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
