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A bill to reform Oregon’s public contracting law is on its way to the Senate floor after surviving two committees and a vote of the House.

Senate Bill 254 has been in the works for a long time.

For perspective, shipbuilders needed less time to build the Titanic than lawmakers needed to push public contracting reform this close to passage.

However, after more than two years of attention from interim work groups and legislative committees, SB 254 seems to have cleared all the icebergs. All that remains is a vote of the full Senate and the signature of Gov. John Kitzhaber.

Members of the House Consumer Protection and Government Efficiency Committee unanimously passed the bill on May 29. A vote on the Senate floor has not yet been scheduled.

The bill specifies the conditions under which a public agency could use an alternative contracting method. It requires the attorney general to adopt rules to specify the precise procedures for using construction manager-general contractor services.

It also states that public agencies must obtain construction services in accordance with the new model rules.

The bill went through extensive tinkering when it was before the Senate Business and Transportation Committee. When committee members decided that it should more accurately reflect the language used by the construction industry, the result was an extensive rewrite of the entire legislation – delaying the bill half a dozen times before it was finally sent out of committee on April 22.

The Senate on April 24 passed the bill, 29-0.

Through it all, however, most of the bill’s specifics remained the same. Those details were hammered out by a work group of various stakeholders before the Legislature even convened. State Sen. Lee Beyer, D-Eugene, chairman of the Senate Business and Transportation Committee, organized the group in response to concerns raised about the public contracting law during the previous legislative session.

To date, public contracting reform has been in the works at the capitol for two years and six months. Construction of the Titanic took two years and two months.

In other legislative developments:

House Bill 2061 reduces the amount of time appraisal management companies have to pay independent appraisers; it was passed unanimously by the Senate General Government, Consumer Protection and Small Business Protection Committee on May 29.

The bill proved contentious on the House side in the Business and Labor Committee, but a compromise was reached by expanding the 30-day deadline initially proposed by the bill’s supporters to 45 days. It passed out of committee on Feb. 27 with a 6-4 vote; Republicans voted in opposition.

On March 5, HB 2061 went to the House floor and was passed 35-22, with all nay votes coming from Republicans.

Senate Bill 617, which requires the Oregon Appraiser Certification and Licensure Board to determine the validity of complaints against real estate appraisers, was passed unanimously by the House Consumer Protection and Government Efficiency Committee on May 30.

The bill was passed by the Senate Business and Transportation Committee on April 15 and was approved unanimously on the Senate floor on April 29.

Senate Bill 644, a controversial bill allowing cities to use a qualifications-based system for hiring architects and designers on projects worth less than $100,000, received no action during a scheduled work session before the House Consumer Protection and Government Efficiency Committee on May 30.

The bill has received mixed reviews, with testimony taken on both sides. No further action has been scheduled.

Senate Bill 782, which requires apprentices (in applicable trades) to perform at least 10 percent of the work in public improvement projects worth more than $5 million, on May 31 was sent from the House Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee to the House Rules Committee.

State Rep. Mike Dembrow, D-Portland, who chairs the higher education committee, said there are numerous amendments on the bill that still need to be adjusted.

The bill sparked fierce debate when it came before the Senate Business and Transportation Committee. Yet it was passed by the committee on April 18 by a unanimous vote. On May 1 it was passed on the Senate floor without any votes in opposition.