same source in the same calendar year in which they are made, that equal or exceed $5,000, in the aggregate. The act defines a behested payment as a payment that is made at the behest of a committee, an elected officer, a member of the Public Utilities Commission, or an agent thereof, under specified circumstances, including a payment that is made principally for personal, charitable, legislative, or governmental purposes. This bill would prohibit a state agency, as defined, from awarding a contract for which the state agency has not secured at least 3 competitive bids or proposals to a company that has made a behested payment at the behest of the Governor in the preceding 12 months. .