CENTRAL 0
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TO:
MEMORANDUM
Arroyo Grande City Council
Grover Beach City Council
Pismo Beach City Council
Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority Board FROM: Geoff English, General Manager
RE: Supplemental Information - Joint City Council/Board Meeting Agenda Item 6 - Local Hiring Alternatives for Central Coast Blue Construction Contracts
DATE: June 5, 2023
Attached is additional correspondence received today regarding the above referenced agenda item.
c: City Managers
Assistant City Managers
Administrative Services Directors
Public Works Directors
Attorneys
City Clerks
Public Review Binder
CCBRRWA website
Ed Waage
Chair
Plumbers, Pipefitters and Refrigeration Fitters
Local Union No. 403
3710 Broad St. San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Phone: (805) 543-2416 Fax: (805) 541-0251 [email protected] June 2, 2023
Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority
Via Email:
Dear Chair Waage,
I am writing on behalf of the 350 members and their families who make up the San Luis Obispo County Plumbers and Pipefitters Union Local 403. We strongly encourage your agency to adopt a Community Workforce Agreement (CWA) for the Central Coast Blue Project.
The middle wage jobs created by large infrastructure projects like Central Coast Blue are vital to the overall health of our county. It is extremely important that we take full advantage of the opportunity to hire local workers first through a CW A. Absent a CW A there is nothing to prevent out of town employers who may win bids on the project from bringing in crews of workers from out of the area.
These workers come into the area for the project and displace opportunities for local workers and local apprentices. These out of area workers don't live here, they don't pay taxes here, their kids don't go to school here and they don't patronize our local businesses.
At the conclusion of the project, out of town employers leave and take the profits back to their home communities while local workers and our local businesses have missed out on significant work opportunities in their own backyards. The local economy suffers because local businesses are not utilized, local taxes are not received, and local discretionary funds leave the area and don't circulate within our own community.
CW A's have a long history in California, including right here in San Luis Obispo County, of completing large projects on time and on budget. Major infrastructure projects like the South San Luis County Sanitation District Redundancy Project and the San Luis Obispo Water Resource Recovery Facility are successful examples of the benefit of CW A's right here in our county. Both of these projects were bid under a CW A with ample bidders and both have exceeded their goals for the hire of local skilled craft journeymen and apprentices.
If we are to create career pathways for our local kids coming out of High Schools and Cuesta College, we must ensure that we are maintaining these important pathways for apprentices who are the workforce of tomorrow.
The confidence an awarding agency like Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority gains in a partnership with the trades cannot be discounted. The Building Trades represent by far the largest pool of qualified apprentices and journeymen available to a project owner or builder. For a project owner this brings a great amount confidence that a project will be completed on time and on budget and of the highest quality. The Building Trades Craft unions like Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 403 based here in San Luis Obispo County represent the best assurance you can have as a project owner looking for a local skilled pool of journeyman and apprentices. You only need to look at local projects such as Diablo Canyon where we had some 1800 pipefitters working at peak to understand the resources in supplying skilled craft that we maintain.
Local 403 stands ready to build your project and looks forward to putting local journeymen and apprentices to work with our local dollars. If as an agency you have any concerns about having access to a sufficient number of skilled craft, you will insist that a CW A be implemented to ensure you have access to the largest pool and best trained skilled craft in the industry.
On cost we have often heard the worn-out argument that somehow CW A's raise costs. This claim is rather bizarre since prevailing wages are required for all workers on projects like Central Coast Blue regardless of a CW A. Additionally, the costs to administer a CWA have not proven to be significant and when measured against the efficiency gained when the entire project gets under one set of rules and the greater coordination realized through the various subcontractors the benefits of a CW A become even more apparent. For the City SLO WRRF the project owner found that the costs to administer the PLA were deemed "negligent" by SLO City staff.
Please feel free to visit our website at www.ua403.org where you can learn more about the benefits of CW A's by clicking on the drop down menu under community workforce agreements info on the homepage
Thank you,
'[)Mid, ?It, 68~
David Baldwin
Business Manager
Local403
cc: Geoff English, General Manager, Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority cc: Caren Ray Russom, Vice-Chair, Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority cc: Karen Bright, Board Member, Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority cc: Arroyo Grande City Council Members
cc: Grover Beach City Council Members
cc: Pismo Beach City Council Members
June 5, 2023
Ed Waage
Chair
Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority
760 Mattie Road
Pismo Beach, CA 93449
RE: Local Hire Agreement
Dear Chair Waage,
I am writing on behalf of the members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 639 based here in San Luis Obispo County to urge the Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority to enter into a Community Workforce Agreement (CWA) to strengthen our local community, keep our tax dollars local, and put local workers to work.
When there is a CWA on a major project like Central Coast Blue, we can bring in more local apprentices into our training program. A CWA guarantees that local apprentices are utilized on a project creating a career pathway for a local resident to a middle-class job with benefits and a pension. The local hire provision and the apprenticeship usage requirements that are contained within a CWA allow us to scale up our apprenticeship programs so that we have the necessary workers for the projects.
We have two recent local examples of successful CWAs on the South San Luis County Sanitation District Redundancy Project, and the San Luis Obispo Water Resource Recovery Facility were completed with ample bidders and were completed with over 50% local hire on the South San District Project and almost 80% local hire on the SLO WRRF project. We urge you to reach out to your colleagues in Grover Beach, Arroyo Grande, and San Luis Obispo to learn more about these successful projects that are regional success stories.
On behalf of the members of the IBEW Local 639 who are based here in San Luis Obispo County, I urge the Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority to enter into a Community Workforce Agreement to put as many local workers and apprentices as possible to work on the project. We hope (Page 1 of 2)
6363 Edna Rd, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 * (805) 543-5693 the Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority Board shares our goal of increasing local hire, utilizing local apprentices, and putting those development dollars back to work in our community through a CWA.
Thank you very much for your leadership,
Mark Simonin
Business Manager
I BEW Local 639
cc: Geoff English, General Manager, Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority cc: Caren Ray Russom, Vice-Chair, Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority cc: Karen Bright, Board Member, Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority cc: Arroyo Grande City Council Members
cc: Grover Beach City Council Members
cc: Pismo Beach City Council Members
(Page 2 of 2)
6363 Edna Rd, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 * {805) 543-5693 From: Barry Price <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, June 5, 2023 12:10 PM
To: Karen Bright <[email protected]>; Anna Miller <[email protected]>; Daniel Rushing <[email protected]>; Clint Weirick <[email protected]>; CouncilMembers
<[email protected] >; [email protected]: kbarneich@arr oyogrande.org; [email protected]; [email protected]: ksecrest@arro yogrande.org
Subject: Agenda Item #6 - Local Hire
DearCouncilMembera:
Thank you for your leadership in developing a sustainable, high quality, and reliable water supply for the Five Cities. The SLO County Democratic Party (SLOCDP) includes many residents of the Five Cities and south San Luis Obispo County. Our members are local contractors, employees, elected officials, home and business owners, and engaged community members.
We understand that you will be discussing procurement options for the Central Coast Blue recycled water project at your joint city council meeting this evening. The SLOCDP strongly supports Community Workforce Agreements with significant local hire requirements and strong training and safety standards. We encourage you to adopt such labor policies for Central Coast Blue.
Please see the attached letter of support for a community workforce agreement for Central Coast Blue, which has been placed into the public record for your special meeting.
Thank you very much.
Barry Price
Corresponding Secretary -= IMN LUlHlal5PO COUNTY
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Pronouns: He/Him/His/El
One attachment• Scanned by Gmail
June 4, 2023
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To: Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority Board of Directors From: San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party
Subject: June 6, 2023, Board meeting agenda, Item No. 6: Local Hiring Alternatives for Central Coast Blue Construction Contracts
Via email: Geoff English, General Manager, CCBRRWA ([email protected]) Honorable board members and staff:
I'm writing on behalf of the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party (SLOCDP), which supports our local workforce, its right to organize, and its right to compete for local, publicly funded public works projects. The use of local taxpayer and ratepayer money for the employment of local workers is among the SLOCDP's highest priorities.
That said, the hiring of local labor is not - and should not be - a partisan issue. It's a community issue, a human issue, one that deserves robust consideration when public works projects are built on behalf of the people within your jurisdiction.
Your agency's staff report is a good illustration of thoughtful consideration:
Approximately $60 million in infrastructure will be constructed in the first phase of the Project, which presents a significant opportunity to reinvest in the local workforce and economy by prioritizing employment of local workers. To maximize local worker participation, the Partner Agencies included provisions in the Agreement requiring contractors who bid on the Project to make a good-faith effort to employ local workers. In addition to local hire good-faith effort programs, project labor agreements (PLAs), and local hiring mandates can be used to prioritize local worker participation on the Project.
The SLOCDP Party strongly encourages your board to adopt and implement Community Workforce Agreements (CWAs, also known as Project Labor Agreements, or PLAs) in all publicly funded public works projects, this one in particular.
There are many benefits of PLAs or CWAs, including, but not limited to:
• All Community Workforce Agreements benefit the local workforce by utilizing local, non-discriminatory hiring halls for the referral of local workers. • Contractors are selected for the project based on the project owner's qualification
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process. No contractor is excluded based on union affiliation. Both union and non-union construction firms are free to bid and work on the project. • Community Workforce Agreements ensure local dollars stay in the community and that the discretionary dollars produced in the local community will benefit our local business and our local tax base.
• Community Workforce Agreements provide peace of mind to the project owner through a partnership with highly skilled workers and the world-class local training programs that produce them.
• All Community Workforce Agreements benefit veterans through a commitment to utilize the Helmets to Hard Hats Program.
• Other common community benefits that can be addressed through a Community Workforce Agreement target at-risk youth, women in construction, local small business, those previously incarcerated, the homeless and young workers through programs like the "MC3 Apprenticeship Readiness" programs, "we build" and others.
• Community Workforce Agreements provide a uniform framework that encompasses an entire project. This, in turn, ensures maximum efficiency, streamlined administration and ultimately higher production and probability of a project coming in on time, on budget and of the highest quality. • Without a Community Workforce Agreement, out-of-town employers who win bids on local projects are free to import all of their workforce, leaving local workers out of the process, negatively impacting the surrounding community and the local economy.
We thank you for your consideration of this request, and for your dedication to public service in our community.
With kind regards,
s/ Tom Fulks, Chair SLOCDP
916-508-3837
[email protected]
SAN WIS OIIISPO COllNT't
:..DEMOCRATIC
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From: Eric Veium <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, June 5, 2023 4:38 PM
To: [email protected]; Karen Bright <[email protected]>; Anna Miller <[email protected]>; Robert Robert <[email protected]>; Daniel Rushing <[email protected]>; Clint Weirick <[email protected]>; CouncilMembers <[email protected]>; Caren Ray Russom <[email protected]>; [email protected]; lgeorge@arroyogrand e. org; jg uth [email protected]: ksecrest@arroyog rande. org; ewaage@pismobeach. org: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; § [email protected]
Subject: SUPPORT: Central Coast Blue Community Workforce Agreement! Ed Waage
Chair
Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority
760 Mattie Road
Pismo Beach, CA 93449
RE: Local Hire Agreement
Dear Chair Waage,
On behalf of the SLO Climate Coalition, I am writing to urge the Central Coast Blue Regional Recycled Water Authority to adopt a Community Workforce Agreement.
As climate advocates, we see formal support for organized workers, CWAs, as climate action.
In order to rapidly scale implementation of California's clean economy, we must actively support organized workers to grow the skilled workforce through current opportunities -- i.e. the Central Coast Blue Project -- to meet the forthcoming massive growth in clean (water, energy, waste, etc.) economy projects.
If we do not demonstrate our commitment to workers now through CWA agreements, the effect is that confidence will diminish for participants of pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs in the availability of high-road careers paying middle class wages and benefits once they graduate.
Workforce standards contained in a CWA ensure that projects are built by workers with the necessary skills to assure quality and improve project outcomes, while providing safe working conditions, fair pay, and grow the local skilled workforce. A CWA not only ensures that local workers are used to build the project it keeps our tax dollars local and provides a career pathway into a middle class career in construction.
In addition to supporting a CWA on Central Coast Blue projects we urge you to utilize the CWA to create a pathway for graduates of local high schools and community colleges to join local apprenticeship programs so that they can work near where they live and where they went to school.
On behalf of SLO Climate Coalition, we urge you to join us in supporting a local hire Community Workforce Agreement for Central Coast Blue.
Sincerely,
Eric
Eric Veium, CEM, CEP
Chair
SLO Climate Coalition
(805) 835-3669
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericveium/
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