The ASCE San Francisco
575 Market St, Suite 400 | San Francisco, CA 94105
415-546-6546 | htpp://www.asce-sf.org
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August 2021, Volume 70, No. 8 |
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SAVE THE DATE: ASCE ANNUAL MEETING |
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Get the insights you need to stay ahead
in the profession
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2021 ASCE San Francisco Section Annual Awards Call for Nominations
The 2021 ASCE San Francisco Section awards nominations period is now open. Individual and project nominations are currently being received.
The nominations period will remain open from June 4th, 2021 through August 6, 2021. Nominations will be evaluated by a review committee, and award recipients will be announced in August. Award presentations will be made on Friday, September 24, 2021, at the SF Section Annual Meeting/Awards Ceremony
For award categories and to submit a nomination, please visit our awards page.
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by Daniel Cronquist, 2021 CAIS Chair
In June, ASCE Region 9 and the Los Angeles Section presented the California Infrastructure Symposium. It was an amazing two-day virtual event with great speakers, presentations, and panel discussions. I hope you were able to join us to catch at least part of the event.
We tried something new this year by inaugurating a student competition of senior project teams. If you were not aware, engineering degrees now require a capstone senior project be prepared in groups. Short videos were prepared by the teams to provide an introduction into their work. The winning team received a plaque for their school. The winning teams this year were from Cal State Chico, Cal Poly Pomona and San Diego State. All of us really enjoyed seeing the hard work these students put in. All the student videos will also be available upon request for conference attendees.
I wanted to give a special thank you our event sponsors: AECOM, ASCE Los Angeles Section, ASCE Sacramento Section, ASCE San Diego Section, ASCE San Francisco Section, Atlas Technical Consultants, Bio Clean, California Baptist University, CW, David Evans and Associates, Inc., Diaz Yourman & Associates, East Bay Municipal Utility District, GHD, Guida Surveying, Inc., HDR, Jacobs, Michael Baker International, Mott MacDonald, NV5, Pacific Advocacy, Q3 Consulting, Rick Engineering Company, T.Y. Line International, V&A, Inc., and Valued Engineering, Inc. Without their generous support, ASCE would not be able to provide such great events as this one.
Lastly, I wanted to provide one last round of applause to our team of volunteers who worked so diligently to prepare for this year’s event.
- Clint Isa, PE, Sponsorship Subcommittee Chair
- Jordan Ollanik, Water Track Subcommittee Chair
- Tapas Dutta, PE, F.ASCE, Transportation Subcommittee Chair
- Seema Shah-Fairbanks PE, PhD, M.ASCE, Student Participation Subcommittee Co-Chair
- Mojgan (MJ) Hashemi, PE, M.ASCE, Student Participation Subcommittee Co-Chair
- Kenneth Rosenfield, PE, F.ASCE
- Mark Norton, PE, ENV SP, F.ASCE
- Elias Karam, PE, M.ASCE
- Yazdan Emrani, PE, M.ASCE
- Jeff Cooper, PE, M.ASCE
- Richard Markuson
- Kathereen Shinkai, PE, M.ASCE
- Jeff Braun, PE, M.ASCE
- Xavier Irais, PE, M.ASCE
- Fred Blickle, PE, F.ASCE
- Yazmin Arellano, PE, M.ASCE
And a special thanks to our administrators Anne Ettley, Gayle Stewart, and Mimi Luk. Please join us next year in San Francisco for the 2022 California Infrastructure Symposium.
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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
by Richard Markuson, Region 9 Legislative Advocate
June 2021 – Budget News
The Legislature and Governor had money in their pockets they wanted to spend. The $262.6 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that began July 1 was fueled by a $76 billion state surplus and $27 billion in federal aid. Democrats who control the Capitol wanted to use the windfall to help the state recover from the coronavirus pandemic and its uneven toll on Californians.
California state lawmakers included nearly 300 member requests in a budget bill they sent in June to Gov. Gavin Newsom, totaling $1.2 billion in grants for district projects, many of which they began touting to constituents after the vote. Among the asks: $8 million for a nonprofit dance academy in south Los Angeles, $5 million for a nonprofit Shakespeare theater company in central Los Angeles, and $1 million for equipment and a performance center in downtown Sacramento for Capital Public Radio.
What they didn’t pay is an estimated $22 billion Unemployment Insurance (UI) Fund debt, which, according to business leaders, undermines “the long-term integrity of the program and guaranteeing that businesses of every size will be forced to pay higher taxes to pay off the debt.”
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Region 9 Aligned Elections Initiative
by Rune Storesund, Dr.Eng., P.E., G.E.,
San Francisco Section Region 9 Governor
ASCE Region 9 (California), which consists of the Los Angeles Section, the Sacramento Section, the San Diego Section, and the San Francisco Section and has over 17,000 ASCE members, is coordinating to align Section and Branch elections with the Society election and voting, which occurs in May each year.
The purpose of this initiative is to enhance the individual ASCE member experience by streamlining the current ‘voting’ season, which spans May to end of September, into one consolidated period of time for both Society-wide as well as local branches/groups. ASCE members would have one voting period for both Society and local election matters.
Informal polling during San Francisco Section’s “Get Out and Vote” campaign in May 2020 found overwhelming support from members to consolidate the disparate array of voting seasons into one. Informal polling of the local branches/groups within the San Francisco Section also found great support, with the caveat that some organizational/procedural changes would be required to restructure current calendars to achieve the consolidated ASCE ‘voting’ season. The polling also found that members were far more likely to vote for items of local interest rather than at the Society level. Thus, engaging members for local elections is anticipated to increase member participation at both the local and Society levels.
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California Legislative Visit Week Event
by John Kilps, Chair, ASCE Region 9, Government Relations Committee
The 2021 California Legislative Visit Week event was held May 10-13, 2020. For the first time, ASCE Region 9 joined a group of California engineering societies and associations to host the event together virtually:
- American Public Works Association (APWA) – Region VIII
- Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC)
- California Geotechnical Engineering Association (CALGEO)
- American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) – California (Lead Host)
The group holds a shared objective to meet with state legislators and advocate for infrastructure and other industry issues. Representatives of the organizations formed the event committee, and identified state legislative bills being tracked. Talking points for the meetings were developed, and reports and documents to provide for legislators were gathered. The ASCE Report Card for America’s Infrastructure was a key report provided.
The event program featured three dynamic keynote speakers who presented on exciting and timely topics:
- David S. Kim, Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency
- Nancy Vogel, Director of the Governor's Water Portfolio Program at the California Natural Resources Agency
- Dave Amos, PhD, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and of the City Beautiful YouTube Channel
California engineers and public works professionals gathered for the event to meet with state legislators. The meetings provided opportunity to inform legislators of awards and scholarship programs offered by the organizations. In one meeting, Assembly member Sabrina Cervantes (CA-60) said she would help promote scholarship programs at her alma mater, UC Riverside. A total of 111 meetings were held with state legislators or their staff, out of a total 120 possible. That is a significant impact!
Looking ahead to next year, plans are to again hold the event jointly with the other organizations, with a possibility of more organizations joining the effort. And next year the event will be held in-person in Sacramento. Contact me via john.kilps@gmail.com to get more information about participating next year. |
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Confirm It In Writing
by Eugene Bass
Generally, oral contracts are enforceable and legally valid. “They are not worth the paper they are written on” applies when there is a dispute and the parties find that their respective recollections of the terms of the agreement differ. A contract may be oral in the sense that both parties have not signed their names to a document that expresses their understanding.That is not to say that writing cannot play an important part in the oral contract, however.
Oral agreements should be confirmed in writing. The written confirmation or memo does not convert the oral agreement to a written agreement unless the parties sign a new agreement to replace the original. It does make it easier, however, to determine what the parties intended in their oral agreement, especially when memories fade and circumstances change.
Written contracts typically provide that changes must be in writing and that the terms of the change must be agreed upon before the changed work is done. Frequently, the writing requirement gets omitted. This is an area that often ends up in litigation where the parties cannot agree on the scope or payment for changed work. One party may assume that an extra is not extra but only something to balance a previous offsetting change. The confusion can be essentially eliminated by a brief written confirmation of what was agreed, stating the scope of the change and the agreed price or basis for charging.
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Thank you to our Bronze Sponsor! |
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NEW ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES
Become a sponsor! For more information and to become a sponsor, please contact admin@asce-sf.org or 415-546-6546.
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