At the January Board of Director’s meeting, the directors decided that the excellence awards ceremony would be a great way to welcome members back from the winter break.

The awards ceremony will be held in conjunction with the Chapter meeting on September 16, 2015.

Committee members (Jane Rozga, Landon Blake, Harvey Oslick, and Steve Greenfield) are developing a new schedule, but expect that applications will be due in late May or early June.

The award competition will honor local projects completed by Chapter members.  Public and private projects will be considered upon completion of every phase – planning, design, and/or construction as applicable.  Elements of projects completed by member firms, such as surveying, structural design, or construction management, will also be eligible.

Event sponsorship opportunities will be available. If you are interested in joining the committee to help recognize the cool work of Chapter members and plan an exciting event, contact Jane at Jane.Rozga@ch2m.com.

Please join us for Ken’s presentation on projects in Placer County.  Ken is the Director of Public Works for Placer County and also serves as the Executive Director of Placer County Flood Control & Water Conservation District.  Public Works includes Engineering, Road Maintenance, Transportation Planning, Floodplain Management, Stormwater Permitting, Transit Services and Fleet Services and involves an annual budget of over $90 million.  His area of responsibility extends from western Placer County to the Tahoe Basin.

Ken Grehm has held various engineering roles throughout his 25 year career including the Supervising Civil Engineer at the City of Sacramento’s Transportation Group.  In 2014, the American Public Works Association presented Ken with the well-deserved and prestigious Top Ten Public Works Leaders of the Year Award.

Happy New Year, Sierra Chapter members! I wish you and your firms a prosperous and productive 2015.

The Sierra Chapter has started the year with a bang, beginning with our very successful joint meeting with APWA on January 9, followed by the Statewide Engineering Excellence Awards held at the Hyatt in Sacramento on January 15. Both events were extremely well attended.

I was planning to prepare a “State of the Chapter” address for this month’s message, but an event of great significance to all ACEC‐CA members occurred last week which requires immediate attention. As many of you are aware, approximately a year ago, ACEC‐CA initiated a lawsuit which contended that AB40l contained language that violated Proposition 35. Proposition 35, passed 15 years ago, delegated local agencies the authority to procure all A&E services for all phases of public works projects. On January 16, ACEC‐CA’s lawsuit was rejected by the Superior Court judge reviewing the case. The judge concluded that the State Legislature has the authority to delegate the right to procure some of, or all A&E services, to Caltrans. Furthermore, the judge concluded that AB 401 does not violate Proposition 35. Specifically, the judge’s tentative ruling concluded:

“Proposition 35 did not remove the Legislature’s authority to delegate the decision as to whom should perform construction inspection services on design-build projects. AB 401 does not violate Proposition 35, or Article XXII, as a state entity is still given the authority to choose between utilizing civil service employees or consultants under contract. There is no requirement that such a decision must vest in a local entity, just that the decision must be made by a governmental entity.”

During a conference call on January 21, ACEC State Board and Chapter Directors were briefed on the ramifications of the ruling by the attorneys representing ACEC‐CA in the lawsuit. ACEC’s position is that they disagree with the judge’s ruling, and that ACEC will continue to be proponents of Design–Build and other alternative delivery methods. A special ACEC State Board of Directors meeting has been called on February 5 to address questions and concerns of member firms and to debate whether or not to appeal the judge’s ruling. The Board of Directors will vote on whether to appeal or not the following week.

A special meeting of the Sierra Chapter Board of Directors took place on January 30th, prior to the February 5th State Board Meeting, to discuss concerns of the Sierra Chapter member firms. As such, we ask that our members take time to educate themselves on the issue and to contact any of the Sierra Chapter Board members with questions or concerns so that we can present them at the State Board of Directors meeting on February 5. As your Board of Directors, we want to represent the needs of all of our member firms. Please feel free to contact me anytime to discuss the issues at hand. We will keep our members apprised of decisions made regarding the appeal process as information becomes available.

Again, Happy New Year!

Tom