GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

S	1 

SENATE BILL 178

Short Title:  GPAC-Preconstruction Personnel Limit.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senator Martin of Guilford.
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Referred to:  Government Performance Audit.
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February 16, 1993

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO IMPLEMENT A RECOMMENDATION OF THE GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE AUDIT COMMITTEE TO LIMIT THE SIZE OF THE PRECONSTRUCTION UNITS AND TO USE PRIVATE ENGINEERING FIRMS TO HANDLE MORE OF THE HIGHWAY TRUST FUND PRECONSTRUCTION WORK LOAD.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  The General Assembly finds that the Department of Transportation is currently seeking funding for 298 more staff positions in its preconstruction units during the next 15 years to handle the work load from the Highway Trust Fund.  The majority of these positions are to be filled during the next four years in the Highway Design and Planning Branch and the Environmental Branches.  
The use of private engineering firms to handle peak work load requirements is a well-founded strategy for avoiding the public-sector problems of staffing up and down for varying work loads.  
The Department of Transportation is currently contracting out twenty percent (20%) to twenty-five percent (25%) of preconstruction work to private engineering firms.  If outside contract forces were used to address the preconstruction work load associated with the additional 298 positions, then the level of preconstruction work contracted out would rise to about thirty-two percent (32%) to thirty-six percent (36%).
This increase in contracting out work load, from twenty percent (20%) to twenty-five percent (25%), to thirty-two percent (32%) to thirty-six percent (36%) would be a reasonable level of increase because the Highway Trust Fund represents a 78 percent increase in the pre-1989 preconstruction work load of the Department.
Sec. 2.  The Secretary of Transportation shall submit a plan to the General Assembly, by September 1, 1993, to implement the recommendation in Section 1 of this act to freeze preconstruction positions and contract out the balance of its preconstruction work to private engineering firms.
Sec. 3.  This act is effective upon ratification.