County to Review Continued Emergency Contracting for January 2025 Fire and Windstorm Recovery

More than a year after the Eaton and Palisades fires, the question before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, June 23, is whether the disaster still constitutes an emergency severe enough to let the county keep awarding recovery contracts without competitive bidding.

At its meeting, the board is set to review the emergency actions ordered and taken by the director of public works under authority the board delegated through Board Order No. 13-C of Jan. 28, 2025. This bi-weekly review asks the board to determine that there is a continued need for those emergency actions. For residents in the fire-affected areas of Supervisorial Districts 3 and 5, the determination is what keeps cleanup and reconstruction moving without the delay a formal bidding process can add.

Acting as both the county and the governing body of various districts, the director has used the delegated authority to respond to and recover from the January 2025 Windstorm and Critical Fire Events — including the Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire, Hurst Fire, Kenneth Fire and other fires the agenda collectively calls the LA County Fires.

The board is set to find that there is substantial evidence the windstorm and fire events continue to constitute an emergency under Public Contract Code Section 22050 — the state provision that lets agencies skip a formal competitive solicitation of bids when immediate action is required to clean up and reconstruct damaged public property, buildings, facilities and infrastructure.

The board is also set to find that authority should continue to be delegated to the director of public works to amend, extend and supplement existing as-needed or on-call contracts without giving notice for bids, and to award new contracts for the response and recovery effort. The agenda states such contracts are necessary to respond to the emergency.

The item, brought by the Department of Public Works, requires four affirmative votes — a supermajority of the five-member board. As the county’s governing body, the Board of Supervisors holds final authority over whether the emergency declaration and the delegated contracting power continue.

For residents in the fire-affected areas, the practical question behind Tuesday’s vote is speed versus oversight: continuing the findings keeps recovery work moving quickly, but does so by setting aside the competitive bidding that normally governs how public dollars are spent. The agenda does not list the specific contracts awarded or their dollar values, so those figures are not included here.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 23, in Board Hearing Room 381B at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, 500 West Temple Street, Los Angeles. For more information call (213) 974-1411 or visit http://bos.lacounty.gov.