ACEC California’s sponsored Continuity of Services bill, AB 626 (Quirk-Silva), will be taken up again in January. Between now and then, it is critical to the bill’s success that we are able to get our public agency clients and state representatives on in support. This effort is being spearheaded by the Grassroots Committee, with a goal of each Chapter bringing on five or more public agencies in support, so stay tuned for future instruction from your Chapter’s Grassroots Chair (Marco Palilla).

I am pleased to announce that the City of Murrieta has added their support to AB 626. Great job, Riverside/San Bernardino and San Diego Chapters!

 How You Can Help:

1. Send a letter of support to Assemblywoman Quirk-Silva and your state legislators on behalf of your firm, if you haven’t already.

• Sample support letter from your firm to legislature

2. Request that your public agency clients send a letter to Assemblywoman Quirk-Silva supporting AB 626. The following documents may be helpful to your effort and should be shared with your agency contact(s):

• Sample support letter from client to legislature
• AB 626 background sheet
• Amendment language that will be inserted into the bill in December/January
• APWA California support letter

3. Whenever an RFP is issued by a public agency or in any pre-proposal meeting with a public agency, ask for an official response from the agency to the following: “If my firm performs these services, would we be eligible to propose for subsequent work on this project, or would that be considered a violation of Government Code 1090?”

4. Plan to schedule a meeting with your state representatives in their districts before the end of the year to discuss them supporting (or better yet, coauthoring) AB 626.

5. Let your Chapter’s Grassroots Chair know of any actions you take or how you can help with the above so that we can coordinate efforts.

Please email completed letters from design firms and public agencies alike to bpineda@acec-ca.org , and we will make sure they get into the right legislators’ hands. Don’t hesitate to contact me (tmunzing@acec-ca.org) if I can assist you in this effort or in any other way.