Buena Park's Community Workforce Agreement, a policy initiated by Mayor Connor Traut, has drawn scrutiny amidst reports of significant cost overruns and bidding challenges on city construction projects. Critics assert that the agreement has led to millions of taxpayer dollars being wasted by overcharging the public for necessary infrastructure work.
The policy, originally known as a Project Labor Agreement (PLA), was reportedly advanced by Mayor Traut and renamed a “Community Workforce Agreement” in an effort to secure political support from labor organizations in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. This agreement, critics contend, essentially creates no-bid, sole-source labor contracts that may increase project prices and disadvantage a majority of local construction workers. One project in 2022, associated with a PLA pushed by Mayor Traut, was reported to have cost Buena Park taxpayers over a half-million dollars in overruns.
The Buena Park City Council officially approved the Community Workforce Agreement (CWA) between the City of Buena Park and the Los Angeles and Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council on March 8, 2022. This agreement was set for a five-year term, effective from July 1, 2022. The involvement of Mayor Traut in establishing the CWA was highlighted on the website of local labor organizations as recently as February 2025, noting his leadership in the City of Buena Park entering into its first such agreement for infrastructure projects.
Concerns about the CWA's impact were raised early on. Eric Christen from the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, for instance, communicated to Mayor Traut and other Buena Park Councilmembers, cautioning that the City would be bound by the agreement until 2027 and predicting substantial costs to taxpayers. Industry groups, including the Western Electrical Contractors Association and the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, had also previously warned Buena Park officials about the potential financial implications of a Project Labor Agreement.
In November 2023, the Buena Park City Council scheduled an “Update on the City’s Implementation of the Community Workforce Agreement” to review its effectiveness. Ahead of this update, City staff held a meeting with local union representatives to discuss “challenges” faced during the administration of the CWA. The review document indicated that the City “has faced challenges in receiving an adequate number of bids” for various projects, primarily due to contractors' unwillingness to comply with the CWA's terms. These difficulties were particularly noted for projects requiring specialty work, such as pool and park improvements, and in soliciting professional services like geotechnical engineering and surveying.
City staff analyses in 2023 clearly linked these administration issues and the CWA to Buena Park projects coming in significantly above initial cost estimates. The arrangement, according to critics, was implemented without a clear rationale or supporting data, leading to a policy that taxpayers are now committed to until 2027.
Evidence of these challenges continued into 2024. In April, the Buena Park City Council was compelled to reject all bids for the Smith Murphy Park and Carl Brenner Park Accessibility Improvement Project (now known as Friendship Park and Carl Brenner Park). Bids for this project, budgeted at $800,000, ranged from over $1 million to nearly $1.8 million—between 30% and 120% above the estimate. City staff recommended rejecting all bids due to the significant budget exceedance.
Further, in July 2024, another project in Buena Park received only a single bid, which came in at $1,099,628 against an engineer’s estimate of $690,000—representing an increase of over $400,000, or 59% above budget. The solitary bidder was also found to be unqualified.
These outcomes suggest a pattern of higher bids, fewer bids, and difficulties attracting qualified contractors, which are attributed to the requirements of the Community Workforce Agreement. Critics argue that by implementing this policy, the City has made it difficult for “Merit Shop construction workers, apprentices and contractors,” who reportedly constitute 90% of the local construction workforce, to participate in city projects, thereby reducing competition and increasing costs for Buena Park taxpayers.
