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!

Dave Weller is ending his year as President of the ECA. Josh Cleaver is starting his year as President. I wanted to take a moment and give credit to Dave Weller and thank him.

Sometimes you work with someone and it is unbearable. Other times, a person can get lucky as I did this past year working with Dave Weller of RCX. I have now worked with 11 Presidents of the ECA before I was the Executive Vice President, I was a President of the ECA. So, I have seen firsthand a lot of Presidents. I do not want to disparage any of our former Presidents, but Dave Weller is in a class by himself. Given the extraordinary circumstances that Covid 19 created, it is without question that Dave Weller faced the toughest year of any of our Presidents. Our survival was at stake. We had zero clue if the events that we love so much were going to be able to be held in 2020, 2021, or never. Now we pretty much know that events will come back this year. But last year we had no clue. This is the chaos Dave had to manage.

Dave Weller did a great job.

Dave came in with hopes of working with me to put out a 5-year strategic plan for the ECA in his Presidential year. Instead, he had to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and ways to keep cashflow going to the ECA while not being able to do events. It was not easy. It was very hard. Lots of tough decisions.

Dave remained upbeat and positive throughout. He worked hard, kept calm, and helped provide leadership to me and the Board that guided us through a very tough year. We made it. And we did so in no small part due to Dave Weller.

I also want to thank Tom Swegle and the crew over at RCX for allowing Dave he time and freedom to be one of the best Presidents the ECA has ever had. Dave did a terrific amount of research and reading with attention to detail in all of his ECA duties. He was always available (except on bid days) and he always had a thoughtful response to my updates to him.

Dave also chaired the ECA Spec committee and had his hands full dealing with Covid while holding Spec Committee meetings. We kept the ECA Spec committee going and cemented our relationships with Gabe Osborn, Jessee Oswald and Ian Hartage by virtue of our work on the Spec Committee.

We all owe a big “Thank You” to Dave Weller for his leadership this past year. Thanks for being a true leader Dave!

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)

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COVID-19 Facts

I sent a message to Jason Cunningham who runs the West County Health Department for Sonoma County, and I specifically asked about folks that have previously tested positive for Covid-19 and why they are not recommended to go in and get retested after their positive test. I know several friends who did just that, and they tested positive several months after, which led to some confusion to them and their friends and fellow employees as to whether they should be concerned with that positive test. Here are the facts from someone who knows!

Question: If someone had a positive test some weeks or months ago, and quarantined for 10 days after their onset of symptoms or the positive test, can they still be contagious?

To answer your specific questions: no need for repeat quarantine.

• 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).

I have come out with the Newsletter on Friday, instead of Thursday, to try something new. It is a bit easier for me to include up to the minute news if I do it on Friday and lots of stuff is happening on Wednesdays and Thursdays. If you have strong feelings one way or another, let me know-otherwise-it will be Friday Newsletter from here on out!

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For many years I have wrestled with the concept of a local preference for Sonoma County and the contiguous Counties plus Solano (Sonoma, Marin, Lake, Mendo, Napa, Solano). The “vision or concept” is that contractors that have home offices in the six counties that were bidding on public work projects in the 6 counties would have a bidding edge over contractors coming in from outside those counties to bid on publicly funded work. Back in 2007, 2008, 2009, this seemed like a good idea to protect our local contractors. The conceptual discussion could also include supplies and services such that if a County was purchasing office furniture as an example, the local company would have a preferential bidding advantage over some national supplier who if they got the work, would, in theory, contribute very little to our sales tax fund and/or our local labor force being employed.

The concept, discussed with several elected officials as well as several prominent contractors, died because of several issues:

1. Do we have a sustainable work force in all trades to support contractors who work in building construction, bridges, as well as our ECA forte-roads and underground?
2. Many contractors that have local offices here, also do work in the Bay Area and beyond and were fearful if the six Northern Counties banded together, would that not lead to other Counties banding together and putting our “travelling” suppliers and contractors at a disadvantage in a much larger market area?

What resurrected the discussion was that maybe we should consider a local preference on a much smaller scale. The renewed idea stems from some problems I have heard regarding “out of towners” coming in and screwing up fire debris cleanup projects with lowball bids, poor knowledge of local means of hauling and disposing, and not using local trucking and workforce on wildfire cleanup and rebuild work that is small enough in scope that we do not need outside workforce to handle our own “stuff”. I also keep reading about outside developers coming in and bidding high on the Community Hospital site before fully understanding the local problems in developing that site. It just seems we can do better in encouraging or incentivizing our local resources to do some of these projects. To be sure, this would be a “big lift”, but the benefit might outweigh the problems.

Just think about how neighborhoods might modify their resistance to a rebuild project in their neighborhood if they knew the project would be built by their neighbors, friends and business associates. It might make “Nimbys” less oppositional. Might—-

And since we are talking about a smaller segment of work, maybe figure out a way to give local firms an edge in both private and public projects. Perhaps the edge comes only in “emergency work” contracts and bids. In other words, fire debris cleanup, wildfire housing and commercial rebuilds, flood repair, road and bridge repair due to floods/earthquakes/fire, and that sort of work. How about supplying rental equipment, rock, concrete, legal services, accounting work, insurance, trucks, lumber and other materials from firms that are based in the six counties and not from outside?

While it remains to be seen what the details of the advantage might look like given public and private work being considered, the question I ask to the ECA membership is: “Do you want to see a local preference on emergency work in the six Counties?”. Please respond “Yes or No” and provide any comments or thoughts you might have on the subject.

What say you?

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. I have to admit, I am not terribly impressed. Particularly how they have “Spring of 2021” following “Winter of 2021” in their chronological timeline. Details. Who needs them? Also, I would think the “WHERE?” could have been a bit clearer. However-there is some useful information here and I am sure, they are trying to do their best! To get some info-click here–

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COVID-19 Facts

I sent a message to Jason Cunningham who runs the West County Health Department for Sonoma County, and I specifically asked about folks that have previously tested positive for Covid-19 and why they are not recommended to go in and get retested after their positive test. I know several friends who did just that, and they tested positive several months after, which led to some confusion to them and their friends and fellow employees as to whether they should be concerned with that positive test. Here are the facts from someone who knows!

Question: If someone had a positive test some weeks or months ago, and quarantined for 10 days after their onset of symptoms or the positive test, can they still be contagious?

To answer your specific questions: no need for repeat quarantine.

• 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).

I have often said that we would be better off when we elect officials to force them to remove two crappy laws in order to pass any new law.

With that said, they are not going to do it. Why not? Because elected officials rely on lobbyists to govern us and restricting lobbying efforts that payoff special interest groups would be too upsetting to how our government “works”. I put works in quotes because I obviously do not subscribe to the theory that there is anything that is working in either Washington or in the State Capitols across this once great nation.

Enough “venting”. Here is a brief description of new, complex, confusing, and largely (in my humble opinion) unnecessary laws that WILL EFFECT you in 2021. I have also included how our elected officials voted on these new laws-“Welcome to Doing Business in California”!!:

1. Assembly Bill No. 685-This bill would require a public or private employer or representative of the employer, except as specified, that receives a notice of potential exposure to COVID-19 to provide specified notifications to its employees within one business day of the notice of potential exposure. The bill would require the employer to provide prescribed notice to all employees, and the employers of subcontracted employees, who were on the premises at the same worksite as a qualifying individual, as defined, within the infectious period, as defined, that they may have been exposed to COVID-19. The bill would require notice to the exclusive representative, if any, of notified employees. The bill would require an employer to provide those employees and any exclusive representative with certain information regarding COVID-19-related benefits and options. The bill would require an employer to notify all employees, the employers of subcontracted employees, and any exclusive representative on the disinfection and safety plan that the employer plans to implement and complete per the guidelines of the federal Centers for Disease Control. The bill would require an employer to maintain records of notifications for at least 3 years. The bill would provide for a specified civil penalty for an employer that violates the notification requirements. The bill would define additional terms for its purposes.

Bill Text – AB-685 COVID-19: imminent hazard to employees: exposure: notification: serious violations.

Ayes

Aguiar-Curry, Arambula, Bauer-Kahan, Berman, Bloom, Boerner Horvath, Bonta, Burke, Calderon, Carrillo, Cervantes, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooper, Daly, Friedman, Gabriel, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gipson, Gloria, Gonzalez, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Kamlager, Levine, Limón, Low, Maienschein, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, O’Donnell, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone, Ting, Weber, Wicks, Wood, Rendon

Noes

Bigelow, Brough, Chen, Choi, Cunningham, Megan Dahle, Diep, Flora, Fong, Gallagher, Kiley, Lackey, Mathis, Mayes, Obernolte, Patterson, Waldron

2. Assembly Bill No. 979-This bill requires publicly held corporations to have their Board of Directors include more women, more Hispanics, more African Americans, and more Pacific Islander ethnicity on their Board by the end of 2021. The bill would require, no later than the close of the 2022 calendar year, such a corporation with more than 4 but fewer than 9 directors to have a minimum of 2 directors from underrepresented communities, and such a corporation with 9 or more directors to have a minimum of 3 directors from underrepresented communities.

Bill Text – AB-979 Corporations: boards of directors: underrepresented communities. (ca.gov)

Ayes

Aguiar-Curry, Arambula, Bauer-Kahan, Berman, Bloom, Boerner Horvath, Bonta, Burke, Calderon, Carrillo, Cervantes, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Friedman, Gabriel, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gipson, Gloria, Gonzalez, Grayson, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Kamlager, Levine, Limón, Low, Maienschein, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, O’Donnell, Petrie-Norris, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Salas, Santiago, Smith, Mark Stone, Ting, Weber, Wood, Rendon

Noes

Bigelow, Brough, Megan Dahle, Fong, Gallagher, Kiley, Mathis, Obernolte

3. Senate Bill No. 1383-This bill expands the Family Leave Act and authorizes up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the birth of a child to that employee or spouse of the employee.

Bill Text – SB-1383 Unlawful employment practice: California Family Rights Act.

Ayes

Arambula, Bauer-Kahan, Berman, Bloom, Boerner Horvath, Bonta, Burke, Calderon, Carrillo, Cervantes, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Friedman, Gabriel, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gloria, Gonzalez, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Kamlager, Levine, Limón, Low, Maienschein, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, O’Donnell, Petrie-Norris, Quirk, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Santiago, Smith, Mark Stone, Ting, Weber, Wicks, Rendon

Noes

Bigelow, Brough, Chen, Choi, Cooley, Cunningham, Megan Dahle, Flora, Fong, Gallagher, Gray, Kiley, Lackey, Mayes, Obernolte, Patterson

4. Senate Bill No. 973-This bill requires additional record keeping and reporting of companies with fewer than 100 employees in order to close the “gender gap” in pay equity. This bill would require, on or before March 31, 2021, and on or before March 31 each year thereafter, a private employer that has 100 or more employees, and that is required to file an annual Employer Information Report under federal law, to submit a pay data report to the DFEH that contains specified wage information. The bill would require that the information be made available in a prescribed format. The bill would require the DFEH to make the reports available to the division upon request. The bill would authorize the DFEH, if it does not receive the required report from an employer, to seek an order requiring the employer to comply, as specified. The bill would require the DFEH to maintain the pay data reports for a minimum of 10 years and would make it unlawful for any officer or employee of the DFEH or the division to make public in any manner whatever any individually identifiable information obtained from the report prior to the institution of certain investigation or enforcement proceedings, as specified. The bill would require the Employment Development Department to provide DFEH, upon its request, as specified, with the names and addresses of all businesses with 100 or more employees.

Bill Text – SB-973 Employers: annual report: pay data. (ca.gov)

Ayes

Allen, Archuleta, Atkins, Beall, Bradford, Caballero, Dodd, Durazo, Galgiani, Glazer, Lena Gonzalez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Hurtado, Jackson, Leyva, McGuire, Mitchell, Monning, Pan, Portantino, Roth, Rubio, Skinner, Stern, Umberg, Wieckowski, Wiener

Noes

Bates, Borgeas, Dahle, Grove, Melendez, Moorlach, Morrell, Nielsen

5. Assembly Bill No. 3121-This bill forms a committee to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans due to slavery. This bill would establish the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, with a Special Consideration for African Americans Who are Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States, consisting of 9 members, appointed as provided. The bill would require the Task Force to, among other things, identify, compile, and synthesize the relevant corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institution of slavery that existed within the United States and the colonies. The bill would require the Task Force to recommend, among other things, the form of compensation that should be awarded, the instrumentalities through which it should be awarded, and who should be eligible for this compensation. The bill would require the Task Force to submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature.

Ayes

Aguiar-Curry, Arambula, Bauer-Kahan, Berman, Bloom, Boerner Horvath, Bonta, Burke, Calderon, Carrillo, Cervantes, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Daly, Friedman, Gabriel, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gipson, Gloria, Gonzalez, Gray, Grayson, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Kamlager, Levine, Limón, Low, Maienschein, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, O’Donnell, Petrie-Norris, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Salas, Santiago, Smith, Mark Stone, Ting, Weber, Wood, Rendon

Noes

Bigelow, Brough, Choi, Cunningham, Megan Dahle, Fong, Gallagher, Kiley, Mathis, Obernolte, Patterson, Waldron

That’s all folks!

John

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Covid -19 Facts

I sent a message to Jason Cunningham who runs the West County Health Department for Sonoma County, and I specifically asked about folks that have previously tested positive for Covid-19 and why they are not recommended to go in and get retested after their positive test. I know several friends who did just that, and they tested positive several months after, which led to some confusion to them and their friends and fellow employees as to whether they should be concerned with that positive test. Here is the facts from someone who knows!

Question: If someone had a positive test some weeks or months ago, and quarantined for 10 days after their onset of symptoms or the positive test, can they still be contagious?

To answer your specific questions: no need for repeat quarantine.

• 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 has continued its work over the Christmas Holiday period in order to benefit contractors, design engineers, and developers regarding private fire line permitting. To reiterate, the ECA has continued to push our accomplishments with the City of Santa Rosa and Fire Marshall Ian Hardage to address two main issues:

1. Getting a Building Permit and Encroachment Permit issued hinges on getting Fire Marshall approval for private fire lines on a project. Often, the GC has not even been selected, or the GC has not selected the fire line installation contractor this early in the project. So, finding singular responsibility for design and construction of the fire line is a problem. The ECA has worked diligently with Ian Hardage and Gabe Osborn to cultivate an understanding that the Fire Marshall could approve an early design for private fire line design and permitting if it is based upon standard details and construction/design notes that the ECA promotes and stands behind with the understanding that this early approval will then allow the Building Permit to be issued as well as the Encroachment Permit. This allows the money (construction loan) to flow and project start can break ground.

2. Getting the actual permit is difficult if Engineering firms or GC’s do not have a track record of exactly what the Fire Marshall will sign off on regarding private fire line permits. This is a separate issue from #1 above and the ECA will produce guidelines that project designers and GC’s can utilize and assist with the successful issuance of the Fire permit.

The ECA Spec Committee formed a small committee to gather notes and standard drawings and put them into an acceptable presentation to then offer to Ian Hardage a draft of the presentation for private fire line application permitting on or about January 12, 2021. After Ian Hardage has reviewed our presentation, we will convene a meeting between our Spec Committee and Ian Hardage (now scheduled for January 19, 2021). Once we have buy in from Ian Hardage, it was decided that TCC would, on Jan 21, 2021, meet with Gabe Osborn and Jessee Oswald for the City of SR, to get them to buy off on the early application for private Fire Line conditional design approval on private construction projects and our #1 goal will have been solved.

Special thank you to Chair Dave Weller of RCX, Geoff Coleman of BKF, Antonio Mencarini of Ghilotti Construction Company, Mark Neumann of Oak Grove Construction, Craig Lawson and Mike Fitzpatrick of CALCBS should be acknowledged and appreciated and I am doing so right here!  Theirs is a selfless effort to benefit the industry and they are giving their own time and their company produced experience, details, notes and expertise to provide that benefit. This is selfless, generous, and should be commended by all. We do not pretend that all applicants will immediately utilize our efforts on their projects, but when we cross the finish line (hopefully Jan 21, 2021) the benefits of being an ECA member could be a selling point for engineers and contractors alike in making their pitch to developers as we will have the “magic sauce” to get the project going ahead of others, Thank you guys!

And Finally-so that we can end the year with a little humor, from my good friend Keith Woods, I include a video from a guy who simply wanted to have a “December to Remember” December to Remember Car Commercial – SNL – Bing video

Christmas truly is one of the most wonderful times of the year. For many, there are warm parties, cozy homes, fond traditions to celebrate, and gifts to be shared. It’s a joyous time of celebration. However, sometimes we get lost in the season and forget the reason we celebrate it, to begin with. Among the hustle and bustle, our focus is lost, and priorities are misaligned.

With all that we have been through in 2020, Christmas and what it means to all of us could not come at a better time. We have seen some dark days this year. Christmas reminds us of all in different ways, as to what is important in our lives and it refocuses our perception of the world by providing us with familiar “landmarks” of family memories. These landmarks help us reflect on the past year and years, as we participate in our family traditions of baking family recipes and giving them to our neighbors and friends, watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” or Chevy Chase or Home Alone, shopping for gifts and unwrapping presents virtually this year or with immediate family. It is these time-honored traditions that ground us. We keep passing them along to the children and give our own “special sauce” to the traditions in the belief that we are honoring our own history and hope of our savior’s birth to help guide us to “being good” and having a better life. Ahhhh-it is Christmas folks!

Here is some background on this most special Holiday-

Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States on June 26, 1870. The first eggnog made in the United States was consumed in Captain John Smith’s 1607 Jamestown settlement. Poinsettia plants are named after Joel R. Poinsett, an American minister to Mexico, who brought the red-and-green plant from Mexico to America in 1828.

The celebration of Christmas started in Rome about 336 (but it did not become a major Christian festival until the 9th century). Many Christmas traditions, such as decorating trees, started in Germany and later spread to other parts of the world, notably England and the United States.

Santa Claus is a figure that today has become synonymous with Christmas, especially in American culture. However, this was not always the case. In the early 19th century, Christmas was celebrated in an entirely different manner. At the time in New York, Christmas was not a widely celebrated holiday, and was marked in a raucous manner by some, or not at all by others. So, it wasn’t until later on in the 19th century that the popularity of Santa Claus became so widespread.

In 1822, Clement Moore, penned the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” which is better known by the name “The Night Before Christmas.” This is a poem which is widely recognized today in American culture. It starts of as follows; ” ‘Twas the night before Christmas…”

In this poem Moore described Santa Claus with a few alterations to the way he had been described in the past to make him a jolly, likeable character that would be loved by the American people.

Santa Claus was based not on a fictional character but a real Dutch saint, who was a bishop in the fourth century. This European version of Santa Claus gave out birch rods to naughty children and as such, didn’t endear himself to Americans. Thus, in the poem Moore wrote, he altered Santa Claus’ appearance from solemn and thin to fat and jolly and gave him eight reindeer. Finally, he scrapped the dark side of Sinterklaas.

This was all done in an attempt to endear Santa Claus to Americans, both rich and poor. Fortunately for them it worked. Santa Claus became part and parcel of American culture by the mid-19th century. Slowly, year after year, details would be added to the Santa Claus mythos. In 1863, artist Thomas Nast created the image of Santa Claus that we are familiar with today – a jolly old man with a beer belly and a red suit that we all recognize today.

And some perspective on where it all actually began:

True Meaning of Christmas: Celebrating the Savior

Jesus was born in order to pay the price for the things we have done wrong: sin. God sent his only son to be the atonement for all our sins so that we would not be separated from God. Without Jesus, we would all die for our sins. We inherited our sin nature from the first human beings God created Adam and Eve. While being fully God and yet fully man, Jesus came into the world as an infant to save us all.

Most Christmas traditions vary in significance and symbolic meaning. For example, we exchange gifts because God sent us the most precious gift: his only Son. Also, three wisemen visited Jesus and brought gifts as well. A poem titled A Visit from St. Nicholas penned in 1822 popularized the tradition of exchanging gifts too.

For Christians, the true meaning of Christmas is the celebration of the Savior, Jesus Christ. We know that through belief in the Christ we are daughters and sons of God. Heaven will one day be our home.

Perhaps this will help you look at the Christmas season differently this year. A chance to truly take in the wonder and awe of the season.

Merry Christmas to All of You!

That’s all folks!

John

AS we close out 2020 and get ready for the new year of 2021, it would be nice to have a well thought out plan that we could follow wouldn’t it? As with all of your own firms, we do the best we can but we find ourselves being influenced by major outside events that we have little control over. We do not know when Covid-19 vaccinations, precautions and treatment developments will lower our cases enough to fully reopen our businesses and ways of life to pre Covid-19 levels.  Is that even possible to do? We do not know what the new President’s administration means to our industry and our opportunity to see developers move forward on their projects. We are not clear on what new rules and regulations will come out of Washington and Sacramento that will affect how, where, and to what extent, we will be conducting our business operations in the near future.

With the fact that uncertainty is out there, you have to make business decisions just as we do at the ECA. We are currently setting up for our new Officers and Directors to have a “Planning Session” on January 19, 2021 that will set the tone for the upcoming year for the ECA. Some of what we are going to be deciding upon include:

1. Reviewing and modifying if necessary, the “mission” of the ECA and the tactics to accomplish our goals in the future.

2021. Changing from an annual General Membership Meeting to a Quarterly General Membership Meeting in order to encourage closer communication and involvement with our ECA membership. Our intent is to schedule a GMM every 3 months and have relevant, interesting, and informative speakers that will provide information to the ECA that will help us all deal with the uncertainties out there. These GMM’s will be held on the 3^rdTuesday of months 3,5,9 and 12 during 2021.

2021. Modifying the events the ECA does each year to accommodate Covid 19 issues. For example-the Installation and Awards Dinner that is traditionally held the first weekend in February to introduce everyone to the new President, hear what our outgoing President has to say, introduce and install the new Board of Directors and Officers, and also recognize and honor our Award winners, will have to be changed dramatically. We are contemplating a “virtual event” that will allow us to hear from our Past President and Incoming President, and to introduce everyone to the new Board of Directors and thank our outgoing Directors, but the Awards will be rolled into another evening later in the year. We have to discuss and plan for a modified date for Public Officials Night as well. It is unlikely that our traditional date of early to mid April will allow us to have Public Officials Night in person in 2021. We will most likely move this event to the Fall so we can meet in person and enjoy that great ribeye steak dinner we all have come to love! At this time, I would guess that the Fathers Day Car Show should be able to be held on Fathers Day at Julliard Park as we have traditionally done. Our Golf Tourney should be able to be held in late July as well. Even though we had a blast doing our Virtual Auction a week or so ago, we should be able to do an in person Auction night in late September, 2021.

1. ECA Board meetings will have to be held virtually for the first and second quarter of the year. By the middle or end of the 2^nd quarter, we should be meeting in person again. However, there has been some real benefits to learning about Zoom and virtual meetings, and we envision our Board meetings to be in person if directors choose to have lunch with us, or they will have the option to join virtually if they wish. Same with Committee meetings. We are planning on having our Exec Team meet in person in January, 2021 for a final planning session before our January 19 Board Planning session, but we will have the actual Board Planning Session be done virtually to ensure everyone’s safety.

2021. In order for the Board to have a planning retreat that is meaningful, new President Josh Cleaver has asked me to include a survey for our members to fill out so we can best represent the membership in 2021. The survey will be used to define the ECA Core Values and Goals for the next 2 years. Knowing what the members want us to be doing is way better than us sitting back telling the members what we are going to be doing without that input. So, please take a few minutes to fill out the survey HERE:

That’s All Folks!

John

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Fire Cleanup News for Wallbridge, Meyers, and Glass Fires:

The ECA decided to come out with our Newsletter one day early in order to provide information on the wildfire debris cleanup operation which publicly started December 1, 2020. The first step in cleaning up after the fires have been extinguished, is the Household Hazardous Waste sweep done by the California Department of Toxic Substance Control (CDTC). To understand more about the first process that is required prior to private or public fire debris cleanup, the link below explains it-

California Wildfire Cleanup & Recovery in 2020 | Department of Toxic Substances Control

There is a Town Hall virtual meeting to be held at 5pm Tuesday, December 2, 2020 and the information can be found below. If you are a contractor seeking to participate in the publicly assisted wildfire debris cleanup program, Cal Recycle is managing the cleanup and their information is listed below as well. If you have questions regarding what protocols are required for ash removal (regarding Hazwopper certification and PPE), the safety protocols for homeowners, recycling, trucking, and private contractors can be accessed in the link below.

https://socoemergency.org/recover/debris-removal-requirements-after-wildfire/

California Office of Emergency Services has authorized Cal Recycle to administer to the publicly aided fire debris cleanup of the Wallbridge/Meyers/Glass Fires in Sonoma County. The public debris cleanup began yesterday, December 1, 2020. To get the latest information from Cal Recycle on the wildfire debris cleanup, click on this link below-

Wildfire Debris Cleanup and Recovery (ca.gov)

For more specific localized information on wildfire debris cleanup for both homeowners and contractors alike, the Sonoma County Office of Emergency Services has a very good website, and the information can be accessed below-

https://socoemergency.org/recover/glass-wildfire/debris-removal/

There is a virtual own Hall Meeting being held for victims of the Wallbridge and Glass Fires December 2, 2020 at 5pm. Information on how to participate is included in this link—

Virtual Recovery Town Hall for Meyers, Walbridge and Glass Fire debris removal | Press Releases | County Administrator’s Office | County of Sonoma (ca.gov)

The controversial Golden Gate Bridge appointment for a Director was decided Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, and they chose Operating Engineering union head Chris Snyder instead of Brian Sobel, the incumbent Director. The article is here—

Here we are, coming to an end for 2020. Nearly everyone agrees 2020 sucked. Conservatives lament Trump losing to Biden because they believe that socialism will take over the USA. Yes, it sucks. Liberals lament Trump appointing Supreme Court Justices who they feel will ruin people’s lives. Yep-that sucks. Folks that did not want any sales taxes in Sonoma County got a lot of them. Folks that did want sales taxes wanted a few more “business friendly” candidates to win and they did not. That so sucks! Fire victims have good reason to claim that 2020 sucked. For those working at fire debris cleanup and rebuilding, 2020 doesn’t suck as much for them. Those that have lost jobs say 2020 sucks because of COVID-19. Those that have not lost jobs, say 2020 sucks because of COVID-19 19. Finally-agreement of sorts. It all sucks.

Bottom line-everyone I know is looking forward to the end of 2020.

I remember how bad high school basketball practices sucked under coach Russ Peterich when I was a lot younger. He would turn the thermostat up to 95 degrees in the gym and make us run lines to get us used to the heat. It gave us an advantage over other teams that came to our gym to play. They wilted in the 4^th quarter because he kept the heat up so high. It sucked, but we learned to appreciate the suck because it made us stronger.

We learned to EMBRACE THE SUCK!

Look-we have survived fires, floods, drought, power blackouts, pandemic, shelter in place, COVID-19 shutting us down, shutting us in and shutting us out, and yet, we survived. We got challenged in a big way, and we kind of came through it. Most of us still have our health, our families, and our jobs. To be sure there are those that have had it worse than me, and that sucks. Maybe I should reach out to them and help them a bit more. Just like our ECA members have stepped up and done for me. The members have opened their wallets and given the ECA some revenue that was unexpected back in April of 2020. The Auction was a big success. The Golf Tourney was way better for the ECA than we had anticipated. We asked for help, and we got it. In a way, 2020 helped us get stronger. I feel we can survive anything now.

I am thankful for our members. Thankful for what we got through in 2020. I am thankful for Mary and thankful for Cheryl working through tough times and getting things done. I am learning and adapting from the challenges of 2020 and I know a lot of other people are too. Josh and I are starting our planning for ECA’s 2021 and our future is bright. The future does not appear to be suckworthy.

I am going to stop complaining about 2020 and embrace the suck. I am going to roll up my sleeves and help chart a course for the ECA that makes the organization stronger and better for its membership in 2021. I am going to figure out a way to listen better to our membership and make certain we are communicating to our members better than we have. I am energized and motivated from the suckiness of 2020.

Yeah, that’s it.

That’s All Folks!

John

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Fire Cleanup News for Wallbridge, Meyers, and Glass Fires:

The ECA decided to come out with our Newsletter one day early in order to provide information on the wildfire debris cleanup operation which publicly started December 1, 2020. The first step in cleaning up after the fires have been extinguished, is the Household Hazardous Waste sweep done by the California Department of Toxic Substance Control (CDTC). To understand more about the first process that is required prior to private or public fire debris cleanup, the link below explains it-

California Wildfire Cleanup & Recovery in 2020 | Department of Toxic Substances Control

There is a Town Hall virtual meeting to be held at 5pm Tuesday, December 2, 2020 and the information can be found below. If you are a contractor seeking to participate in the publicly assisted wildfire debris cleanup program, Cal Recycle is managing the cleanup and their information is listed below as well. If you have questions regarding what protocols are required for ash removal (regarding Hazwopper certification and PPE), the safety protocols for homeowners, recycling, trucking, and private contractors can be accessed in the link below.

https://socoemergency.org/recover/debris-removal-requirements-after-wildfire/

California Office of Emergency Services has authorized Cal Recycle to administer to the publicly aided fire debris cleanup of the Wallbridge/Meyers/Glass Fires in Sonoma County. The public debris cleanup began yesterday, December 1, 2020. To get the latest information from Cal Recycle on the wildfire debris cleanup, click on this link below-

Wildfire Debris Cleanup and Recovery (ca.gov)

For more specific localized information on wildfire debris cleanup for both homeowners and contractors alike, the Sonoma County Office of Emergency Services has a very good website, and the information can be accessed below-

https://socoemergency.org/recover/glass-wildfire/debris-removal/

There is a virtual own Hall Meeting being held for victims of the Wallbridge and Glass Fires December 2, 2020 at 5pm. Information on how to participate is included in this link—

Virtual Recovery Town Hall for Meyers, Walbridge and Glass Fire debris removal | Press Releases | County Administrator’s Office | County of Sonoma (ca.gov)

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Let’s Sway!

Can we sway? I just have to say-with all the technical challenges that a virtual auction presented, we had a great time Saturday night. You did not have to spend a dime to enjoy the experience. And who is responsible for making it so fun? Tom Boylan and Keith Woods. Hands down. Our two guest auctioneers were allowed to “riff” and play off of each other and it was a sight to behold. If you have not seen it, you still can on our YouTube channel by typing in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2HUwRN9y1k. It has not been edited so begin at 13:10!

Thank you to Senator Mike McGuire for giving us a video sendoff that framed the evening so well. Some of the big thanks have to be shared: Mary and Tony Cabrera hosting not one, but three parties at their house-the ECA got three bids of $1,800 each from their generosity! How about Julia Dodge and her husband? They put up two auction items that brought in over $2300 to the ECA. Guess we need to remind ourselves who Rod and Donna Stevenson are right? They were so generous they donated 5 nights in their SF condo and 3 nights at Ft Bragg that generated $5,300 for the ECA. Thank you Rod and Donna and Stevenson Supply! Can any auction go without acknowledgement of Kevin Ghilotti? Not only did he serve on the Committee and Team Ghilotti was a top sponsor, but he also bid items up and bought a lot of stuff too! Thank you to Ron Palmieri with Syar donated a romantic four-night stay in Carpinteria for 2. The hunters enjoyed bidding on John Serres’s Hog Hunt with Matt Randall the high bidder. PACE Supply donation of the famous Nick’s Cove Getaway was a hit! And BoDean stepped up big time-from donating a Josh Cleaver crab fishing expedition, to bidding on several items, BoDean got it done! Ghilotti Construction not only sponsored, but also donated a fabulous 49er game that is “Top Shelf”, but they also bid on a lot of items and got a few too! And thank you to the ECA Board members for the always favorite Board Wine Replenish your Cellar! RCX will be in good hands with Jim Persons Safety Classes and he included Cal-OSHA COVID-19 Plan, Workplace Exposure Checklist and other Forms to the company that buys the safety training.

But again-from the initial time of the first auction item when we were having technical trouble, Tom Boylan and Keith Woods kept up the energy nonstop. From Keith’s opening salvo to Tom where he “wished Tom was wearing a mask because you are so ugly that the mask would cover half your face”, to Tom’s nonstop chatter about crab “goo” and putting his “balls in the pond” descriptions of auction items, it was comedy at its best. My favorite part was when the two of them paused for a moment and the bids kept coming in, and Keith realized it and said “Tom, maybe we do better if we just shut up for a few minutes”, as he said this, they were both swaying in unison, and I think Tom said- “sure Keith, let’s just sway for a while”. We found ourselves swaying with them at home and we actually belly laughed. The other fave moment for me was when they were auctioning off a wine barrel table made by Donny McEachern donated by Ritchie Bros, and one of them said “Randy Cochran is not going to stop bidding because since he was a little boy, he dreamt of owning a wine barrel table”. I don’t know. Maybe it is just me, but that kind of humor resonates.

I cannot thank Keith and Tom enough. You guys were great!

Thanks to all the volunteers, donors, sponsors, and bidders. Mary was sweating bullets, but Don Mills and his team with Sound Ideas calmly guided us through troubled waters Mary deserves a lot of credit for pulling this virtual auction off as RCX and others bid us right up to the finish line in a successful auction. We had a great time. If you did not join us, please watch the YouTube video and you will see what I am talking about! Good stuff.

Thank you again to our Sponsors!

Team Ghilotti – Platinum Dozer Sponsor

Ghilotti Construction – Platinum Dozer Sponsor & Live

RCX Inc. – Excavator Sponsor

Ghilotti Bros. Inc – Backhoe Sponsor

Northwest General Engineering – Backhoe Sponsor

Soiland Co. Inc – Skid Steer and Roller Sponsor

Engelke Construction – Skid Steer Sponsor

V.Dolan Trucking – Roller Sponsor

Cabrera & Associates – Live Auction Sponsor

Stevenson Supply – Live Auction Sponsor

USI Insurance – Live Auction Sponsor

Boylan Point – Donation

PACE Supply – Live Auction Sponsor

Serres Corporation – Live Auction Sponsor

Syar Industries – Live Auction Sponsor

BoDean – Live Auction Sponsor

Ritchie Bros. – Live Auction Sponsor

A personal appeal from your EVP

Please participate! All of us have benefitted, and continue to benefit from the efforts of the ECA staff and operations We the staff have had to make big sacrifices to continue those benefits for 2020 without the benefit of our usual events that traditionally cover over 35% of our operating costs. Covid 19 sucks and it certainly has for us. Yet we are going to finish the year in a healthy economic status thanks to staff cost cutbacks and generous help from many of our ECA family! One last way all of you can help out is to participate in this Auction. We know it will be fun, and we know you appreciate the ECA. Please find some time for us and enjoy what Mary has worked so hard to put on for all of us with her “crack committee” helping her all the way-Tom Boylan, Kevin Ghilotti, Jenah Smith, Corinna Fernandez, Kathleen Smith & Wayne Settle.   

This Auction and Donation opportunity is a big deal for us. Can you imagine how tough it is for a restaurant to stay in business without being able to have paying customers in their restaurant? That is what it has been like for us not having events. We have continued to work, continued to host free webinars, continued to push for funding of work (Yay Measure DD!) that benefits all of our ECA firms, and we have done so without being able to host our usual events that are so necessary to our survival. It has not been easy, and some of you have stepped up in a BIG way to help us out with donations, “Ask” responses, and auction items to offer to everyone. If you have not been able to participate because of your own hardships, we understand. This Auction is one final way to support the ECA that has been in continuous existence since 1976 and your help and participation is not only very necessary, it is also very appreciated. Please make Mary happy by logging on, spreading the word, and bidding on some items while perhaps even hitting that “Donate” button for us!

The Live Auction (201-214) itself will take place on December 5, from 5:30-7:30 but you can get your account set up, make a donation if the spirit moves you, and read and see about the live and start or continue bidding on the silent auction items that are on the site right now!

I know I enjoyed reading about the five-night getaway in San Francisco courtesy of Rod and Donna Stevenson, and the great lunch event offered at the St. Francis Yacht Club donated by Julia Dodge. There is something for everybody here and the Auction Committee and Mary have worked very hard to set up the virtual auction such that it will be fun, easy, and there are some very good items to bid on. We realize how challenging the Covid 19 has made all of your lives, as it has affected everybody. This is a chance to support local companies by bidding on items, enjoying the special video that has been created by Don Mills and his adept crew at Sound Ideas, and if nothing else, you can click the Donate Button (as I have), to contribute directly to the ECA so we can continue our good work in these times where we are all trying to be safe and the usual events we rely on cannot be held. We appreciate your support, and we ask you to spread the word to others outside the ECA such that they might participate in the Auction and perhaps be moved by the accomplishments of the ECA this year! Guest auctioneers Keith Woods, Tom Boylan, and Yours Truly will be auctioning off on December 5, so now is the time to get on the site by clicking the link below, and getting your card registered. I am registered, I have donated, and I have started bidding on the silent auction items already. After all, it is a good way to do some Christmas shopping! Click on the link below to get started! Please acknowledge and appreciate all of the sponsors and donors as you look through the items online.

There are many ways to help us out and we have tried to acknowledge all of those generous ECA Members that have done their part! Please do business with them! Don Mills and Sound Ideas can help your company out and I used them to help with my Dad’s “Celebration of Life” recently. I am glad I did. Please utilize these fellow ECA firms! It is the epitome of buying local!!

That’s All Folks!

John