We kicked off the new year with our always popular Joint ACEC/APWA lunch meeting on January 4th at the Dante Club. Our guest speaker was 6th District Assemblyman Kevin Kiley. This was also Stacey Lynch’s first meeting as the Sacramento Chapter’s APWA President. Stacey is with Bennett Engineering, and is the first APWA Father-Daughter Legacy President (Stacey’s father, Orin Bennett, was Chapter President in 1987!). Orin is also a Past President of WAELS in the 1980’s (the organization that predated both CELSOC and ACEC).
As always, the turnout was excellent with many Sierra Chapter members in attendance. President Debanik Chaudhuri sat at the head table with Stacey and others. Assemblyman Kiley showed up just in time for his presentation giving yours truly a minor panic attack during lunch.
Kiley made light of his challenges in the Assembly as a member of the superminority party where Republicans are far outnumbered, however, he pledged to work across the aisle as much as possible to achieve balanced legislation. Assemblyman Kiley wrapped up his presentation and then answered questions for the remainder of the lunch and was very frank and honest in his responses. And if he is not busy enough, Kiley is also kicking off his campaign for State Senate District 1. Past senators from District 1 include Ted Gaines, Dave Cox, Tim Leslie and John Doolittle.
As with past Joint Lunch events, this was a great program to kick off 2019!
