The ACEC-CA Board met for its quarterly meeting in July in Manhattan Beach after a morning session of New Leader Workshops. Highlights are summarized below. If you would like additional information on any of the items please feel free to contact any of the Sierra Chapter State Directors (Bob LoRusso, Marco Palilla, Ed Henderson, Steve Greenfield) or checkout the state website at www.acec-ca.org.

Our new State President John Moossazadeh led the meeting. After a brief reminder that the Chapter of the Year Award submissions will be due in October, John led a discussion regarding fundraising for Prop 32 – Stop Special Interest Money Now. Due to the importance of this proposition passing, the Board voted to send fundraising requests of $50/FTE to all member firms. Firms that are concerned about anonymity will be provided an option to donate without their firm being identified. More information on Prop 32 is summarized in an article in this newsletter.

The Board was updated on ACEC-CA’s positions on November’s propositions. In addition to supporting Prop 32, ACEC-CA has decided to oppose Propositions 30, 38, and 39 which are all tax measures. No positions were taken on the remaining propositions which were determined to not directly affect our industry.

The Board passed a resolution commending sponsoring agencies and participating firms for their involvement in the Presidio Parkway Public-Private Partnership (P3) project.

On the National ACEC front there has been some discussion of changing the dues structure to revenue based; however, this was rejected given concern over firms not wanting to disclose revenue information.

Statewide member firms’ FTE numbers are up 2 percent. Is this an inkling that we are crawling out of the recession?

The Legislative Action Committee gave an update on SB 975, a bill that would limit authority to license and regulate the practice of professions and vocations to the California Architects Board and the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists. Currently law allows for various boards, commissions, and bureaus to license which led to the QSD/QSP certification, which allows for non-registered engineers to prepare and implement Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPPs). ACEC-CA is in support of SB 975 and the bill is moving through the process with ongoing discussions happening with the Governor’s office to gain support.

John Zumwalt of the Sequoia Chapter was recognized for his decades long commitment on the Legislative Review Committee. John has spent countless hours reviewing reams upon reams of proposed bills looking for bills that would affect (positively or negatively) the engineering profession.

Finally, the Business Management & Insurance Committee reminded everyone that the Salary Surveys are complete and available for purchase on the ACEC-CA website.

Mr. Michael Mierzwa is a registered Civil Engineer in the State of California employed by the California Department of Water Resources as a flood policy advisor and assistant to the Deputy Director for Integrated Water Management. His specialization is the planning, design, and financing of large-scale water resources systems and real-time emergency operations. His current focus is assessing the public benefits associated with the development and implementation of water resources projects. He has worked with the Department for 13-years.

Within DWR’s Division of Flood Management’s FloodSAFE Program Management Office, he led the overall communications and outreach associated with the $4.9B FloodSAFE California Initiative. In addition to being responsible for coordination with external Federal, State, and local agencies and the general public, his role as the Division of Flood Management’s communications lead also includes coordinating and assisting all of the other programs and projects related to one of the Department of Water Resources largest efforts since the construction of the State Water Project in the 1960s and 70s. Starting in 2011 he was also placed in charge of all of the technical development associated with the 2012 Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (CVFPP) and the development of Department policy’s focused on quantifying the system-wide benefits associated with flood risk reduction projects and assessing the hydraulic impacts and risk transfer related to improvements of flood management facilities and operations.

Mr. Mierzwa will present information about how DWR has organized work related to the FloodSAFE Program and provide hints about future FloodSAFE efforts and how this fits in with the broader context of Integrated Water Management as well.

This November the voters of California will have an opportunity to make a significant difference in the political landscape of the state by voting YES on Proposition 32. ACEC California is supporting this important proposition and has asked all member firms to contribute to the campaign.

Each member firm should have received a request for donation (formatted to look like an invoice) in August. The suggested amount is $50 per FTE though many firms have chosen to donate more. In order to allow the campaign to make the best use of the funds, they need the donations as soon as possible. There are two options for donations: directly to the “Yes on 32” campaign (which will be a matter of public record), or to “Americans for Job Security” (which will allow the donation to remain anonymous).

The leadership of the ACEC Sierra Chapter has committed to contact every member firm in support of the YES on Proposition 32 campaign. The purpose of the contacts is to do the following: make sure that the donation request has been received, answer any questions that would remove barriers to donation, and encourage a generous donation.
The following information from the “Yes on 32” campaign is an overview of the purpose and goals of Proposition 32.

Removes special interest money from politics: Corporations and unions are spending millions of dollars in Sacramento. We need to cut off campaign contributions so politicians will pay attention to the voters instead of catering to the special interests.
Bans direct corporate and union contributions to candidates: Federal law has had this ban for over 100 years and many other states currently do as well. Proposition 32 favors contributions from individuals and constituents. If it had been in place in 2010, well over $35 million in corporate contributions would have been wiped out.

Prevents corporations from spreading their money across the entire state Legislature and maintaining control regardless of who is elected. According to the LA Times, AT&T has contributed to every single sitting state legislator and they’re not alone. During the 2010 elections, BSNF Rail spent $295,000, covering 75% of legislative races and PG&E spread $480,000 across 72% of races.

Bans contributions from government contractors to elected officials who control contracts awarded to them: The practice of “pay to play,” where contributors are rewarded by contracts occurs at all levels of government. Plain and simple, it’s a bribe and perception of corruption has no place in how tax dollars are spent.

Bans payroll deductions by corporations, unions, and government employers of money to be used for politics: Preserves every employee’s right to contribute to campaigns by means other than payroll deduction (for example, by check or by monthly debit from an account or credit card), but ensures that those contributions are voluntarily authorized by the employee in writing annually.

Assures that all political contributions are voluntary: Individual union members are free to directly support the candidate of their choice or contribute voluntarily to their union’s PAC. Employees of large corporations are free to directly support the candidate of their choice, or contribute voluntarily to the company’s PAC.

Implements reforms evenhandedly, applying each provision to both corporations and unions: These fair and simple reforms reduce the influence of special interests across the board. Read it for yourself.

For more information, please go to: www.YesProp32.com