GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1995

S	1 

SENATE BILL 519

Short Title:  Purchases from Blind/Disabled.	(Public)

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Sponsors: Senators Carpenter, Ballance, Conder, Speed, Albertson, Foxx, Davis, and Clark.

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Referred to:  Pensions and Retirement/Insurance/State Personnel

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March 29, 1995

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO ENCOURAGE THE PURCHASE OF COMMODITIES AND SERVICES OFFERED BY BLIND AND BY SEVERELY DISABLED PERSONS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  Chapter 168 of the General Statutes is amended by inserting a new Article to read:
"ARTICLE 2A.
"Purchase of Goods and Services From Blind and From Severely Disabled Persons.
"§ 168-19.1.  Purpose; applicability.
The purpose of this Article is to further the policy of the State to encourage and assist the blind and severely disabled individuals to achieve maximum personal independence through useful, productive, and gainful employment by assuring an expanded and constant market for their commodities and services, thereby enhancing their dignity and capacity for self-support and minimizing their dependence on welfare and need for costly institutionalization.
"§ 168-19.2.  Requirements for purchases made by the State, a governing subdivision of the State, or by public institutions.
All purchases made by any agency of the State regardless of whether made through the purchasing division of the Department of Administration, by any county, municipality, or other governing subdivision of the State, or by any public institution shall be made from an agency of the State or  from a nonprofit work center for the blind or the severely disabled in the State.  This requirement shall not apply if the products to be purchased are not available from these sources.
"§ 168-19.3.  Definitions.
As used in this Article, unless the context clearly requires otherwise:
(1)	'Blind' means an individual or class of individuals whose central visual acuity does not exceed 20/200 in the better eye with correcting lenses or whose visual acuity, if better than 20/200, is accompanied by a limit to the field of vision in the better eye to such a degree that its widest diameter subtends an angle no greater than 20 degrees.
(2)	'Central nonprofit agency' means the agency designated under G.S. 168-19.5.
(3)	'Certified commodities or services' means (i) the commodities produced with 'value added' through manufacturing, repackaging, or assembly processes by any work center for the severely handicapped, and (ii) the services provided with 'value added' by any work center for the severely handicapped, as certified by the Department of Administration.
(4)	'Committee' means the Advisory Committee for Purchase from the Blind and the Severely Disabled created by G.S. 168-19.4.
(5)	'Department' means the Department of Administration.
(6)	'Nonprofit work center for the blind and the severely disabled' means an agency:
a.	Organized under the laws of the United States or this State, operated in the interest of the blind and the severely disabled, the net income of which agency does not inure in whole or in part to the benefit of any shareholder or other individual;
b.	In compliance with any applicable health and safety standard prescribed by the United States Secretary of Labor;
c.	In the production of commodities or provision of services regardless of whether procured pursuant to this Article, employs during the current fiscal year severely handicapped individuals for (i) a minimum of seventy-five percent (75%) of the hours of direct labor required for the production of commodities or provision of services or (ii) in accordance with the percentage of direct labor required under the terms and conditions of Public Law 92-28 (41 U.S.C. § 46, et seq.) for the production of commodities provision of services, whichever is lesser.
(7)	'Severely disabled' means those individuals with a handicapping condition as defined in G.S. 168-1 or G.S. 168A-3, whose handicapping condition, according to criteria established by rules adopted by the Department of Administration, constitutes a substantial bar to employment and is of such a nature as to prevent the individuals under this disability from currently engaging in normal competitive employment.
"§ 168.19.4.  Advisory Committee for Purchase from the Blind and the Severely Disabled; establishment; responsibility; purchasing requirements for governmental entities; applicability of Article.
(a)	There is established within the Department of Administration the Advisory Committee for Purchase from the Blind and the Severely Disabled, referred to as the Committee, which shall be composed of the following:  the Secretary of the Department of Human Resources and the Secretary of Administration, or their designees, and three members who are private citizens appointed by the Governor.  Of the three members appointed by the Governor, one shall represent nonprofit work centers for the blind, one other shall represent nonprofit work centers for the severely handicapped, and one other shall represent the business community.  The members of the Committee shall organize and appoint a chair and determine their operating procedures.  Members shall serve without compensation, but shall be reimbursed for travel and subsistence expenses incurred in the performance of their duties pursuant to G.S. 138-5 or G.S. 138-6, as appropriate.
(b)	The Committee shall advise the Department and the designated central nonprofit agency in the development and implementation of a State procurement program of selected commodities and services from qualified work centers serving the severely handicapped.
"§ 168-19.5.  Central nonprofit agency; designation; functions and operations.
(a)	The Department, after consultation with the Committee, shall designate a central nonprofit agency to represent the work centers for the blind and the severely disabled.
(b)	The designated central nonprofit agency shall:
(1)	Ensure that the priorities for the production of commodities and services are maintained under this Article;
(2)	Evaluate the nonprofit qualifications and capabilities of qualified work centers to manufacture commodities or perform services and present the evaluation to the Department and the Committee.  In evaluating products, the central nonprofit agency shall assure that participating work centers are contributing a 'value added' component to commodities or services that are being recommended under this Article;
(3)	Recommend to the Committee and the Department, with appropriate justification, prices, suitable commodities or services for procurement from its workshops, work centers qualified to serve as certified sources, and revisions to these recommendations;
(4)	Distribute and allocate, by direct allocation, subcontract, or any other means, orders from governmental entities to the workshops;
(5)	Maintain the necessary records and monitor the workshops to ensure compliance in the production of a commodity or performance of a service; and
(6)	When authorized by the Committee and the Department, enter into contracts with the State, community colleges, or public schools for the furnishing of commodities or services provided by its work centers.
(c)	The central nonprofit agency shall charge a fee to participating workshops for facilitating participation by their work centers under this Article.  This fee shall not exceed an amount approved by the Department.  Each work center may factor the fee as an administrative expense into the overall cost of its products."
Sec. 2.  G.S. 143-48 reads as rewritten:
"§ 143-48.  State policy; cooperation in promoting the use of small, minority, physically handicapped and women contractors; purpose; required annual reports.
(a)	Policy. – It is the policy of this State to encourage and promote the use of small, minority, physically handicapped and women contractors in State purchasing of goods and services.  All State agencies, institutions and political subdivisions shall cooperate with the Department of Administration and all other State agencies, institutions and political subdivisions in efforts to encourage the use of small, minority, physically handicapped and women contractors in achieving the purpose of this Article, which is to provide for the effective and economical acquisition, management and disposition of goods and services by and through the Department of Administration.
(b)	Reporting. – Every governmental entity required by statute to use the services of the Department of Administration in the purchase of goods and services and every private, nonprofit corporation other than an institution of higher education or a hospital that receives an appropriation of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) or more during a fiscal year from the General Assembly shall report to the department of Administration annually on what percentage of its contract purchases of goods and services, through term contracts and open-market contracts, were from minority-owned businesses, what percentage from female-owned businesses, what percentage from disabled-owned businesses and what percentage from nonprofit work centers for the blind and the severely disabled.  The same governmental entities shall include in their reports what percentages of the contract bids for such purchases were from such businesses.  The Department of Administration shall provide instructions to the reporting entities concerning the manner of reporting and the definitions of the businesses referred to in this act, provided that, for the purposes of this act:
(1)	Except as provided in subdivision (1a) of this section, a business in one of the categories above means one:
a.	In which at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the business, or of the stock in the case of a corporation, is owned by one or more persons in the category; and 
b. 	Of which the management and daily business operations are controlled by one or more persons in the category who own it.
(1a)	A 'nonprofit work center for the blind and the severely disabled' means a  nonprofit entity as defined in G.S. 168-19.2(5).
(2)	A female or a disabled person is not a minority, unless the female or disabled person is also a member of one of the minority groups described in G.S. 143-128(2)a through d.
(3)	A disabled person means a person with a handicapping condition as defined in G.S. 168-1 or G.S. 168A-3.
The Department of Administration shall collect and compile the data described in this section and report it annually to the General Assembly.
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Sec. 3.  Article 3 of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 143-48.2. Procurement program for nonprofit work centers for the blind and the severely disabled.
(a)	To the extent they are subject to the provisions of this Article, State agencies, community colleges, and public schools shall purchase goods and services from nonprofit work centers for the severely handicapped in accordance with the procurement program created under this section and Article 2A of Chapter 168 of the General Statutes.
(b)	Notwithstanding G.S. 143-52, the Department of Administration shall establish a program for the procurement of goods and services from nonprofit agencies for the blind and the severely disabled in accordance with Article 2A of Chapter 168 of the General Statutes.  The Department shall:
(1)	Establish commodities and services appropriate for purchase;
(2)	Establish appropriate prices for the commodities and services;
(3)	Establish the appropriate volume for purchases; and
(4)	Certify the sources for these purchases.
(c)	The Department shall consult with the Advisory Committee and the designated central nonprofit agency established under Article 2A of Chapter 168 of the General Statutes prior to adopting rules or policies implementing or revising the program elements under subsection (b) of this section.
(d)	Purchases pursuant to G.S. 148-70 shall have preference over purchases under this section."
Sec. 4.  This act becomes effective January 1, 1996, and applies to contracts for which bids or offers are solicited on or after that date.