Lyle Ehlers

Following dinner, the Association held elections of its officers and directors for 2010-2011 and conducted its awards program featuring the Member of the Year Awards, the APEX Project of the Year Awards and the prestigious Governors Award. After the awards, the celebration continued with more dancing and entertainment by Vito Zatto.

At the November 13, 2009 LCCA Annual Meeting & Awards Extravaganza at the Ivanhoe Club, the membership elected the following slate of Officer and Director candidates for the 2010-11 Board of Directors:

2010-2011 Officers
President – Rick Grabowski, Prinmar Corporation
1st VP – Mike Ryan, HH Holmes Testing Laboratories
2nd VP – Steve Dalbec, Concord Construction Services
Treasurer – Hugh “Skip” McCann, Dam Snell & Taveirne
Secretary – Tim Penno (Ex-Officio), LCCA
Immediate Past President – Lyle Ehlers, Boller Construction

2010-11 Board of Directors
(Composed of five Officers above and five Directors chosen from the membership of the association)
Bruce Diederich, Waukegan Roofing
Karen Johnson, Roughneck Concrete Drilling & Sawing
Tim Staples, Camosy Construction
Steve Thelen, Thelen Sand & Gravel
Suzanne Zupec, Campanella & Sons

The prestigious Governors Award is selected by the LCCA President and awarded to a LCCA member for exemplary service to the association and construction industry. In recognition of her exemplary service and leadership within both LCCA and the Lake County Transportation Alliance (LCTA), President Lyle Ehlers has presented the 2009 LCCA Governors Award to Suzanne Zupec, President of Campanella & Son’s, Inc. of Wadsworth.

As the hand-picked chairman of LCTA, Suzanne has worked with Springfield lobbyists and the Lake County Department of Transportation to further the interest of our community. She also represents LCCA on the Board of Directors of the Lake County Partners and is a member of the Illinois Road and Transportation Builders Association’s Legislative Committee.

LCCA is seeking a full-time administrative assistant to work in the association office and provide periodic off-site meeting support. This is a new position within LCCA. The successful candidate must be proficient in Windows Office and have basic computer skills. Basic responsibilities include telephone and office reception, filing and copying. “People” skills are a must. The successful candidate must look and act professional and will interact daily with members. A competitive wage and limited benefits will be offered. Referrals from LCCA member firms are appreciated. To apply or for more information, please contact Tim Penno at the LCCA office at (847)623-2345 or email tpenno@lcca-il.org.

Starting in January 2010, LCCA members will gain a new member benefit. Beginning in 2010, LCCA members will receive complimentary member access to ChicagolandConstruction.com – the premier information portal for the Chicagoland union commercial construction industry. The website purports to provide concise timely online information on job listings and bid results from multiple sources including the Dodge Report, Bidtool and others. For some, this new benefit could replace costly bid subscription services. This member benefit has a listed value of $49.95 per month, but will be provided to LCCA members free of charge. LCCA members will also receive a free directory listing on the ChicagolandConstruction.com website.

But how does the site work? What bid information is actually on the website? Learn how with a hands-on demonstration with ChicagolandConstruction.com’s president Kevin Dedi at LCCA’s next Membership Meeting on Thursday, January 28, 2010. The meeting will begin at 5:00 pm at the Arboretum Club, 401 Half Day Road in Buffalo Grove.

When Democrats in Congress passed President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package in February, it conjured up images of 1930s-era highway projects and bridge repairs. This seemed attractive to the construction industry because it would provide construction jobs and long-lived structural assets for local communities that arguably would create real economic value.

To be certain, some useful public construction did take place. In fact, some LCCA members did benefit from working on stimulus-related projects. But did the stimulus projects actually “create” or “save” any construction jobs?

The Sacramento Bee has reported that the California Department of Transportation listed 680 stimulus-funded projects in its October quarterly report to the federal government, saying 152 projects created or retained at least one job. However, Caltrans auditors found that 94 of the 152 projects – which purportedly created or saved 892 jobs – hadn't yet spent a dime of the stimulus money! When confronted, state officials have said that respondents were merely following the federal guidelines for reporting the number of jobs created or preserved.

Further, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that "Highway-construction companies around the country, having completed the mostly small projects paid for by the federal economic-stimulus package, are starting to see their business run aground, an ominous sign for the nation's weak employment picture." Highway construction firms that normally have $30 million or more in pending contracts at this time of year are reporting having less than $10 million in signed contracts for 2010.

Employment data supports those weak construction industry perceptions. In February 2009 - the month the stimulus passed - 6,593,000 Americans were employed in construction. But in the most recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 5,966,000 Americans were employed in that field. In other words, while all of this stimulus-based construction was going on, the industry actually LOST 627,000 jobs. So, not only did the stimulus fail to create a significant number of jobs in the overall economy, it had little or no impact in the one area that provided that much-hyped slogan: “shovel ready.”

If the stimulus money didn’t stimulate construction, where did the stimulus money go? The fact is President Obama's bill had little to do with infrastructure projects. Governing magazine reported last month that most of the half-trillion in spending authorizations in the “stimulus” package were really pass-through grants to state and local governments. And most of those — 63 percent — flowed immediately to wobbly Medicaid programs. Another 13 percent went into individual states’ general-fund budgets to fill other holes. Plug in those numbers and let it rattle around in your brain: $300 billion in spending grants to states, $189 billion to Medicaid, $39 billion to state general fund budgets. In other words, the single-largest expenditure of “stimulus” dollars was little more than a bailout of state governments and agencies that had been irresponsibly managed in the years leading up to the recession.

But that’s not all. The Washington Post reported last week that a sizable slice of the $787 billion dollar stimulus package was actually paid to Washington, DC CONSULTANTS. Here are just a few examples:

• $6.9 million from the Energy Department to review applications for renewable energy loans

• $10.1 million from the Department of Homeland Security to manage $1 billion in airport security spending and review applications for fire department construction funding

• $1.1 million from the Interior Department to build a computer system for stimulus recipients to report back to the government, but that’s a bargain compared to the $4 million from the EPA to set up a separate reporting system for its stimulus spending

• $1.6 million from the Transportation Department to monitor grants for rail upgrades

• $496,000 from the Interior Department to "evaluate the progress on spending rates" for its stimulus programs

• $1.6 million from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop a system to minimize "the risk of fraud, waste and abuse" of the agency's $610 million stimulus slice

As a result, Washington, DC has weathered the recession remarkably well - receiving nearly 10 times as much stimulus money per capita as the national average. Neighboring Maryland has received an amount per capita far above states that are much worse off (Florida, Michigan, Nevada, and Ohio) and Northern Virginia alone has received over 300 stimulus contracts valued at $562 million. And, whether via the stimulus program or other increased federal spending, the federal government actually grew by 13,000 employees in the last year—the first increase since the 1970’s. In fact, the unemployment rate in the Washington metropolitan area is 6.2 percent, far below the 10.2 percent national average and the roughly 11 percent unemployment in the Chicagoland area.

Three of President Obama’s nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) were recently approved by the US Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee. The nominations of Mark G. Pearce, a Democrat and an attorney who represents unions, and Republican HELP Committee staffer Brian E. Hayes will advance for anticipated full Senate approval. However, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has placed a hold on full Senate approval of the nomination of union lawyer Craig Becker. At issue are concerns over whether the new majority Democrat NLRB will simply institute the provisions of the controversial Union Card Check Program, which has stalled as legislation.

LCCA will co-sponsor an informative and educational 3-hour seminar on an important and timely topic: “Unfunded Pension Liability: What a Contractor Should Know”. The seminar will be held from 8:00 to 11:00 am on Friday, January 15, 2010 at the Drury Lane Conference Center – 100 Drury Lane in Oak Brook Terrace.

This in-depth seminar (with questions and discussion) will focus on solely on a lurking economic danger - Contractor Unfunded Pension Liability. Mike Duffee of Ford & Harrison LLP will walk you through the basics of unfunded pension liability and what it means to a participating employer. The seminar will explain the requirements of the new federal Pension Protection Act and how that law can affect participating employers. In particular, Mike will talk about what it means when plans go from "green" to "yellow" to "red" and what that can mean to the contractor's liability under that pension plan.

Specific subjects to be covered: What is withdrawal liability? How does it occur? Do your union pension funds have it? Why should you care if your plan has withdrawal liability? Who has to pay for it and when? How is it calculated? How can it be avoided?

This seminar has been planned, presented and sponsored by the Trade Association Partnership or TAP – the new acronym for the informal group of trade associations who serve and represent signatory/union contractors in northern Illinois. Groups participating in this special educational seminar for union contractors include: MARBA, RCEC, PAMCANI, PCA-Chicago, MCA-Chicago, NECA-Northeastern Illinois, CCAGC, the Contractors’ Assn. of Will & Grundy Counties, UCA, SMACNA Chicago, NISMACNA, Fox Valley AGC and LCCA.

ICIC is finally seeing some movement on the state capital program. Governor Quinn recently announced several projects that will use federal Build America Bonds to fund capital expenditures. This program reimburses the states for 35 percent of the bond’s total interest paid to investors. Announced projects include:

In Champaign, the University of Illinois’ historic Lincoln Hall will be renovated. Renovations on the building, which was constructed in 1911, will include necessary electric, HVAC, plumbing and fire alarm system upgrades. The renovation will also include reconfiguring the classrooms, replacing flooring, ceilings and wall finishes, and asbestos abatement. The building has gone without major improvements since 1930. The project will create approximately 350 construction jobs and will be ready to bid in approximately 30 days.

In Murphysboro, SIU Carbondale will construct a new Transportation Education Center. The 279,888 square foot center will include classrooms, library and reference rooms, laboratories, student lounges and a computer center. The project will also build a large passenger plane hangar, fleet storage and an engine testing facility. The project will create approximately 350 construction jobs and will be ready to bid in approximately 60 days.

In Edwardsville, SIU will renovate the existing science laboratory and construct a new 107,884 square foot science facility to accommodate growth of science programs at the university. The new facility will house research and instructional laboratory space, classrooms, offices, and common areas. Renovations to the existing 60,000 square foot facility include upgrading the HVAC, mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems, replacing windows and abating asbestos-containing materials. The project will create approximately 435 construction jobs and the first phase of construction is slated to begin next week.

The State also expects to issue up to $488 million in Qualified School Construction Bonds by the end of the first quarter of 2010. This is the full amount allotted to Illinois by the federal government.

The list of pending non-road projects are listed on ICIC’s website at www.illinoisconstruction.org. This may continue to evolve, LCCA will keep you posted as updates become available.

Applications for LCCA’s 2010 Safety Awards have been mailed to all Contractor Members. Remember, you do not need to be “perfect” to apply. Since your results are compared with national averages, you are not competing against other members, but rather your results are judged against all contractors across the country, doing the same type of work.