POTENTIAL HURRICANE IAN

To All FMCA Membership,

While we thought we made it through this season without any Hurricanes, it appears we have a potential storm breathing down our necks. The cone of uncertainty appears to be heading somewhere right above Sarasota to the Tampa Area all the way to the Panhandle. I expect tomorrow will start defining the true path of the storm. It is expected to become a Cat 4 at some point with landfall around a Cat 3. Depending on where in the state it hits, it could be a Tuesday all the way to Thursday of this coming week for landfall. Not a lot of time to put our plans in place.

Please make the necessary preparations to include fuel, water, food, generators, tools, materials and anything else you can think of you might need to keep work moving forward.

Also, prepare your project job sites to include removing unnecessary materials, loose debris and equipment. Move all boats to onland trailers and all barges to safe havens. Find tucked in coves or rivers that are positioned opposite of the severe winds so that there is land mass protecting your equipment from wave and surge action. Put your equipment in places where if something happens to it it won’t damage other personal properties. Allow for for rising waters in your tying off of equipment. Any permanent project framing needs to be secured as best as possible. Consider holding off on installing decking/seawall top caps that could allow wave action to impact it and destroy the structure. Protect any erosion points with sand bagging or rip rap. Haul off ALL of your stored new materials so you don’t lose them.

Consider your plan moving forward if you are impacted by the storm. Review your contracts immediately and determine all materials you will need in order to keep your current contract load moving forward. Then consider the new and repair work you will need materials for and consider buying in bulk to make sure you have enough to complete your work load. Evaluate your emergency work versus current contract load and communicate to all of your clients your plan going forward. They will be sympathetic and understanding to the situation. Just keep them informed!

While being competitors, consider helping out your fellow contractors near you that may have been impacted worse than you. We are all on the same team and in the same industry.

If your area is directly hit by this storm and you or your business is impacted, please let us know what you need and all members from around the state will rally together to do what we need to help you so that you can repair quickly and get back to moving your business forward. We are ALL in this together!!!

To monitor the storm better, here are some suggested sites on the internet and Facebook that will help you keep an eye on what’s going on with this storm. If you have any sites that are solid and not listed here, please send them to me to send out to the membership.

Hurricane Tracking Sites Below:
https://www.spaghettimodels.com/

https://www.tropicaltidbits.com

On Facebook:

Mike’s Weather Page
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0NAsQSbvWHYYV4y3fihXZzBNK7AovfiDWvLf8mXXJTt6cPmYS71JMLfqTFXvYTrJrl&id=100044200397606

NOAA National Hurricane Center
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0wn3xjpS3pxUYNEjNhKCAhe7RoVAgsUtrLm2r7xqt1AFTL15u8HCXjbaiRkmk9dgrl&id=100064875420537

Last, here is the Governor’s Executive Order pertaining to this storm:
https://www.flgov.com/2022/09/24/memorandumexecutive-order-22-219-amending-executive-order-22-218-emergency-management-tropical-depression-nine/

Please be safe! Wish you all well in this next week.

Sincerely,

John Loftis
President of FMCA

HB735 – gaining traction

I am involved in 1-2 conference calls a week with various Government entities or Florida Representatives about the unintended consequences of HB735. Today was no different, other than I truly feel Paul Renner’s aide, Shannon Shephard, “got it” and will be aligning with us to help rectify the unintended consequences.

Will send out more updates as they develop.

See you at the EXPO October 7th & 8th. Hopefully we will have some good news by then.

Kelly White

FMCA Annual Meeting & Expo 2022-running out of rooms

Good Afternoon,

We are down to 8 rooms left in our pre-negotiated block of rooms at the $174 rate that includes other perks. Please be sure to register today!!!

If you are a contractor, you do not want to miss Friday’s workshops!!
10:00 am – 10:50 am Electrical Grounding Workshop Bill France Room
Robert Elie, Elie Electric
11:00 am – 11:50 am Marine Engineering/Barges, Cranes & Davits Bill France Room
Roger Guerard, Sea Island Marine Engineering
12:00 pm – 12:30 pm Lunch Bill France Room

12:30pm – 2:30 pm Round Table Discussion amongst Contractors Bill France Room
Topics: Controlling Material Cost
Scheduling Jobs – large projects
Investing in your business, tools, resources, employees
Hiring Practices
New Products, Processes or Tools
2:40 pm – 3:30 pm Construction Contracts & Cost Escalation Bill France Room
Lindsey Brock, McLeod Brock Attorney at Law
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm Welcome Reception in Exhibit Hall Richard Petty

Register today so you don’t lose out on the discounted rates!!!

Any questions call Kelly White 904-553-5189

See you all soon!

Membership Fee Increase

Good Afternoon Fellow Florida Marine Contractor Member’s,

I have been following many of you on Facebook or Instagram and seeing a lot of nice work taking place across the state. I just want to tell every one of you what a great job you’re doing to change the public’s thinking into realizing that the Marine Industry is a sought after needed profession. We are a dire part of what a Client needs to either enjoy or repair their property. We are also involved in building structures at every major waterfront facility to include marinas, commercial boat ramps, parks, public docks to 1000’s of personal residences across the state. From the Vendors and Suppliers, the Consultants along with the Marine Contractor, again I say, GREAT JOB!

Behind the scenes, your FMCA Board Of Directors and Executive Director Kelly White have been working really hard on some issues around the state that have popped up.

We have had some unintended consequences of House Bill 735 that created a hurricane of issues for the Marine Contractor. Here soon, we will be releasing a write up in more detail on this issue and what we are doing to address it.

We have had seagrass study requirements and issues around the state both at the Federal and State level that need some ironing out. We have internally as a Board had some success in dealing with the FDEP on some of these issues but certainly have more ground to cover.

We are pursuing an exemption for the Florida Marine Contractor to be able to use a surface to water air supply rig (Hookah Rig) without having to be classified as a full fledged diver. This is needed for many reasons.

Intend to pursue legislation & funding that makes it legal for a Marine Contractor to be allowed to use all public boat ramps in order to conduct their business. Advocate for making the locations next to public boat ramps usable for commercial use. I guess we could call it a designated commercial area for contractors.

We have had some issues with contractors trying to get a State Certified Marine Contractor’s license versus finding someone that the state Construction Industry Licensing Board (CILB) will approve to sign off on them. This has proven to be one of our biggest issues around the state. We have many qualified individuals from through out the state that are unable to get approved to be a State Licensed & Certified Marine Contractor. They have taken the test but it appears the next steps are near to impossible. I will be doing a detailed write up of this going forward.

In the past, before the economy of 2008 & 2009, we had a lot of momentum with the state legislative branches as well as the Federal and State agencies. We have noticed that we are starting to develop a great rapport with these agencies again along with some direct and very appreciated support from our Governor, Ron Desantis.

Knowing what FMCA has accomplished in the past with creating the State Certified Marine Contractor’s License along with assisting in the creation of the USL&H work comp code, I first handedly witnessed that all this was done with the help of a qualified lobbyist. When the economic crisis in 2008 and 2009 hit the Marine Contractor across the state, we had to stop lobbying as well as lower dues from $1,000.00 a year down to around $450.00 per year in order to keep membership alive. I was President during that era. My one goal along with the help of the Board of Directors was to save the FMCA. We accomplished that goal and have been building back ever since. Here we are, almost 13 years later with thriving Marine Contractor’s all over the state and our membership is the best it has been in years. It has been a passion of mine for many years to create a working relationship with a new lobbyist to start helping us tackle some of our issues. I didn’t want to just work with anyone. We knew that we needed to work with a group that understood our issues and knew how to navigate the system in order to produce viable results we can sink our teeth into. We are there now! Our board voted last month to move forward with Jenkins Hill Consulting to tackle the above issues I listed above as well as work with us on future issues. My sole goal for FMCA is to bring results to the Marine Industry that give direct benefit to you as a member. I, along with the Board, are excited for this move. Please understand that this doesn’t come for free unfortunately so I made the recommendation in our last meeting to increase our membership dues from the $450.00 per year to $650.00 per year starting effective for renewals due in July. It is the minimum needed in order to not impact your wallets too hard but still make this lobbying decision viable. I was President when we voted to drop the membership fees so I feel it is only right for me to be the one to request to increase them. Please understand that I weigh a lot into this decision and would never push for it unless I truly thought it would directly affect your companies in

CLOAF Presentation HB735

Dear Membership,

On May 13, 2022 I was a guest speaker at the Construction Licensing Officials Association of Florida’s (CLOAF) annual meeting. I was invited to speak about HB735 and the unintended consequences, of which there are many. Some additional issues were uncovered during the presentation, as well.

In the end, the presentation was beneficial and well received. I think I may have brought about some change in a couple of the licensing departments, we will see the impact, if any soon.

If you would like a copy of the of the Power Point, please email me at kelly.white@myfmca.org and request a copy. If you are aware of a city or county that are sunsetting the local construction licenses prior to 6/30/23, please email me with details and copies of any announcements/post cards.

My Best,
Kelly White, Exec Dir