Public Chapter 863 became effective on April 27, 2026. The law allows local government entities, including local education agencies (LEA(s)), to use delivery methods such as design-bid-build (traditional method), construction manager at-risk (manager oversees and provides a guaranteed maximum price), and design-build (design and construction are under one contract) for construction projects estimated to cost more than five million dollars when certain requirements are met.
To choose from any delivery method described above, a local government or LEA must:
- Have a full-time purchasing agent or purchasing employee satisfactory to the comptroller;
- Have general government revenues of $150,000,000 for metropolitan governments and counties, or $125,000,000 for cities, and other local government entities; or be approved by the comptroller to use a project delivery method the comptroller determines is in the best interest of the local government;
- Use a competitive proposal process to select a party to provide the delivery project method; and
- Have rules or policies in place that allow for the competitive proposal process.
The competitive proposal process requires use of a request for proposal. In addition, the process requires public disclosure of evaluation criteria and the relative weight assigned to each criterion, with qualifications and experience being at least most of the scoring criteria as compared to pricing considerations, which must be given at least 20% of the scoring criteria. The local government must disclose the number and occupations of the selection committee and must maintain written conflict-of-interest disclosures for each committee member. After selecting a proposer, the local government must promptly publish on its website or procurement platform notice of the selection, evaluation scores, and any notes of the selection committee. The local government must also publish a mechanism for a proposer to file a written protest of the selection within 10 days after receiving notice of the selection. The local government must then issue a written response to the protest before it can execute a contract with the selected proposer. All procurement documents and the final contract are public records available upon request.
The law also defines major construction terms including construction manager at-risk, design-build, and qualified local project.
Overall, the law gives eligible local governments more control over how construction projects are managed and requires strict compliance to ensure fair procurement for construction projects, transparency, and accountability.
For more information about this new law, please contact your CTAS County Government Consultant.