2014 Annual Report. Reviewing the Past, Direction to the Future. Dave Bender, ACEC-Illinois Executive Director

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1 2014 Annual Report Reviewing the Past, Direction to the Future Dave Bender, ACEC-Illinois Executive Director Chicago Transit Authority Elevated Tracks The purpose of ACEC-Illinois is to assist members in achieving higher professional, business and economic standards, thus enabling them to provide better consulting engineering services to their clients.

2 Introduction 2014 was a year replete with major challenges that called for determination and perseverance from our membership and staff. It was also a year that brought about change in the political landscape of our state resulting in new leadership for The incoming administration pledges innovation, fresh perspective, and partnership in the crucial effort to rebuild our state s deteriorating infrastructure. The Continuing Prevailing Wage Battle For the second consecutive year, ACEC-Illinois continued to wage the campaign against erosion of the engineering and surveying professions by the Illinois Department of Labor, International Operating Engineers Local 150 and the Chicago Laborers Union. As those forces actively sought a statewide prevailing wage for surveyors and tried to add more counties for material testers, ACEC-Illinois responded. In October our legal coalition consisting of ACEC- IL, AGCI, ISPE, IPLSA, IRTBA, and UCA engaged in a two-week administrative hearing against IDOL and the unions. Our attorneys, Andy Martone and Matt Robinson of Hesse Martone, outperformed opposing counsel at every turn. The union-friendly department, controlled by a Governor's administration enriched by millions of dollars in union campaign contributions, was a daunting opponent. Near the end of the year IDOL issued a preliminary ruling. Unfortunately the ruling further demonstrates the department's failure to understand the comprehensive nature of the engineering and surveying professions. The preliminary ruling was ambiguous and confusing - even to our highly skilled legal team. A final ruling is expected in early ACEC-Illinois and the legal coalition stand ready to appeal in circuit court should we determine that course of action is dictated by the outcome in the final ruling. Although the final result has not been issued, we have succeeded in thwarting organized labor's efforts in this regard for over two years.

3 Legislative Action ACEC-Illinois predicted early on that the 2014 legislative session would be difficult at best. With a well-funded GOP nominee for governor, organized labor attempted to rally their base to raise and spend a record amount of campaign funds in opposition. Simply put, organized labor felt the pressure of the looming possibility that their ally in the Governor s Office may face defeat. This would imperil their anti-business agenda. ACEC-Illinois and our own legislative allies formulated and employed strategic partnerships to defeat several adverse proposals during the General Assembly s 2014 spring session. Ultimately, however, after surviving the spring session, we encountered more potentially damaging bills in the fall. Our experienced and effective lobbying team of David Kennedy and Jim and Kevin Morphew joined forces with our trusted partners to successfully defeat the following legislative proposals: Local Government QBS Law Changes Energy Performance Contracts Anti-QBS Design Build for IDOT Several Responsible Bidder and Union Issues We sincerely thank the Illinois Section of ASCE, ISPE, IPLSA, HACIA, the Hispanic Chamber, and the Illinois Black Chamber of Commerce for their valuable partnership in our legislative efforts. The most serious legislative threat surfaced during the fall veto session. This proposal would have applied the responsible bidder act to all units of local government. ACEC-Illinois members effectively communicated our concerns to their state legislators. Additional support from Illinois business groups such as NFIB and the Illinois Chamber of Commerce also assisted in stalling this union-led effort. The Illinois Black Chamber of Commerce lobbied key members of the Illinois Senate. Their efforts proved crucial to the prevention of this bill's passage. Without their help, it could have passed the General Assembly. If it had, Governor Quinn would have undoubtedly signed it into law before leaving office.

4 Transportation for Illinois Coalition ACEC-Illinois continues to be a key partner in the Transportation for Illinois Coalition (TFIC). This past year 88 organizations, associations and entities worked together toward the goal of a comprehensive capital infrastructure bill. Although a mini capital bill of $1.1 billion was passed, most of it was dedicated to resurfacing and patching. TFIC did achieve some significant legislative goals. Just as importantly, we began to lay the foundation for the formulation of a comprehensive capital infrastructure bill. We plan to introduce it in the 2015 legislative session when Illinois will be led by a chief executive with a new and different perspective. TFIC held 15 regional and community informational meetings across the state with legislators and key stakeholders. Engineers, contractors, labor, and business leaders led discussions at these meetings, which were designed to inform the public about the critical need for a funding mechanism to improve Illinois' infrastructure. TFIC is working to develop and pass a sustainable Senator John Sullivan at a TFIC Meeting plan that would improve road conditions to 90% acceptable and bridge conditions to 93% acceptable over the course of the next six years. We will also be advocating for additional local road funding and for a steady source of funding for transit. ACEC-Illinois Executive Director Dave Bender was elected Vice-Chair of the TFIC State House Committee and will serve as Chairman of that committee in June of The State House Committee is responsible for the development and passage of TFIC s legislative agenda as approved by the Steering Committee. Special thanks to ACEC-Illinois firms who contributed to our TFIC fund in Our TFIC membership dues are $15,000 each year plus additional expenses that include sponsorships, meetings, travel to Washington, D.C., and varied other expenses.

5 Membership ACEC-Illinois has experienced another good year with regard to association membership. Led by President John Carrato and the ACEC-Illinois Board of Directors, we created a new category of Affiliate Membership. It was affirmed by vote of the association s membership. We have added 12 new member firms and have been joined by 21 affiliate members. The following is a listing of the new members: NEW MEMBERS M3 Engineering Group of Illinois Bernal-Albano, Inc. Coordinated Construction Project Control Services CTL Engineers & Construction Technology Consultants, P.C. Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. Mackie Consultants, LLC Robert E. Hamilton, Consulting Engineers, Inc. T&I Engineers, LLC The Anthem Corporation of America, Inc. Wynndalco Enterprises, LLC Henneman Engineering, Inc. Laramore, Douglas and Popham, Inc. AFFILIATE MEMBERS alliantgroup Ames & Gough Berkley Design Professional Underwriters Comcast Corporate Benefit Consultants a Division of HUB International Midwest Crowe Horwath LLP FGMK Greyling Insurance Brokerage and Risk Consulting, Inc. Holmes Murphy & Associates, Inc. Images, Inc. Marsh ACEC Business Insurance Trust Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson LLP Metro Strategies, Inc. MG Welbel and Associates, Inc Morreale Communications Plante Moran Troy A. Washko, CPA, P.C

6 UPS USI Midwest LLC Wells Fargo Insurance Services Willis A&E MERGERS Foth Infrastructure & Environment merged with Farnsworth Group Delcan merged with Parsons Huff & Huff, Inc. merged with GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc., and is now doing business as Huff & Huff, a subsidiary of GZA Committee Leadership Just as in past years, our members actively participated in the ACEC-Illinois Committee Leadership Program. We are pleased to report that a record 1,174 volunteers serve on our 26 committees. Of these, seven are business practice committees, two are public affairs committees, and seventeen are government agencies and liaison committees. This year we also added committees that are providing additional value and services to our membership. They include: DBE/WBE/MBE Financial Management Affiliate Membership We extend special thanks to all of our volunteers and our volunteer committee chairpersons for their work in planning, preparation, and providing of crucial information to our membership as a whole. The leadership these volunteers offer is invaluable. ACEC/PAC Our ACEC-Illinois ACEC/PAC Champions John Carrato and Chip Craddock report a record year in contributions to the National Political Action Committee. An unprecedented $63,810 was raised in 2014 by contributions from individual Illinois members. Although we lost our title as national leader in fundraising to ACEC-New York (they raised $66,311), Illinois has served as a competitive incentive to other states to up their game. Our members did not stop there. ACEC-Illinois supported United States Representatives Dan Lipinski and Cheri Bustos in 2014 with fundraising events. These luncheons were well attended and generated approximately $40,000 for these two members of Congress. They are both strong supporters of our industry.

7 ACEC-Illinois members participated in fundraising events and meetings for 14 other members of the Illinois Congressional delegation, as well as for United States Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk. These events are productive relationship-building opportunities for our membership. They provide important support to our national association s government affairs staff as well. ACEC National Partnership MINUTEMAN FUND ACEC-Illinois was awarded $100,000 in Minuteman Fund Grants in We are using these funds to underwrite the cost of the prevailing wage administrative and legal battle for surveyors and material testers. These resources have been critical to our success by meeting expenses including attorney fees, travel, and preparation for potential future litigation. MEETINGS & NATIONAL CONVENTION Several members of ACEC-Illinois attended the ACEC annual convention April in Washington D.C. Attendees from Illinois met with members of Congress and their respective staff members to discuss industry issues and challenges. While in Washington, we hosted a reception and dinner. United States Representatives Adam Kinzinger, Rodney Davis, and Dan Lipinski attended. In October the national fall conference was held in Waikoloa, Hawaii. A record number of ACEC members attended. It was an unforgettable experience to meet and network with our colleagues from across the nation in such a unique and beautiful setting. The ACEC/PAC Golf outing was won by the ACEC-Illinois Team of John Carrato, Phil Houser, Joe Chiczewski & Dave Bender. ACEC-Illinois Past Presidents Phil Houser & Gregg Foltz meet with Congressman Aaron Schock

8 ACEC NATIONAL LEADERSHIP ACEC-Illinois Past President and National Director Phil Houser was nominated by the ACEC Nominating Committee to serve as an ACEC Executive Committee Vice Chair. Houser begins his service in April A credit to Illinois as always, Phil continues to serve our association in many important ways. ACEC-Illinois Executive Director Dave Bender was elected in December to the Board of the National Association of Engineering Council Executives (NAECE). NAECE is comprised of the Executive Directors of the 51 member organizations affiliated with ACEC National, as well as the Executive Directors of several other related international organizations. Engineering Excellence Awards It was a banner year for Illinois with the Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) Program. In February T.Y. Lin and TranSystems took the top honor for the ACEC-Illinois EEA for the CTA Dan Ryan Track & Station Renewal Project. At the ACEC National Engineering Excellence Awards Program in April, TranSystems/Alfred Benesch T.Y. Lin International, Burns & McDonnell Infrastructure Engineering, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Lochner won the Grand Conceptor Award for the Wacker Drive and Congress Parkway Reconstruction in Chicago, Illinois.

9 Congratulations to all prime and subcontractor firms on these two enormously impressive projects. All are most deserving of the recognition of their excellence! ACEC-Illinois Workshops & Meetings 2014 was a record year for attendance at workshops hosted by ACEC-Illinois. Five regional meetings, two Government Affairs Workshops, seven seminars, three Tollway Workshops, and a luncheon with Bruce Rauner, candidate for Governor, were attended by a total of 2,460 people during the year. Key to the success of any association is active member participation. ACEC-Illinois is blessed with a membership of professionals who take their responsibilities to the association seriously. This level of commitment serves as an inspiration to new members across the state. All are encouraged to get involved - we need your input! ACEC-Illinois Consultants We are blessed to have some of the best contractual experts in their field that help guide the association through some difficult issues. They include: David Kennedy, Jim & Kevin Morphew - Lobbyists Bruce Bonczyk - QBS Attorney Andy Martone & Matt Robinson - Regulatory Attorneys ACEC-Illinois Staff Dave Bender has completed his second year as Executive Director. Gaye Kick will begin her 18th year in 2015 as Director of Administration. Sharah Garrett has served as Events Coordinator for the last seven years. In August Karen Stephens was welcomed into the group as Administrative Assistant. All of the staff extends sincere gratitude for the privilege of working for such a professional organization. We are proud to serve the members of ACEC-Illinois.