President’s Message: January 2023
From ACEC Florida President Scott Martin, PE, LEED AP, DBIA
To the ACEC Florida Community,
Happy 2023! I hope you all had a relaxing and rejuvenating holiday break for at least a little time over the past few weeks. As we begin the new year and our business commitments come back into the forefront of our minds, it’s time for us to re-focus on the priorities our companies and organizations plan to concentrate on this year.
For ACEC Florida, January means springtime in Tallahassee and the imminent start of the new legislative session. Several issues we’re tracking this session include:
- Strengthening the existing buildings inspection program passed into law as Senate Bill 4-D last year.
- Possible changes to the law around liability protections for engineers.
- Working with FDOT to pass legislation allowing the use of progressive (phased) design-build for project procurement.
In addition to these issues, there are sure to be others that ACEC Florida will be ready to address and defend when necessary. If you’re interested in any of these issues or the legislative process in general, please consider joining us in Tallahassee for the Professional Engineers Legislative Days on March 21 and 22, 2023. You’ll have the opportunity to meet several of our key partners in the legislature and explain to your local legislators why these issues matter to engineers. I barely knew who the state senator for my district was until I visited Senator Darryl Rouson in his Tallahassee office as part of PE Legislative Days. I’m now very aware of who my local representatives are and whom to contact when the issues I care about are at stake. This will be an excellent opportunity to become more aware of the lawmaking process and the players involved.
As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, ACEC Florida is working with FES and our other partner engineering organizations to publish the new Engineering Florida quarterly magazine beginning in Q1 2023. This will be a fantastic opportunity for all our members to see what our partner organizations are focused on and for the public to gain insight into the important engineering issues facing our state.
Another focus area for 2023 will be updating our membership database and looking for ways to connect with leaders within ACEC Florida member firms beyond the lone firm Principal assigned as the voting representative for each firm. Having a single point of contact works well for many of our single-owner and smaller-sized firm members but often not for the larger firms with offices across the state or the nation. Does your firm have several offices across the state with multiple leaders looking to contribute to your company’s betterment? I encourage you to nominate them to one of the ACEC Florida committees that fits best with your firm’s practice and help them to get involved. Our organization is the most effective when we all participate!
2023 is sure to throw more at us than we expect at the year’s start. I hope you have your goals planned for this year and are as ready to tackle them as I am!
Yours truly,
Scott D. Martin, P.E., LEED AP / Principal
Project Director
Design-Build Market Leader
Walter P Moore
201 East Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 700
Tampa, Florida 33602-5823
813.275.8112 p / 727.642.6212 c
smartin@walterpmoore.com / www.walterpmoore.com
