Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, February 4th for ACEC-California’s 2014 Legislative Visit Day. This is our opportunity to meet with state legislators (Assembly and Senate) and promote our consulting engineer and land surveying agenda. Most of you already know what that agenda is: i.e. improved indemnification, infrastructure funding, contracting out, QBS, alternative delivery, etc., but it is this day when our members from all over California converge on the Capitol and talk with one voice. Whether you are awed or dismayed by the political process in California, you will not be disappointed in this event. I have personally attended many and believe it is the single most important thing we can do for our industry as professionals and business leaders. In most cases the legislators are glad to hear our talking points and appreciate our effort. But not always.

We also recognize the ACEC “Legislator of the Year” during a luncheon in their honor. This year’s winner is Assembly Member Connie Conway from the 26th Assembly District (Visalia). The luncheon is held at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento.

In conjunction with Legislative Visit Day, ACEC also schedules a Board of Directors Meeting and the Engineering Excellence Awards banquet, which are held on Monday, February 3rd (also at the Hyatt Regency). A flyer is included with this newsletter.

So, don’t be a spectator and wait for others to improve the business climate in California, be an advocate for change and attend ACEC Legislative Visit Day in February!

The November meeting speaker was John Kingsbury, Executive Director of Mountain Counties Water Resources Association. The Mountain Counties Water Resources Association advocates for the water interests of its members in all or a portion of 15 of the 58 California counties from the southern tip of Lassen County south to Fresno.

John gave a useful summary of current water issues relevant to our specific area and to the State as a whole including:

• Water Bond status and prospects for implementation
• Projects likely to come out of the current or revised Water Bond
• State of the Mountain Counties Water Agencies – region-wide issues and needs.
• Bay Delta Water issues and how the current plan may affect local water rights and uses

John noted that there are currently multiple possible versions of a Water Bond that are being carried by various state legislators. He speculated as to which ones are most likely to emerge and which principles are common that might survive.

John spoke as a vigorous advocate of the Mountain Counties water agencies and summarized a few of the key issues such as area of origin water rights, water conservation issues and how they should rightly be applied to headwater purveyors, and forest management. He noted that consistent advocacy by the Mountain Counties agencies and their associated interests is required to defend the small population areas from the interests of the large population centers in the state.

Most of the time was spent explaining and discussing the Bay Delta issues and illuminating some of the most pressing issues as they are viewed by the Mountain Counties. He summarized likely timelines for the current plans as well as positions that the Mountain Counties Water Resources Association and its member agencies are likely to take with respect to the Bay Delta issues.

The presentation was a great overview of current events that will help those that attended to be better educated and more conversant on the issues that are critical to our clients.

Our annual joint meeting with the Sacramento Chapter of APWA is right around the corner and always draws a big crowd. This years meeting should carry on that tradition with Assemblyman Roger Dickinson as our special guest.

Assemblyman Roger Dickinson represents the people of the 7th District, which includes most of the Cities of Sacramento and West Sacramento. Prior to his election to the Assembly, Dickinson served on the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors beginning in a special election in January 1994, and was subsequently re-elected to four four-year terms, serving through 2010.

Assemblymember Dickinson received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley where he lettered in varsity basketball and afterward earned a law degree at UCLA in 1976. He spent seven and a half years with the California Department of Consumer Affairs. In private practice, he helped to form the firm of Kemnitzer, Dickinson, Anderson & Barron emphasizing automobile warranty law and sales misrepresentation cases. He has litigated cases up to the California Supreme Court.

Assemblymember Dickinson serves as Chair of the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee. He also serves on the Assembly Budget Committee, the Assembly Budget Subcommittee #1 on Health and Human Services, the Assembly Judiciary Committee, and the Assembly Business, Professions and Consumer Protection Committee. As a legislator, Dickinson has focused on issues related to environmental quality, education, health and human services for children and families, economic development, and consumer protection.

Roger lives with his wife, Marj, in the Woodlake neighborhood where they have owned a home for more than 30 years. Join ACEC and APWA members on Friday, January 10th to hear the latest goings on in the California Assembly!

We had a great program at the November meeting. In addition to a great featured speaker, we had a short presentation by two attorneys from Collins Collins Muir + Stewert on indemnification. Their 10-minute presentation covered recent court cases broadening the scope of indemnification and duty to defend, potential adverse impacts to your business, recent legislative efforts to limit duty to defend to claims arising out of negligence of the design professional, and the need for continued effort. Because of the importance of such issues to your business, I hope to have other business issue presentations at upcoming Sierra Chapter meetings.

Indemnification is just one example of the business issues that ACEC actively engages on to represent your interests. I am on the ACEC-CA Caltrans Liaison Committee, and issues that we have monitored or negotiated with Caltrans over the last two years include prevailing wage, subcontracting out, standard of care and conflict of interest clauses, travel and equipment reimbursement policies, and overhead rates, including Safe Harbor rates for firms that do not have the cost data for determination of an audited overhead rate. Progress can be slow, but the committee has made positive change.

Quality Based Selection (QBS) continues to be an issue needing vigilant monitoring. Even though the current QBS law has been in place since 1990, some agencies still occasionally issue solicitations to procure professional design services in a manner that does not comply with QBS law. For such solicitations that come to their attention, ACEC-CA responds with a letter to the agency about QBS law and how their solicitation is not in compliance, and follows up as necessary. In 2012 and 2013, eleven such QBS letters were issued to Sacramento and Bay Area cities, counties, and agencies. Many of the subject procurements were subsequently reissued in a manner complying with QBS law.

ACEC-CA does much to help ensure fairness in contracts and solicitations to our members but needs your help. If you receive an RFP/RFQ or contract that does not comply with current QBS, indemnification or other law, or you are unsure about its compliance, please contact me or ACEC-CA. Also, if you would like to hear a short presentation on a particularly business topic at one of our meetings in 2014, please let me know.

Hope to see you at our joint meeting with APWA in January!