These ballot initiatives coincide with the recent release of the ASCE Infrastructure Report Card for the State of California. The overall grade point average for California’s Infrastructure was a C-, based on the grades for the following categories: C- for Aviation; F for Levees and Flood Control; D+ for Parks and Open Space; C+ for Ports; B for Solid Waste; D+ for Transportation; D+ for Urban Runoff; C+ for Wastewater; and C+ for Water. Additional information, including grading criteria, is available on the ASCE website: www.ASCECAReportCard.org. Efforts to create the report card have been in the works for the past few years. The report card is intended to be a tool to educate both the general public and legislators on the importance of infrastructure and the need for proactive involvement (i.e. funding). According to research performed by the ASCE Government Relations Committee, only a very small percentage of legislators came to office with an engineering degree, or even technical training. This provides a context for the media blitz that was orchestrated by ASCE and other sponsoring organizations for the official unveiling of the report card on the steps of the State Capital in September of this year.

In my 20 years of public and private sector work in engineering in this County, I have become familiar (sometimes too familiar…) with the deficiencies of much of our infrastructure on the Central Coast, and have experienced first hand the frustration of trying to communicate the need and to find funding for solutions. I personally feel that it would be advantageous for our local Branch to begin the process of preparing a Report Card for our County, as several other counties in California have done already. Though this may carry some political risk, I see many potential benefits for our County as a whole, including facilitating dialog and cooperation and providing the engineering community with a common tool for communication. (It might be less difficult for elected officials or the general public to appreciate the seriousness of having a 5 psi residual in a water main if the distribution system had been assigned a low letter grade because of it.) This will become even more critical after Tuesday’s elections, whichever way the votes go. We will either “hit the ground running” to make sure that the Central Coast gets as much of the bond money as we can possibly qualify for, or we take a few steps back, regroup and start the process of seeking funding over again. I would appreciate feedback on this.

Come spring he's hoping to lead his Cal Poly SCE team to another victory in the SCE Pacific Southwest Regional Conference in San Diego - Dan's hometown. He was born and raised there, and came straight to SLO after high school. He got interested in Civil Engineering because of its practicality. That interest, coupled with abilities in math and science, has gotten Dan into his 4th (and final) year of engineering school. He enjoyed internships as a project engineer working on elementary schools, and as a transportation engineer working on preliminary planning for adding high-occupancy-vehicle lanes onto an existing freeway.

But school's not over for Dan. He's applied to numerous law schools and hopes to practice construction law after getting his PE. He knows that there is a need for construction lawyers with technical knowledge and practical construction experience. And yes, he does hear a lot of lawyer jokes, especially from his father who is a pilot. Unfortunately, all these lawyer jokes are also pilot jokes (hint: punch line involves gravity) and none are suitable for publication.

Dan got started with SCE through the concrete canoe project and knew it was imperative that he got active with SCE as a leader. He notes all the great activities the SCE organizes such as a backstage tour at Disneyland, the bonfire they hold each year to burn the previous year's seismic design model, and a tour of Hearst Castle (ticket price subsidized by SCE).