As the city of Denver prepares to take on more projects and capital investment, sponsors of a proposed bill are seeking to increase transparency in how the city spends its money and chooses its contractors.

Members of the Denver City Council’s Budget and Policy Committee received a briefing Monday on “best-value” contracting, legislation that would allow the city to evaluate bids on factors beyond price alone.

Cost remains an important factor, but it would be one of several under this model, Councilmember Flor Alvidrez, one of the bill’s two sponsors, said.

The proposal would update Denver’s contracting practices under a 2020 Executive Order issued by then-Mayor Michael Hancock by allowing the city to award certain contracts based on “best-value criteria” rather than the lowest bid.

“Just to be clear, we’re not saying that we should ignore the cost, and if there are values, we should pay for them at any price,” Denver District 10 Councilmember Chris Hinds, a bill co-sponsor, said. “What we’re saying is that it’s more important that we think of cost in a suite of values, not just cost on its own.”

Under the new legislation, contract evaluation criteria, according to the committee’s presentation, would include eight key elements: legal compliance, financial capacity, past performance, workforce practices, safety, compensation and benefits, project approach and cost.

Currently, Denver has more than $2.5 billion in the pipeline: $920 million from National Western, $950 million from the Vibrant Denver bonds, and $530 million from the DDA Downtown Denver Authority.

According to bill sponsors, there is no uniform best-value contracting standard across all of Denver’s city departments, with some departments defaulting to the lowest bidder, reinforced by the administrative executive order.

A spokesperson for Mayor Mike Johnston’s office expressed the administration’s willingness to work with the bill sponsors on the language within the executive order.

If adopted, the proposed ordinance would take a phased approach with construction contracts first and service contracts following at a later date.

The procurement of goods and commodities would be part of the BVC process

Additionally, Denver International Airport has construction projects underway.

The concept of best value contracting is not new, with both Adams and Pueblo counties adopting the process.

“Adams County passed their best value contracting back in 2014, so they’ve had a dozen years to iron out the kinks,” Hines said. “We met with Adams County electeds and their county manager, and they both agreed that as a response to the legislation, they received higher quality contracts, the baseline standards were higher, and as the tide lifts all boats, job sites were safer, because the vendor wasn’t having to worry about being on the clock so much.”

Adams County adopted the BVC process in August 2014 and uses it to guide its procurement for major construction projects, applying it to new builds and major remodels valued at $1 million or more.

While still in draft form, a decision has yet to be made on the proposed legislation, with questions remaining around its application to on-call contracts and the protection of small businesses.