Wednesday, May 30, 2012 7:00 AM • TUCA Office 1842 West Grant Road, Suite 103
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 7:00 AM • Location~ to be notified by email
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 8:00 AM • Location to be notified by email
Tuesday, June 19, 2012 7:00 AM • CERTEX USA - 4360 E. Tennessee Street
TUCA LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP
Last month, the TUCA Board of Directors, approved unanimously an official procedures to elected Lifetime Members. Over the years we have met and were luckily to work with many individuals who have advanced TUCA’s mission and spent countless hours volunteering with us. As you know, we nominate and select awards each year and this will be an addition to the awards that we announce each January. We will make an announcement each year to accept nominations. We think this will properly honor those who really have made a difference in our association.
CONGRESS TO DISCUSS TRANSPORTATION
House and Senate leaders have appointed their conferees, setting the stage for the start of negotiations on a surface transportation reauthorization proposal when Congress returns from recess this week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appointed 14 senators – eight Democrats and six Republicans – and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.) appointed 33 representatives – 20 Republicans and 13 Democrats. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairperson Barbara Boxer (D-Cal.), who will serve as the conference committee Chair, has scheduled the first official meeting of the conference for today, May 8.
The conference committee will be charged with working out the differences between H.R. 4348, a 90-day extension of the current surface transportation authorization that includes environmental streamlining provisions, approval of the XL oil pipeline and other provisions with the Senate's two-year $109 billion comprehensive bill, MAP-21.
The meeting of the conference committee on May 8 will largely be ceremonial, consisting mostly of opening statements by most, if not all 47 members of the conference committee. Meanwhile much of the initial work of reconciling differences on underlying transportation issues will be conducted out of the public eye by the staffs of the committees of jurisdiction. Some of these preliminary talks have already begun.
PROCUREMENT UPDATE
We are still in the exploring stages of a new SBE formula. As we once stated, we have worked with the Regional Transportation Authority, the City of Tucson and others to find common ground on making the SBE Program a bit more realistic when it comes to goal setting. Some of us from the Committee met to discuss the Downtown Links project. It appears that the City is looking more carefully at businesses that may not be able to do the work that is needed to complete the project. Remember, this is what TUCA has been requesting all this time. We are still waiting for a few more projects before we come back to the drawing board to decide if this new calculation will work for everyone.
I also sat down with Pima County, Hope Sikora, to get a better understanding of the County’s process. Chris Albright, with KE & G Construction, TUCA’s President, joined me to listen in. What we found to be the biggest difference from the County and City process is that the County considers SBE’s bidding capacity. Meaning, they check to see if an SBE can complete the work and have the capacity to do so; and if they find reason they cannot, they are not considered into the SBE calculation. The City currently does not do this step, which makes for a huge disparity between the two jurisdictions. This step is crucial to developing SBEs and not creating an environment where they are overextended due to the goals set. I’d like to see TUCA help the City and County find consolidation efforts and make the two jurisdictions more consistent.
