Relating to the authority of a local government to enter into an interlocal contract with certain governmental entities to participate in water research or planning activities.

Contracts

• Indemnification Clauses: Standard Master Service Agreements (MSAs) must be amended. You will likely be asked to indemnify multiple government entities. Limit indemnification strictly to your negligence; reject broad-form indemnification for the entire joint venture.
• Payment Terms: Contracts must explicitly identify a "Lead Agency" responsible for payment. Do not accept "pay-when-paid" clauses where the Lead Agency waits for reimbursement from partner entities before paying your invoice.
• Scope Delineation: Contracts must be strictly limited to "research and planning." If scope creeps into construction (e.g., permanent infrastructure), the contract may fall outside this statutory authority and become voidable.

Hiring/Training

• Business Development: Train proposal teams to identify "Interlocal," "Joint," or "Regional" keywords in bid aggregators (e.g., CivCast, BidSync).
• Project Management: Project Managers must be trained to manage multi-stakeholder communication. A "client" is no longer a single City Engineer but potentially a committee of City, County, and State representatives.

Reporting & Record-Keeping

• Authority Verification: Before commencing work, obtain a copy of the executed Interlocal Agreement (ILA) between the government entities. You must verify that the paying agency has the legal authority to disburse funds for the non-paying partner.
• Insurance: Certificates of Insurance (COI) must list all participating government entities as Additional Insureds.

Fees & Costs

• Administrative Overhead: Expect higher administrative costs related to multi-party billing and complex insurance endorsements.
• No Statutory Fees: The bill does not impose new fees on the private sector.