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School Bonds
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Roseville Unified School District
: Thanks to union greenmail a PLA was approved on all work to take place in the Roseville Westlake Development, including the W-70 project, a 54,000 sq. ft. school scheduled to cost $18 million. The PLA, "agreed" to in 2004, covers electrical, mechanical, and plumbing/pipefitting.
Salinas Union High School District
: With this district's school board having approved a PLA for their new high school, all eyes will be on how it works out for them. Not surprisingly it's already looking like it's in trouble. Bid results are due to be released on January 12th, and we will be there to see them. There is only one local pre-qualified general contractor even bidding it and they are telling people that all the bidders are having a hard time finding sub-contractors to bid it due to the PLA. Stay tuned!
Long Beach Community College District
: Unbeknownst to anyone other than big labor special interests, the LBCCD Board of Trustees voted to create a "local hiring" policy at its November 10th board meeting. Of course this is code language for "PLA" and we will make sure to educate the board about that very fact. The policy is scheduled to be brought back to the board before February 26th. Stay tuned.
Cerritos Community College District:
On December 9th, after more than a year of "deliberating" about the contents of a PLA, the CCCD Board of Trustees voted 4-2 to approve a typical PLA with the local trades. This PLA will cover two projects and CFEC will be sure to monitor the results every step of the way. Speaking out against the PLA were CFEC's Eric Christen, ABC SoCal's Dave Everett and Doug Sawyer, among others. The two board members who opposed the union giveaway were powerful in their opposition but the cake was already baked and rational thought was not going to change the outcome.
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Mace Ranch Project in the City of Davis
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Pinole-Hercules Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade Debacle Thanks to PLA
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Well we warned them. Last year we warned the City of Pinole that their desire to place a PLA on their $39 million wastewater treatment plant project would reduce bidders and increase costs. Despite their partners in this endeavor, the City of Hercules, voting to NOT place a PLA on the project, four of Pinole's five City Councilmen did anyway. The results are now in. There had been ten bidders who had expressed interest in bidding the project but only TWO actually did bid the project and their bids were $3 million and $9 million higher than the engineer's estimate of $39 million. On January 7th CFEC's Eric Christen, ABC NorCal's Nicole Goehring, and Western Water Constructors (one of those who chose not to bid the project because of the PLA) Ken Kreischer chastised the board for this man-made disaster. The staff for the entity paying for this project was forced to admit that the PLA was a reason for the cost overruns and reduced bidders. We have asked that they re-bid this project PLA-free. Stay tuned.
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Napa County PLA Threat
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The holidays were certainly no respite from PLA threats and CFEC staff were busy fighting them statewide, including in PLA-free Napa County. On December 17th the Napa County Board of Supervisors had staff give a presentation on PLAs. The staff did an excellent job and all but said that a PLA would be problematic for the County. Speaking out against the PLA were CFEC's Eric Christen, ABC NorCal's Nicole Goehring, California Contractors Compliance Group's John Louden, and WECA's Richard Markuson. County Supervisors, we believe, are being pressured by big labor to put a PLA into effect in order to get them behind a new jail project the County hopes to build. Stay tuned.
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City of Stockton, Fresh Out of Bankruptcy, Approves City-Wide PLA
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Demonstrating that they have learned nothing from their recent decent into municipal bankruptcy, the Stockton City Council voted unanimously on November 17th
to place a PLA on all city work over $1 million. As Kevin Dayton's axiom says, "We can fight PLAs but what we can't fight is urban corruption."
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East Bay Municipal Utility District to Vote on Trial PLA
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Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 12th, the EBMUD Board of Directors will vote on a trial PLA for the Chabot Dam Project. ABC NorCal's Nicole Goehring has worked for almost a year to try and get fair language added to any PLA. Staff is with us as are some board members but in the end the final PLA appears to be the usual discrimination. Please attend and speak out against the PLA. At the very least contact the board members and ask them to vote against it. You can view the board memo
here (item number 9).
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