Quarterly Report June 2019

2018-2019 San Diego Section Officers

Section Director: Diane Vermeulen

Section President: Cristina Nunez

President Elect: John Williamson

VP Supervisory: Abu-Bakr Al-Jafri

VP Rank & File: Evangelina Palma

VP At Large: Joseph Tang

Secretary: Javad Rhezaii

Treasurer: William Vivar

Inside This Issue: • Engineering Week, 2/22/19• Engineering Day at the Mall,

2/23/19• Corporate Quarterly Meeting,

3/1/19-3/2/19• SD County Science Fair,

3/13/19• Section Officers Quarterly

Meeting, 3/14/19• National Surveyors Week

Bagels, 3/18/19• Section General Meeting,

3/25/19• Highway Workers Memorial

Day 4/18/19• San Diego and Imperial

County RE Meeting, 4/23/19• South Bay Unified Innovation

(STEM) Expo, 4/24/19• Bring Child to Work Day,

4/25/19• 39th Roosevelt Dinner,

5/11/19

Engineers Week Awards Banquet On February 22, 2019 PECG officers attended the San Diego Engineers Week Awards Banquet. This event is organized by the San Diego County Engineering Council (SDCEC) Charter. The SDCEC’s purpose is to promote public awareness of engineering organization events, educational opportunities, public service activities, and achievements. SDCEC serves to promote communication and coordination among its member organizations to help promote each organization’s successful community outreach.

Many of our own PECG members attend the Engineers Week Awards Banquet, as well as organize the banquet and even win awards at the banquet. This year, Lima Saft accepted the award for “Outstanding

Engineer of the Year”.

Pictured: President Elect: John Williamson, Section Director: Diane Vermeulen, VP Supervisory: Abu-Bakr Al-Jafri, Secretary: Javad Rhezaii, Treasurer: William Vivar, Section President: Cristina Nunez, and VP Rank & File: Evangelina Palma, Khalil Ashtari and Shukky Sanni

Promotions

Congratulations to Young Pak, Anthony Leimeister, and Karen Jewels. PECG wishes them more future successes.

Retirement Ceremony for

Mr. Dan Ramirez

Oscar Cortez, San Diego Sections Past President, presented Daniel Ramirez with a PECG Certificate of Appreciation for his dedicated service to the people of California and wishes him a healthy and joyous retirement.

Engineering Day at the Mall On February 23, PECG participated in Engineering Day at the Mall, which was held at the Chula Vista Center Mall. ASCE’s Young Member Forum (YMF) sponsors Engineering Day at the Mall during National Engineer's Week. This event features a variety of booths designed to spark students' interest in engineering and science. The hands-on projects are geared toward young students and teach basic engineering concepts such as buoyancy, structural stability, simple calculations, and problem solving in a fun and interactive setting.

Diane Vermeulen, Javad Rhezaii, Shukky Sanni, Evangelina Palma, Andres Palma, Claudia Soto (Caltrans Student Assistant) and Cristina Nunez all volunteered to man the PECG booth and work with the kids doing The Cup Holder STEM Challenge.

Happy National Surveyors Week

March 17 -23 PECG, San Diego Section provided refreshments to honor our Surveyors

THANK YOU!

PECG Corporate Quarterly Meeting Local section officers and PECG leaders attended the corporate quarterly meeting in Sacramento on March 1 – 2, 2019. One item to note is: Corporate bylaws were changed to include Janus ruling by a motion that was unanimously approved by the Corporate Officers and all Section Directors.

Many topics are discussed at the corporate meetings. If you have any questions or want to know more, please contact anybody pictured below.

Roy Flores, Mehi Nabizadeh, Robert Lumahan, Diane Vermeulen, Azar Habibafshar, Cristina Nunez

Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair

On March 13, 2019, PECG members volunteered their time to help judge the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair, student exhibits. PECG awarded 5 students with scholarships totaling $3,000.

Meet the Science, Technology,

Engineering & Mathematics

(STEM) Committee

Committee Members: Shukky Sanni, Ben Haney, Karen Islas, Ryan Fallica

One of PECG’s goals is to promote the highest standards of professional practice. To accomplish this, PECG supports and sponsors programs that promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This includes administering teacher training workshops, providing educational curriculum to schools and conducting engineering competitions.

At the last Section Officer Meeting, the Board voted to create the Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) Committee. President Cristina Nunez proposed the idea after attending the last Corporate Quarterly Meeting where she saw all the wonderful STEM activities that PECG is involved in.

The STEM committee has already attended their first event: The South Bay Unified Innovation STEM Expo.

Rakesh Reddy – PECG $1000 Scholarship

San Diego Section, Officer Meeting On March 14, San Diego Section Officers had a meeting to discuss past and future events such as Legislative Day, the corporate meeting, and the upcoming Science Fair. At this meeting, the Board approved a new Committee, The Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Committee. The next Officer meeting will be mid June after the Corporate Quarterly meeting.

(STEM) Cont’dThe committee’s goal is to attend one STEM event per quarter. They also plan to explore PECG’s involvement in LEGO competitions in San Diego as well as the Trig-Star Program.

Please welcome the STEM Committee: Chair - Shukky Sanni Committee Members - Karen Islas, Ben Haney and Ryan Fallica

To learn about PECG’s Outreach Programs, visit: http://pecg.org/outreach-program/

Pictures from the South Bay Unified Innovation

STEM Expo

San Diego Section Member Meeting On March 25, PECG Counsel, Jesse Rodriquez, was the guest speaker at our Section Member meeting. Jesse presented an overview of negotiations past and present and the techniques being used to negotiate raises and benefits. Diane Vermeulen presented about the San Diego Science and Engineering Fair. Lunch was provided to all members.

Section members actively participated with many questions regarding the pay raises, longevity pay, and the geographic pay differentials. Hundreds of members statewide are still waiting to get the longevity pay and geographic pay differentials. The States payroll system has not been processing the pay changes in a timely manner and PECG is working closely with them to resolve the issues.

Joseph Tang, John Williamson, Evangelina Palma, Javad Rhezaii, Diane Vermeulen, Jesse Rodriguez, Cristina Nunez, and William Vivar.

South Bay Unified Innovation STEM Expo Shukky Sanni, Ben Haney, Karen Islas, and Ryan Fallica, San Diego Section STEM Committee, attended an innovation Expo organized by South Bay Union School District on April 24th, where PECG offered an introduction to engineering to elementary students via a hands-on Cup Challenge Project. PECG provided cups and supplementary materials and encouraged students to create a structure with consideration for height, distance, and stability. The event was a success and we look forward to connecting with K-12 students in the San Diego region on behalf of PECG!!! See pictures on the left.

Bring Your Child to Work Day April 25, 2019

PECG San Diego Section former president, Mehi Nabizadeh suggested a concrete project for Caltrans “Bring Your Child to Work Day.” Mehi kindly prepared the materials for the concrete picture holders before he left to Sacramento for an award he was receiving. Diane Vermeulen, Javad Rhezaii, Aveen Ashoor, and Barry O’Hara worked with the kids and taught them about concrete and the different uses for it. The children were very creative decorating their concrete cup picture holder and had lots of fun doing it.

Member Involvement If you are interested in volunteering on one of the San Diego Section Committees, please contact our Section President, Cristina Nunez at:

Phone: (619) 718-7895 Email: cristina.nunez@dot.ca.gov

Section Committees

• Events Committee

• Health & Safety Comment

• Membership Committee

• Nominations & ElectionCommittee

• Policy & Bylaws Committee

• Political InvolvementCommittee

• Retirement Committee

• Scholarship Committee

• STEM Committee

• Public Outreach Committee

• Science Fair Committee

• CHEERS Committee

• Grievance Committee

Recruiting a New Member

Do you know of someone who is not yet a PECG member? Would you like to receive $50 from PECG? Well, all you have to do is sign up that person as a new PECG member and you'll receive $50 from PECG! PECG's e-application can be accessed fromthe PECG website at:http://pecg.org/join-pecg

Once a year, we pause for the Caltrans Workers Memorial to honor the now 189 Caltrans professionals who have died in the line of duty. Sadly, since our last memorial, we will be remembering five new highway workers who died serving the citizens of California. One was D11 Maintenance Lead worker William Casdorph, who passed away in September, and

four others were contractors working on Caltrans projects.

Casdorph – or “Cas,” as his friends called him – was a nearly 20-year Caltrans veteran and a very lively, passionate family man. He was always quick to help his fellow employees. He was honored as part of the memorial at the California State Capitol.

PECG San Diego Section was a sponsor of the Highway Workers Memorial Day that was held on April 18, 2019 at the Caltrans District office.

Annual Resident Engineers (RE) Meeting On April 23, Mehi Nabizadeh, a member of PECG’s Benefits Committee and former President of the San Diego Section, spoke to the group of RE’s during the PECG sponsored RE lunch. In an impressive presentation, Mehi warned about the constant attacks on our pensions and asked members to join the Fed-Pac which was started by PECG to lobby in Washington.

Mehi thanked all the members for submitting bargaining questionnaires and for being part of such a united bargaining team. He spoke about the challenges ahead of us, and PECG legislative priorities for 2019. He also spoke about the

and can be submitted to PECG either by faxing them to (916) 446-0489 or mailing them to:

PECG

455 Capitol Mall, Suite 501 Sacramento, CA 95814

Upcoming Events

• 6/7-8: Corporate QuarterlyMeeting

• Section General Meeting (TBD)

• At Large General Meeting (TBD)

• Supervisory General Meeting(TBD)

Roosevelt Dinner Pictures Cont’d

RE Meeting Cont’d need for the Licensing act for the Environmental Engineers in California. His last topic was the need for safe drinking water for all the people in the State. Millions of residents in Central California do not have access to safe drinking water, and PECG strongly supports the creation of a safe and affordable drinking water fund. Resident Engineers attended from both Imperial and San Diego Counties.

From left to right: John Williamson, Oscar Cortes, Mehi Nabizadeh, Cristina Nunez, Tom Bouquin, William Vivar, and Ron Caraet

Building Power for the People 39th Annual Roosevelt Dinner

On May 11, PECG leaders attended the 39th Annual Roosevelt Dinner at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. This event is a great opportunity to show PECG support for political leaders who share our values and interests. Everybody came together to enjoy networking, dinner and to cheer local leaders for their accomplishments and awards.