Aloha! After enjoying a wonderful conference in Maui, the ACEC CA Board held its quarterly meeting as it’s last piece of official business at the conference. The following are some of the highlights. As always, if you would like more information or have any questions or comments, please can contact any of the Sierra Chapter State Directors (Bob LoRusso, Marco Palilla, Ed Henderson, Christopher Curtis) or visit ACECCA. org.

Thanks to our own Eddie Kho for a great job as ACEC President this year! ACEC’s incoming president will be John Moossazadeh.

Stop Special Interest Money (SSIM). This initiative would prevent corporations and unions from contributing directly to political candidates. It would additionally prevent direct paycheck deductions for political purposes (how the unions get all their money now). Donations can be made through “American’s for job security” (AJS) and are not subject to disclosure. See ACEC.org for more information on how to make donations.

ACEC National Report – Due to member organization resistance, dues will only increase 2.3% over the next year (which was 1/2 of original plan), with the balance to be met from organizational reserves. ACEC and Army Corps of Engineers have signed a partnering agreement. In addition, Army Corps of Engineers has stated they are more willing to contract out.

The Board approved a motion to adopt the Legislative Review committee’s bill position recommendations from their March meeting.

The Continuing Education committee will be switching on a trial period to webinars.

The Salary & Benefits Survey is now available for purchase. Go to ACEC-CA.org for more information. There is a call for project examples that have had procedural challenges getting Environmental Species Act compliance letters from USFWS when processing CLOMRs. Contact David Long of Brelje & Race (long@brce.com) for more information or to provide a project example.