Janelle Waltz grew up with an uncle who has worked in construction for more than 40 years, and often described the projects he worked on and the impacts they had. Her parents owned properties, so she also learned early on how to do tenant improvement projects. Though she was drawn to work in human resources, she and her husband have done several DIY projects in their own home.

Waltz decided to explore the possibility of a new career and took a series of construction courses. Inspired by her uncle who started his own business 15 years ago, Waltz founded Hartley-Waltz Construction in 2023. The company does renovations, flooring and finishes, and energy-efficient solutions to homes and businesses.
“I like building the relationships with other general contractors and customers who need home renovations. I like the rapport-building piece,” she said.

The post Hartley-Waltz Construction appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Supporters and opponents of a bill that would hold general contractors liable for wage theft by subcontractors and labor brokers clashed before an Oregon House of Representatives committee on Wednesday.

Contractors and other critics said Senate Bill 426 would make them less likely to hire up-and-coming subcontractors.

“I’m kind of offended, frankly, by this approach,” said Rep. Ed Diehl, a Salem Republican who has commissioned construction projects. “It would put me liable for something I have no control over, and it would change my behavior. I would definitely not be reaching out to new startups.”

Khanh Tran, policy director for the National Association of Minority Contractors‘ Oregon chapter, voiced similar concerns. “This bill specifically disincentivizes hiring new contractors,” he said.

The bill from Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a Eugene Democrat, would make an owner and direct contractor “jointly and severally liable” in a civil action for unpaid wages owed to nonunion employees of the contractors or any subcontractors.

The bill is needed to combat rampant wage theft in the construction industry, Prozanski said.

“It is time to make certain that the men and women who do the work get paid for the work that they do,” he said Wednesday in remarks before the House Committee on Labor and Workplace Standards.

Some testifiers placed much of the blame for wage theft on informal labor brokers, who are required to be licensed by the state, but most are not.

Oregon has two licensed labor brokers, said Josh Nasbe, legislative director for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. He estimated there are “hundreds” of unlicensed brokers operating in the state.

Supporters of the bill said it would create an incentive for general contractors to hire reputable subcontractors.

“Contractors don’t have any incentive to hire licensed, bonded and responsible subcontractors,” said Hank Kaplan, a board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland. “This legislation would provide that incentive.”

Existing legal processes for remedying wage theft are often too slow and complicated, said Martha Sonato, a lobbyist for the Oregon Law Center, which provides free legal help to low-income residents.

“Current protections aren’t enough,” Sonato said.

A lobbyist for landlords argued the bill creates “unintended consequences” in trying to hold bad actors responsible for wage theft.

“It will only lead to disputes that delay housing projects,” said Molly McGrew, a lobbyist for Multifamily NW.

An Oregon Department of Justice advisor, Leslie Wu, said Attorney General Dan Rayfield would welcome “another tool in the toolbox” to combat wage theft.

SB 426 passed the Senate 18-11 in April, with one Republican joining Democrats in sending the bill to the House.

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The post POSITION AVAILABLE: Successful Northwest Heavy Civil General Contractor Seeks Experienced Mechanical Superintendent appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Event is Tuesday, October 25, 2011 from 2:00 PM to 4%3

The post Potential Prime Contractor Outreach Event for the Bull Run Supply Treatment Project! appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

In the past, whenever Scappoose public works officials had to upgrade a portion of their sewage treatment plant, they had a few main considerations: which parts worked the best for the job and how much the project would cost, for example.

The federal stimulus package added another consideration: where those parts were made.

A “Buy American” provision requires that projects receiving stimulus money use parts made in the United States. Scappoose got $706,000 in stimulus money to improve its treatment plant, which includes an ultraviolet disinfection system.

“One issue we talked about early on was using the Trojan UV system and upgrading it,” said plant supervisor Steve Wabschall. “That system’s made out of Canada.”

Scappoose officials decided to replace some of the system’s parts with American-made components instead of swapping out the whole system. Under a deal that took effect Tuesday, they wouldn’t have needed to worry about buying from Canada.

The U.S. and Canada signed a trade deal last week opening stimulus projects to Canadian suppliers while opening Canadian projects to U.S. suppliers. The deal promises to ease what had become a headache on stimulus projects, particularly water and sewer ones, said Perry Fowler, the director of governmental affairs for the Associated General Contractors of America.

Often, especially in water and sewer project, a needed part has no American makers, Fowler said. “The large pieces of equipment used in treatment facilities, like blowers and ultraviolet treatment systems and membrane filtration systems, a lot of those are manufactured abroad, many in Canada,” he said.

“A lot of those are preferred by the engineers and water authorities for their performance.”

Smaller items may have a single American manufacturer, Fowler said, creating an artificial spike in demand. “A lot of these items with a lot of parts in them are not manufactured in sufficient quantity,” he said. “One manufacturer was granted a virtual monopoly on a pipe fitting of a certain diameter.”

Where finding domestically made parts has been impossible or nearly so, the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal agency responsible for administering water and sewer projects, has granted waivers. The waiver process has gotten smoother, Fowler said, but can still delay projects.

Responsibility for compliance with the Buy American provisions ultimately rests with the contractor on a project, Fowler said. If an EPA inspector finds foreign parts, even if the supplier swore they were domestic, the contractor could face fines or other penalties, he said.
“We tell our members they have to make extra sure they’re well educated,” Fowler said. “If you go out of business because you used a bolt that’s not made in the U.S., that’s contrary to the goals of the Recovery Act, certainly.”

Despite early concerns, the Scappoose project is moving ahead. Tacoma-based general contractor Pease & Sons should start on the project next month, Wabschall said, as soon as parts arrive.

Although the deal with Canada gives U.S. agencies more flexibility in water and sewer projects, Canada isn’t the only foreign supplier for public works projects. Scappoose officials had to pore over parts in their screening, filtration and pumping systems to make sure all were American-made.

“The consulting engineers had to get all the paperwork up front,” Wabschall said. “We have a screen that was originally made in Germany, but I think (the company) has a plant in Georgia now.”

The post Canadian ‘Buy American’ deal eases sourcing appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland is looking for a contractor to update Union Station. Money for the project, estimated at between $6.5 million and $7.5 million, comes from the high-speed rail program in the federal stimulus package.

Repairs to the leaky building include replacing a portion of the roof, installing seismic bracing, replacing doors and windows, adding insulation and updating the building envelope and exterior plaster.

A mandatory prebid meeting will be held at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 18 at Wilfs Restaurant in Union Station, 800 N.W. Sixth Avenue. Bids on the project are due March 16.

The project raised eyebrows when it was announced last month because the improvements don’t directly cause trains to run faster. Oregon also received smaller awards for engineering work to improve rail connections in Portland.

But the Union Station repairs were “shovel-ready,” said Sarah Harpole, senior project manager for the Portland Development Commission, which owns the building. Engineering work had been completed, and repairs were already under way, she said.

Other improvements to Union Station, including adding track to reroute freight trains, will have to wait for future grants, Harpole said. Those changes would cost closer to $40 million.

The post Union Station seeks general contractor for repairs appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The City of Seattle has issued a new City of Seattle Supplemental Bidder Responsibility Criteria form that will be used for all City Public Works projects of $300,000 or more starting Jan. 1, 2010.

The apparent low bidder will be required to submit the form after bid opening. The form replaces the Pre-Award Information Statement.

A sample work experience form is also included for reference if the specification includes detailed work and personal experience.

A training session will be held on Thursday, Dec. 17, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Seattle Municipal Tower, Room 4080. Interested Prime Contractors need to email a RSVP to maura.donoghue@seattle.gov if they wish to attend.

The post City of Seattle Issues New Supplemental Bidder Criteria Form appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The City of Seattle has issued a new City of Seattle Supplemental Bidder Responsibility Criteria form that will be used for all City Public Works projects of $300,000 or more starting Jan. 1, 2010.

The apparent low bidder will be required to submit the form after bid opening. The form replaces the Pre-Award Information Statement.

A sample work experience form is also included for reference if the specification includes detailed work and personal experience.

A training session will be held on Thursday, Dec. 17, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Seattle Municipal Tower, Room 4080. Interested Prime Contractors need to email a RSVP to maura.donoghue@seattle.gov if they wish to attend.

The post City of Seattle Issues New Supplemental Bidder Criteria Form appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Despite good-faith efforts of the past 25 years, the city of Portland says it is still inconsistent in its efforts to include minorities in its contractor evaluation and selection processes.

That’s why Portland City Council next week will vote whether to approve a resolution submitted by Commissioner Randy Leonard that would require the inclusion of at least one minority evaluator on all panels that review and award city contracts not based on low bids.

According to the resolution, Portland’s Alliance of Minority Chambers will work with organizations such as the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs to provide city bureaus with recommendations for minority experts to serve on contract review and award panels.

“Think of this as a jury pool,” said Roy Jay, president of the Alliance of Minority Chambers. “You agree to serve. It won’t guarantee anybody any contracts, but it will put minorities at the table instead of under it.”

But Maurice Rahming and Faye Burch, president and vice president of the National Association of Minority Contractors Oregon, respectively, have concerns about the city’s choice of the alliance to vet candidates to sit on the review panels.

“I think the alliance is a good organization,” Rahming said. “But as the city tries to solve problems in fair contracting, it makes sense to contact the people that have their boots on the ground and not go with an association, that to my knowledge, doesn’t have as strong of a contractor base or membership as other groups.”

“There are a lot of people that should have been involved in the development of this resolution that were not,” Burch said. “The people who stand to benefit from this are the people who are actually bidding on those projects.”

Jay said that if the resolution passes, his group will set up a Web site where parties interested in sitting on the contract panels can register their qualifications. The alliance will then make a list of qualified candidates from those applications, and the city will make a final decision on candidates from that list.

“I want to clarify that these people are not going to be all members of the chambers,” Jay said. “People will be harvested from the chambers and the entire business community. This also does not circumvent us from recommending people that aren’t people of color, like small business owners.”

President of OAME Jorge Guerra said he is keeping an eye on the process, which he hopes will lead to a broader range of people becoming involved in the contract review process.

“Portland is a small city,” Guerra said. “I can go to several meetings in a day and see the same people at all of those meetings. We want to try and invite those people who are not active to participate.”

Still, Rahming said that working with a group more contractor-based like NAMCO or OAME, rather than the alliance, could have sped up the process of compiling a list of qualified candidates.

“We had a conversation about this resolution with the city, but I don’t know how they made the decision to choose the alliance,” Rahming said. “It might take a while for them to find out what the issues are out there with contracting. I’m not opposed to minority oversight, but I’d like to see an oversight committee involved in contracting.”

The resolution states that NAMCO, OAME and other minority-based business associations will be consulted to provide lists of qualified candidates. But until the resolution is passed, it remains to be seen what the alliance’s vetting process will entail.

City Council will vote on the issue at its meeting on Wednesday. If it passes, the Portland Development Commission plans to implement a similar program that would extend to development contracts, according to John Jackley, director of communications and business equity for the PDC.

The post Portland considers minority oversight for contract review panels appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The City of Aumsville has issued a request for bids for the Olney Street Overlay project bidding on August 20, 2009 at 2:00pm. We contacted the Engineer on the project. He said he didn’t think anyone outside the Salem area would be interested in bidding and would not be issuing documents for plan centers/exchanges in the Portland area or other areas outside of Salem. There have been similar responses from the Grants Pass and Klamath Falls areas of the state.

We have heard reports of some construction companies working in areas they had not before because of the economy. Even going out of state if need be to get through the rough economy. The City of Portland is not that far away from the Salem area, but maybe too far for some companies? We have also seen more companies from out of state bidding on projects in the area. Companies from as far as Montana, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and California are putting in bids for projects in both Washington and Oregon.

A few cities and towns are trying to keep things local by restricting the viewing of plans and specs to only those companies from the area. By doing so they are restricting the bidding to only local construction companies. This does help the local economy in some ways, but what about a fair bid using public money? Shouldn’t they encourage more companies to bid to get a better price for the project?

How far would you go to keep your crew working? What do you think of keeping public projects local?

The post How Far Are You Willing To Travel For A Project? appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.