This week’s soapbox will focus on 2 upcoming forums. The first event is an AB5 forum – Assembly Bill 5 was just recently signed by Governor Newson into law. This new law will affect contractors, truckers, insurance companies and trucking brokers alike. Because it is complicated, we are going to host a forum on Oct. 16, 2019 from 5 – 7 pm at the NCBE, 1030 Apollo Way, Santa Rosa.
Click here for flyer. Seating is limited, one person per company please. RSVP asap.
The purpose of this forum is to present information that will be helpful to all of our ECA members as they close out 2019 and plan for 2020. We invite all of you to come. It will be provided free to ECA & NCBE members but cost $40 for non-members. We have very qualified speakers that will be able to present the law, and its impact to all of your businesses.
Those speakers will be:
Stephen Holden (Holden Law Group). Mr. Holden will talk about how companies and individuals will have to comply with the law as written. Mike Ryan with InterWest Insurance Services will be introducing Mr. Holden.
The second speaker will be Mike Ghilotti, Ghilotti Bros. Mike will speak on how AB5 affects public works bids as far as qualifying for WBE & DBA percentages. Mike will also talk about the impact the project schedules and project costs moving forward.
Our third speaker is Debbie Ferrari of MAG Trucking. Debbie will speak to us about options to fix this horrific new law. Debbie is well connected in Sacramento and has been lobbying in Sacramento to find an author that would be willing to sponsor a clean up bill.
In conclusion, if you use trucking on any of your projects, if you have clients that are trucking contractors or if you are a trucking brokers you need to attend this forum.
Since we are putting this on for free if you would like to sponsor please contact Mary so we can defray the cost of putting this on.
Thank you to Erik Fowler, V. Volan Trucking for sponsoring this event. Debbie Ferrari of MAG Trucking will be becoming the newest ECA member on October 15th and we thank her for speaking at this forum.
The second important forum that is upcoming will be our Annual General Membership Meeting to be held November 14th from 12 noon – 2 pm. Lunch will be provided, and the subject will be Planes, Trains and Automobiles Revisited. It feels very appropriate to update our members on all that is happening for all of our modes of transportation in Sonoma County and the contiguous counties.
The “Planes” portion of this program will be presented by Jon Stout, Airport Manager of Sonoma County Airport. He will be discussing upcoming projects to the airport and its facilities. These projects will affect your business and increase opportunities for regional growth.
The “Trains” portion of the forum, will be handled by Farhad Mansourian, General Manager of SMART. SMART is now up and running and is looking at a potential sales tax measure that will go to the voters in 2020. In addition to the sales tax topic, Farhad will also address potential expansion of SMART to the north and to the east to Suisun City. Safety is paramount to the SMART operation and Farhad will also address some recent tragic incidents and plans to mitigate future tragedies.
The “Automobiles” segment will be handled by Supervisor David Rabbitt and SCTA Executive Director Suzanne Wilford Smith. Recently both Suzanne and David were present at the final Hwy 101 ground breaking in Sonoma County. The excitement and satisfaction of all those who have supported the widening of Hwy 101 was evident at the the event in Petaluma. Despite the joyous groundbreaking there is still much to do to fix our roads and bridges in our area. Hwy 37, local city roads and streets, and unincorporated roads all have extreme needs. Suzanne and David will speak to a proposed sales tax measure that would extend Measure M and accommodate funding for those infrastructure needs.
In conclusion this Annual General Membership Meeting should be well attended by ECA members and we urge you to bring a guest. Meeting sponsorship opportunities can be addressed by contacting Mary.
John Bly
That’s All Folks!
