CELSOC Changes Name to American Council of Engineering Cos.

The Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California is finally joining American Council of Engineering Cos.’ national family.

Effective July 1, CELSOC will officially change its name to American Council of Engineering Cos. of California. The 1,200-firm CELSOC was already a state affiliate member of the national ACEC, but for a number of years – and a number of reasons -- put off the name change.

Alan D. Crockett, spokesman for ACEC, says that with California onboard, only one other affiliate has yet to make the change – the Texas Council of Engineering Cos.

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Including Texas and California, ACEC has a total of 5,700 member private firms.

ACEC California Executive Director Paul Meyer says that by adopting the national name, ACEC California will “gain prestige, power and name recognition.”

“Incorporating the national backing and scope of the American Council of Engineering Cos. into our organization’s name will have an instant impact on both our legislative efforts and our membership recruitment,” says Meyer. “As our organization continues to grow here in California and across the nation, we need to adapt to local needs and still meet an increasing number of local, national and global challenges. ACEC’s primary job is to be the voice for private sector engineers and land surveyors in this state, and also around the country and the world.”

ACEC California has been actively involved in a number of state issues of late, especially the brouhaha concerning public-private partnerships and design-build, which the group advocates but public employees don’t.

Other issues the council is working on include infrastructure improvement, speedy project delivery and the creation of needed new housing. The California council offers experts in the areas of public facilities, energy, transportation, water, land use, sustainability, environmental permitting and geotechnical engineering (seismic and geological hazards).

Meyer says the organization is also widely known for its sponsorship of Prop. 35 in 2000 -- a measure that provides private consulting engineering firms with greater access to public works contracts in California.

Meyer says that with a national organization now behind his council, the increased clout in Sacramento will be significant.

“Politically, if we are successful on a number of issues, then we can reinforce the national movements,” he adds.

ACEC California’s current fight is getting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s push for performance-based infrastructure programs (basically the same as P3s) passed as law. After 18 months of effort, an Assembly Bill (2278; Anna Caballero, D-Salinas) calling for PBIs passed through to the Appropriations Committee, where it will be debated and possibly voted on prior to the end of August, when the state budget is due.

“We are all for supporting local governments to have the ability to get these PBI projects going, and this bill (which supplies consulting and legal services from the governor’s Office of Planning and Research, not an entirely new bureaucracy) is the right way to go,” Meyer says.

The main opposition to the bill, however, is coming from a group of state engineers called the Professional Engineers in California Government. PECG considers P3s, PBIs and design-build project delivery to be boondoggles and “a waste of taxpayer’s money,” according to its executive director, Bruce Blanning.

Being installed as ACEC California’s first president, also on July 1, under its new moniker is Bill Green, senior vice president/regional manager at RBF Consulting in Temecula. Green says his goal during his one-year term is to get the membership up to date on sustainability trends.

“Let’s determine the role of the engineer and surveyor when it comes to sustainability,” he says. “Let’s take a leadership role and look at the realities.”

Meyer adds that while green building is blossoming across the spectrum of project types in California, local governments, and even the state itself, should be flexible when it comes to standards.

“The last thing we need are inflexible mandates – follow LEED gold standards only, something like that,” says Meyer.

Green says a subcommittee under the Land Use and Environment Committee will tackle the sustainability issue.

Another issue the ACEC California will address is the state’s expected shortage of engineers. Last year, the council launched a grassroots campaign to recruit future engineers and surveyors for California’s workforce. It made a four-minute DVD (which, Meyer says, cost about $100,000) and sent it to the state’s middle and high schools.

“It’s designed to intrigue teens to investigate the engineering and surveying professions,” says Meyer. “We play it at job fairs and we also got it on YouTube.”

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