On July 25-26, 2013, the ACEC Board of Directors met in San Diego at the Omni Hotel. Your Sierra Chapter members in attendance included Ted Hopkins, Harvey Oslick, Tom Blackburn, Eddie Kho, and myself. Below are the major highlights from the meeting:

1. Paul Meyer, our long time Executive Director announced his retirement. After 32 years of outstanding service to ACEC-California, Paul is stepping down in 2013 (he started in 1981). For most of us, Paul is the only Executive Director we have ever known, so this change is significant. Paul’s list of accomplishments is long and impressive (remember Prop 35?) so look for a tribute to his legacy in a future Sierra Chapter newsletter. As you would expect, Paul has offered to assist with the process to recruit and hire his successor (see more on this below).
2. President Bill Wagner updated the Board on ACEC-CA’s Strategic Planning Effort. On June 19-20, 2013, ExCom met in Sacramento for a “vision building” workshop to formulate a new organizational Purpose, Values and Goals. This included establishing “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” as well as a “Vivid Description” of what they want ACEC-CA to be in the future. Expect to see specific details on this planning effort in future ACEC-CA literature (e-mail blasts and announcements).
3. ACEC-CA Succession Planning. As mentioned above, Paul Meyer is retiring this year. Therefore, the Board is now in full blown recruitment mode. The plan will be to announce a new Executive Director in early 2014. A national search effort is currently underway. Our own Eddie Kho is assisting with the process (as a member of ExCom). Stay tuned for more on this process in the coming months.
4. New Policy Platforms. ACEC-CA is developing policy platforms to assist committee’s and members in explaining where we stand on key issues. Based on discussions at the Board Meeting, ACEC will develop and adopt policy platforms on Water, High-speed Rail, Infrastructure Funding, QBS and Contracting Out/Alternative Delivery.
5. New ACEC-CA Legislative Advocate. Kelly Garman was introduced to the Board in her new role as ACEC-CA Legislative Advocate. She comes to ACEC from the State Senate where she was Legislative Director to Senator Bob Huff. She will be working closely with ACEC staff and Grassroots Committee Chair Walt Plachta to continue our high level of involvement on all things political.
6. 2014 ACEC-CA Annual Conference. Mark your calendars now for next years Annual Conference to be held at the La Quinta Resort, La Quinta, California, April 6-10, 2014.

Mike Inamine is Executive Director of the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency (SBFCA). In this capacity, he leads an aggressive $312 million program to rehabilitate and improve 44 miles of levees in the Sutter Basin in California’s Central Valley. His 30 years of civil engineering and management experience encompasses the planning, design and construction of dams, reservoirs, canals, levees, hydraulic structures, fish facilities, and other civil engineering structures. Mr. Inamine formerly held key leadership positions for the California Department of Water Resources in the Executive, Flood Management, and Engineering Divisions. Mr. Inamine’s assignments included key roles in numerous flood emergencies and investigations, including program manager of the $350 million California Critical Repairs Program and the California Levee Evaluations Program, Construction Office Chief, and spokesperson on a variety of flood policy and technical issues.

Mike will present information about SBFCA’s Feather River West Levee Project (FRWLP), which will achieve 200-year protection for over 90,000 people living in and around the Sutter Basin communities of Biggs, Gridley, Live Oak, and Yuba City.   SBFCA’s plans also include 100-year protection for the rural southern portion of the Sutter Basin.  The levee system along the west bank of the Feather River dates back to before the 1900s and is vulnerable to underseepage and through seepage.  The first of a series of construction contracts to repair and improve 35 miles of levees began in July of this year, and will extend from Star Bend in the south (south of Yuba City) to Thermalito Afterbay (part of the Oroville Complex) in the north.  The project includes construction of slurry walls implemented under a risk-prioritized schedule, with construction expected to be completed by 2016. Mike’s presentation will also address the USACE Sutter Basin Feasibility Study, California Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (CVFPP), Feather River Regional Flood Management Plan and other associated design and construction opportunities.

Welcome back Sierra Chapter Members! I am the incoming Sierra Chapter President and look forward to making the 2013-2014 year a great one. I would like to first thank Steve Greenfield for the fantastic job he did as President last year. His shoes are large ones to fill. I hope to take the baton and continue with his momentum.

Many of the benefits of ACEC membership are delivered at the state level, such as legislative review, legislative action, QBS, affordable insurance, and liaison committees, to name a few. But the Chapter is where the rubber meets the road, and I believe that we cannot have a strong state organization without strong chapters with active and engaged members. My goal for the year is to strengthen the Chapter by increasing meeting turnout, bringing great speakers of relevance to your work and interests, to better convey ACEC-CA benefits to Chapter members, and to engage the members. I will be reaching out soon to member representatives of firms that seldom attend meetings or events to find out what they would like to see from the Chapter and how ACEC-CA and the Chapter can better meet their needs.

We already have some great speakers lined up for our meetings. To start the year off, our September speaker is Mike Inamine, the Executive Director of the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency, which is helping to lead the way in delivering better flood protection to the residents of the Sacramento Valley. Please note that this meeting is being held one week later than usual (on the 4th Wednesday instead of the 3rd). To change things up a little, we have decided to have a few of our meetings at lunch time. At our October meeting, we are planning to have the meeting on a Friday at or near a golf course, and encourage attendees to take advantage and both golf and network before or after the meeting. We have a local agency speaker on board, who will also be golfing.

I would not be able to accomplish my goal of strengthening the Chapter without strong support from the Board of Directors. I welcome and look forward to working with this incoming Board, which includes several new members. New Board members are Dana Remington and Landon Blake, who join returning Board members Paul Enneking, Chad Coleman, Mark Gilbert, Kelly Birkes, Harvey Oslick (Secretary/Treasurer), Tom Holdrege (Vice President), and your President. I also want to thank past Chapter President and long time, committed supporter, Marco Palilla, who will be stepping in as our Grassroots Chair. Without volunteers like these stepping forward at the Chapter level, ACEC-CA could not successfully deliver benefits to the industry that employs us and to which we have devoted our careers.
I look forward to seeing you at the September meeting.