Doug Barnhart
Elected 89th President of the Associated General
Contractors of America
On Thursday March 13th, Doug Barnhart,
the Chairman of Barnhart, Inc. San Diego was elected the
89th President of the AGC of America. Doug is the
first member of the AGC of San Diego to be elected AGCA President.
AGC of America represents 32,000 contractors throughout the United
States that complete all facets of commercial construction for both
public and private entities including building, heavy, highway, and
municipal projects.
AGC operates in partnership with its nationwide
network of 96 Chapters that provide a full range of membership
services. AGC is considered the “voice of the construction
industry” not only in the White House, the US Senate and the
House of Representatives, but also in the regulatory agencies that
are based in Washington DC. In addition, AGC Chapters are
influential advocates of the construction industry in each and every
state in the union.
As AGC President, Doug will lead a staff of 70
professionals in the AGCA office in Washington that includes 11 full
time staff members that represent the AGC on Capitol Hill.
Barnhart, Inc.
recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Doug
has been active in the AGC since 1986, and served as the AGC San
Diego President in 1994. He also served as the Chair of the AGC
Apprenticeship and Training Trust since its formation in 1988
until 2005. The Trust grew from an “idea” under Doug’s tenure to one
of the largest craft training programs on the West Coast. Doug has
also been active in numerous other AGC San Diego Committees
including the AGCSD Political Action
Committee, which was initially formed during his tenure as
AGCSD President.
At the national level, Doug served as the Chair of
the AGC’s Federal and Heavy Construction Division in
2000, and has also been a member of numerous AGC committees,
including the Corps of Engineers, Environmental, Human Resources,
and Legislative Action Committees.
During the AGCA convention in Las Vegas last week,
Doug addressed several thousand delegates during the Opening General
Session on Monday, as well as during the Closing Convention Session
on Thursday. His theme for the year is ”Let’s Build”….which
involves rallying the AGC membership, not only to continue building
the nation’s infrastructure, but also to build the industry’s
professionalism and influence. In addition, during his comments in
the closing convention session, President Barnhart called on all 96
AGC Chapters to become involved in a community service project in
their local areas that makes a difference.
AGC San Diego and AGC of California
hosted a reception for Doug and Nancy Barnhart immediately after the
installation ceremony on Thursday. The “San Diego” themed reception hosted over 400 AGC leaders from
throughout the nation, and nearly 100 members and guests from the
San Diego the trip to Las Vegas. The reception sponsors included:
= AON Construction Services
= Enterprise Fleet
Management
= Marks, Golia & Finch, LLP
= Willis
= Chubb & Sons
We thank all the sponsors and the AGC of California. It was an
outstanding event.
In addition, Greg Becker of Cement Cutting,
Inc. donated a surfboard that was specially made for
the event. The guests all signed the surfboard,
and it will be presented to President Barnhart later this week.
Finally, Congressman
Duncan Hunter, and his wife Lynn,
also attended and presented Doug a plaque from the US
House of Representative honoring
Doug’s election.
Other AGCA
Convention Highlights
By Jim Ryan , AGCSD Executive Vice President
The AGC San Diego membership distinguished itself
during the 89th AGC of America Convention in Las Vegas.
In addition to one of our own being elected AGCA’s 89th
President……the San Diego Chapter won the AGC of
America Diversity Award. This award is given annually to the
Chapter that does the most to encourage diversity in the industry.
The award is given by the AGCA’s Equal Business Access Committee
and included a $10,000 stipend to help the Chapter’s efforts.
Details of the award were included in last Monday’s MMQB. Please go
to www.agcsd.org to
review the article.
Four AGC San Diego member firms were presented the
AGCA’s prestigious Construction Safety Excellence Awards
(CSEA) during the awards ceremony on Wednesday of last week. For
the second time in the last five years, a chapter member firm won
the Grand CSEA Award, which signifies the
“best of the best” in this
national competition. An article detailing the awards follows.
AGC San Diego 2008 President John H. Daley Jr.
was asked to follow General Tommy Franks to the podium during the
AGCA Opening Convention Session on Monday and was given time to
explain the Rescue Task Force Backpack Program to several
thousand convention delegates in attendance. AGC Chapters from
across the country will now be donating to this effort that was
initiated in the San Diego Chapter. AGC San Diego Chapter members
donated 91 backpacks, and now chapters from the Western
United States and from around the country are joining in to make
sure our wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan have the basics
when they are in the hospitals after suffering wounds in the war.
President Barnhart announced during the convention
that 2006 AGCSD President Thomas L. Brown will serve
on the AGCA Executive Committee as one of 9 special
appointments that the President is allowed to make each year.
Twenty-one AGCA members serve on the AGCA Executive
Board each year.
Finally, two AGCSD member firms were honored for
winning AGCA Build America Awards during the Build America
Awards Ceremony on Thursday night. Soltek Pacific won
a Build America Award for the Naval Post Graduate School
Project in Monterey, California. Barnhart. Inc.
and all of the local contractors that helped with the project were
awarded Build America Merit Award for the Junior
Achievement “BizTown” project in San Diego.
So….AGC San Diego’s membership did distinguish
itself during the convention this year…..
-
a
member was elected President of the AGCA,
-
the
chapter won the Diversity Award,
-
our
2008 President addressed several thousand delegates concerning
the Rescue Task Force,
-
members won 4 CSEA awards and the Grand CSEA Award,
-
a
member was appointed to the AGCA Executive Committee,
-
and
two member firms won Build America Awards…..not bad!!!!!!
The AGCA Willis
Construction Safety Excellence Awards (CSEA) Program…..AGC San Diego
Members Continue the Chapter’s Outstanding CSEA Record
By Jim Ryan, AGCSD Executive Vice President
Nine years ago, the AGC of America’s Safety Committee
initiated a national contest called the Construction Safety
Excellence Awards (CSEA). Most national safety award programs are
designed to analyze only safety statistics and award solely based
upon these statistics. CSEA is designed to look much deeper into
the competitor’s safety programs. The committee created a
competition that looks at the competitor’s management commitment,
active employee participation, safety training, work site hazard
identification and control, and safety program innovation.
AGC San Diego’s outstanding Safety Committee
immediately recognized CSEA as a real safety motivator for AGCSD
member firms and worked diligently to encourage firms to excel
throughout the year in order to compete successfully at the national
level. During the nine years of the CSEA’s existence, no other
chapter has had the record of success in the CSEA competition
that the San Diego Chapter has had.
The competition is grueling. Each of the AGCA’s 96
Chapters hold a local competition. This year in San Diego, 35 firms
competed. The best locally are then submitted to the national
competition and examined by a select committee to move forward to
the national competition, which is held each year during the AGCA
Convention. From the hundreds of entries submitted from the local
competitions, only 40-45 firms are selected to compete at the
national competition.
During the national competition at the AGCA
Convention, each firm is required to interview before a select
committee of Safety professionals from government and industry.
This year the judges were:
Richard Wright, Army Corps of Engineers,
Washington, D.C.
Patrick J. Conroy, CCEST, Savoy, Illinois
Mark Elfrink, Anheuser Busch, St. Louis,
Missouri
Sherwood Kelly, Willis-Corroon Corp,
Nashville, Tennessee
Steven Witt, DOC, OSHA, Washington, D.C.
AGC San Diego had four member firms compete in Las
Vegas…only the AGC of St. Louis with 6 firms had more finalists.
Only 25 chapters of the 96 nationally had firms represented in the
competition at the convention…….obviously a very tough competition.
Barnhart Inc.
won the
Building Contractor division 700,001-1 million hours
worked
FCI Constructors, Inc.
won the
Highway Division 700,001-1 million hours worked
Erickson-Hall Construction
placed second in the
Municipal Division 100,001-300,000 hours
I.E. Pacific, Inc.
placed second in the
Building Division under 100,000 hours
In addition, there is a
Grand Award Winner selected
each year. This winner is a separate competition that includes only
the winners of each
category. The judges use a secret ballot system and select the firm
in their opinion that is the “best of
the best.” This year….(drum roll please…)
Barnhart, Inc.
was selected as the Grand Award Winner…
an
outstanding accomplishment !!!! Congratulations.
This is the second Grand Award Winner from San Diego.
Bergelectric won this award three years ago.
Again, I attribute much of the Chapter’s success in this competition
to the Chapter’s Safety Committee...they are a very active,
engaged group
that seems to have the affect of “raising the safety bar” for the
entire industry in San Diego.
Death, Taxes, and
Legislation
By Dave Ackerman, AGC’s Legislative Advocate
Like death and taxes, one other thing is certain –
the State Legislature will continue to legislate.
Many thought 2008 would be a quiet legislative year,
with the Legislature focusing on the monumental budget crisis,
seeking health care reform, and working toward an agreement on a
massive water bond for the November ballot. These are big issues
that should dominate the legislative schedule.
But remember, legislators are elected to legislate –
and legislate they do.
For 2008, the Legislature has introduced 2,682 bills
and other legislative measures. Normally, about 10% of the
legislation has a direct or indirect impact on the construction
industry, but this year for some reason, the number is up, with your
lobbyists identifying 558 bills. So just what is it they want to do
for us – or to us?
It is hard to imagine that all these new proposed
laws are vitally necessary – especially since the Governor signed
nearly 1,000 bills into law that took effect just last January 1st.
But someone, whether it is a legislator, a constituent, or a
“special interest”, is passionate and very supportive of these
proposals.
Here is a sampling of legislation introduced this
year that was reviewed by the AGC San Diego and AGC California
Legislative Committee at its March 3rd meeting (we
reported on some of these to you a couple of weeks ago):
First, the bills AGC is sponsoring or
co-sponsoring:
Limited Liability
Companies.
SB 1337 (Correa) would allow construction companies to
incorporate as LLC corporations and be licensed by the Contractors
State License Board.
Construction
Education. AB 456 (Cook)
would expedite allocation of construction management grants
administered by the Contractors State License Board.
Payment Bond Claims.
SB 1449 (Calderon) would require a
preliminary notice for the filing of a payment bond claim.
“Green mail”
prohibition. SB 1631 (Ackerman)
would make it illegal to threaten or to file an environmental
complaint with the intent to extract something of value from the
individual seeking a permit.
Plan and
specifications warranty. AB 983 (Ma)
would allow a contractor to demand a change order resulting from
faulty plans and specs furnished by a public agency.
Prevailing Wage
Claims. SB 1352 (Wyland)
would protect a contractor from having to pay disputed wages and
penalties before being granted a hearing.
Second, other legislation of interest:
Transportation
Finance. AB 3021 (Nava)
would create the California Transportation Financing Authority with
the authority to issue revenue bonds for the construction of
transportation facilities.
Local Sales Tax.
ACA 10 (Feuer) would lower the vote
required to approve local option sales taxes for transportation from
66.6% to 55%.
Construction Managers.
SB 355 (Margett) will require a
construction manager who supervises work to possess a contractor’s
license.
Green Buildings.
AB 2030 (Lieu)
would require all new commercial buildings to be “zero net energy”
buildings by January 1, 2030.
Design-Build.
AB 642 (Wolk) gives all cities and special
districts in California design-build authority.
Design-Assist.
AB 2551 (Furutani) would create a new
design-assist public works procurement process where the public
agency retains the design firm.
Public Private
Partnerships. AB 1261 (Cabalerro)
authorizes local public works projects to be undertaken using public
private partnerships using private capital for financing.
Water Permeable
Pavement. AB 2013 (Kerkorian)
would require all paved surfaces in shopping centers and office
complexes to be of water permeable paving material.
Attorney Fees.
AB 2002 (De Leon) would award public
agencies attorney fees to cover their withhold of contract payments.
Payment Bonds.
AB 3024 (Duvall)
would eliminate the requirement for payment bonds on Caltrans
projects of $100,000 or less.
Mechanics Liens.
SB 1691 (Lowenthal) is a 200 page bill
that makes changes to the mechanics lien law as recommended by the
Constitutional Revision Commission.
Paid Sick Leave.
AB 2176 (Ma) would require an employer to
provide paid sick leave to any employee who has worked more than
seven or more days in a year.
Electrical
Certification. SB 1362 (Margett)
provides that a contractor who employs a person performing work as
an electrician without proper certification would be subject to
fines by the Contractors State License Board.
Independent
Contractors. SB 1583 (Corbett)
provides that anyone who advises another person to treat an
individual as an independent contractor to avoid employee status
shall be jointly and severally liable.
Meal & Rest Periods.
SB 1539 (Calderon) would give flexibility
to the construction and other industries to comply with meal and
rest period requirements.
Career/Technical
Education. AB 876 (Davis)
would require the University of California and California State
University to recognize career technical education coursework for
admissions criteria.
Undocumented Workers.
AB 2089(DeVore)
would prohibit state agencies from awarding any contract to a bidder
that hires an undocumented worker.
For further information on these or any other
legislation, please contact the AGC Legislative Office in Sacramento
at (916) 444-9601, or e-mail Dave Ackerman at
dackerman@theapexgroup.net.
Government
Relations and PAC Committee Meetings on March 26
If you want to hear more
about the legislative session described above, participate in the
process of creating our 2008 Legislative and Policy Positions, and
discuss a number of local, state, and national issues related to the
construction industry, please attend the next Government
Relations Committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday, March 26
from 10 – 11:30 AM.
Immediately following the
Government Relations Committee will be the Political Action
Committee (PAC). Many of the local and state contested races
and potential ballot measures will be reviewed.
Fundraising opportunities will be addressed, and AGC's PAC
fundraising efforts for 2008 and beyond will be discussed.
It is an election year, so
this is a great time to participate in the political process. We
hope you will consider attending the Government Relations and/or PAC
Committee meetings on March 26. Please contact Brad Barnum, AGC’s
Vice President Government Relations, if you would like to attend.
San Diego
Construction EXPO2008… March 29… Mark Your Calendars!
The San Diego Construction EXPO2008
is right around the corner… Saturday, March 29 from 8:30 a.m. to
2:30 p.m. at Qualcomm Stadium! Construction EXPO has been the
place where many of San Diego's finest construction companies and
suppliers showcase the latest products and technologies, offer
services, recruit new employees, and network. It's an exciting day
for the industry, and anyone interested in joining the industry.
For more information
about EXPO2008, please go to
http://www.expo4construction.com/,
call 619-955-6879, or e-mail Mike Caples at
mcaples@contractor-news.com.
Let’s not forget the
highly successful “Expo under the Stars,” sponsored by
ABD Insurance Services.…a huge industry-networking mixer for
ALL San Diego
construction industry trade association’s members! It will be held
on Friday, March 28, from 5-8 PM, and guests can enjoy
complimentary food, beer, wine and entertainment under the stars at
the expo site at the “Q”.
You must be an expo
exhibitor or belong to a trade association to attend Expo under the
Stars! Registration is
required…go to
www.expo4construction.com/mixer
to signup.
The AGC Spring Golf
Tournament- Monday, May 12 – Wait List Only
As we have indicated on Thursday, March 26, the AGC
Golf Tournament is completely sold out.
We do have a waiting list started, so members can
still send in their registration forms (call Rae). Keep in mind that
the tournament is 8 weeks away and plans can very well change by
then. If a cancellation comes in, we will go to the waiting list to
fill the open spots.
Members who would like to contribute a raffle
prize or donate to the raffle prize
fund can complete the
raffle form.
Sponsor names will be announced during the raffle prize
drawing at the dinner banquet after golf. We suggest to those that
are contributing an actual prize to attach your business card to the
item. This will remind the winners of your generosity.
Contact Rae Krushensky at 858-731-8157 or at
raek@agcsd.org with any questions.
Special thanks to Casper Company,
Rossin Steel, Inc. and Marks, Golia & Finch, LLP as our Major
Sponsors!
iSqFt
“Subcontractor” Seminar – April 2nd
iSqFt and the AGC San Diego Chapter will be holding a
network information sessions in support of commercial general
contractors in the San Diego area who utilize the iSqFt Private
Construction Office to distribute their bid invites, host their
project documents, and communicate with bidders about their upcoming
projects.
The luncheon, sponsored by the
AGC – San Diego
Chapter and iSqFt,
is scheduled for Wednesday,
April 2nd from
11:00 am until 12:30 pm at
the AGC office, located at 6212 Ferris Square, San Diego, CA 92121.
An additional session will be held on
Thursday, April 3rd from 4:30 pm until 6:30 pm
at the Pala Casino Spa & Resort, located at 11154 Highway 76,
Pala, CA 92059.
Both sessions are
FREE to attend. To RSVP,
please complete the
registration form, or contact
Jessica Kovack, AGC, at 858-874-8560 ext. 11,
jessica@agcsd.org, or call
iSqFt directly at 1-800-364-2059 and select option 3.
REGISTRATION FORM
(CLICK HERE)
Calendar of Upcoming AGC Safety and Education Classes
Please note:
***** Please register on-line for classes ******
Go to our website at
www.agcsd.org and click onto Calendar for either
Construction Education Classes or
Safety Training.
March 18 -
Project Management – 3:00 p.m.
March 19 – Confined
Space Training – 6:45 a.m.
March 19 – Prevailing
Wage – 9:30 a.m.
March 20 – Financial
Management Workshop – 11:00 a.m.
March 25-26- CQM-
7:30 a.m.
March 25- Excel
-8:00 a.m.
March 26- 27 –
Timberline – 7:30 a.m.
March 26- CPR/First
Aid Training – 8:00 a.m.
Upcoming AGC Committee/Council Meetings
All
meetings at AGC unless indicated otherwise
March
March 18 – Education & Training
Committee meeting- 11:30 a.m.
March 26– Government Relations
Committee meeting – 10:00 a.m.
March 26 – PAC Committee
meeting – 11:30 a.m.
March 28 – Technology Trends in
Construction meeting – 7:00 a.m.
If you are interested in signing up for a committee,
CLICK HERE
Looking Ahead…Upcoming AGC Events
UPCOMING AGC EVENTS
2008 AGC Events
Spring
Conference in Cabo San Lucas,
Mexico – April 17-20, 2008 –
Click here for brochure
May 12- Spring Golf
June 10- Baseball Bash
July 18- Day at the
Races
