ADVOCATING FOR THE INDUSTRY


Spotlight on Special Election: The Newsom Recall


By Felipe Fuentes P


reviously mentioned as a presi- dential hopeful, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom will face a


recall election on September 14, 2021. Newsom will be the second sitting Governor in state history to face a


recall. Te first, Gov. Gray Davis, was recalled after 11 months into his second term in office. Te choice to recall Davis received 55% of the vote and was only the second successful recall of a Governor in American history. Republican Gov. Arnold Schwar- zenegger replaced Davis, having earned


R. F. NELSON


& ASSOCIATES STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS


M


COORDINATION AND COMPLETENESS OF CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS


Owners, developers, contractors and design professionals have expressed concerns about the level in quality of construction documents. Inadequate and/or incomplete design drawings often result in inaccurate competitive bids; delays in schedule; a multiplicity of requests for information (RFIs), change orders and revision costs; increased project costs; and a general dissatisfaction with the project.


The coordination and completeness of documents varies substantially within the design community and among the various disciplines comprising the design team. The goal should be meeting the owner’s/developer’s and the contractor’s needs by producing a complete and coordinated set of Documents.


Owners, developers and contractors generally understand that some changes will occur, because they realize that no set of Documents are perfect. But an effort needs to focus on completeness, coordination, constructability, and the reduction of errors in order to minimize potential changes.


Years of experience observing, making and correcting mistakes have contributed to my expertise at “Design & Coordination Reviews”, as an integral, but often ignored step in providing an economical set of construction documents.


“Design & Coordination Reviews” are intended to catch mistakes before they get to the field. Most design firms, architectural and engineering, have quality control (QC) programs.


In-house reviews by a party not connected with the project are one way to go. Independent third- party reviewers, with experience in this field, will always find additional coordination type mistakes.


There continues to be a gap between the ability of the construction design professional to adequately describe its design and the ability of the construction industry to adequately develop a bid and schedule representative of which it ultimately requires to construct projects.


“Design & Coordination Reviews” should be done on all projects regardless of size. A third-party reviewer is going to see things, that those who prepared the documents will not see. They will save construction dollars.


Give me a call to see if I can help you save some money. 48.58% of the vote on October 7, 2003.


THE RULES Approved by California voters


in 1911, Article II of the California Constitution allows voters to recall and remove elected state officials and justices of the State Supreme Court from office. Often suggested, but seldom successful, there have been 179 attempts to recall state officials since the inception of Article II. In fact, only 11 recall efforts have been successful in collecting the necessary signatures to qualify for placement on the ballot. Of those 11 qualified ballot


measures, six recalls have been successful with the most recent having been the recall of state Senator Josh Newman. Despite being recalled and replaced by Senator Ling Ling Chang in 2018, Senator Newman took back his seat in 2020 and will serve until 2024. California, valuing its “direct


democracy” roots, allows registered voters the ability to propose ballot measures that either enact statutes or recall its elected officials. With nearly 40 million residents, petitioners of ballot measures must collect 12% of the turnout from the last recorded election for governor. To ensure representative state participation, the petition must also include at least 1% of the last gubernatorial vote from at least five of the state’s 58 counties. In normal circumstances, propo-


Ronald F. “Rawn” Nelson, SE2077


24140 Mentr y Dr iv e  Sa n ta Cl a r i t a  CA  9 132 1 T e l: 6 6 1 - 7 5 3- 38 35  F a x: 66 1 - 26 0 - 1 1 7 8 Ema i l : r a wn n @v e r i z on. net


nents of recall petitions have 160 days to collect signatures to qualify a measure for the ballot. However, the global COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for the recall petitioners to file a lawsuit and win an additional 120-day extension of time for signature gathering. As a result, the recall petitioners were successful in securing 1,495,709 valid signatures.


6 September/October 2021 California Constructor


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