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Delegate Report
AIA California Council January Board Meeting
by Jeff Gill, AIA
Kevin Fleming, AIA, Jim Wirick, AIA, Cheryl Steele, AIAOC executive director, and I attended the AIA California Council board meeting in Sacramento on January 30th. The following is a summary of the day’s events, much of which focused on the change in state leadership and its impact on our profession:
Presentation by Stephan Castellanos, FAIA, California State Architect – Prior to taking on the task as State Architect four years ago, the Division of the State Architect (DSA) was in disarray. Under his direction, the role of DSA has gone from a super center for plan checking to the development of regulation for the construction of better facilities. His focus is to be proactive rather than reactive in reforming current policies regarding better communities. Under Steve’s direction, schools will continue to be bonded at a significant rate furthering California’s economic growth (side note: Steve is vp/president elect to AIA California Council for 2005).
Presentation by Fred Aguiar, Secretary, State and Consumers Agency – In this new administration, Fred has taken on the role of head of General Services, which is California’s supermarket of agencies. His goal is to bring accountability back to government. To accomplish this, Fred is assembling a team of 120-150 state leaders as a “reform think-tank” to end the status quo and “deal” with state issues. This is in keeping with our new governor and his pursuit of economic growth and recovery/stability of the state’s fiscal budget.
Presentation by Richard Castegan, Secretary of Legal Affairs – Richard reviewed the upcoming ballot measures and their impact to our industry. In brief, Proposition #57 is balloted to reorganize the state’s debt; Proposition #58 is balloted to tear up the state’s credit card. AIACC highly recommends you support these propositions.
Fred also reviewed basic commitments from the new administration. These include:
- A commitment to a balanced budget
- A commitment to retaining jobs and job growth
- Focus on keeping business in the State of California particularly through the reformation of Workers Compensation.
- A focus on true reform – not incremental process with minor cuts.
- The continued stance from our governor that “I will not raise taxes.”
Other items reviewed during the day included a status of recent bills. These can be reviewed on the AIACC website www.aiacc.org , but some of interest to all are noted below:
- Pay-if-paid – further support dropped as current law meets AIA criteria.
- Sales Tax on Services – AIA is opposed but to date this proposal has not reached legislation (a lot of opposition!).
I look forward to reporting to you on the upcoming March Grassroots and other AIACC meetings.
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