by James A. Bacon
Mea culpa. I missed a critical point in my previous analysis of the political chess match between the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) and the McDonnell administration. I said naively that Gov. Bob McDonnell may have no choice under new legislation but to yank $150 million in state funds allocated to Phase 2 of the Rail-to-Dulles project.
HB 33, I wrote, not only prohibits mandated Project Labor Agreements in state-funded construction projects, but it seeks to ensure that “neither the state agency nor any construction manager acting on behalf of the state agency … discriminate against bidders [not adhering] to agreements with one or more labor organizations.” Last week MWAA scrapped its PLA mandate for Rail-to-Dulles but subsituted a provision that would grant 10-percent scoring bonus for bidders whose plans included a PLA — clearly discriminatory against open-shop contractors. McDonnell, I suggested, would have no choice but to find MWAA in violation of that law.
Here’s what I missed: The bill’s anti-discrimination clause applies to state agencies. MWAA is not a state agency — it is an interstate compact! Thus, it could be exempt from HB 33, commonly referred to as the Comstock bill after lead patron Barbara Comstock, R-McLean.
That’s the argument made by Del. Bob Marshall, R-Manassas (hat tip to anti-MWAA activist David LaRock). Marshall had submitted a bill that would have addressed the problem head-on. He would have denied MWAA the $150 million if (1) Rail-to-Dulles were subject to a Project Labor Agreement, (2) MWAA policies or bylaws governing public access to meetings and records were incompatible with Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, or (3) phase 2 of the project and its finances were not subject to state audit.
MWAA’s fig-leaf vote, which substituted a scoring preference in place of a mandate, would circumvent Marshall’s PLA clause just like it circumvents HB 33. But MWAA wouldn’t get the money unless it also submitted to Virginia’s FOIA law and state audits.
Did the authors of the Comstock bill get snookered? I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know. I simply repeat the arguments. I’d like to hear other people weigh in with their opinions.
