MinneapolisMinneapolis recently “reaffirmed” its commitment to the 2015 Minnesota Responsible Contractor Act, Minn. Stat. 16C.285, and enacted additional factors and implementation procedures when determining whether a contractor is “responsible” for purposes of being awarded public construction projects.  Are you a responsible contractor?  If you are a contractor doing business with the State of Minnesota pursuant to a contract of over $50,000, you must be, or you may be prohibited from doing business with the State.  For more information on the actual Act, click here for the Minneapolis PowerPoint presentation.  In any event, the Act states that a contracting authority (such as a city), may establish “additional factors for defining contractor responsibility.”  Of course, Minneapolis has done just that.

On April 21, 2016, Minneapolis passed Resolution No. 2016R-127, stating that, in order to be “responsible”, a contractor must verify that, for the past 3 years, it has not violated the requirements for payment of wages for construction work as provided by any Minneapolis ordinance, resolution, policy or contract.  Specifically, the contractor must not have had to pay back wages or penalties in excess of $10,000 on one or more projects during this 3 year period.  Further, the contractor must not have made any false statements in a verification of compliance submitted to Minneapolis during the 3 year period.

How is this implemented? Contractors should see these additional factors in solicitation documents for all covered projects. Keep in mind, nobody is excluded; it applies to the general and subcontractors alike. Failure to comply with these new procedural requirements will render the contractor ineligible to be awarded the bid.