Pennsylvania Statutes Title 53 P.S. Municipal and Quasi-Municipal Corporations § 53203. Evasion of advertising requirements

(a) No member or members of council shall evade the provisions of section 2   1 by purchasing or contracting for services and personal properties piecemeal for the purpose of obtaining prices under the base amount of eighteen thousand five hundred dollars, subject to adjustment under section 2.1,  2 upon transactions which transaction should, in the exercise of reasonable discretion and prudence, be conducted as one transaction amounting to the base amount of more than eighteen thousand five hundred dollars, subject to adjustment under section 2.1.  This provision is intended to make unlawful the evading of advertising requirements by making a series of purchases or contracts each for less than the advertising requirement of price, or by making several simultaneous purchases or contracts each below said price, when, in either case, the transactions involved should have been made as one transaction for one price.  Any members of council who so vote in violation of this provision and who know that the transaction upon which they so vote is or ought to be a part of a larger transaction and that it is being divided in order to evade the requirements as to advertising for bids shall be jointly and severally subject to surcharge for ten per centum of the full amount of the contract or purchase.

(b) Whenever it shall appear that a member of council may have voted in violation of this section but the purchase or contract on which he so voted was not approved by council, this section shall be inapplicable.

(c) Any council member who votes to unlawfully evade the provisions of section 2 and who knows that the transaction upon which he so votes is or ought to be a part of a larger transaction and that it is being divided in order to evade the requirements as to advertising for bids commits a misdemeanor of the third degree for each contract entered into as a direct result of that vote.  This penalty shall be in addition to any surcharge which may be assessed pursuant to subsection (a).