Opinion: California Supreme Court dismantles no-bid school construction contracts
Last week, the California Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in a very complex – but very important – case that had been percolating for more than a decade, dealing with how local school officials evade competitive bidding on construction projects.
The contract with Harris, which had been a major contributor to the bond issue campaign, was structured as a “lease-leaseback” deal in which the district leased the school site to Harris for a nominal sum, Harris built the school and the district then leased the completed facility from Harris. In the Harris project, however, Fresno Unified made payments to the contractor and once the school was completed in 2014, it used bond funds to immediately acquire ownership from Harris. Meanwhile, another contractor, Stephen Davis, had sued the district alleging that the Harris lease-leaseback deal was a subterfuge to avoid competitive bidding.
San Diego attorney Kevin Carlin, who represents Davis and has carved out a niche career of challenging questionable school contracts, says that Harris Construction may be forced to pay back the $36.7 million it received for building Gaston Middle School.
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