After writing twenty-two of these columns, I must confess that the flashes of inspiration that usually deliver a topic have been coming a little slower than they did at first. While I was staring at a blank computer screen, the subject of technology and the impact it has had on our industry seemed appropriate to address.

I remember bid openings in the pre-cell phone, pre-fax machine, pre-email era and just how cumbersome it was to turn a bid in. The key equipment vendors would send a sales rep to the office to deliver the proposal for their equipment the day or night before the bid and then call us shortly before the opening to fill in the blanks on their quote. Now we receive the blank proposal via fax or email. Of course, we still wait until the last second to receive the “final” price.

We used to send someone with our bid form to find a pay phone close to the Village Hall or School District office that looked secure. Then the poor soul would need to guard the phone and call the office every five minutes until he was able to fill in all of the bid form blanks and run into the building to deliver the bid. This was made even more difficult when the bid form had seventeen alternate prices and requirements to list all of the subcontractors. Now the person delivering the bid only needs to find a place in the parking lot with a good cell signal. Then, of course, they need to fill in all of the blanks and sprint into the building ahead of the bid opening time. In either scenario, they need to hope that the official clock in the building matches the clock in their car.

Our pickup trucks and cars used to have two-way radios for communication between field and office and between jobsites. They never seemed to work very well unless the truck was in the perfect location. Now everyone has a cell phone that never seems to work very well unless it’s in the perfect location.

Some dinosaurs, like myself, continue to estimate with colored pencils, a scale ruler, and a pad of paper while technology abounds in the area of estimating software, digitizer boards, and enormous databases of material and labor prices. The problem is that when something is missing, it doesn’t matter whether it was missed manually or digitally, it still means trouble.

I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.

Pat Kirschhoffer, Kirschhoffer Trucking Service and Chair of the LCCA Nominating Committee, presented the following slate of Officers and Directors for 2006 to the Board of Directors at their last meeting.

Mike Henderson, Jos. J. Henderson & Son - President

Micky Day, DK Contractors – 1^st Vice President

Rick Grabowski, Pickus Construction & Equipment –
2^nd Vice President

Lyle Ehlers, Boller Construction Company - Treasurer

Gary L. Dowty, LCCA - Secretary (Non-voting)

Mike Temple, Mechanical, Inc. – Past President

Jim Pickus, Pickus Construction & Equip. - MARBA Director

Tom Hegel, Kelso Burnett - Director

Karen Johnson, Roughneck Concrete Cutters - Director

Paul Nick, Lincoln Financial Advisors - Director

Mike Ryan, H.H. Holmes Testing - Director

Steve Thelen, Thelen Sand & Gravel - Director

Elections will be held at the November Annual Meeting.

The annual trade show on October 27 at Midlane Golf Resort was a great success. Once again we would like to thank the following exhibitors:

API

The Blue Book

Bornquist, Inc.

Burris Equipment

Cingular Wireless

CISCO

Columbia Pipe & Supply Co.

Corporate Imaging Concepts, Inc.

Crissie Insurance Group

Dam, Snell & Taveirne, Ltd.

Lance Construction Supplies

Lee Jensen Sales

McCann Industries, Inc.

Metrolift, Inc.

Northern Illinois Mack/Rockford Kenworth

Ogletree, Deakins

Palatine Oil Co., Inc.

Peterbilt Northern Illinois

Positioning Solutions Company

RKD Construction Supplies & Equipment Inc.

Road Rage Designs

John Sakash Company Inc.

UBS

Waukegan Roofing

Waukegan Steel Sales, Inc.

Zeigler Associates, Ltd.

The 2005 edition of LCCA’s Holiday Party at the Lincolnshire Marriott is scheduled for Friday, December 2, 2005. If you want to attend one of Lake County’s great parties, put your group together and block out the date. For those who have never attended, this is the best entertainment value in Lake County. Great food, drink, conversation and a show that will knock your socks off!!

This is a great opportunity to entertain employees, clients or other special people while leaving the arrangements (and the headaches) to us! Get your tables together soon. CLICK HERE to make your reservation online.

The LCCA Winter Conference to the Marriott Marco Island Resort is getting closer and we need you – to sign up and plan to attend. Hurricane Wilma is history and Marco will be ready to host LCCA when we arrive on March 3, 2006.

Registrations so far include:

Julie Berger & Mark Chamberlin, Berger Excavating

Gary & Sandy Dowty, LCCA

Don & Sheila Mors, Pipe Freezing Services

Scott Nelson, H.H. Holmes Testing

Todd Nelson, H.H. Holmes Testing

Margery Newman, Ogletree, Deakins

Jonathan Pease and Amy Cox, J. Pease, Inc.

Wayne Pratt, Oasis Business Group

Don & Joanne Robison, Waukegan Steel Sales

Mike & Liz Ryan, H.H. Holmes Testing

Mike & Penny Temple, Mechanical, Inc.

The cost is just $1,125 per person double occupancy. You can register (deposit) online at www.lcca-il.org/events .

Next year LCCA will offer Unit 7 – Accident Prevention and Loss Control of the Associated General Contractors (AGC) “Supervisor Training Program.” The seminar will be offered over three days January 12, 13 & 14, 2006.

Our lead instructor will be Wayne Pratt, Oasis Business Group. Wayne’s career in the construction industry spans nearly 25 years. He has worked for some of the largest companies in the power industry, including Combustion Engineering and Westinghouse Electric Company. For the last few years, he has been helping others understand the lessons he learned the hard way.

Assisting Wayne will be several safety and loss control experts from the LCCA Safety Committee. The course will be offered at the College of Lake County. You can register online at www.lcca-il.org/events.  Mark your calendar and plan to take advantage of this unique training opportunity.

LCCA members have been audited by various benefit funds who demanded the payment of all fringe benefit funds on “bonuses” awarded employees for a profitable year.  Here is a classic case of a contractor trying to do something good only to have it come back in his face.

Unfortunately, some contractors illegally “bank hours” worked by employees and pay this out as a bonus to avoid paying fringes.  And everybody pays!

At the very least, you should plan on withholding and submitting fringe benefits from all bonuses and cash rewards given for any reason.  Or make sure you have a signed statement from the employee that the money received is really a bonus and no hours were worked to receive the bonus.

According to MARBA attorney, Charles E. Murphy, Murphy, Smith & Polk, "Discretionary bonus payments not constituting disguised payments for hours worked are not ‘hour worked’ or ‘hour paid’ and thus no contributions need be made to applicable fund trusts."  He does suggest contractors have a written description of the bonus program on file and that this include a statement reflecting management's discretion in making the payments and stipulating that bonus payments are not for hours worked or paid.

Another issue which comes up frequently during a fringe benefit audit is employee requested time off.  Let’s say that an employee comes to the superintendent and asks for a couple hours off on a Friday afternoon to get a head start on the weekend traffic.  The employee then only works 5 hours this day and he is only paid for the five hours.  Problem?  Yes, unless you have documented proof that the employee left work on his own request.

Remember your labor contract requires employees who start work to be paid for some amount of time whether they work or not.  For example, the Operators Building Agreement requires 8 hours pay if the employee starts work.  When the auditor sees a day with something less than a full day recorded on your records, they will assume you owe the remainder and add the wages and fringes to your bill!

To protect yourself, make sure all unpaid time off is documented on the time sheets - preferable with the employee’s signature somewhere acknowledging that the time off is his choice.  A little bit of paperwork now can save you many hours of aggravation later.

The Laborers Union filed a grievance against MARBA alleging that MARBA violated the Laborers Agreement when they signed an agreement with Operating Engineers covering Landscape Work. The grievance was deadlocked at the Grievance Committee and the union has now filed a demand that the issue be arbitrated as provided for in the Laborers Contract. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service will manage the arbitration process and a panel is being selected to hear the complaint.

At the negotiation session on October 6, the parties reached a two-year tentative agreement. The agreement was ratified by the MARBA Board of Directors today. The Union ratified the agreement yesterday. The economic terms are:

Effective June 1, 2005 to May 31, 2006: Wage package increase of $2.50 – journeyman, $2.10 – instrument man and $1.50 – rodman.

Effective June 1, 2006 to May 31, 2007: Wage package increase of $2.75 – journeyman, $2.45 – instrument man and $1.60 – rodman.

The increase will be retroactive to June 1, 2005. The Union has not provided an allocation of the wage package effective June 1, 2005, but the Union has indicated that it should be forthcoming shortly.

This was a particularly difficult negotiation, with several sessions devoted exclusively to discussions about subcontracting. Our thanks to the Technical Engineers Craft Committee that devoted many hours to the resolution of this contract – Chair Jack Telander, Mike Falk and Shawn Kelly.

The General Assembly approved ICIC’s Construction Management bill – SB 518 – by overwhelming margins this year.  The bill was signed by Governor Blagojevich and became effective on August 10, 2005.

The new law will require the Capital Development Board to establish prequalification standards for firms providing construction management services on state construction projects.  It will also clarify that construction management services are considered a professional service and are to be procured using a qualifications-based selection method. 

It further defines construction management services and establishes that a firm or individual operating as a construction manager may not hold the construction contracts of other contractors on the project and may not provide a guaranteed maximum price. 

This is a significant step forward in clarifying the use of construction managers on state construction projects.  ICIC originally sought the language in response to a court decision several years ago that established that construction management services on school construction projects must be competitively bid.  That decision was later overturned by a higher court, but this legislation will help solidify industry standards and practice for the procurement of these services.

ICIC thanks the bill’s sponsors Senator Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) and Representative Skip Saviano (R-River Grove) for their leadership on this issue.

Public Act 94-321 amends the Illinois Labor Dispute Act to permit picketing and other activities on public rights of way. A public right of way is defined as the adjacent portion of a highway or street that accommodates vehicles stopped for emergencies. The activities permitted are picketing, temporary signage, parking of from one to 10 vehicles on the right of way, and erection of tents or other temporary shelters. Those activities aren’t allowed where space is insufficient or on major (Class I) highways.

It isn’t clear where picketing is allowed in relation to an employer’s facilities. The legislation says merely that “the picketing may take place not only at the employer’s main facility, but at job sites as well.” The amendments are effective January 1, 2006.

Illinois has a new Family Military Leave Act, Public Act 94-589 requires employers of 15 or more employees to grant an unpaid leave to an employee whose spouse or child is called into military service for a period of 30 days or more. Employers with between 15 and 50 employees must allow up to 15 days of leave, and employers with more than 50 employees must allow for up to 30 days of leave. To qualify for the leave, an employee must have been employed for at least a year and must have worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months preceding the leave.

Although the leaves needn’t be paid, employee benefits may not be impaired by a leave, and you must make arrangements to allow employees to continue benefit coverage at their expense during the leave. An employee must give at least 14 days advance notice of the leave if he intends to be away from work for five or more consecutive workdays. The legislation took effect August 15, 2005.

The state Environmental Protection Agency is working to draft new administrative guidelines governing the disposal of clean construction demolition debris (CCDD).  The guidelines are necessary to implement new standards established by Senate Bill 431 which was signed by Governor Blagojevich in August.

ICIC has been working with EPA to mitigate the impact on contractors.  As the current draft rules read, contractors would still be permitted to bury CCDD on their construction sites or on another site when filling in ravines or depressed areas.   CCDD material is defined as uncontaminated broken concrete without protruding metal bars, bricks, rock, stone, reclaimed asphalt pavement, or soil generated from construction or demolition activities.

The new standards will only apply in those instances where a contractor or other hauler delivers CCDD material to a fill site such as a quarry or mine.  Quarry operators will now be required to test material being delivered to their sites to verify that it is uncontaminated.  It is anticipated that this requirement will increase costs for those delivering CCDD material, and likely require haulers to travel farther to find an approved site. 

Because of the increased requirements and equipment necessary to comply with the requirements, some smaller mine or quarry operators are closing.  A list of those facilities currently authorized to accept CCDD material can be found on EPA’s website at:  http://www.epa.state.il.us/land/regulatory-programs/permits-and-management/forms/ccdd-report.pdf

Any projects that follow the Illinois Department of Transportation specifications for CCDD fill are exempt from the new requirements.

In the first ever “Project of the Year Award” competition, we received three outstanding entries:

Grayslake Community High School

        Submitted by Kelso Burnett

        Owner: Grayslake Community High School District 127

        General Contractor: Turner Construction Company

Lake Forest Water Treatment Plant Membrane Rehabilitation Project

        Submitted by: Jos. J. Henderson & Son

        Owner: City of Lake Forest

        General Contractor: Jos. J. Henderson & Son

Round Lake Area Sports Center

        Submitted by: Camosy, Inc.

        Owner: Round Lake Area Park District

        General Contractor: Camosy, Inc.

The projects will now be submitted to our judges for a final selection. The winner will be recognized at the Annual Meeting November 17 at the Crown Plaza Mundelein. CLICK HERE to make your reservation.

The first Member Awards Program is in the book and the winners are:

General/Prime Contractor – Jos. J. Henderson & Son

Subcontractor – AirCon Refrigeration & Heating

Supplier – Burris Equipment

Associate – H.H. Holmes Testing Laboratories

According to Awards Committee Chair Rick Grabowski, Pickus Construction & Equipment, almost 50% of LCCA members received a vote and the final results were very close. We will be recognizing the winners at the Annual Meeting November 17 at the Crown Plaza Mundelein. Thanks to all who voted. Your vote does count at LCCA! CLICK HERE to make your reservation.