Tammy,

 

Do you have an attorney that you deal with in Grand Prairie?  Do you work for the city of Grand Prairie? Is the public art program brand new?  How has it functioned in the past?  It sounds like you would be well served to get an opinion from the city attorney that your program or division works with on a regular basis.

 

Municipalities can have special purchasing arrangements for specific types of contractors and businesses.

 

In Aurora we have policies and procedures regarding various types of artist selection processes and approval processes and we also have special purchasing arrangements for contracts up to a certain dollar amount.

 

Roberta Bloom

 

 

 

I could really use some help from all on this question.  It might be a state-by-state thing.

 

The City of Grand Prairie’s Accounting Department interprets state law to say that artists are not exempt from competitive processes, so if your project costs more than $3,000, you must have a competitive process.  You are allowed to select the winner based on best value which includes an evaluation of qualifications. 

 

Section 2254 of the Government Code lists the professions that are exempt from a competitive process.  The professions the list are those that have a certification.  Here is the list:

 

(2)  "Professional services" means services:

  (A)  within the scope of the practice, as defined by state law, of:

       (i)  accounting;

       (ii)  architecture;

       (iii)  landscape architecture;

       (iv)  land surveying;

       (v)  medicine;

       (vi)  optometry;

       (vii)  professional engineering;

       (viii)  real estate appraising;  or

       (ix)  professional nursing;  or

  (B)  provided in connection with the professional employment or practice of a person who is licensed or registered as:

       (i)  a certified public accountant;

       (ii)  an architect;

       (iii)  a landscape architect;

       (iv)  a land surveyor;

       (v)  a physician, including a surgeon;

       (vi)  an optometrist;

       (vii)  a professional engineer;

       (viii)  a state certified or state licensed real estate appraiser;  or

       (ix)  a registered nurse.

 

Artists are not on that list, because there’s no state-recognized certification or license. 

 

So, according to our Accounting Department, our Public Art Program cannot select an artist directly.  We must host a competitive Call to Artists process.  An open call is better, but if we do a closed call, I have to get three quotes and attempt to find artists on the HUB list, which is hard.  I usually do the open call and still send it to HUBs who show up when I search “artist” on the commodity list and then the certified master bidders list – just to be safe.   

 

One good thing about this, is I believe it is more inclusive, giving other, less experienced artists a chance to at least decide if they want to compete.

 

I know other cities have a “training” process for emerging and experienced artist to develop an approved list.  I think, but I’m not sure, that they go through a competitive process to select the artists who will go through the training. 

 

As far as when the artist is hired, I’ve been working with our departments, especially as related to our Percent for Art program, to please give me enough notice to develop a Call to host a competition to get them on the project as early as possible. 

 

I hope some of my Texas counterparts and any others on PAN who have government purchasing laws can help me with this.  If the Accounting Department is interpreting the law wrong, I would sure like to know how to tell them.

 

 

 

Hello Art Admins;

 

Have you ever sent out an RFQ and hired the artist directly from there without them developing a proposal?  I’m thinking you are missing a big piece of the process by eliminating the selection panel on the final process by doing so.  Would appreciate your thoughts and opinions please.

 

 

Elizabeth Bowman Public Art Administrator Architecture Division General Services Department City of Kansas City, Mo. 414 East 12th Street Kansas City, MO 64106 Email: Elizabeth.Bowman@kcmo.org Phone: 816-513-3422             Fax: 816-513-2727

 

 

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