HANOVER TWP., LEHIGH COUNTY, Pa. — Lehigh Northampton Airport Authority will consider whether to pursue new rules for companies bidding on the authority’s contracts.
“We all want to make sure we've got qualified contractors, and we’ve all had issues with contractors that have done work for the airport authority in the past," authority Board of Governors Chairman Glenn Reibman said.
"A number of contractors, not just one or two.”
“We wouldn’t reinvent the wheel.”Lehigh Valley Airport Authority solicitor Elizabeth Marcon
The board of governors will vote at its April 1 meeting on whether to move forward with considering a responsible contractor ordinance.
If a majority of the board agrees, airport authority solicitor Elizabeth Marcon will begin drafting the airport’s version of responsible contractor rules, using similar measures adopted by Lehigh and Northampton counties as a starting point.
“We wouldn’t reinvent the wheel,” Marcon said.
Rules, requirements laid out
The counties’ versions require that for a company to compete for contracts worth more than $100,000, the bidding firm’s leadership must certify that it meets a list of criteria.
The rules require that the company’s employees have any licenses or certifications required to perform the contracted work.
Also, that it has not been suspended by a government agency in the past three years, and neither the company nor its leaders have been convicted of a business-related crime in the past 10 years.
The county ordinances also require that a would-be contractor’s employees have completed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s 10-hour safety training at a minimum.
The company also must offer “class A” apprenticeship programs for at least the prior five years.
Many of the rules in the counties’ ordinances already are in place at the airport authority, imposed through LNAA’s standard contract for work at their airports, Reibman said.
Controversial requirement
The apprenticeship requirement in particular in Northampton County’s responsible contractor ordinance has proven to be a source of controversy.
The ordinance’s definition of an acceptable “class A” program overlaps neatly with the training labor unions offer through collective bargaining agreements.
Representatives for non-unionized companies contend that the requirement gives union shops an unfair advantage in competing for government contracts.
Soon after Northampton County’s ordinance became law in 2018, the Association of Builders and Contractors, a trade group representing non-union construction companies, filed a lawsuit challenging the rule.
A federal judge ruled in 2019 that Northampton County’s apprenticeship requirement does not discriminate against non-unionized contractors.
Northampton County Commissioner John Goffredo made an effort to eliminate the apprenticeship requirement because, he said, it shuts out otherwise qualified bidders failed in 2023.
