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District Development #5- This covers the week from December 1 - December 15, 2017. It provides a recap of the major events happening in each district that we feel the members need to be aware of/kept up to date. This article covers Baton Rouge, the Southwest District (Lafayette & Lake Charles), New Orleans, and the Northwest Region. From the CEO: Highway Division – Just this morning the Special legislative task Force on Dedicated Funds had DOTD up. They approved to NOT to undedicated any Constitutional or Statutory funds for DOTD, which includes the Transportation Trust Funds. According to DOTD they Finance Department is dealing with about 15 – 20 late payment projects daily. We have work with them to see if there is a pattern or a single source of problem. The reasons for the late payments are very random. Some of the reasons are contractor related. Certified payroll, incomplete submittal of pay request, etc., are some of the contractor related reasons for late payments. The one constant is if a project involves a third party, i.e., a municipal agency that’s party to the contract. Building Division – AGC is developing a template to submit to Facility Planning for the items to be covered when paying general conditions. Too, the industry is developing another template that the State would use in the payment of benefits and labor burden. Flood Control/Levee Protection Division – AGC attended a session on the proposed CPRA performance based contract award. This is limited to a $250 million dredging contract. The 25 year contract will pay out on an annual bases the wetland mitigation produced by the contractor, with a max of 1,000 acres per year. Acreage washed away by a storm or lost to additional erosion would be reimbursed by the contractor to the State. For more information call LAGC Headquarters at 225-344-0432 Northwest: Our LAGC Chapter leadership will be meeting on December 18th with Shreveport AGC to further the discussions of the potential merger of the two chapters. Everything looks very positive and we are very excited to bring on the potential new addition. We will keep our members informed as we get closer to any finalization. For more information please contact Michael Demouy at michaeld@lagc.org BATON ROUGE: Louisiana AGC was recently involved in a two meetings that are looking at Project Delivery methods and specifically going away from the Low Bid model in a couple of instances. The first meeting was a task force that was created by Legislation earlier this year to look at Alternate Delivery methods. This task force has yet to come up with any new or innovative ideas, but is looking at expanding the use of CM At Risk. The task force readily agreed that this Project Delivery Method has been successful in its infancy. Interested parties in the room are looking to Louisiana AGC to help draft Legislation that would slightly lower the $25M threshold for projects and doing away with the pilot program for smaller projects. Louisiana AGC is staying at the forefront of these discussions to be sure the Contracting community is in agreement with any changes that are made. The second meeting that Louisiana AGC attended was held by CPRA and their new program to enter into Performance based contracts. This meeting was held to inform interested parties on how the program works and was looking to receive feedback before meeting again early next year. CPRA is looking to mitigate some of their long term risk on these projects and this program does exactly that. Louisiana AGC remains cautious about the amount of risk that is being shifted to the contractor with some of these contracts going out 25 years. AGC does acknowledge the program seems to work in other states and will continue to monitor the progress as we move closer to projects being let. Earlier in the week Louisiana AGC representatives met with our 401(k) Advisory Committee to take a look at the AGC 401(k) Multiple Employer Plan. As we close out the year the plan is nearing $300M with nearly 100 companies representing the Houston and Louisiana AGC Chapters. Lastly, the Legislative Committee met in Baton Rouge to take a look at the upcoming Legislative session. Louisiana AGC will attempt to pass legislation to address all of the late payments from Public Owners around the state. This language is being written now and AGC would welcome any feedback regarding late payments around the state. As always AGC will keep an eye out for attempts by others to further restrict or change our industry. For additional information please contact Michael Demouy at michaeld@lagc.org LAFAYETTE: The Lafayette Clay Shoot Committee recently presented Maddie’s Footprints with a check for $13,250. This was the most successful charity event that LAGC put on this year and that is due to the hard work of the clay shoot committee and the large hearts of the Lafayette contracting community. You should all be proud of yourselves. As businesses begin to slow down for the holidays I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. For additional information please contact David Landreneau at davidl@lagc.org LAKE CHARLES: Direct Care of Southwestern Louisiana (Autism Society) was presented a check this week for $1,500 from the Lake Charles AGC Clay Shoot. Weather factors played a big factor in the check amount being somewhat less that it has been in the past. I have every confidence that our next event will get us back to where we have always been next year. And speaking of next year, as businesses begin to slow down for the holidays I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. For additional information please contact David Landreneau at davidl@lagc.org NEW ORLEANS: Happy Almost Christmas from the New Orleans District! Although significant happenings are taking a back seat to holiday parties and new year resolutions currently, news form the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board is slowly developing. As of December 13th, the remains no concrete leadership in place. Rainwater and his team have either abandoned their posts or are on a limited part time status. Despite this, the Board continues to begin the process of letting maintenance contracts for S&WB infrastructure. Three projects were before the Construction Review Committee the last time we met, a day ago. Conversations are ongoing with the incoming administration and I will update you as talks progress. Please, if you have not already, register for the upcoming Critical Issues Summit occurring in early February. Thank you for your time and I will continue to serve you in the New Orleans area. For additional information please contact Andre Kelly at andrek@lagc.org