Albion EVP Featured in AGC-GA Monthly Report
Albion’s Executive Vice President was featured in June 2017’s “Report to Members” published by the Associated General Contractors of Georgia, Inc. (AGC-GA). The following is an excerpt from the piece:
Brian Newsome, executive vice president at Albion Scaccia, recently found himself with an unusual problem. He couldn’t send a talented, experienced, newly-hired supervisor to work on a particular Georgia college campus. Why? The supervisor didn’t meet all of the Board of Regents requirements to work at that job site.
Albion Scaccia does a great deal of work with Board of Regents and other state agencies. These jobs often contain special requirements, but this unexpected obstacle threw a big wrench into Brian’s plans.
“Suddenly,” Brian said, “I have this top-shelf guy, everyone loves him, and I can’t put him on
this job site. So we used him on other jobs and made it work, but it wasn’t easy.”
Fast forward to this past year. During Brian’s work on AGC Georgia’s Legislative Committee, he brought up his experience with differing regulations and requirements that make it difficult to move the same crew from job site to job site. As a workforce development issue, the committee agreed it was a problem.
Mark Woodall, director of governmental affairs for AGC Georgia, began making calls to state leaders to see if he could gather more information about the various guidelines. The findings were stunning. Brian simply characterized it as the “Wild West.” He found every campus was afforded the opportunity to operate by its own set of regulations. To make it worse, some campuses had multiple locations and each location had its own rules. Some places had a detailed list of regulations and even offered intensive background checks; others had minimal
requirements and no background checks at all.
Mark reached out to Senator Mike Dugan, a Floor Leader for the Governor, explained the situation, and he arranged a meeting with the Governor’s team within the week. During the meeting, Brian offered his first-hand perspective on why the varying requirements are challenging to contractors. The Governor’s Office team encouraged AGC Georgia to begin working with Georgia State Finance and Investment Commission (GSFIC) to discuss options for creating a common threshold for employment across all state agency construction projects. While this topic is extremely complex, each person AGC Georgia representatives have spoken with agree with the desired outcome and are open to work on the issue. AGC Georgia’s reputation with the Governor’s office, members of the General Assembly and state agencies help give this issue visibility and traction. Mark and the committee are still in the early stages of the project, but Brian is hopeful a meaningful solution will soon help him and his
fellow contractors put more people to work across a variety of jobs.
Mark and the Legislative Committee work throughout the year to monitor, craft and support
legislation affecting Georgia’s construction industry. Mark prepares regular updates for the AGC Georgia membership about important issues, especially during the legislative session.
If you are interested in getting involved in AGC Georgia’s legislative
efforts, please contact Mark Woodall at 678-298-4116.
To view the report, please click here.