General Elections 2008
by: ABC East Coast Political Action Headquarters

November 4th is ELECTION DAY!
Don’t forget to vote! 

Do not let this election pass you by.

Do not let others make the decisions that will shape your future.

What's at Stake for the Construction Industry in the 2008 Elections
Find out how the 2008 Election Results will affect the way you do business for the next four years.
Be proactive in securing the political landscape that benefits your business. Know the issues now to secure your business later!

Click here to watch what's at stake

Compare the Candidates Side by Side

Click below to see the flyer on how the candidates differ on the issues that affect your business.

Presidential Candidate Comparison

Meet your 2008 Candidates

Associated Builders and Contractors Florida East Coast Chapter worked very hard to ensure they provide as much information as possible on the candidates you will see on your ballot.  They created palm cards for this general election for you to distribute to your employees.  These palm cards list the candidates and the seats they are running for.  These cards can be used as paycheck stuffers and can be taken into the voting booth with you.

ABC 2008 General Election Palm Card-South
Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach Counties

ABC 2008 General Election Palm Card-Central
Brevard, Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie Counties

Click Here to learn what Constitutional Amendments
we will be voting on in Florida this November.
 

As an affiliate chapter of Green Advantage, the South Florida USGBC will organize, promote, and host local Green Advantage training workshops and exams. More than 4,000 individuals in the nation are Green Advantage Certified, and there are Commercial and Residential versions of the exam.

All workshops are taught by a team of one architect and one contractor. Each workshop covers the construction aspects of a green building, from foundation to landscape. Example topics include construction waste management, sustainable site work, and green interior finishes.

Many building professionals are familiar with the title ‘LEED Accredited Professional’. This accreditation offered by the USGBC is based on the LEED rating system, the nation’s leading green building standard. The majority of LEED Accredited Professionals are designers, architects, and engineers. The target market of Green Advantage, however, is contractors, subcontractors, and tradespeople.

Green Advantage is not a LEED training program. But it is complementary to and supportive of LEED, and it is supported by the national USGBC. For projects aspiring to attain LEED Certification, an Innovation Credit is available if a significant percentage of contractors and subcontractors working on the project are Green Advantage Certified.

The mission of the USGBC South Florida Chapter is to make green building the standard throughout the region. For more information about the chapter and LEED projects in South Florida, go to www.usgbcsf.org. 

For further details on the Green Advantage certification program, visit www.greenadvantage.org.

The Green Advantage^® Environmental Certification program will give your staff the tools it needs to build green – and give your company a market advantage! The program is specifically designed for construction personnel.

Green building continues to gain momentum even in today’s tough market. There are dozens of LEED^® Registered projects in South Florida. At least 25 states have passed or are considering legislation that would require government-funded projects to meet the U.S. Green Buildings Council’s LEED^® building standards. And 48 cities, including Miami, have adopted LEED^® standards. Teams with Green Advantage^® cerfied personnel may qualify for one LEED^® Innovation Credit.

Get trained. Get certified. Get the Green Advantage^®!

Cost: $450 per person

Location: South Regional/BCC Library

USGBC Contact: Paul Carty, LEED® AP (954) 923.4747 or pcarty@statecontracting.com

  Construction Material Testing Tips

   This Month:: Compressive Strength Concrete Testing

Concrete slump testing is the most common industry test to measure the workability of concrete and its performance. This test is used to determine if the concrete mixture delivered to the project meets the specified slump

Who or what agency requires it? 

Concrete slump testing is specified by ASTM (American Standards of Testing and Measurement) to be performed every time concrete test cylinders are cast.

Who typically is responsible for testing?  

Testing of the concrete slump testing  is typically included in the fees for concrete test cylinder. Occasionally job site specifications may add additional slump testing requirements to ensure concrete placed on the job are in accordance to specifications.

Who does the test?

Concrete testing is performed by Professional Testing Laboratories. These companies must be licensed Engineering Companies and have at a minimum CMEC (Construction Materials Engineering Council) certification to perform these tests. Technicians performing the test should have American Concrete Institute Certification.

How GFA International can help?
GFA International can provide all these services and many more tests and inspections required by codes and specifications.

Visit www.teamgfa.com
or call at (561) 347-0070

By Daniel Wasserstein, Esquire

In South Florida’s current real estate market, problems surrounding the vast amount of new construction, particularly high-rise condominiums, seem to garner a substantial number of headlines. The flood of new units constantly coming on the market along with the certainty of more to come has created a cloud of despair looming over the once sunny skies of South Florida real estate. Prices and rents are dropping, pre-construction contracts are being breached, and one need only look to the skyline, dominated by cranes, for assurance that these problems are not disappearing anytime soon. However, the volatility surrounding new construction is not the only reason for a downturn in the overall market. Surprisingly, it seems that South Florida has forgotten about its senior citizens -those older buildings that are also contributing to the real estate woes facing the area.

Unit owners in older condominiums have the daunting challenge of addressing substantial mechanical and structural repairs that their aged buildings require. Since the banking industry has tightened its lending requirements, the burden of making these repairs has increasingly fallen on the backs and the wallets of unit owners as reserves on hand are insufficient to address the cost of remediations. In fact, many condominium documents contain provisions that specifically permit unit owners to waive reserves entirely. While such a waiver may be beneficial to unit owners in the short term, when a building is relatively new, such provisions for older buildings have proven problematic as unit owners must inevitably and immediately fund the undertaking of massive repairs directly out-of-pocket.

As a result of this situation, special assessments in these older buildings can grow at a rapid and sizable rate and many unit owners simply cannot afford to make their respective payment. Such unit owners often go into arrears and eventually either the condominium association forecloses on the unit or the bank forecloses on the unit if the owner is failing to also pay the mortgage. If the condominium association forecloses, then it takes title to the unit. This is a problem because the association will not receive monthly maintenance or special assessment payments from this unit until it is sold off. Unlike an association foreclosure, when a bank forecloses it pays the monthly dues for the unit going forward, however, it is only legally required to pay the lesser of 1% of the total mortgage value or the past 6 months of the arrearage on the unit to satisfy any accumulation of fees prior to the foreclosure. Therefore, most foreclosures, although necessary, are harmful to the cash flow of these older associations and their ability to fund repairs. This inevitably becomes a vicious cycle as more non-paying, foreclosed units means that the remaining unit owners take on a greater proportion of the total special assessment, which in turn leads to more foreclosures.

As if this wasn’t enough of as problem, cash flow problems for older buildings are exacerbated by a statutory 40 year re-certification process that requires all buildings of such an age to pass certain structural and electrical requirements as determined by the City and/or the County. This re-certification process undoubtedly adds to the burden these buildings and their respective unit owners already face, as additional engineers and contractors must be hired to remedy the construction concerns identified by inspectors.

Going forward, these senior buildings should properly adopt a healthcare plan in the form of reserves to prevent such financial debacles from occurring. If unit owners pay a reasonable monthly premium to have such protection, when catastrophe strikes in the form of major repairs they can rest assured that their accumulated reserves, rather than their individual bank account, will substantially, if not entirely, cover the associated costs.

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(Courtesy The Office Insider Newsletter)

FROM THE FLCC TEAM