The American Construction Inspectors Association proudly announces its 48th Annual Symposium will be held November 7- 8 at the Waterfront Hilton in Surf City USA aka Huntington Beach, CA. This beautiful resort which has recently undergone a $50M renovation is located across the street from one of the world’s most famous surfing beaches. 

This year’s training seminars are dedicated to address the concerns of Assembly Bills 2995 and 2966 which threatened the construction inspection industry earlier this year. Training seminars conducted by DSA and OSHPD will provide the education that the bill’s sponsors and legislators allege our industry to be weak in. Knowledge is power and the tools to confront future legislation will be gained by this year’s attendee’s. Don’t let the legislators come back next year and say we haven’t taken steps to improve our industry, sign up now!

This year the construction inspection community was disturbed by the introduction of two legislative bills, AB 2995 and AB 2966 that proposed to permanently alter the construction inspection of California public schools and hospitals. On February 22nd, these two bills sponsored by the Professional Engineers in California Government also known as PECG were introduced to the California State Assembly. Many theories were presented as to the necessity of the bills but the simple fact is that questions of integrity and alleged conflict of interest were the reasons presented by the bills sponsors.

 

Many inspectors who attended the first few hearings at the Capital placed the responsibility on DSA and OSHPD citing that the agencies did not providing enough training which might have prevented this. The real truth is that the responsibility lays within ourselves the inspectors not the agencies with whom we are certified. For years the DSA Academy has been successfully training hundreds of inspectors in subjects that address the very issues alleged in both bills. OSHPD also provides continuing education training that inspectors can benefit from. However it is the low number of participants from the inspection community that affords legislators the opportunity to present a weakness in our system.   

 

According to the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Ike is expected to result in damage similar to that of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  ACIA National President David Karina again has been in contact with the California Governors Office of Emergency Services today notifying the agency that ACIA remains positioned to assist OES in the event that mutual aid is requested by the affected regions.