MDC POWERS AND PROCUREMENT

You asked for a brief description of the power of the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) and the provisions of its charter and ordinances governing its procurements. The district's charter and ordinances are available at http: //www. themdc. com/admin. htm.

The MDC is a non-profit municipal corporation chartered by the legislature in 1929 to provide potable water and sewerage services in the Hartford area. MDC's charter allows the district to:

1. create, maintain, improve, and operate a water system;

2. impound water in and outside of the district's territorial limits;

3. transport water and sell it at retail;

4. build, maintain, and improve of sewers and sanitary systems and sewage disposal plants;

5. build, maintain, and improve public highways;

6. collect and dispose of garbage and refuse;

7. build, maintain, improve, and operate hydroelectric dams in and outside the district;

8. transmit, distribute the power produced by these dams to electric utilities or municipalities;

9. establish and maintain active recreational and educational facilities, including a public golf course managed on a for-profit basis (although these powers only apply to non-reservoir lands in Glastonbury and Manchester);

10. take property by eminent domain;

11. enter into interlocal agreements with municipalities; and

12. exercise a variety of financial powers, including assessing and collecting taxes, borrowing money and pledging the district's credit, issuing bonds, and assessing benefits and damages in the layout of any public improvement.

In addition to these powers, the district has the same statutory powers as a municipality.

MDC currently provides water supply, water pollution control, mapping, and household hazardous waste collection to Bloomfield, East Hartford, Hartford, Newington, Rocky Hill, West Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor (the member towns), and to parts of eight other towns in the Hartford area. It also handles, under contract to the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, waste transportation and processing operations associated with the Mid-Connecticut Project, a trash-to-energy facility serving more than 65 Connecticut municipalities.

Sec. 2-16 of the charter requires MDC to use competitive bidding for (1) any work needed to execute public works or improvements or (2) any supplies for the district, if the works or supplies involve the expenditure of more than $ 10,000, except in an emergency as determined by the district's board. Under Section G-8A of the district's ordinances, MDC must use competitive bidding for supplies, materials, equipment, and contractual services. The requirement applies to the same types of goods and services that are subject to competitive bidding when purchased by the state (cf. CGS § 4a-57).


January 18, 2007		2007-R-0082
MDC POWERS AND PROCUREMENT

By: Kevin E. McCarthy, Principal Analyst