It’s hard to believe it has been a year already since I took office and that this is my last President’s Message. I think everybody that accepts a leadership position starts with an ambitious, maybe overly ambitious, agenda of things they would like to accomplish during their tenure. I had a few goals in mind last September, but the list seemed to grow and grow. A brief recap of some of our significant accomplishments over the last year includes:
Infrastructure Advocacy
Although ASCE’s advocacy group, Friends of Infrastructure, headed up by Katherine Hon came into being before my term, they have really had an impact in the last year. FOI successfully advocated with City of San Diego for an override of the Mayor’s veto of indirect potable re-use and for RWQCB approval of the Carlsbad desalination project. They were less successful in advocating for proceeding with construction of Regents Road Bridge, where common sense and public safety were derailed by a well organized local community group.
History & Heritage
We have now unearthed all three previously recognized local civil engineering landmarks: Sweetwater Dam, Naval Air Station North Island Hangar Bldg. 340, and Laurel Street Bridge. Photos and descriptions of each will be placed on the website as soon as they are available. Local ASCE members also pitched in and volunteered to help save the historic Villa Montezuma, a local Victorian residence on the National register of Historic Places. Members provided design services, inspected the structure, provided technical support, spoke at public hearings and were instrumental in securing over $1 million in redevelopment and City funds to rehabilitate the iconic structure.
Imperial Valley Branch
One of my personal goals was to reach out to SD Section’s Imperial Valley Branch and engage them in Section activities. We helped arrange lunch programs for the branch, presented a joint lunch program in San Diego featuring projects in the Valley, I personally attended 5-6 of their meetings to give an update on Section activities and we now have an Imperial Valley representative (John Kilps) on the Board. We are also now in the process of organizing Safety Assessment Program (disaster response) training for agencies in the Imperial Valley following the earthquake.
Legislative Activity
Civil engineers usually form most of the silent majority but now that we are feeling more extroverted we are speaking our minds to political decision makers. A group of us had a great trip to Sacramento in February where ASCE Region 9 organized individual meetings with all of our assembly persons and state senators. We had ten minutes to offer our opinions on infrastructure and funding issues, and the legislators and their staffs seemed to appreciate the professional insight. We also sent a representative to Washington, DC to lobby the decision makers in our national capital.
High Speed Train
The largest public works project in California, and maybe the nation, is coming to San Diego and it has issues besides where it will go, how much it will cost and when it will be here. We have raised awareness on the prohibitively costly, but preferred I-15 alignment to Riverside/San Bernardino while ignoring the second most highly traveled rail corridor in the US along the coast between San Diego and LA. We have also noted with interest the very limited representation that San Diego County has on the CA HSRA Board, and that the SD-LA segment has been relegated to the second phase of the project.
Lunch Programs
Tricia McColl has done an excellent job of arranging for quality speakers at our monthly lunch meetings. We have continued the tradition of having joint meetings with our four Technical Groups, Imperial Valley Branch, APWA and SEA. We have also invited sponsors for some of the lunch meetings which provide additional interest and helps defray some of our expenses.
Conferences
Kudos go to the Younger Member Forum, ASCE staff and others for organizing the Western Region Younger Member Council and Workshop for Section and Branch Leaders here in Mission Valley in February. It is an excellent leadership experience in itself and provides a great forum for interaction between the students, younger members and members at large.
Awards
Dean Gipson chaired this years Annual Awards Event, which is widely recognized as the finest event of its kind presented by a local section. Although attendance was off a little bit due to the economy we tightened our belts and everybody had a good time. The little mini-donuts we had after dinner will hopefully be invited back next year.
Finances
Despite the economy our Section is doing well financially and we are continuing to adapt to changing conditions. Our Treasurer Tim Shell is to be recognized for overcoming several new challenges including collecting annual reports from our affiliated groups, implementing audit recommendations and mostly importantly filing newly required tax returns.
