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  • Jan. 2, 2020

Santa Rosa Junior College Won't Release Data on Performance Failure of Its Project Labor Agreement Pilot Project - For Obvious Reasons


There are two new developments in the effort of the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction to make the elected board of trustees and top administrators of Santa Rosa Junior College accountable for their Project Labor Agreement pilot project failure.

1. Continued Performance Failures

This email was sent today (January 2, 2020) to the college president and board of trustees:

President Chong and Trustees,

Sadly, but predictably, the failure of the Burbank Auditorium PLA seems to be never ending.

At the 12/10 Santa Rosa City College Meeting, there were two items re: the Burbank Auditorium (PLA project) that you were forced to deal with:

• On Item C.11, there is an “extension of time to Project Completion 2020 for construction delays

• On Item D.5, there is a tenth change order of $235,034 increasing the price of the project to $31,405,547.80

Happy New Year.

2. Failure to Provide Public Records

This email was sent today (January 2, 2020) to the college president:

President Chong.

You are now in violation of state law by more than four weeks. State law is not like market forces that you can pretend to ignore by using something like a PLA. These rules have to be followed.

Your staff will respond to our previous PRA (see below) by January 8th or you will be hearing from our lawyers.


As the board of trustees prepares today (November 12, 2019) to vote on expanding the college district’s Project Labor Agreement to a second project, the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction has examined the expectations set by the board and administration when the Project Labor Agreement was approved for a first project on September 12, 2017.

Because neither the college administration nor the board has asked for or provided an evaluation of September 2017 expectations versus November 2019 achievements, I am requesting the follow public records under the authority of California Government Code Section 6250:

1. All letters, faxes, memos, emails, texts, or other physical or electronic records produced from September 12, 2017 to the present referring to a Project Stabilization Agreement or Project Labor Agreement or similar document that a construction company would need to sign with unions as a condition of working on a district contract.

2. All letters, faxes, memos, emails, texts, or other physical or electronic records produced from September 12, 2017 to the present referring to the Sonoma-Mendocino-Lake Counties Building & Construction Trades Council or North Bay Building & Construction Trades Council or its affiliated and signatory local unions (such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union No. 551).

3. All letters, faxes, memos, emails, texts, or other physical or electronic records produced from September 12, 2017 to the present referring to construction delays on the Burbank Auditorium Modernization Project. This would include records that reference this cryptic explanation in the staff report for the August 13, 2019 board meeting justifying Change Order #7: "a time extension review and accepted in TIA’s 1 & 2 for 83 calendar days of non-compensable delay. Schedule brought back 12 calendar days due to use of over-time spent. There is a total of 71 calendar days of time extension to August 10, 2019."

4. All letters, faxes, memos, emails, texts, or other physical or electronic records produced from September 12, 2017 to the present that evaluate the following expected performance measures for the Project Labor Agreement on the Burbank Auditorium Modernization Project:

 - number of local general contractors that chose not to bid and number of local subcontractors that chose not to participate in the bid because of the Project Labor Agreement

- any cases in which there was an insufficient supply of skilled craft laborers

- number of Helmets to Hardhats participants

- number of hours performed by Helmets to Hardhats participants

- number of hours performed by journey level workers

- percentage of journey level workers who live in the “local” region

- number of hours performed by apprentices

- percentage of apprentices who live in the “local” region

- number of hours performed by students and graduates of the College who are journey level workers

- percentage of journey level workers who are students and graduates of the College

- number of hours performed by students and graduates of the College who are apprentices

- percentage of apprentices who are students and graduates of the College

- examples of how the Project Labor Agreement successfully achieved "construction cost control"

- examples of how the Project Labor Agreement successfully achieved "timely and successful completion of the Project"

- examples of how the district provided public accountability for performance of the Project Labor Agreement in the bidding process and during construction

 As noted in the Project Labor Agreement, local persons are persons whose principal residence is within Sonoma, Lake, Napa, Solano, Marin and Mendocino counties.

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