All work in service areas must be approved by the County prior to commencement of work. Any work that is performed without prior approval cannot be paid using CSA funds. Please be advised that in order to have any work performed in a CSA, sufficient funding must be in place.
- Requirement 1: All contractors performing work shall possess a Class "A" General Engineering license issued by the State of California.
- Requirement 2: All contractors performing work shall submit a Certificate of Insurance acceptable to the Public Works Department showing a minimum coverage of $1,000,000 Comprehensive or Commercial General Liability combined single unit, $2,000,000 for Products Completed Operations Aggregate, $1,000,000 Automobile Liability combined single unit per occurrence and Worker’s Compensation in the minimum statutory required coverage amounts. All required Automobile and Comprehensive or Commercial General Liability insurance shall be endorsed to include the County of Santa Cruz and provide a 30‐day prior written notice of cancellation.
- Requirement 3: Contractors must pay prevailing wage pursuant to Section 1773 of the California Labor Code.
- Requirement 4: Projects may not be split in order to circumvent the maximum dollar limits.
- Requirement 5: Work with a value of up to $60,000 may be performed by a contractor after three bids are provided, by the Public Works Department and a purchase order is issued. The CSA shall submit an informal proposal to the County from a prospective contractor for consideration. Contractors may use County Service Area Independent Contractor Agreement Form.
- Requirement 6: Work costing between $60,001 and $200,000 is subject to informal bidding procedures, as specified by Public Contract Code 20150. These types of projects require that the CSA submit the scope of work and a location map. A request for proposals will be advertised in a newspaper of general circulation at least 24 hours prior to opening of the bids. Once the bids are reviewed the CSA representative will be notified of the results. Public Works will select the successful low bidder and issue a purchase order. Once a purchase order has been issued, Public Works must authorize any changes to the scope of work.
- Requirement 7: Projects equal to or in excess of $200,000 in value are subject to formal bid procedures and must have detailed plans and specifications approved by the Board of Supervisors prior to advertisement and solicitation of bids. The detailed plans and specifications shall be prepared by a private consulting engineer. After review, Public Works will conduct the formal bid. The lowest bidder will be awarded the contract upon final approval of the CSA.
Under emergency conditions, the CSA can hire a contractor to perform emergency work. The CSA representative shall call Public Works and will be issued an emergency purchase order number within approximately one‐half hour. Requests for after-hours or weekend emergency work should be submitted using our 24‐hour road maintenance dispatch phone number, (831) 477‐3999. Calls to this number are routed through the Santa Cruz County Emergency Communications Center (911), to the CSA administrator, or the on‐call Public Works supervisor.