On December 11th, I was pleased to attend the CREATE awards luncheon along with Donald Blackburn and hand out our scholarship to this year’s winner, Ariya Vaishnavi, from Folsom High School. Ariya has a 4.2 GPA and is planning to pursue an engineering degree in either the CSU or UC system. Your Chapter has been supporting CREATE for the past three years and I have also been serving as a mentor. The CREATE (Construction, Re-Development, Engineering, Architecture, Trades, Education) program is run by the Construction Industry Education Foundation in partnership with the Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange.

The goal of CREATE is to “educate and inspire students to pursue pathways which create the built environment.” This program includes over 75 high schools all over California and over 10,000 students have participated since its inception.  The program pairs mentors from the design and construction industry with high school junior and senior students to complete a semester students to complete a semester long project that includes planning and design. Each class had a semester-long project that included site design, drainage and water quality, parking layout, utilities, landscaping, ADA requirements, sketches, calculations, RFIs, and cost estimating.

We met with the students weekly and provided guidance on the planning and design process. At the end of semester each group competes against other schools in the region. In previous years I was assigned to Whitney High School and Granite Bay High School and this semester I mentored students at Rio Americano High School. I can definitely say that I found this experience rewarding.  Helping young people learn more about our profession is just one way we can give back to all of the mentors that have influenced each of our careers.

By Erik Fanselau, President

We are happy to announce that the Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship, now in its 13th year, has awarded two more $5,000 scholarships! This year’s winners are Emma Docto from Sac State and Mason Koyama from UOP. Congratulations to both of them!

The Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship was established in 2011 after the untimely passing of Tim Fleming in 2010. Tim was a Sierra Chapter Past President and served many years on the board. He was a graduate of the University of the Pacific and Stanford University and served our industry tirelessly as a leader and colleague. This scholarship honors his legacy and reminds us all that life is precious.

Emma and Mason will receive their scholarship checks at our ACEC Sierra Chapter Past President’s Dinner to be held on February 21^st, 2024.

The Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship is administered by the California Transportation Foundation (CTF) and is open to Junior, Senior and Graduate Civil Engineering/Transportation majors at California State University Sacramento, University of California Davis, and the University of the Pacific. Want more information? Contact Marco Palilla at Marco.Palilla@hdrinc.com

By Marco Palilla, Director

New Affiliate Membership Program

Our new Affiliate Membership is available to non-professional service companies such as vendors and contractors.  Please let us know if you would like to find out more information.  Please contact Donald Blackburn 530-305-0686 or donaldb@blackburnconsulting.com for more information.

Did you know that individual members that help to bring a new state ACEC California member can take advantage of the Member-Get-a-Member Recruitment Program that entitles recruiters to a $100 VISA Gift Card? If you know a firm that may be interested in joining ACEC California, please reach out to Donald Blackburn, donaldb@blackburnconsulting.com.

One of ACEC’s most important missions is fighting for our industry and member firms at the local, state, and federal levels. At the state level, most of our lobbying effort focuses on defense against bills that negatively affect us, our industry, and our clients and support for bills that are beneficial to our businesses. We strategically partner with business group allies and a wide range of special interest groups to magnify our influence. Historically, we are often at odds with public unions that seek to protect and expand their membership and frequently align with some contractor groups that seek to fund and facilitate construction. Recognizing the political realities of opposition alliances and the challenges of capturing the attention of legislators for complex bills that directly affect a relatively small number of constituents, we are selective in the bills that we sponsor ourselves. With that in mind, I am pleased to share with you that as a direct result of dedicated effort at the state level over the past eight years, ACEC’s sponsored bill, AB 334, was signed into law by the governor on September 30^th, and will take effect on January 1, 2024. This bill addresses language in Government Code 1090 that, in some cases, precluded consultants that participated in earlier phases of a project from proposing on subsequent phases. This new bill allows public agencies more freedom in determining their own contracting decisions without fear of conflict of interest disputes.  It also grants safe harbor protections against criminal, civil, and administrative enforcement to those that follow it. As a result, it will expand the contracting opportunities for our members. Many thanks to ACEC California’s Director of Government of Affairs, Tyler Munzing, and his team for this win for our industry.

By Erik Fanselau, President

Please join us for our next dinner meeting on November 15^th.  Our featured speaker will be Maria Lehman, PE, ENV SP, F.ASCE,  ASCE national past-president and Infrastructure Market Leader for GHD.  She previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Acting Executive Director of the New York State Thruway Authority and Commissioner of Public Works for Erie County, NY.  Maria has over 40 years of multi-discipline experience in both the public and private sectors. Maria will be speaking to us about national infrastructure policy and priorities.  In today’s unstable political climate, infrastructure spending has never been more important.  You won’t want to miss it!

By Erik Fanselau, President