P.R. Laws tit. 21, § 4651
In order to avoid conflicts of competence or jurisdiction, interference or duplication of efforts, services or expenses, the agencies of the central government shall maintain adequate communication with municipal governments and inform them of the plans, projects, programs and activities from their initial phase, that could be of interest to the municipality in order to achieve the coordination or integration of activities or operations with municipal plans.
Likewise, when any of the powers and duties conferred on the municipalities by this subtitle are also within the province of other public agencies, the central government may delegate full or partial execution of same to the municipality, subject to applicable laws and the provisions of this chapter. When such delegation is not possible, the municipal government and the public agency shall try to coordinate the corresponding activities or join together and provide the resources needed to execute and administer them in a joint or common manner.
In those cases where some public work is to be carried out in the municipality, whether under the legal authority of the municipality, a public agency or both, the corresponding agencies and municipal governments shall consult and coordinate the project in order to best serve the public interest. In order to achieve effective coordination, the agencies and municipalities, in their reciprocal relations, shall:
(a) Respect the legitimate exercise on the part of the agency and the municipality of the powers and responsibilities within their legal authority or jurisdiction and the results derived from them.
(b) Weigh the sum of public interest involved in their determinations and decisions.
(c) Provide information to each other about the steps taken and decisions made that are relevant to the proper execution of their respective duties and commitments.
(d) Provide, to the extent that their organic statutes allow, the necessary cooperation and assistance for the effective fulfillment of their respective duties.
Except where mandatory by virtue of any law, or regulations, adopted under such law, or where a contract of delegation of legal authority exists that is binding on the municipality, any economic, technical and administrative cooperation between the municipalities and public agencies, in local services as well as matters of common interest, shall be developed on a voluntary basis in the manner and under the conditions allowed by applicable laws and the resources of each.
For the purpose of granting the municipalities the opportunity to participate in the execution of capital works and improvements defrayed in whole or in part with funds proceeding from legislative appropriations or from any other source, every head of a public agency that has plans to execute a public work shall notify it in writing to the municipality in whose territorial limits the same shall be carried out from its initial planning phase and prior to submitting it for bid or to any other procedure for the contracting of its development or execution. The municipality shall have a term not greater than sixty (60) working days after receiving said notice to submit an offer to the pertinent public agency to execute the work through its own administration. In the cases in which the public agency requires or requests as a condition to consider the municipality’s offer that it prepare and presents the design, plan and any other similar documents of the work object of said offer, the public agency concerned shall reimburse said expenses, even when the offer to execute the work of the municipality is not accepted or favored.
Every head of public agency, including, but without it being understood as a limitation, the Electric Power Authority, the Aqueducts and Sewers Authority and the Highways Authority, among other public corporations, when contracting the execution of capital works or improvements and from the initial planning phase thereof, shall have the obligation to notify the municipality of the proposed construction, the cost and date of beginning the work, if said information is available. In the event the head of the agency or the director of the public corporation fails to comply with the duty imposed in this provision, the municipality may claim and collect from the agency or public corporation the payment of a sum equal to the amount of the construction fee as compensation and reimbursement for the damages and inconveniences caused by the omission or delay in the compliance of the duty to notify to the municipal government and the citizenry.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 14.001; Oct. 29, 1992, No. 84, § 88; Apr. [11], 2001, No. 17, § 1, eff. 30 days after Apr. 11, 2001.