Water System SCADA Upgrades Change Order No. 2

GML §103 requires competitive bidding for public works contracts above the statutory threshold. While deduct change orders are generally permissible administrative adjustments to an existing competitively bid contract, a material reduction in scope — particularly if it eliminates a significant line item — could raise questions about whether the original bid reflected the actual work performed, or whether the reduced scope should have been bid separately. The Board and counsel may wish to confirm that the deduct is within the normal range of contract administration and does not effectively rebid a portion of the work outside competitive procurement. Documentation of the reason for the deduct (e.g., deleted scope, unused allowances) would support this.

Village Law §4-412 governs the powers of the Board of Trustees and the extent to which authority may be delegated to the Mayor or other officers. The resolution authorizes the Mayor to sign the change order but does not specify any conditions or limits on that authorization (e.g., the revised contract amount). While this is common practice for change orders, adding the revised dollar amount to the RESOLVED clause would strengthen the record and confirm the Board authorized the specific financial adjustment. Counsel may wish to confirm this delegation is consistent with the Village's standard contracting practice.

OSC's Information Technology Governance guide notes that governing boards are responsible for oversight of IT internal controls, including access controls, physical controls, and contingency planning. SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems controlling water infrastructure represent a particularly sensitive category of operational technology. While the resolution itself is a routine deduct change order, the Board may wish to confirm — as part of its broader oversight role — that the completed or modified SCADA installation will be subject to appropriate cybersecurity controls (e.g., access restrictions, vendor agreements, incident response protocols). This is a best-practice consideration, not a defect in the resolution.

The RESOLVED clause approves a 'deduct change order' and authorizes the Mayor to sign but does not state the amount of the deduction or the resulting total contract value. While the change order document itself presumably contains these figures, a complete board resolution record would typically reflect the financial effect of the action being approved. This is a recordkeeping best practice: if the resolution is later reviewed by OSC auditors or in response to a GML §51 challenge, the absence of a dollar figure in the resolution may require referencing external documents to confirm the Board's authorization. Consider amending the resolution template to include the change order amount and revised contract total.