Engineers Week
Week of February 21, 2016
Engineers Week
Week of February 21, 2016
Engineers Week
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Legislative Visit Day – Sacramento
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
General Meeting and Lunch Program
11:30am – 1:30pm
Hilton Hotel, Arden West
2200 Harvard Street, Sacramento, CA 95815
Register at: https://acec-ca-sierrachapterapril202016.eventbrite.com
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
General Meeting
11:30am—1:30pm
Speaker: Will Wong, City of Modesto, Utility Planning and Projects
https://acec-ca-sierrachapter-may2016luncheon.eventbrite.com
Elections for the 2016-2017 Sierra Chapter Officers and Board of Directors will be held during the May Chapter luncheon meeting.
We’re all busy, so I’ll keep my message relatively short this month!
Currently, the key ACEC-CA sponsored legislative action is SB 885 (Wolk), which intends to reform the “Duty to Defend.” If this becomes law, design professionals would only have the duty to defend claims that arise out of, or pertain or relate to, negligence, reckless, or willful misconduct of the design professional.
I’ll be attending the Duty to Defend Panel discussion on January 29th in San Diego. So, you can expect to hear more about this topic from ACEC-CA and me in the coming weeks. If this is an important issue to you, make sure you attend Legislative Visit Day on April 5th to explain it to your representatives.
The “current” event that has me irritated right now is the Flint, Michigan water crisis. It is absolutely mindboggling that decisions by public agencies and politicians could be so inept. Or, maybe it isn’t. Elected and appointed people make decisions on topics about which they have inadequate understanding all the time. This time, it resulted in lead poisoning of thousands of people, as well as tremendous amounts of damage to infrastructure and homes.
I could talk about failures due to inappropriate political action and lack of appropriate political action, but I’ll spare you the diatribe. We live in a democracy, so we need to consider the responsibilities of the voters who have been persuaded by catchy slogans to elect those who do not deserve their trust.
Please plan to attend our Chapter Past President’s Dinner on February 17th when we will not only recognize and honor our Past Presidents, but award the fifth annual Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship to Jasmeen Chahal of Sac State. The evening will also include guest speaker David Lichtman, Publisher of the Sacramento Business Journal. He has spent over three decades in media with a local stint in Radio as VP/General Manager of 96.9 The Eagle, 98 Rock, and if you remember it, KWOD. David has his finger on the pulse of business in Sacramento and will provide some valuable insights of what is on the horizon.
If you attended this event in the past, you know that we have many special guests representing the rich history of our Chapter. This is a meeting you will not want to miss as we award the next Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship and rub elbows with the people that created our Chapter’s tradition of excellence.