Tuesday, at our new quarterly General Membership Meeting, we were presented with a detailed presentation by Tanya Narath of the RCPA and Suzanne Smith of SCTA. Although it was free to our membership, we disappointingly only had 25 or so people participate. I can only speculate that all of our other members either: 1. already know what is coming down the road in California and the North Bay Area as to climate change driven transportation regulations, or 2. They don’t want to think about it.

If it is #2, I say THINK AGAIN.

California is progressing towards a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 80% by 2050. Some of the “tools” being utilized:

1. Outlawing gas and diesel car sales in California by 2035
2. Outlawing heavy duty trucks that use gas and diesel by 2045.
3. Outlawing off road vehicles and equipment by 2045
4. Saying “no” to any housing/transportation projects that add to “vehicle miles travelled.”
5. New house construction must not have gas, and ultimately, existing houses with gas appliances will be forced to convert to all electric.

Those four “tools” pretty much guarantee everyone in the State will be impacted in a big way in implementing the plan to reduce greenhouse gases. EVERYONE.

I won’t represent that I have read every word in the latest CALTRANS plan, but this recently completed plan was just submitted to Pete Buttigieg by Caltrans. You can read it by clicking on the link below–

California Transportation Plan 2050

What is most alarming? Based on Newsome’s executive order from 2020, he says all off road vehicles AND EQUIPMENT will have to be carbon neutral by 2045. For those of you who just spent a lot of money on CARB rules to get your fleet in compliance, doesn’t this sound like you will be asked to do it again in 20 years or so?

Not to mention that the technology is not even here yet to run our excavators and dozers on carbon neutral fuels.

Sigh.

What can we do about it? Stay “at the table” as much as possible, try to deflect/delay/mitigate draconian rules and rely instead on incentivizing suppliers and contractors to lower GHG emissions rather than accept mandatory “you must do this” types of rules that will be very expensive.

Many thanks to the Soiland Company and BoDean for sponsoring the meeting on Climate Change issues on Tuesday, and our Board liked the new quarterly GMM meeting format with great and topical speakers. We decided to do one in June on transportation and infrastructure funding coming to our companies. I am trying to line up Mike McGuire, David Rabbitt, Johannes Hoevertsz, and Suzanne Smith to discuss what funding is here, what is coming, and what our firms can expect for bidding opportunities. We decided the next quarterly meeting (probably in August) should be on CARB requirements for our off-road trucks and equipment. If you think you might wish to be the meeting sponsor for the June transportation and infrastructure funding GMM, please let me know right away-first in gets the prize!

So as sure as you know what runs downhill, California has some surprises for your firm as to dealing with climate change issues. Let’s be sitting at the table rather than be the meal others are eating!

That’s all folks!

John

From time to time, I have always thought it a good idea to “plug in to” a review of how to retain our key employees. Many of the ideas that are listed in retaining key employees can be utilized by the ECA to strive to retain our own ECA members! There are good lessons that we may already know in this article, but it does not hurt to refresh our minds!

Retaining key employees is critical to the long-term health and success of your business. Managers readily agree that keeping your best employees ensures customer satisfaction, increased product sales, satisfied, happy coworkers, and effective succession planning and historical and institutional organizational knowledge and learning.

Why Employee Retention Is Important

Employee retention matters. Failing to retain a key employee is costly to the bottom line and creates organizational issues such as insecure coworkers, excess job duties that coworkers must absorb, time invested in recruiting, hiring, and training a new employee.

According to Gallup:

• “The cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary — and that’s a conservative estimate.
• “So, a 100-person organization that provides an average salary of $50,000 could have turnover and replacement costs of approximately $660,000 to $2.6 million per year.”.¹

This is not only because of the lost revenues but also due to the fact that hiring and training a replacement is costly to your organization.

For your more senior positions, often the services of a headhunter are required which can cost your organization up to a third of the position’s annual salary. When these positions pay in excess of $150,000, this is a huge cost for your organization to absorb.

I know I wrestled with various ideas and efforts to engage our key employees at Kirkwood Bly, Inc. Some ideas worked pretty well; some fell a bit flat. We did attempt to do “Exit Interviews” and those are useful if conducted properly. How about doing “Stay Interviews”? Find out what keeps your employees staying at your firm and use that to cultivate your company culture and core values. Also-the work environment can be adjusted utilizing the information from Stay Interviews before it is too late, and a key employee has left to greener pastures. Develop and tweak the work environment to accommodate retaining those employees rather than doing a report on why a key employee went over to a competitor’s shop!

10 Tips:

1. Make certain employees know what is expected of them. Constantly changing expectations and putting modified work expectations on employees creates stress and uncertainty.
2. Make sure your managers are quality people. Most employees leave because of manager strife rather than the actual work. Managers and supervisors need to be very clear on the following causes for employees to leave:

• Lack of clarity about expectations
• Lack of clarity about earning potential
• Lack of feedback about performance
• Failure to hold scheduled meetings.
• Failure to provide a frameworkwithin which the employee perceives they can succeed.

3. Provide a means for an employee to speak freely within the organization. Solicit feedback. Listen. Feel free to criticize and work towards continuous improvement of the company, the manager, the culture and the employee.
4. Allow the employee to use their skills. This may have to be done outside of their specific job duties, but it will go a long way to motivation of that employee!
5. Provide methods of fairness and equity in compensation and promotion opportunities. Sounds simple, but sometimes friendships, family relationships, and personal opinion can trump good decisions on who gets what compensation and advancement opportunities.
6. Employees must have the right tools to do their jobs. If you are expecting an operator to produce 400 lf of ditch a day, make sure he or she has the right excavator for the conditions! Duh. Again, sounds simple, but isn’t.
7. Continuing education, seminars, and opportunities for the employee to grow are very important. Send them to additional exposure training. Let them learn and bring back ideas that might help your firm and that job production.
8. Meet with your employees periodically. Get to know them, what is bothering them, what is going well for them.
9. NEVER threaten an employee’s job or income. Even if layoffs are approaching, don’t say anything as it will make that employee nervous, and they will dust off their resume and start looking!
10. Make them feel appreciated. Bonuses and commissions are good!

If I had practiced what I just wrote about better, I might still be owner of a construction company. But I didn’t. I hope you all do these things on a regular basis and your company flourishes from your greatest asset-YOUR EMPLOYEES!

That’s all folks!

John

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Member Update

Windsor Material Recovery Facility was approved by the DTSC in a variance to receive treated wood waste at their Windsor facility. This went into effect yesterday. Windsor Material Recovery Facility

590 Caletti Ave, Windsor CA 95492, 707-838-2597

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Marin County News

College of Marin Honors! 

College of Marin is happy to announce its ranking as the #1 community college in California and #5 out of 839 community colleges nationwide!

To read the article (courtesy of North Bay Leadership Council), click on this link—

Marin County and San Anselmo Reject Changing Sir Francis Drake Blvd Name-courtesy of the Marin IJ, here is the story-link

Marin County Flood Control Work Affected by Voters Rejecting Tax Measure.

Marin County flood planners are headed back to the drawing board after a tax measure that would have helped pay for a $6 million Santa Venetia levee project failed by three votes.

The Marin County Department of Elections staff hand-counted the mail-in ballots for Measure A after the machine-counted initial returns last week came up about 0.4% shy of the two-thirds majority needed for approval.

Story from Marin IJ here–

Napa County News:

Bill Dodd Co Authors bill to help fire victims. Courtesy of the Napa Register, here is the story-link

Napa to Allow Micro Wineries to do Wine Tasting. Perhaps there is some private work opportunities from wineries that want to revamp their facilities to take advantage of upcoming changes. To read the article courtesy of the Napa Register, click on this link–

Where and When Do YOU Get Vaccinated?

In Sonoma County-To find out what your vaccination eligibility is, go to link

In Marin County- To find out what your vaccination eligibility is, go to link

In Napa County-go to – link

I Found This Article in the Marin IJ so interesting, I decided to use it here for my Soapbox. I will forego and editorial comment on this and just let the article speak for itself—-

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Sir Francis Drake Boulevard will be getting a new name in Fairfax.

The Town Council voted unanimously to change the name on Wednesday, breaking with Larkspur and Ross, which have opted to keep it. That means the road, which runs for more than 40 miles through Marin between the ocean and the bay, will have multiple names.

Fairfax has not yet chosen a new name for its 2-mile section of the boulevard.

The name change proposal surfaced last year amid the political climate of Black Lives Matter demonstrations and the death of George Floyd during an arrest by Minneapolis police. Critics said Drake’s name should not be on local landmarks because of his ties to slave trading and colonialism.

Many disagree. Some who favor keeping the name argue that Drake’s participation in slave trading isn’t what he is commemorated for. The 16th-century English explorer is thought to have arrived on Marin’s coast during a voyage around the world.

Drakes Beach and Drakes Bay, near where some historians believe his expedition made landfall in West Marin, are also named after the explorer. The name of Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo was changed last year to High School 1327 while school officials decide on a new moniker.

The boulevard got its name in 1929 at the urging of a Point Reyes business owner, according to local historian Dewey Livingston. The shopkeeper thought that branding the route with the well-known explorer’s name could boost tourism and commerce in West Marin.

“It’s been painful for me to bear witness to the divisions in the community related to this topic,” Fairfax Vice Mayor Stephanie Hellman said at the council meeting on Wednesday.

Fairfax Councilwoman Barbara Coler said she’s been driving on the road for more than 30 years and had never given much thought to its name until the proposal to change it began gaining steam.

It was just a name,” Coler said. “It meant nothing to me.”

Frank Egger, a former Fairfax mayor, told the council he was opposed to a name change because of the hassle and financial burden it would pose for people who live and own businesses on the boulevard. People will need new identifications, letterheads and other documents, he said.

“At a time when small businesses are struggling during the pandemic because of lost business, we should not be placing this additional burden on them,” Egger said.

Almost 650 parcels are situated along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, including 69 in Fairfax, and some of them contain multiple residences or businesses, according to a town report. Fairfax officials estimated that a name change will cost the town about $2,000 for new street signs.

Richard Applebaum, who lives in Fairfax, urged the council to take “a moral position, not a popular one.”

“For me, it’s very simple,” he said. “If there are a number of members of the community … that find that continued use of the name Sir Francis Drake is harmful, triggering, traumatic or upsetting, then it’s a moral issue.”

Several residents urged the council to consult with Coast Miwoks in choosing a new name for the street. Some said they favored a dual-naming approach, in which the boulevard would retain the Drake moniker but also have street signs representing the Coast Miwok.

“I vote to change the name of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard inside Fairfax town limits and center the Coast Miwok in the process of choosing the new name,” said Councilwoman Renee Goddard.

Each of the council members agreed that a new name should honor Native Americans. A process for selecting the name has not been established.

Sir Francis Drake Boulevard passes through five jurisdictions in Marin, and each local government is deciding whether to move forward with a name change for its portion of the road. In addition to the three that have already voted, San Anselmo and Marin County are also expected to decide by the end of the month.

Marin County supervisors are scheduled to consider a name change during an online meeting that begins at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. The San Anselmo Town Council will vote on the proposal in a virtual session at 7 p.m. that same day.

That’s all folks!

John

I have spent my entire adult life in the General Engineering Industry. I have been a union laborer, an estimator, a Project Engineer, Project Superintendent, and Project Manager. Invariably, paying for the best people, the best equipment, and having paid for a well-engineered project has always, always shown to be money well invested. It seems like whenever we did a “short cut” on an excavation, shoring, or prepping our right of way for a pipeline project, it cost more dollars in the long run. That is not an “absolute” as we all know we can tackle some small simple projects with a skeleton crew and a minimal amount of prep work as long as we do not get surprised when the hole is dug. But laying out and anticipating underground issues before you dig is always time investment well spent.

The knowledge gained from doing “short cuts” is what differentiates a seasoned, experienced worker from one that isn’t. That knowledge is invaluable as we all know. In many ways it differentiates your project from being a profitable one to one that you have to constantly go back and “fix” or modify long after the pipe is installed, or the road is constructed. I can go back on almost every sour job I was involved in and point to a “short cut” that led to most of the problems we later had to deal with. Not only are those problems expensive in the short term, but they also lead to “reputation problems” that will dog your firm well into the future. Whether you are negotiating with a new client, or working with a public works agency, word of past issues almost always comes up. If your reputation is that there will be no problems on your jobs, believe me that public agency has had that discussion in the back room with their own “seasoned vets” and your project will not be inspected the same as a project that has a “problem contractor” on it.

So how do we gain that institutional awareness in our key employees and how do we spread that institutional awareness throughout our company to our less experienced workers? That, my friends, is the $64,000 question-am I right? Every firm struggles with taking their best operator, their best laborer, and their best foreman, and spreading their skill around. But if you spread that guy or gal too thin, shortcuts in their ability to impart their knowledge crop up.

One of the reasons it is “worth it” to belong to the ECA is the ability to foster relationships and learn from each other. It is one of the reasons a rental company needs to belong to an ECA type organization so that learning and relationship building is always taking place. I am a strong supporter of all of you contractors being encouraged to do business with the rental companies that do belong to the ECA, that do support our industry in our events and in our every day working relationships. And those rental firms that don’t? Let them deal with the amateurs!

You will find equipment rental companies on our website. link. I urge you to do business with them, to share information with them, to learn from each other, and to continue to spread the institutional knowledge gleaned from those relationships throughout your firm. Your jobs will go smoother, your estimates will be more accurate, and you will have less problems. I have embedded a video that is long but you “gearheads” will enjoy it as I did. It is about an excavator “rescue” that was needed because the original contractor did short cuts, and the skill and efficiency of the rescue contractor and excavator operator is something special, in my mind. I will ruin the surprise for you all, and let you know that the “rescue” took 1 ½ hours and they got the excavator out without the laborers having to use a chain and drag it out! Watching a real professional at their craft was special for me! link

I would love to entertain videos and stories from all you guys that demonstrate how to avoid short cuts, and how to spread institutional knowledge that makes our crew better, improves our bottom line, and continues to enhance the reputation that ECA Members are more professional than others that do not belong to the organization! How about this crazy idea? The ECA and its membership produce videos on various aspects of design, permit application, sitework prep and considerations, safety videos, how to bolt a flanged valve to a tee, how to properly dig and shore an excavation, etc. etc. etc.  Those videos could be password protected to only allow ECA members to be able to access them, and firms could really have a set of tools that help build that institutional “know how” in a more efficient manner. What do you all think of that idea? Feedback welcome!

When the owner complains about your price which includes the training and expertise you have so carefully cultivated in your firm, you can always respond with

If You Think It’s Expensive to Hire a Professional to do a Job, Wait Until You Hire an Amateur!

That’s all folks!

John

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A Note On How ECA Posts Social Media

It has been asked how posts come to be on our ECA Facebook page. Some folks might think we lean one way or another to certain firms. The process is quite simple really-I read a lot of social media and newspapers and magazines and watch news articles. When content strikes me as interesting to other ECA members, I post it. If companies want me to consider posting their news on our FB page, I am happy to do it. Just please send me the content, or the link. I am happy to post!

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General Membership Meeting on March 16, 2021:

Our friends from RCPA and SCTA will be joining us for a spirited discussion on Climate Change issues and actions at our upcoming March 16 General Membership Meeting from 12-1:30pm. Thank you to Stony Point Rock Quarry and BoDean for sponsoring this GMM with such important information to get.  Watching what is happening in Texas and other states might erase any doubt that our climate issues are real and getting more extreme. Let’s all show up for this Zoom meeting on March 16 and learn. Thanks, BoDean and Soiland Company! Look for more info further down this newsletter.

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Ghilotti Construction News:

Congratulations to Brian Ongaro and Rich Dericco on their recent big promotions. Read the article here—

Early Announcement of the next GMM quarterly meeting to be held June 15, 2021:

Transportation and Infrastructure Funding from State, Regional and Local Outlooks– tentatively we will try to get State Senator Mike McGuire to discuss State funding, get David Rabbitt to discuss MTC Regional Funding, and get Johannes Hoervetz and Suzanne Smith to discuss Sonoma County local area infrastructure funding related to transportation. This meeting would be designed to be informative in order for companies to really understand what the “oxygen supply” of publicly funded infrastructure dollars look like from State, Regional and Local perspectives. If you are from Marin County or Napa County, do not worry, as I will ask Rabbitt to focus on MTC funding opportunities in the entire Region that will include your areas of interest. There should be something for everyone!

This is one you will not want to miss out on. Please let me know if you want to be one of, or the only, major sponsor of this event. Call me for details and opportunities. Please!

Where and When Do YOU Get Vaccinated?

In Sonoma County-To find out what your vaccination eligibility is, go to

www.SoCoEmergency.org/Vaccine

In Marin County- To find out what your vaccination eligibility is, go to

www.coronavirus.marinhhs.org

In Napa County-go to

www.Countyofnapa.org

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Marin County Housing News

The Marin County Board of Supes approved a pilot program to relax design restrictions on septic systems to create a way for 22 existing units to upgrade their disposal system. Proponents are saying that if this proves successful and cost feasible, it could lead to an increase in housing in Marin County areas that have been “off limits” due to septic systems being too restrictive to upgrade and low water supplies disallowing Affordable Dwelling Units from being established. To read more about this news, click here

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CARB Compliance

I expect all or you are up to speed on CARB compliance issues, but if you need to refresh your equipment manager/fleet manager on the rules, here is a handy link for CARB compliance

I am so proud to be urging people to “follow the money” when it comes to what good Measure M tax dollars have done for our community. And thanks to the voters in November, that good will be continued for another 20 years! Look-none of us like taxes but the ability to have a steady stream of funding for City roads, City sidewalks, City bike paths, and City pedestrian pathways is huge! Not only are the nine Sonoma County Cities benefiting from Measure M funded projects, obviously the County is a huge beneficiary as well.

I recall countless hours debating and discussing with folks that did not want to pass the “reformed” sales tax measure until such time as the existing Measure M expired in 2025. My debating point was that it takes a long time for an idea to get funded, which can lead to the design, which leads to land acquisition/easement right of way procurement, leading to permit issuance, and finally going to bid in segments. Construction is the last step, and the construction takes many years to get to. So, if we had waited, we would have a lag time of years in some cases where no construction takes place. This was a very nuanced argument that was always going to be difficult for the “layman” to understand that is not part of our industry. Getting that message across to voters was my job in 2020. I am very very proud that BoDean, Ghilotti Construction Company and others stepped up to fund our minimalist campaign and the voters got the positive message. We will be reaping the benefits of the Go Sonoma Act for decades to come!

We are all well aware of the Measure M tax dollars that have gone into the widening of Highway 101. That is the “sexy” part of the tax dollars. Those projects have provided great paying jobs for suppliers and contractors for many years as we get closer and closer to completing the widening of the Narrows and alleviating traffic bottlenecks that I remember quite well from 15 years ago or so. Some of the lesser-known projects impact people’s lives nearly as much. I decided to “toot our horn” a little bit from our successful backing of the Go Sonoma Act from last November and simply remind us that not all the tax dollars are going to Highway 101 widening. There are some smaller but vibrant projects that change our communities for the better as well. Sometimes the “seed money” comes from Measure M tax revenues and other funding sources then become viable (like grants, or private development dollars) and these projects get funded with only 50% or less coming directly from Measure M tax dollars. And keep in mind, that citizens of Sonoma County are not the only ones that pay those sales tax dollars-tourists happily “hoist that load” as they visit wine country and the Russian River area with their purchases of motels rooms, meals, cases of wine, etc.

Let’s remind ourselves how this sales tax thing can work to our advantage on smaller, community-based projects.

Case in point:

The Foss Creek pathway is a Class 1 (off -street) paved bike and pedestrian pathway. · On October 2, 2006 Healdsburg City Council adopted the Foss Creek Pathway Plan establishing the alignment and design standards for design of a multi-use path alongside the railroad (NCRA/SMART) from Front St. (Russian River) to the City’s northern limit. The plan broke the pathway in to 5 reaches. link

Construction has been complete for Phases 1 through 6 extending from the at-grade railroad crossing at Front Street near the west bank of the Russian River to the Carson Warner memorial Skatepark adjacent to Grove Street have been completed. Measure M has funded approximately $1,410,000 of the total $3,274,771 used in completing Phases 1-3 and 6. Phase 4 was completed by Sonoma County Transit and Phase 5 was completed by Private development.

On May 1, 2017 Healdsburg City Council approved a professional services agreement with Coastland Civil Engineers of Santa Rosa in the amount of $299,000 for the design of Foss Creek Pathway Phase 7 (Segments 7 and 8) · On June 17, 2019 Healdsburg City Council approved the project Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration and staff subsequently submitted applications for the required environmental permits (Regional Water Quality Control Board 401 Water Quality Certification, US Army Corps. 404, and California /Department of Fish and Wildlife 1602 Streambed Alteration) · On May 18, 2020 Healdsburg City Staff received 401 Water Quality Certification from the North Coast Water Quality Control Board completing the environmental permitting phase. Additional environmental permits received included a Streambed Alteration Agreement from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and 404 Clean Water Act authorization from the US Army Corps of Engineers. · On September 8, 2020 Healdsburg City Council awarded a construction contract in the amount of $2,631,649 to Rege Construction, Inc. of Cloverdale, CA. · A Notice to Proceed with Construction (Procurement of Materials only due to the onset of winter) was issued November 9, 2020.

While I wish Rege would join the ECA, I am happy that a local firm got the job, and that the pathway will continue to get built pursuant to the vision laid out in 2006. Yep-here we are issuing a contract for Phase 8 with Phase 9 to still come, and it is 15 years after the initial plan was approved. This goes to show you how long it takes to make a difference in the community and the length of time these projects can take.

Please click on this link to see the detail of this community pathway complete with aerial pictures and plan sheets. Courtesy of our friends at SCTA that shared this information with us at the last SCTA/RCPA Citizens Action Committee meeting last month. I am proud to serve on that committee as a “watchdog” to ensure our tax dollars are going to the right places and not being diverted. I urge you to utilize SCTA as an example of how proud we can be to “follow the money”. They do a great job and will continue to do so because you all helped pass the tax measure in November!

That’s all folks!

John

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General Membership Meeting on March 16, 2021:

Our friends from RCPA and SCTA will be joining us for a spirited discussion on Climate Change issues and actions at our upcoming March 16 General Membership Meeting from 12-1:30pm. Thank you to Stony Point Rock Quarry and BoDean for sponsoring this GMM with such important information to get.  Watching what is happening in Texas and other states might erase any doubt that our climate issues are real and getting more extreme. Let’s all show up for this Zoom meeting on March 16 and learn. Thanks, BoDean and Stony Point Rock! Look for more info further down this newsletter

The County continues to pat themselves on the back for their handling of the vaccine doses. Perhaps they deserve credit, but I will continue to scream out against Newsom and the way his people are handling the vaccine rollout. It seems most of the problem stems from confusing and contradictory and impossible announcements from Sacramento. Governor Newsom does not seem to be engaged in reality. With that said, is there anything we can do to help or speed up the process?

Not much.

There has been quite a bit of confusion regarding who can get vaccinated for COVID19 and when. In order to schedule a vaccination, and to try to clear up any confusion, there was a pretty good article in late January on the issue-click here for the PD article-

The frustration is nearly universal in the Bay Area. Companies doing essential work (like most of our ECA firms), want to get their employees vaccinated as soon as possible. In the ongoing (three this week alone!) Zoom meetings I participate in regarding vaccinations, the County sounds like a broken record: “we are not getting enough vaccinations, so we are allowing those at most risk to get vaccinated first. As we continue to move forward, your health providers might be your best bet to schedule vaccinations (Kaiser, Sutter, Memorial) while others are also getting vaccinations to administer (Walgreens, CVS, Safeway) and people are kind of left to fend for themselves when it comes to contacting these “third party” vaccine administering agencies. The County has their SoCoemergencyvaccine website that will frustratingly inform you that our essential workers are scheduled to get vaccinations sometime this summer or Fall.

President Josh Cleaver was not satisfied with this and directed me to contact the County and see if we can, at risk of bad publicity, pay for vaccinations and get them early. I have done so and there is a “glimmer” of hope along that avenue. I should hear back from the County on Monday (a Holiday) or Tuesday about securing 50-100 vaccination slots a week for our essential workers. If this happens, rest assured, I will come out with an email blast next week to inform you of such.

In the meantime, some people are going to great lengths to travel outside of the area to get vaccinated. To try and go out on your own to “beat the system” is tedious, frustrating, time consuming, and not at all certain of success. Again, the latest reporting on that issue is from the PD today and the article is right here-

The frustration is real. The danger of contracting COVID 19 is real. I am doing all that I can to work within and maybe even a bit outside, of the system to get our people vaccinated as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience-below are some websites that we have been including and perhaps there is some new information for you to assimilate in those announcements. Perhaps some of you can travel out of County or out of State and see how much less confusion exists there. I know I got in on Feb 1 and got my first dose and I go back on Feb 22 for my 2^nd dose. Easy.

We all want the same thing. We just want to have the message get out to local administrators that we want them to JUST SHOOT ME with the vaccine!!!

Perhaps they will soon.

That’s all folks!

John

Where and When Do YOU Get Vaccinated?

In Sonoma County-To find out what your vaccination eligibility is, go to

www.SoCoEmergency.org/Vaccine

In Marin County- To find out what your vaccination eligibility is, go to

www.coronavirus.marinhhs.org

In Napa County-go to

Coronavirus (COVID-19) | Napa County, CA (countyofnapa.org)

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CARB Compliance

I expect all or you are up to speed on CARB compliance issues, but if you need to refresh your equipment manager/fleet manager on the rules, here is a handy link for CARB compliance

There has been a lot of news in the Bay Area about the confusion, efficiencies, and hierarchy of who gets vaccinated first lately. From glitches in the software program allowing folks to make appointments that weren’t supposed to, to the slowness of getting the doses from the fridge to the arms of citizens. At the risk of pissing some people off, I am going to stray from typical ECA topics to muse on why I think our “progressive” policies are hurting us in the biggest pandemic crisis of the last century. I do this to consider this-if we cannot get our “you know what together” in this crisis, how well do you think socialized medicine will do in non-emergency situations? Although this is not ECA stuff as usual, it certainly affects all of us.

Let me start by qualifying this conversation by this: These opinions and observations are my own, I do not profess that these opinions speak for ECA membership at all.

I also want to share that I got my first vaccination shot several days ago in AZ, and the process of registering and getting stuck in the arm was efficient and timely. No confusion, no problems, made my appointment, got the shot, got the appointment for the 2^nd shot, and was on my way in about one-hour total time. I did this at a “mass site” with hundreds of other people going through the process 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This does not sound like the experience folks are having in the Northern Bay Area.

In doing my extensive research (lol), I tried to find where “progressive governments” are seeing success. I did not limit my extensive research to the USA. Europe’s efforts have deteriorated into “chaos” according to an article from France (Opinion | Europe’s Vaccine Rollout Has Descended Into Chaos – The New York Times (nytimes.com). The Netherlands is one of the worst having administered to only 2% of its population (compared to the United States at 8.4%). Canada, touted as a “model” of socialized medicine systems, is lagging far behind the USA at 3%. Some of the “success” stories are from Israel, United Arab Emirates, and Britain are doing better than anyone else (15% of their population have been vaccinated already). Strangely, they are all led by Conservatives. Coincidence?

Many of the progressive countries in Europe have taken a “ponderous and risk averse” approach to administering the vaccinations so as to not “offend” anybody. This has led to intricate rules of qualifying who gets vaccinated first and it has slowed administering the vaccine doses to a crawl.

Within the United States, Alaska and West Virginia are doing better than any other states in getting doses into arms. They seem to be taking a more “top-down” approach that relies less on intricate rules of who goes first, and more on getting all available vaccines into arms as fast as supplies allow. California and New York have by comparison, spent a lot of time and effort deciding who does not get to have the vaccinations first, and this approach has led to confusion, frustration, and in some cases, tossing out some vaccine doses that did not get administered in time.

The world has one new, and very high-profile, progressive government with a chance to show it can do better: the Biden administration.

The Trump administration fell far short of its own goal for vaccination speed, but by its final days it did get the country close to President Biden’s stated goal of 1 million shots per day. Biden has since suggested his new goal is 1.5 million per day.

To make this happen, the administration is pushing Moderna and Pfizer to accelerate production, as well as helping states open mass-vaccination clinics and expand drugstore programs, according to The Times’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg. If the government gives Johnson & Johnson permission to begin distributing its vaccine this month, as appears likely, that will help, too.

The trade-offs between equity and efficiency are real: Rapid vaccination programs will first reach many relatively privileged people. But the trade-offs may be smaller than that sentence suggests. COVID-19 has exacted a terribly unequal toll partly because people in vulnerable groups have suffered more severe versions of the disease, as a result of underlying health conditions.

The most effective way to save lives is probably to vaccinate people as quickly as possible.

In order to get as many vaccinated as quickly as possible, you just need to do that. This flies in the face of logic of the progressive administrations of Newsom and Cuomo (California and New York, respectively). They seem more intent on deciding if prisoners get vaccinated before assisted care residents, or teachers get vaccinated ahead of people aged 65-74.

My opinion, and I have zero qualifications to speak on this subject, is, IT DOESN’T MATTER WHO GETS IT FIRST!  You want to get to “herd immunity” as fast as possible, then get those doses in the arms of everyone as fast as possible. I have been trying for weeks to find out how many doses have been allocated to California, and from the State to the County of Sonoma, Marin, Napa, Lake and Mendo. These numbers seem to be as protected as the nuclear code! In the meantime, you see this week in Sonoma County that the Supervisors seemingly cannot fire their “verbal blame bullets” fast enough at Paul Gullixson and some others as their handling of the vaccine rollout got all screwed up via a software program glitch that was in the State program they are using. My uneducated and unqualified suggestion is to throw out the software program, and if you have 10,000 doses available from 2-6-2021 to 2-13-2021, allow 10,000 appointments for that period. It does not matter if they are older, younger, a teacher (who by the way doesn’t teach in the public-school classrooms so I may change my opinion soon and suggest teachers must go last-just kidding all you teachers out there!), a senator, or a prisoner. It does not matter. It is the numbers that matter as applied to the timeline. The faster the better!

This obviously is not a soapbox that is complimentary towards the GOP. Yes, I think the successful countries and states seem to be more conservative than progressive. But I would not give the Trump Administration an “A” for their vaccine rollout. It is too early to judge Biden on his rollout. I hope Biden can overcome the progressive tendencies of trying hard to get certain people vaccinated first at the expense of more people faster getting the vaccination.

And that, according to my dumb theory, is where the problem lies. Getting more people vaccinated faster, does not fit the “progressive” way of doing things. This is an emergency to get our businesses back up and running, get our kids back into the schools, and get our citizens protected from Covid19 as soon as possible. To do that, we need 75% of the population vaccinated. Let’s get ‘er done! As soon as we get out of this pandemic, the ECA members can get their business and private lives back to “normal” safely and that is all I am trying to say. Let’s do that shall we?

Go Joe Biden Go! I am rooting for you.

That’s All Folks!

Link21 is a long-range transportation program sponsored by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) and the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (Capitol Corridor) to transform the passenger rail network serving the 21-county Northern California Megaregion, which includes the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay area, the Sacramento area, and the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

Although planning is in its infancy, some aspects of the vision for the long-range transportation solution are foundational cornerstones of the vision:

1. An additional Transbay rail crossing between Oakland and San Francisco for BART
2. Integrating rail service across the 21 Counties in the Northern California Megaregion to make rail travel from the South Bay to the East Bay and Sacramento to San Francisco much more efficient and less confusing and time consuming.

Upon my first reading of this ambitious “vision”, my opinion is that if you hate the concept of SMART, you will really hate the concept of LINK 21. Here is a link to the way the planners envision their “dream” system of integrated rail systems for the Northern California Megaregion:

Given the pandemic, I have to ask whether the public will accept increased use of public transportation as a means of travelling around a very crowded San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. It goes without saying that we cannot keep building highways and bridges to handle more and more single rider occupied cars for our long-range transportation solution. The writing is on the wall in BIG BOLD LETTERING that those days are over. But will businessmen and businesswomen, students, and travelers accept sitting in an enclosed car, no matter how comfortable, in close proximity to others, to ride from Sacramento to San Francisco and from San Jose to SF and Oakland? No matter your opinion on that question, I would say if you were the one caught in the regular commute in Highway 80 or Highway 37, your opinion might be different than our “privileged” view from the North Bay area. Once the pandemic is over, the gridlock will return to 80 and 37 and will that be enough to sway public opinion as to how we commute? Or will it be so freaking bad that those who are able, simply choose to move?  Well now, isn’t that the $64 Billion dollar question?

Needless to say, the BART system from Oakland to SF is over capacity now. Unless businesses and residents move out of the Bay Area, it will only get worse. And whether we like the concept or not, BART is going to try to build another Transbay tube-so if they do, shouldn’t they try to tie that into some way to relieve the mess on 80 and 37? I think they should.

Of course-the problem might be figuring out how to fund this “vision”. Preliminary estimates (and you know how we can trust those right?) are the additional Transbay tube would cost $29 billion.  I am guessing that is around 1/10^th of the actual build cost when it finally gets built.

At any rate, how does all this affect us? As we keep trying to compete for projects both public and private, the health of our region economically and socially is part of the long-term puzzle. If we do nothing and support “business as usual” as the solution and road map, I can guarantee you that is not happening. It is always best to be a part of the solution as it is being drawn up rather than simply accepting it afterwards. The ECA will continue to stay plugged in to the discussion and planning as best we are able, and we will continue to share the developing news with our membership.

I found the LINK 21 ambitious, thought provoking, perhaps a bit naïve as to funding problems, but worthy of some attention-at least one Soapbox!

That’s all folks!

John

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Allocation of Pacific Gas and Electric Settlement Funds for Transportation, Utilities Undergrounding, Communications, Safety, and Preparedness Infrastructure Investments – Link

Pressure Treated Wood Disposal Update

As I previously notified you all (December Newsletter-thanks to Duston Abbott of Pacific Sanitation!), disposal of pressure treated scraps of wood became a huge problem as of 1/1/2021. Brief history of what happened:

In September, Governor Newsom vetoed Senate Bill 68 (Galgani, 2020). As a result of the veto, the part of the statute that authorized the alternative management standards for treated wood waste (Section 25150.7 of the Health and Safety Code-click here for link to read the code itself

The accepted handling of treated wood sunsetted as of 12/31/2020. Related to this veto by Newsom, is the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) protocol for alternative management standards for treated wood waste found in the California Code of Regulations, title 22, Div 4,5 Chapter 34, also expired on 12/312020.

Sorry for the technical “gobblygook” above, but the end result of Newsom’s misguided veto of Senate Bill 68 is that treated wood waste is now subject to the full set of hazardous waste regulations just like asbestos and other toxic materials. This happened on 1-1-2021.

1. Practically, what effect does this have on ECA members?
2. If fencing contractors, vineyard operations, housing contractors, demo contractors or even homeowners doing work on their own home or business, now have extraordinary restrictions on getting rid of any treated wood waste. Republic Services refuses to take any treated wood waste at their landfill. Pacific Sanitation refuses to take any at their facilities. If you wanted to get rid of the treated wood waste legally, you would need to hire a certified hazardous material contractor to gather the wood scraps and properly bag and label them, and then hire a certified hazardous hauler who tracks the shipment on their manifest, and haul it to Yuma, Az or Buttonwillow (near Kettlemen City) and pay very high disposal fees to those landfills. If anybody tries to mix their treated wood debris into a garbage can, debris box, or dump truck load and take it to a landfill, they would be subject to illegally dumping of hazardous and toxic materials.

Certainly, this issue affects the North Coast Builders Exchange and the Farm Bureau more than our ECA members, but you should be aware of the new law as you may wish to modify your contract language or subcontract or service contract language to accommodate for the additional liability exposure now in place.

Rick Downey of Republic Services and Dustin Abbott of Pacific Sanitation both inform me that they are communicating with the DTSC either directly or through a lobbyist to write a variance that would allow us to go back to the “old way” of handling treated wood waste. That variance, although it is being discussed and worked on, does not exist yet and it is uncertain what the wording will be when (or if) it is written.

The latest information from the DTSC can be found on this link –

I will be discussing this with our local elected officials to see if they are trying to do anything about this issue for local businesses and homeowners and will update you in a future newsletter.

Any wonder why it costs a lot to do business in, and live in the State of California?

The ECA just held its annual strategic planning session with the new Board of Directors and our new President, Josh Cleaver of BoDean Co., led a great discussion in laying the groundwork for the next few years.

Our focus was to understand what is important to our members as regards what the ECA does and how we do it.  To that end, we put out two Surveys in our Newsletter in December and asked the members to respond. We only got 12 responses. That is not much direction for our Board to go on, but we considered those responses as we discussed our Mission, our Vision and our Value statements. Here is a summary of what we concluded.

We started out the session with a few defining explanations of what a mission, vision and value statement is. Basically, the Mission Statement defines what you are doing now for your members. The Vision Statement differs from the Mission Statement in that the Vision is what do you see as the “finish line” accomplishment for the organization. The Value statement(s) describes your core values that you want the organization to adhere to while on the “journey” in operating to your mission and getting to your vision.

Just that bit of introspection might be useful in all of your own firms to reflect on from time to time. From my perspective, times are changing very fast and it is enticing to change with those which can make you lost sight of your “end game” as well as possibly losing sight of what your core values might be. It is also very important to have input from your “influencers” in your company, and for the ECA those “influencers” are, quite naturally, our Officers and our Board of Directors. Just so you know who your ECA Officers and Directors are for 2021, you can click on this link and the entire list of these folks are there for your reading pleasure.

I will say the Directors that participated were engaged, and very much involved in sharing their thoughts on what is important to the ECA members today, tomorrow, and how we achieve our vision. Interestingly, when we got to the point of discussing our Value Statement(s), we fell back on what our Founders decided was important 45 years ago when we were first incorporated as the Northern California Engineering Contractors Association.

New Mission Statement: ECA exists to support the local Engineering Contracting Industry

New Vision Statement, The ECA fosters a sustainable environment ensuring the strength and success of ECA members while building the community and protecting the environment

Value Statements we adopted –

1. Having a unified voice that represents the best interests of our members when the ECA speaks with, and collaborates with, local policy and decision makers.
2. Cultivate collaboration with elected officials by giving back to charitable organizations within the community.
3. Communicate relevant issues back to our ECA Members that are being considered by local policy makers that could effect our ECA Members’ employees, equipment, and how they are able to perform their work.
4. Networking opportunities for ECA Members via our events hosted during the year.
5. Strive to increase our strength of message by cultivating collaborative relationships with like minded groups and associations.
6. Provide a means for the public and local government to utilize our ECA Members’ vast knowledge and capabilities for mitigating emergency work in an efficient and rapid manner.

What remains to be done is to meet again and decide on the “tactics” to achieve our mission, vision and adhere to our values. The tactics actually become the “nuts and bolts” of how we operate so they are very important. They basically keep the Mission, Vision, and Values “front and center” and define how to progress. Tactics should be like goals measurable as to accomplishing those results, they should adhere to a timeline so there is a period of time that the measurable progress should adhere to, and they should have identified who is responsible for the measurable progress.

By taking these very important steps with the leadership of the ECA this week, we continue what Past President Dave Weller of RCX, and I set out to do in 2020. Our excuse in not getting it done last year has something to do with this thing called the COVID19 pandemic. I am very proud that this year’s President Josh Cleaver and this year’s Board of Directors rolled up their sleeves and got so much accomplished on Tuesday!

We definitely did not get confused by activity vs accomplishment. We got “SH%t” done!

That’s all folks!

John

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Where and When Do YOU Get Vaccinated?

Sonoma County Emergency just went live with their Covid-19 Vaccination Website last week, and we had a 2 ½ hour Zoom meeting with Dr. Mase and Barbie Robinson from SoCoHealth last night to explain how vaccinations are being rolled out in SoCo. It is, to say the least, complex.  See how nice I am in 2021? Anyway-here is the “lowdown”:

The supply of Covid-19 vaccines in the USA is limited at this point.  Patience is urged.  Vaccination doses come into the State of California from the Feds, then the State distributes them to the Counties (more or less) based upon population. The State and Federal guidelines as to who gets priority administration of the vaccines are how the County is allocating the vaccinations.

In Sonoma County-To find out what your vaccination eligibility is, go to

www.SoCoEmergency.org/Vaccine

In Marin County- To find out what your vaccination eligibility is, go to

www.coronavirus.marinhhs.org

In Napa County-go to

Coronavirus (COVID-19) | Napa County, CA (countyofnapa.org)

COVID-19 -19 Facts

• After a natural infection, for some individuals, non-infectious viral particles can shed for weeks or months. The COVID-19 PCR test amplifies the genetic material from the virus and makes it very sensitive at picking up very small viral fragments and therefore can be positive for weeks to months after the infection, even though the person is not actively infected or contagious. Because of this, it is too confusing to retest at any time and don’t recommend people get tested if they have had a laboratory documented COVID-19 infection.

• Generally, use the rule of thumb of 10 days after onset of symptoms (or date of initial COVID-19 test if asymptomatic) as the period in which someone could be contagious or spreading the virus to others. Afterwards, that person should be able to rest assured they are no longer a risk of spreading the disease or contracting the disease.

• Although there has been a recorded case of an individual who was reinfected with a documented different viral strain, it is so exceedingly rare to be non-existent and I think the science will show a long-term immunity with the natural infections. It may turn out to be true that mild or minimally symptomatic infections give people a shorter immunity and therefore we are recommending vaccination even if someone has had the natural infection because we have clear science behind the immune response (and likely long-term protection).

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Spec Committee

The ECA Spec Committee continues to make progress on a very complex issue-private fire line submittals linked to encroachment permits linked to building permit issuance. To that end, I met with The Construction Coalition Thursday, January 21, 2021 on a Zoom conference with Gabe Osborn and Jessee Oswald from the City of Santa Rosa. The problem is the three permits have to work together. What we would like to see is the Civil Engineers prepare a drawing initially showing the footprint of the proposed building and the water/sewer/fire line underground shown in sufficient detail to get the fire line permit approval as well as the encroachment permit approval which should enable the building permit to be issued. The 2-month turnaround for fire permitting permits to be issued is too long, particularly when you add to that the time for encroachment permit and building permit issuance (which right now are lined up one behind the other). The permitting process could take, and sometimes does take, 6 months to get through. That means the occupancy of the proposed improvements are delayed from the owner being able to get a renter in place, so income is coming in and that is sometimes enough to make the project not “pencil out”. We are trying to speed up that process.

To that end, we are proposing the SR Fire Marshall consider approving a standardized set of details and notes that would couple with a site plan that shows the underground fire line along with sewer and water lines. We can handle the fire sprinkler submittal as a deferred submittal to follow. Gabe and Jessee and Ian Hardage all seem to be willing to work with us and are. We are perhaps a few weeks from seeing some legit action on this issue.

The comments from Jessee Oswald and Gabe Osborn was to the effect that the interaction between the City and the ECA is ALWAYS of tremendous value and that some issues are complex and take time to deal with. We should not get frustrated by our seemingly lack of progress on this issue as we are actually making progress. Sometimes it is the act of proceeding with the staffers that is the direct benefit as much as any end result in changing the permit process. I totally get what they are saying, and I agree with them. With that said, we are “deliciously” close to getting some action done on this issue! Stay tuned!