The SAUSD School Board is going to vote on a controversial union-only Project Labor Agreement this Wednesday, at their regularly scheduled board meeting. This comes a week after the Santa Ana City Council unwisely passed their own PLA on large public works projects.
PLAs are the most controversial issue in the construction industry today. They have in fact been banned in 25 states and 11 entities in California. Continue reading
The Rancho Santiago Community College District’s (RSCCD) Board of Trustees met tonight and the biggest issue on their plate was allegations that they have violated the Brown Act by negotiating PLA terms in closed session.
A PLA is a Project Labor Agreement. These agreements typically ban non-union contractors from bidding on public works – in this case we are talking about the $198M bond measure Q, that was passed last year to fund construction projects at Santa Ana College. (This after millions of our dollars were wasted on the previous RSCCD Measure E – when that money was mostly spent on the campus in the Orange Hills. A PLA delayed Measure E projects and drove them over-budget).
Trustee Phil Yarbrough, who is a Republican, accused the Democrat-dominated RSCCD Board of violating the Brown Act by negoiating PLAs in closed session. Continue reading
Help Stop Jose Solorio From Illegally Hiding His $29 Million Taxpayer Give-Away To Special Interests
By: Dave Everett, Government Affairs Director, Associated Builders and Contractors, SoCal
Help stop RSCCD Trustee Jose Solorio from illegally hiding his $29 million taxpayer give-away to special interests! It is being voted on TOMORROW, TUESDAY 11/12/2013 at 4pm.
It seems the Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) Board of Trustees has been violating California’s open meeting laws (also known as “The Brown Act”) by negotiating a discriminatory union agreement on their nearly $200 million dollar Measure Q bond passed by voters in November 2012. No mention of this wasteful special interest deal was of course ever made when selling this to the citizens – and now the public is being purposefully kept out of the debate. Continue reading
The Trustees of the Rancho Santiago Community College District have completed voting to rip us off. How so you ask? They have voted to enter into a union-only Project Labor Agreement (although they chose to call it something else, that is what it is) with regard to the Bond Measure passed last November, ostensibly for construction projects at Santa Ana College. (It should be noted that Trustees Phil Yarbrough and Arianna Barrios as well as the Student Trustee Ryan Ahari voted against the PLA!).
What this means is that the RSCCD is going to hire only contractors who hire from union halls. While it is true that Santa Ana College has a number of union-only apprenticeship programs their dirty little secret is that it is very difficult to get into those programs and most of the union workers that will end up working at Santa Ana College will not in fact be apprentices. And the RSCCD will not allow non-union apprentices to work on these projects. What all this adds up to is that they are going to waste our tax money to the tune of at least 15%. Continue reading
The Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Trustees voted 5-2 tonight to authorize their Chancellor to negotiate a Project Labor Agreement with the Los Angeles/Orange County Building Trades Council.
Impressively their Student Trustee, Ryan Ahari, voted against this debacle. I am told he is a fan of Ron Paul. He might be the smartest Trustee! His vote doesn’t count unfortunately. Republican Phil Yarbrough and Arianna Barrios were the only no votes.
What does this mean? It means that the RSCCD will hire only union contractors when spending the Measure Q bond money that is coming from our property taxes. This means they will have less bidders, as non-union contractors will be shut out. That means higher prices – which is to say that our tax money will be wasted in order to feather the union members’ nests.
Several of the Trustees said some incredibly stupid and incorrect things in the process. John Hanna, who told me a few years ago that he would never again vote for a PLA, tried to change the name of this deal from a PLA to a “community and student workforce agreement.” He admitted though that it was still the same deal – a union only PLA. The board voted unanimously to change the name of this disaster. But it is still a PLA.
Jose Solorio tried to delay the vote, sensing that he was giving a huge gift to his GOP opponent for the 34th State Senate District, Janet Nguyen. That didn’t fly either.
Hanna said that PLAs are important for safety. I have to call BS on that. Every contractor abides by the same Cal/OSHA standards.
Hanna also said PLAs equate top quality work. This guy really has no clue. Public construction projects have very tight specifications. Every bidder has to agree to do the work as it is mandated, using the same techniques and materials. And there are inspections at every step.
Solorio said that the non union contractors would now have the same benefits as the union shops. No. The workers will have to get into a union hall, which is damn hard to do, and they they will have to pay dues that they will never see in the future as they will just go back to non union contractors after the work is over.
Solorio also said that PLAs save money. Another lie. All public works contractors pay the same salary rates, and the lowest bidder always wins. But with a union only PLA there will be no non union bidders. The union contractors have to abide by silly work rules that just delay project completion and add unwarranted costs to these projects. Money gets wasted, not saved!
The unions will now pony up some of their dues money for Solorio’s campaign. Well, good luck to him. There is no way I am backing Nguyen but I am now quite unenthusiastic about Solorio. He voted to waste our money tonight and that is simply inexcusable.
This blog had over 5,000 views last November 6. My OC Politics blog had over 3,000 views on that same day. I now publish Anaheim and Fullerton blogs too. Every one of these blogs will now be pointing out Solorio’s shortcomings, through the general election in 2014. These blogs totalled over 70,000 views in the month of March, 2013. Sorry Jose. We don’t reward ineptitude.
The Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Trustees are meeting tonight to consider a busy agenda that includes “Approval to Negotiate a Project Labor Agreement Action.” The administration of the RSCCD is recommending authorization be given to their Chancellor to negotiate a Project Labor Agreement with the Los Angeles/Orange County Building Trades Council.
Some people never learn! We warned Santa Ana voters last year not to vote for Measure Q – the latest bond measure of the RSCCD, which will increase our property taxes in order to supposedly pay for construction at the Santa Ana College campus. We already had approved a previous bond measure, Measure E, which the RSCCD wasted on the Santiago Canyon campus in Orange and on the construction of the O.C. Deputy Sheriff Training center (which was not needed with about five such centers within half an hour of Orange County).
In 2003, the RSCCD Trustees placed a union-crafted Project Labor Agreement (PLA) on all Measure E bond work. Measure E had been passed by voters in 2002 with no hint of a controversial PLA would be used. Voters were not warned about a PLA regarding Measure Q either!
Will Solorio lead the charge for a union-only PLA on Measure Q projects?
The Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Board of Education will be quite different once their new Trustees are sworn in. For the first time that I can remember the Board will be majority Latino with only two holdovers in Phil Yarbrough and John Hanna.
The rest of the Trustees are Latinos – Arianna Barrios; Nelida Yanez; Jose Solorio and Claudia Alvarez. Three of them are Democrats. Barrios however is an independent who is very tight with the Orange County Republicans – and she does public relations work for Anaheim Council Member Kris Murray, another Republican. Continue reading