What Measure U does
What does Porterville Measure U change?
Measure U concerns one section of the Porterville City Charter: Section 61.
The existing Charter contains specific rules governing competitive bidding for covered public projects. Measure U would replace those Charter-level requirements with language giving the City authority to determine how public works, improvements, replacement, repairs, maintenance, and construction are performed.
Who sets the rules?
The current Charter itself contains detailed requirements governing covered public projects.
Measure U would replace those provisions with broader authority allowing the City to establish standards, procedures, rules, and regulations for purchasing goods, property, and services.
The question is not simply whether Porterville should have procurement procedures. The structural question is where those procedures should be established:
Directly in the City Charter, or through locally adopted City standards and procedures.
That is one of the most important substantive changes contained in Measure U.
Why this matters in Porterville
A $5,000 rule from 1971 should not control Porterville forever. Measure U would amend Section 61 so the City can decide how public works get done—instead of being locked into a bidding system written before today’s expensive state mandates.
Measure U would restore local control, make fixing roads and infrastructure more affordable, and support local jobs and local growth.
California imposes expensive and unnecessary mandates when it comes to public-work projects. Measure U replaces a rigid local Charter requirement, giving more flexibility and avoiding expensive state mandates.
Over the past decade, new intense laws and regulations have constricted Porterville’s ability to afford basic maintenance and repair. Measure U would grant the City a modern approach in navigating an increasingly expensive and complex regulatory environment.
Measure U does not abolish competitive bidding. It allows the City to manage competitive bidding more flexibly through modern rulesetting. Raising the $5,000 figure would not solve the problem: the cost of simple maintenance projects has not increased proportionally to inflation.
Measure U is local control: keep taxpayer dollars in Porterville, support more local jobs and local growth, and remove the $5,000 cap that limits City-crew road maintenance—the most basic function of government.
How does this benefit the People? Everyone benefits. Keep more money in town, use tax dollars more effectively, get better infrastructure, and increase local wages and more jobs.
What the proposed language would authorize
If approved, the proposed Charter language would authorize the City to:
- Use City employees to perform public works
- Contract with more competitive local contractors instead of expensive non-local ones
- Contract with other public agencies
- Establish local purchasing standards
- Establish local contracting procedures
- Determine how repair, maintenance, improvement, and construction work is performed
Measure U changes the Charter authority governing these decisions. The precise procedures used by the City would depend on the local standards, rules, and regulations established under that authority.
The measure itself is not a new tax and does not create a separate source of infrastructure revenue. Everyone benefits: keep more money in town, use tax dollars more effectively, get better infrastructure, and increase local wages and more jobs.