The longstanding issue of allowing ...

The longstanding issue of allowing public agencies to contract not at home design work to private firms, which has flared principally recently in California, is about to take down a second round.

An attempt from a union of state-employed engineers to effectively bar the use of private firms by means of state and local agencies by the and of an amendment to the state constitution was handily defeated on voters last year.

However, this victory according to private A/E firms was simply partial. The state first Court ruled in 1977, in a suit by way of the union against the Department of Transportation, that, in subordination to the ...