Join us for the Joint Owner Forum with Local Government Clients from the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.
Panelists scheduled to appear are: Gerry Jones – Suffolk Director of Capital Programs Oliver Love, Jr. – Norfolk Senior Project Manager Tom Nicholas, PE – City of Virginia Beach, Facilities Engineer, Department of Public Works Wilbur Hogge, PE – Chesapeake Public Works Department, Facilities Division, Construction Facilities Manager
Registration for this event is open to AIA Virginia members only. Want to become a member? Contact Cathy Guske, cguske@aiava.org
Date: Tuesday, April 23 Time: 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Cocktail Reception Following Location: Marriott Norfolk Waterside Cost: $50 AIA CES: 2 Learning Units
On January 21, AIA Virginia signed on as a member of Commonwealth Connect in support of Governor Northam’s budget increase for the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) in order to provide universal broadband. Currently, there are 660,000 Virginians that do not have access to broadband services. Today, internet is as necessary as electricity. The Commonwealth Connect coalition is advocating for a $50 million budget allocation to bring the service to uncovered portions of Virginia. This would be a $46 million increase to VATI’s annual budget. This amount of state funding would lead to an anticipated 110,000 new connections per year. Currently, the state budget depicts a $20M line item.
Rural Virginia communities have lost 20th century industries and broadband is a requirement for doing business in today’s society. This service, within itself, can be a catalyst for economic development which leads to projects for architects. When visiting with architecture firms in AIA Blue Ridge, members have shared with the Executive Vice President that the absence of broadband is one of the issues that has impacted their clients most.
The Commonwealth Connect coalition currently has 49 members and is growing by the week during the General Assembly session. Other members include the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Municipal League, Virginia Economic Developers Association, Virginia State Fire Fighters Association, Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions, Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, Virginia Association of Counties, Verizon, and many more. This advocacy has led to a budget increase of 5 times the annual allocation in the currently proposed budget. However, a $50M allocation is the ultimate goal.
The 2019 RUMBLE in the JUNGLE for the AIA Virginia Political Action Committee Award Commences
Like many professions, architects have interests that specifically impact our profession, practice, and our community. The legislative and regulatory environment is arguably the most important arena that impacts how we provide our professional services. We, as architects, want to have an influential voice in this arena which allows us to control our destiny. We can’t have an influential voice without having relationships. As such, the PAC allows us to build these necessary relationships.
The AIA Virginia PAC Award looks to celebrate the
engagement and commitment of a local AIA component who supports the advancement
and mission of the PAC. The Award will
be presented at Architecture Exchange East to the local component’s Board of
Directors who will accept the award on behalf of the its respective
membership. The Award criteria is based
on a point total calculation based on three areas: local component Board
participation, percentage of local component’s membership who have invested in
the PAC, and total amount of money invested by the members of the local
component.
a. Did 100% of the Board of Directors invest into the AIA Virginia PAC?
i. Yes = 20 points ii. No = 0 points
2. Percentage of local component’s members who have invested in the AIA Virginia PAC
i. Component with highest % = 40 points ii. Component with second highest % = 20 points iii. Component with third highest % = 10 points
3. Average investment per member from the total local component membership
i. Component with highest average investment/member = 40 points ii. Component with second highest average investment/member = 30 points iii. Component with third highest average investment/member = 20 points iv. Component with fourth highest average investment/member = 10 points v. Component with fifth highest average investment/member = 0 points
The scoring will be closed on October 31, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. EST.
The 2019 General Assembly convened on January 9. In odd-numbered years, the legislators meet in a “short session”. As such, the 2019 session will adjourn on February 23. “Crossover” happens when each chamber (House + Senate) finish their review, debate and approval of bills, and sends it to the other chamber for a similar process. This date occurred on February 6. Nearly 2,000 bills were submitted this year of which 1,202 were introduced by the House and 793 by the Senate. In addition, over 300 resolutions were put forth for consideration.
AIA
Virginia has nearly 60 bills on its radar.
Some, we actively engage and others we monitor due to another
organization being better positioned to take the lead. Unfortunately, many energy/Greenhouse gas
reduction bills did not gain traction.
The
following provides a breakdown of bill types and quantities that AIA Virginia
engaged and/or tracked:
Procurement: 16
Site/Utility/Stormwater: 9
School
Safety/Improvements:
7
Business and Taxation: 6
Energy and Climate
Impact:
5
Licensing/Regulatory: 3
Resiliency: 3
Human Resource Benefits: 2
Statute of
Repose/Statute of Limitations: 2
Building Code: 1
Historic Tax Credit: 1
STEAM: 1
Below is a list of key legislative victories that AIA Virginia has
heavily influenced this session:
HB 1738 –
Delegate Rush
School
buildings; plans to be reviewed by a professional trained and experienced in
crime prevention
Passed House; Passed Senate Committee on Education and Health
AIA Virginia worked with Delegate Rush to add language to this
bill that ensures every public school building, addition or alteration will
have its designed reviewed by an individual or entity with professional
expertise in building security and crime prevention through building design
techniques.
HB 1796 –
Delegate Cole
Virginia
Public Procurement Act; competitive negotiation; price for professional
services
Defeated in House General Laws Subcommittee
AIA Virginia worked actively to defeat this bill that would have
allowed public bodies to request price information in a RFP for professional
services
HB 2072 –
Delegate Bell
Virginia
Public Procurement Act; competitive negotiation for professional services
Defeated in House General Laws Subcommittee
AIA Virginia worked actively to defeat this bill that would have
allowed public bodies to conduct negotiations simultaneously with the top two
ranked offerors.
HB 2168 –
Delegate Yancey
School Innovation,
Modernization, and Competiveness, Commission on; established.
Passed House; Referred to Senate Committee on Rules
AIA Virginia has a commitment from Delegate Yancey to support our
recommendation for an architect to be appointed to this newly formed commission
as a non-legislative member.
HB 2198 –
Delegate Gilbert
Virginia
Public Procurement Act; exempts counties cities, etc. with population greater
than 3,500
Passed House; Referred to Senate Committee on General Laws and
Technology
This is AIA Virginia’s bill to close the QBS “loophole” that
currently exists in the law. Due to an
administrative drafting error to a 2013 bill that attempted to clarify
components of the Virginia Public Procurement Act, the requirement for QBS has
been eliminated. We realized this when
Arlington County began to exploit this “loophole” in its solicitation of
professional services. This bill
corrects this drafting error.
HB 2804 –
Delegate LaRock
Virginia
Public Procurement Act; professional and information technology project
services contracts
Defeated in House General Laws
AIA
Virginia actively engaged with the Subcommittee Chairman to defeat this bill
that would have required design professionals working for state agencies to
install software that allows for verification of the number of hours worked on
a project using a computer.
The AIA Virginia PAC Award looks to celebrate the engagement and commitment of a local AIA component who supports the advancement and mission of the PAC. The Award will be presented at Architecture Exchange East to the local component’s Board of Directors who will accept the award on behalf of its respective membership. Invest today in the PAC at www.aiavapac.org.
Award Criteria
Below outlines point allocations:
1. Local component Board participation
a. Did 100% of the Board of Directors invest into the AIA Virginia PAC?
i. Yes = 20 points
ii. No = 0 points
2. Percentage of local component’s members who have invested in the AIA Virginia PAC
i. Component with highest % = 40 points
ii. Component with second highest % = 20 points
iii. Component with third highest % = 10 points
3. Average investment per member from the total local component membership
i. Component with highest average investment/member = 40 points
ii. Component with second highest average investment/member = 30 points
iii. Component with third highest average investment/member = 20 points
iv. Component with fourth highest average investment/member = 10 points
v. Component with fifth highest average investment/member = 0 points
The scoring will be closed on November 1, 2019, at 5:00 p.m. EST.
Why Do This?
Like many professions, architects have interests that specifically impact our profession, practice, and our community. The legislative and regulatory environment is arguably the most important arena that impacts how we provide our professional services. We, as architects, want to have an influential voice in this arena which allows us to control our destiny. We can’t have an influential voice without having relationships. As such, the PAC allows us to build these necessary relationships.
Earlier this month, I attended a luncheon presented by the Virginia Society of Association Executives in Richmond. The keynote was presented by Dr. Robert Holsworth who currently serves as Managing Principal of DecideSmart. The presentation was captivating and intriguing, presenting the 2019 political landscape of Virginia within the General Assembly.
Below are some of the highlights that I heard:
Virginia has historically been a “purple state” meaning that both, Republicans and Democrats, had a reasonable chance to carry the state
Virginia has now become “purple” with a heavy “blue tint”
Republicans continue to win in rural Virginia as they have been in rural America. In the same way, Democrats are winning in urban Virginia as they have been in urban America.
The tilt in Virginia is within the suburbs. These areas in Virginia are leaning hard “blue” as the demographics in these areas is becoming increasingly diverse
Republicans are likely concerned in Virginia as they have lost both U.S. Senate seats, a majority of the U.S. House seats, the positions of Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General in Virginia, and control of the Virginia House and Senate has slipped
The 2019 elections will be significant in terms of control. Currently, the Virginia House consists of 51 – R; 49 – D and the Virginia Senate is at 21 – R; 19 – D
It is predicted that there will be four main areas of focus within the General Assembly: Taxes, Gambling/Betting, Interstate-81, and Redistricting
Taxes will be debated and discussed within the purview of the Federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
This bill lowered income taxes on individuals but raised deductions
These cuts are in place for 5 years
Sources say that it is estimated that 94% of Americans will not itemize their federal taxes this year because of the increased deductions
This means Virginia can do nothing or have its deductions match the federal deductions
If you do nothing, Virginia gets a large boost to its bottom line where the Democratic-led Administration has a set of plans that includes giving money back to those with lower income. The Republican Party pitches that the money should go back to the taxpayers. There is a strong difference in opinion between the two parties in how the money should be used.
Historically, gambling and betting in Virginia has not been viewed favorably
Success has been seen with the MGM Casino at the National Harbor
A prospective entity is interested in constructing a gambling/betting venue in Bristol
Danville, Portsmouth, and Norfolk have also expressed interest in bringing a gambling/betting venue to its area
At the end of the day, the amount of economic fruit produced by these venues is hard to turn a blind eye to
Interstate 81
Many believe I-81 should be expanded to help accommodate the volume of trucks traffic. The question of how to pay for such an endeavor still looms
Some have proposed tolls as a source of revenue
There is concern for those Virginians who have less financial resources but need to access I-81 routinely. For those, one proposal is to develop a discount rate (let’s say $30/month) that comes with unlimited interstate use.
This may work well for those in Southwest Virginia where families typically earn less pay compared to Northern Virginia. But how do legislators who have Northern Virginian constituents respond to that approach when they may pay $30 per day in tolls to use the “Fast Lanes”
Redistricting
The question is will politicians ever give up their power to have this done independently?
The Democrats who won in the Virginia House recently predominantly ran on social equity and advocacy issues. What does silence around running on business and economic development platforms mean for the business climate in Virginia if Democrats take control of the Virginia House and Senate?
What this report says is that there is power in voting. Regardless of who you vote for or what party you support, exercise your right to vote. It makes a difference.
Corey Clayborne, AIA
Executive Vice President
AIA Virginia
AIA Virginia, in collaboration with ACEC Virginia and AGC Virginia, hosts its first 2019 ACE Virginia event on Feb. 21, 2019 from 2:30–4:30 p.m. at the Richmond OMNI. Participants will join an interactive panel discussion with key Richmond-region government decision-makers to discuss upcoming projects and ways the industry can best collaborate with the respective bodies. To date, leaders from Hanover County, Henrico County, Chesterfield County and City of Richmond have been invited to participate.
The interactive discussion will be followed by a cocktail reception from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Key Virginia legislators will be invited to attend the reception as an opportunity for the industry to connect policy and law-makers.
ACE Virginia is a joint venture of the American Institute of Architects, Associated General Contractors, and the American Council of Engineering Companies of Virginia, to educate and promote best practices of the design and construction industry.
Registration is open to members and the fee is $50. Space is extremely limited.
AIA Central Virginia was crowned the 2018 PAC Champion of the “Rumble in the Jungle” at this year’s Architecture Exchange East. This AIA Virginia PAC award looks to celebrate the engagement and commitment of a local AIA component who supports the advancement and mission of the PAC. The award criteria is based on a point total calculation based on three areas: local component Board participation, the percentage of local component’s membership who have invested in the PAC, and the total amount of money invested by the members of the local component.
AIA Central Virginia finished the competition garnering 100% investment participation by its Board of Directors and 7% of its local component membership totaling $4,500. In comparison, AIA Virginia has historically hovered at less than 3% state-wide membership participation totaling approximately $6,000 annually. For this accomplishment, AIA Central Virginia was awarded a nice piece of hardware and $500 to be used as it desires for public outreach during its 2019 Architecture Week celebration.
The 2019 “Rumble in the Jungle” will begin on January 1, 2019
Why Do This?
Like many professions, architects have interests that specifically impact our profession, practice, and our community. The legislative and regulatory environment is arguably the most important arena that impacts how we provide our professional services. We, as architects, want to have an influential voice in this arena which allows us to control our destiny. We can’t have an influential voice without having relationships. As such, the PAC allows us to build these necessary relationships.
Summary of the 2018 General Assembly Session
The Joint Legislative Committee (JLC) vetted approximately 3,000 total bills to extract the relevant ones to our profession. The majority of the bills introduced that would have a significant impact on our profession were in procurement. We successfully defeated SB 188 which provides that for competitive negotiation of professional services, a public body may conduct negotiations simultaneously with the top two ranked offerors. In addition, HB 97 allows for single or term contracts for professional services without requiring competitive negotiation, provided the aggregate or the sum of all phases is not expected to exceed $80,000. This change increased the limit in current law by $20,000.
The following depicts the number of bills of interest to the JLC that were introduced, by topic, but did not succeed in 2018:
House Select Committee on School Safety
In light of the increase of school shootings, the Virginia General Assembly formed a Select Committee on School Safety. This is the first select committee formed in the House in 155 years. The committee consisted of 22 members charged with completing its work by November 15 to include recommendations for the 2019 General Assembly.
The Select Committee was divided into three subcommittees: Student Behavior and Intervention; Prevention and Response, and Infrastructure and Security. Any recommendations regarding the design of schools would likely originate from the Infrastructure and Security subcommittee. The goal of AIA Virginia was to insert the voice of the architect and be a resource to that respective subcommittee as it undertook its work.
Our legislators had not considered inviting architects to the conversation.
As such, our objectives were as follows:
1) Find a legislator that would advocate for architects to join the conversation with the appropriate subcommittee
2) Upon receiving a seat at the table, make it clear that we want to help them achieve their goals
3) Clearly state the intent is to be a facilitator in this work and be a sounding board to this subcommittee’s ideas, thoughts, and recommendations
4) As a byproduct of this experience, hope that the interaction with our organization reinforces the importance of the role of the architect in every community
AIA Virginia was invited by the Infrastructure and Security subcommittee to give a presentation on the following key points: 1) Project Process 2) Historical Trends in School Design 3) Current Trends in School Design 4) New Construction vs. Renovation 5) What are Other States Doing?
Disaster Assistance Relief
AIA Virginia has reinvigorated its Memorandum of Understanding with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. Two Safety Assessment Program (SAP) trainings were held this year resulting in the national credentialing of 70 architects, engineers, and building officials. This credential administered by California’s Office of Emergency Services allow for industry professionals to perform building assessments after a natural disaster as second-responders. This program is the official AIA all-hazards post-disaster training. We, as design professionals, are now viewed by the Commonwealth of Virginia as instrumental resources in helping restore communities after these devastating events. AIA Virginia looks to host additional training opportunities in 2019.
Closing the Qualifications Based Selection (QBS) Loophole in the Virginia Public Procurement Act (VPPA)
Virginia has a relatively strong QBS process for procuring professional services and the central procuring agency in the state, the Department of General Services, continues to embrace its use. There are exceptions within the VPPA that allow a local government to exempt itself if it has adopted their own procurement procedures through an ordinance. In fact, approximately 50% of local governments have chosen this approach. Though this exemption is allowed, there are certain criteria that local governments may not exempt out of such as the requirements around ethics, conflicts of interest, and the use of QBS in the procurement of professional services.
This year, our industry was made aware of what we believe, through careful research, was a drafting error in a 2013 procurement bill that had the intent of “cleaning up” the extensive VPPA. The result of the drafting error is an erroneous cross-reference in the statute that no longer requires local governments to use QBS in its procurement of professional services. This was brought to the attention of AIA Virginia and the American Council of Engineering Companies of Virginia (ACEC) when a local government issued a Requests for Proposals (RFP) requiring firms to submit its price with its qualifications. When approached by our industry organizations, the legal counsel for the respective local government presented its logic successfully within the confines of the existing law as it stands today.
It was at this point, AIA Virginia and ACEC decided to act swiftly and immediately. We were confident that if other local governments were made aware of this language in the VPPA, there was a high-risk that we would see more RFP’s written in this way.
Our lobbying approach was two-fold:
Educational Outreach Efforts: In partnership with ACEC and Williams Mullen (our lobbyists), we undertook “in district” one-on-one outreach meetings with key members of the General Assembly who serve in a leadership position or on the key committees (House and Senate General Laws). Due to the significant turnover, particularly within the House, the one-on-one meetings was our opportunity to educate legislators (many for the first time) on the importance of QBS. In addition, we shared with these individuals that we were planning to introduce legislation in the 2019 General Assembly to correct the drafting error in the VPPA. We held approximately two dozen of these meetings around the Commonwealth and attended various fundraisers. Thank you to the members who joined me on these visits.
Proposing New Legislation: House Majority Leader, Delegate Todd Gilbert, has agreed to be the Chief Patron of our bill which corrects the drafting error. Gaining his support in this request is instrumental since he carried the original procurement bill where the drafting error was made. Our proposed bill sounds straightforward and it is. However, it does not mean that opposition will not occur. We have worked extensively out of session with legislators and other pertinent stakeholders in an attempt to limit opposition. Having this bill pass will ensure that there is a uniform way to procure professional services around the Commonwealth based on qualifications.
Significant changes to Uniform Statewide Building Code
As you may be well aware, the 2015 USBC went into effect on September 4th of this year. With each code update cycle, we receive a substantial amount of code change proposals and this cycle was no exception. There were several noteworthy changes made to the USBC, both at the national and state level.
Listed below are a few examples of those changes:
Exemptions from Permits (VA)—Work on billboard safety upgrades to add or replace steel catwalks, steel ladders, or steel safety cables was added to the list of permit exemptions in chapter 1.
Exceptions to the Exemptions (VA)—Building officials may now require a permit for work that is normally exempt where located in a flood hazard area.
Food Processing Establishments and Commercial Kitchens (ICC)—Facilities used for food processing/preparation 2500 square feet and under can now be classified as a Group B occupancy.
Existing Building Code Overhaul (VA)—One of the most significant changes this cycle was the complete re-organization and overhaul of the Existing Building Code (previously the Rehab Code). This was a concerted effort to make this code, which is mandatory for existing buildings, less confusing and more user-friendly.
College Labs (VA)—Another notable change was the creation of a new section for higher education laboratories. This carve-out was added to both the Virginia Construction Code and the Virginia Existing Building Code, Parts I and II of the USBC respectively.
DHCD continues to work with our stakeholders ensuring a comprehensive and collaborative code development process for building and fire regulations in Virginia. If you have questions about any changes or the upcoming code change cycle, slated to start early next year, please contact us at (804) 371-7000 or sbco@dhcd.virginia.gov.
