Despite voter ambivalence in the presidential election, Americans decisively supported a variety of bond measures and ballot initiatives that favor the construction industry. The Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California (CELSOC), a trade association representing private sector engineers, has been in conflict for many years with the Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG), a union that represents California transportation engineers (State employees). On November 7, a majority of California voters supported SELSOC's position on Proposition 35, a measure that provides private consulting engineering firms with greater access to public works contracts in California. The measure passed 55% to 45%. This contest was watched closely by the U.S. construction industry due to concern over PECG's influence over California Law. For the past several years private sector engineers nationwide have been concerned that public transportation engineers in other states could be influenced by PECG's example and unionize. For the moment, the private sector may be breathing a collective sigh of relief.

In 1934, the California State Constitution was amended for the purpose of reducing corruption. For many years, PECG took advantage of ambiguous aspects of the amendment to increase public sector engineers' responsibilities and authority. Two Republican governors were proponents of contracting public works projects to private companies and cut Caltrans' budget. In response, PECG took several cases to court, beginning in 1986. In 1997, after several conflicting rulings by lower courts, the California Supreme Court ruled that Caltrans may contract out only those services that are not readily available in-house-a victory for PECG.¹

In June 1998, following up on the California Supreme Court ruling, PECG sponsored Proposition 224, which stipulated that all design contracts for state-funded projects must be compared with the cost for public agencies to design the same project in-house, awarding work to the entity with the lowest costs. The methods for comparison would have favored public employees; for example, pension plans and equipment expenses were to be included in the consulting engineers' costs but not in public sector cost estimates. Proposition 224 was considered a serious threat to the livelihood of consulting engineers and architects in California, who raised $8 million for a media campaign to convince the public that Proposition 224 would eliminate competitive bidding and would create an inequitable base for comparing the cost of public and private sector design work. PECG raised approximately $3.2 million for public relations, less than half the amount raised by CELSOC. In June 1998, California voters defeated Proposition 224, with 62% of the votes cast against, and 38% voting in favor of the Proposition.²

CELSOC's victory, with its implicit public support for free market competition, prompted CELSOC to collect more than one million signatures to put Proposition 35 (also known as the Fair Competition and Taxpayer Savings Initiative) on the 2000 election ballot.³ Proposition 35 states, "The State of California and all other government entities…shall be allowed to contract with qualified private entities for architectural and engineering services for all public works improvement."⁴ Proposition 35 is particularly relevant and timely, because the California State legislature increased the California transportation budget from $5.3 billion in 1997 to $9.6 billion in 2000, an increase of 81%.⁵ The overall budget expansion results from an increase in allocations to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and to local governments, as well as from the creation of new programs such as the Seismic Retrofit Program and the Traffic Congestion Relief Program. Even taking into consideration Caltrans' expanded workforce, the substantial number of new projects and programs provide ample justification for contracting out design responsibilities to private sector AE firms.

It remains to be seen if California's in-house engineers will give up the fight. Stay tuned on this one.