Does this look like your computer? In 1954 scientists from the Rand Corporation created this model to illustrate how a “home computer” would look in the year 2004. The scientists readily admitted that the computer would require not yet invented technology to actually work!

We sure have surpassed what they thought could be accomplished in a short 50 years! But what “if” these same people, being told that this technology wasn’t available - it just can’t be done, just gave up? Think how different our lives would be now.

I can’t. It can’t. – I REALLY dislike the word “can’t”. Why? Most of the time it is a cop-out. The minute you say those words “I can’t” – you won’t. The mind has already determined that it is not possible. But is it REALLY not possible? Or, is it just hard - may take a lot of work - a lot of planning – or, maybe you just don’t want to do it? I read somewhere that many of our greatest leaders/innovators removed that word “can’t” from their vocabulary.

In today’s world we have many challenges that face us. I hear many ask what can I do? I can’t do anything. It is only ME – NOT SO. You CAN do many things. Wherever your passions or interests lie, there is a group or committee working to achieve these same ideals or goals. One person MAY have a difficult time realizing changes but when many join together, much can be accomplished. So, when one of those challenges rears up to confront you, try not to say “I can’t”. Think of all possibilities, as these scientists did. Your first draft might not be exactly right, but your finished project will probably do you proud.

Once again, several LCCA Members have graciously agreed to sponsor the Golf Outing. Sponsors to date include:

Waukegan Roofing
Burris Equipment
Northern IL Mack

Chicago Area LECET
H.H. Holmes Testing Laboratories

NorStates Bank
U.S. Cellular
I.B.E.W. Local 150

Aldridge Electric
Patten Construction Products

Air Con Refrigeration & Heating, Inc.
Avalon Petroleum Co.
The Blue Book
Blue Boy Portable Toilets
Burris Equipment
Camosy, Inc.
Chicago Area LECET
J.J. Henderson & Son , Inc.
H.H. Holmes Testing Laboratories
I.B.E.W. Local 196
Iron Workers Union, Local 63
Lance Construction Supplies
McCann Industries
Meyer Material
MK Industries Inc.
Northern Illinois Mack
W.B. Olson, Inc.
Sprinkler Fitters Local 281, U.A.
Thelen Sand & Gravel, Inc.
Vulcan Construction Materials
Waukegan Roofing

P.O. Box 400
611 S. Milwaukee Avenue
Libertyville, IL 60048
Phone: (847) 996-1350
Fax: (847) 680-9756
ASSOCIATE
Bogdan Martinovich, Partner
Law firm.
Sponsor: Charlene Manusos, Manusos General Contr.

5-25-77, LLC

P.O. Box 9
Gurnee, IL 60031
Phone: (310) 990-2038
ASSOCIATE
Patrick R. Johnson, Director/Manager
Maker of fine movies and industrial films.
Sponsor: Marc Gilman, J.J. Henderson & Son, Inc.

Allan Pickus, Pickus Construction & Equipment, has lined up the following members to help plan LCCA’s 60^th Anniversary Celebration:

Jim Becker, Jr. - Becker Electric
Steve Dalbec – Jos. J. Henderson & Son
Mike DeNinno – Lake County Grading
Lyle Ehlers – Boller Construction Co.
Rick Grabowski – Pickus Construction & Equip.
Mike Ryan – H.H. Holmes Testing
Suzanne Zupec – Campanella & Sons

LCCA’s November Annual Awards Meeting will also celebrate LCCA’s 60^th Anniversary. The Extravaganza will take place on Friday, November 2, 2007, in the heart of Lake County at The Ivanhoe Club in Ivanhoe, IL.

Starting at 6:00 pm, the evening will feature a one-hour hosted cocktail reception, followed by a wonderful dinner with wine. Program Committee Chair Mike Ryan, H.H. Holmes Testing, explains, “The program will include a celebration of LCCA’s 60^th Anniversary and the presentation of LCCA’s Annual Awards followed by Las Vegas-style entertainer Vito Zato. All at the beautiful Ivanhoe Club. This is the must attend event of the year!”

Ticket prices will be approximately $140 per person. Please keep in mind that this event will take the place of LCCA’s Annual Awards Dinner and the Holiday Party.

Greg Greenhill, Greg Greenhill Construction, has been appointed to replace Gary Dowty on Cement Masons Local 11 Apprenticeship Program’s Board of Trustees. Mr. Dowty served on the fund since 1996 and was Chairman of the Board for the last 5 years.

In another action, President Day has appointed Mr. Dowty to replace Ed Stuckey, Stuckey Construction, on the Local 11-362 Benefit Funds and he will join Vince Caravetta, Car Min Construction, and Dave Henderson, Joseph J. Henderson & Son, on the Fund’s Board of Trustees.

If you book your trip to Cancun before September 12, you can save $50 per person. And spend the money before you leave since the trip is all-inclusive and you will not need it at Le Blanc Spa Resort. There are also many air fare deals to be had online or you can check with Marcy Gelber at Travel by Marcy if you need help. But the bottom line is to book early. As fuel prices rise, air tickets will probably go up. Plan ahead and you will save money. The details:

Date:    January 10-14, 2008
Location: Le Blanc Spa Resort, Cancún, Mexico
Cost:    $1,350 per person double occupancy
           (Land only, ALL INCLUSIVE)
Air:        Assistance with air transportation is available from Travel by Marcy.
            Call Marcy Gelber at (847) 597-5911 for more information.

Le Blanc Spa Resort is an adults-only resort that perfectly blends the elements of beauty, luxury and tranquility creating the ideal atmosphere in which you can totally immerse yourself and release all your worries. The conference also features two seminars to feed the mind. And plenty of food and beverages are included in the package price.

Congratulations – LCCA congratulates Don Carlson, the recently elected Business Manager for IBEW Local 150 and Lynn Karner, elected Business Manager for Plumbers Local 93. We look forward to working with both to improve labor relations in Lake County.

MARBA Concludes Negotiations with Operators – MARBA has successfully concluded negotiation with the Operators Local 150 that resulted in a 3-year agreement. Many thanks to LCCA member John Vignocchi, John Keno & Company, one of the lead negotiators. In addition, we would like to thank the following LCCA members of the MARBA Operators Craft Committee for their contributions of time and talent:

Dick Day, DK Contractors
Larry Hill, Ryan, Inc.
Rick Noe, Curran Contracting Co.
Steve Thelen, Thelen Sand & Gravel
Bill Vignocchi, John Keno & Co.
Mike Wysockey, Thatcher Foundations

Know Your (Operators) Contract Seminar August 15 – MARBA is presenting a seminar to review the changes in the Operating Engineers Contracts on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 from 8:00 - 10:00 a.m. at the Fountain Blue Banquets at 2300 S. Mannheim Road in Des Plaines.

The panel that will review the changes and answer your questions includes:

John Vignocchi, John Keno & Company
Dave Rock, IHC Construction
Joe Benson, Central Blacktop
Chuck Murphy, Ogletree, Deakins

This seminar will benefit contractors and their field personnel in understanding the terms and conditions of the contract. The cost to attend this program is just $25 and is free for MARBA Craft Committee Members. To register, call the LCCA Office at (847) 623-2345 or CLICK HERE to register online.

Labor Costs Now Set - Almost all the unions have settled and made distributions for their increases. Here are the unions ranked by their total annual wage/benefit packages:

                                Increase                  Total Package

Ironworkers, Local 1                    3.00               $ 62.94 +
Electricians, Local 150                 2.957              $ 60.518 +
Operating Engineers, #150 Build    3.70                $ 60.48 +
Operating Engineers, #150 HHU     3.70                $ 58.68 +
Ironworkers, Local 63                  3.00                $ 58.06
Sheet Metal Workers, Local 73      3.20                $ 57.88 +
Plumber’s, Local 93                       3.40               $ 57.42
Sprinkler Fitters #281                    3.00               $ 56.90
Pipefitters, Local 597                    3.25                $ 57.61
Heat & Frost Insulators, Local 17    3.50                $ 56.33
Cement Masons, Local 11-362        3.25                $ 54.06
Carpenters, Commercial                 3.25                $ 54.27 +
Glaziers, Local 27                         3.25                $ 53.87
Bricklayers, Distr. Council               3.20               $ 53.81 +
Tile Layers, #67                          3.10                $ 51.06
Painters District Council #14          2.40                $ 50.04 +
Roofer’s #11 - $1.45 due 12/1/04   2.75                $ 46.27
Laborers District Council                3.00                $ 47.27
Automobile Mechanics #701           2.00                $ 42.39
Teamsters, Local 301 (Group 1)      1.85                $ 41.63

The average increase this year was $2.99, an 8.6% increase from 2006. Meanwhile, the Total Package, wages and fringes together, increased only 6% from 2006. It is interesting to note that more and more money is being distributed to the benefit funds. Total Packages with a “+” following the dollars indicates more than half the distribution went to H&W and Pension.

Union Audits – What is Required? – All union contractors are subject to being audited by the unions they are signatory to. The question we get asked most frequently is “What can they ask me to produce?” The following will help answer this question.

Record Production During The Audit - Although the precise course of fringe benefit fund audit depends on the particular fund and its auditors, there are certain business records that most auditors will request. Some are fair game - others are not. The following checklists provide a summary of the more typical categories of documents sought in an audit and which ARE "fair game".

Company tax records, including quarterly and annual payroll tax returns (e.g., Form 941, annual form W-2 and W-3, Form 1099, and state quarterly unemployment tax returns (Form UC-3).

Payroll journals/registers showing employee's social security number, hourly rates, hours worked, and total income.

Time cards/sheets showing the hours and days worked by each employee.

Company general ledger.

Cash disbursement journal/records.

Contribution reports to all unions representing the employer's employees.

Subcontracting records, showing the identity of the contractor, the nature of work performed and location, the amounts paid under the contract, and related 1099's.

Accounts payable register/journal.

Certified payrolls for publicly-funded jobs subject to either Davis-Bacon Act or Illinois Prevailing Wage Act.

Employee personnel files, to the extent necessary to show identifying information, rates of pay, job classifications, and the like.

Cancelled checks/bank records for company payroll accounts, miscellaneous disbursements and accounts payable.

Corporate books/minutes showing company ownership and compliance with "corporate formalities".

Records pertaining to commonly owned businesses engaged in same/similar industry.

Workers compensation insurance payment data.

The following records customarily would not be subject to production in a fringe benefit audit (keeping in mind that depending on the facts of a case, a court might order "far reaching" document production):

Company owners' personal tax returns and records (unless employer is a partnership or sole proprietorship).

Company managers and spousal personal investment and/or ownership records.

Confidential employee personnel information (e.g., medical records, workers compensation case records, ADA-compliance information).

Company trade secrets/related information.

Records of commonly-owned unrelated companies which are engaged in different work than the signatory company. (NOTE: as in many alleged "alter ego" cases, payments from the signatory company to other commonly-owned business are a "red flag" for auditors which may justify a review of the other company's records).

Personal bank records of company owners.

Company records beyond the period called for in the audit letter, and/or beyond the statue of limitations (which may be between 5 and 10 years).

The state budget is still up in the air as of this writing. One of the main hopes to improve transportation funding is a .25% sales tax increase for Cook and the Collar Counties. But several issues involving the CTA stand in the way including the bail-out of the CTA Pension system that the collar counties are not willing to do.

According to Lake County Partners, in a very exciting development Mayor Richard Daley has agreed that the City Council will levy a real estate transfer tax at a rate high enough to pay the cost of the CTA pension and Health Care bond. This is an essential component of the CTA Pension reform plan which has been endorsed by all of the state's business groups as a major step forward.

What this means is that the City is stepping up to the plate and taking care of this problem on its own so there can no longer be any thought that the suburbs and Collar Counties are being asked to "bail out" the CTA pension fund. While this takes some heat off of legislators who don't want to vote against the real estate lobby, it puts the onus on the Chicago City Council, which is also sensitive to real estate interests. The Council will not be a slam-dunk for CTA, even with the Mayor's support. CTA will be required to prove their need and may wind up with something less than the full real estate tax authorization. But this move says to Chicago, either pass a real estate transfer tax for the CTA or use your other home rule powers to raise the necessary revenues.

Without the CTA pension, the formula for distributing the regional funds changes from 60% CTA, 30% Metra, 10% Pace - to 39% Metra, 13% Pace and down to 48% for the CTA. In terms of the Collar Counties, they contribute $121M and Metra and Pace combined get $163M plus Pace gets $100M for para-transit region wide. For the first time City money will flow to the suburbs. 52% of the $60M proceeds from the City portion of the .25% sales tax.

The extra .25% sales tax in the Collar Counties is definitely part of the package and the bill provides that the Department of Revenue will forward the proceeds directly to the counties for any transportation purpose which includes roads.