Engineers and land surveyors honor Wolk

CELSOC names Assemblywoman their Legislator of the Year for 2006

SACRAMENTO–The Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California (CELSOC) honored Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) today as their Legislator of the Year for 2006.

The award, said CELSOC Executive Director Paul Meyer, is “a reflection of the excellent job she does as a legislator. She pays attention to the details of the issues, on their merits.

“Assemblywoman Lois Wolk is an effective legislator, is well respected in the State Capitol and truly cares about passing sound public policy,” Meyer said.  “We are proud to present Assemblywoman Wolk with our highest honor.”

Last session, Wolk championed CELSOC-sponsored legislation to restore equity to public construction liability. Assembly Bill 573, signed into law by the Governor, prohibits public agencies from requiring engineers, architects and other design professionals to be responsible for the negligent acts and omissions of other parties. Their liability for their own construction defects remains unchanged.

“AB 573 was a two-year, uphill effort. But in the end, working with CELSOC, we succeeded in eliminating unfair indemnity provisions that allowed some public agencies to force designers to assume ‘deep pocket’ liability for other parties’ mistakes,” said Wolk. “My bill placed responsibility for construction defects on the wrongdoer, where it belongs.”

This year Wolk said she will author legislation to give cities, counties and special districts the option of utilizing the design-build process for the design and construction of local public water and sanitation projects.

“I am a big supporter of design build and have seen numerous successful projects in my district, the most recent being the Solano County $115 million government center which was completed in 2005, on time and on budget. Design build is an excellent model of how government, private industry, and labor can work together efficiently to build projects expeditiously and cost-effectively.”