Bond Forms for Pasadena Unified School District

I am contacting you on behalf of the National Association of Surety Bond Producers (NASBP), a national trade association of surety bond producers, including licensed resident and nonresident producers placing bid, performance, and payment bonds in the State of California and all other jurisdictions. NASBP was recently forwarded a copy of the Performance Bond and Payment Bond for use on the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) Washington Accelerated ESNew Construction/Campus Enrichment Project (Project). We have reviewed these bond forms, and the terms and conditions of these forms give NASBP great concern. More specifically, we believe that these bond terms and conditions are counter to prevailing surety and construction industry practices and to the market reputation of PUSD as a desirable procurer of construction services. I note that these bond forms are appearing in a number of bid documents for public projects in the state of California, and they are counterproductive to the interests of the public authorities. While I expect that the drafter of these bond forms thinks that the onerous terms protect the public interest, they, in fact, do just the opposite.

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