NEWSLETTER
Chamber News
JANUARY 2015
LARGEST BUSINESS ORGANIZATION IN TUOLUMNE COUNTY
LEADERSHIP KEYSTONES FOR SUCCESS January 21, 2015 Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce 9:00 am to 10:30 am Facilitated by Barney Kramer
Vote Record: Major Bills 2014 This is the 40th vote record the CalChamber has compiled. The CalChamber publishes this report in response to numerous requests by member firms and local chambers of commerce that would like a gauge by which to measure the performance of their
legislators. To help readers assess legislators' vote records, the charts group bills into six areas: environmental regulation, health care costs, labor costs, litigation costs, tax, and water supply and reliability.
View Full Document or www.tcchamber.com/news.html
2015 New Laws Affecting California Employers
WHEN GOOD COMPANIES FAIL IT ALWAYS COMES DOWN TO LEADERSHIP. Good Leadership begins with the right Attitudes, Beliefs and Convictions. It then requires 6 Core Skill Competencies and one Attitudinal Competency to be an effective leader. The session will start with a Self-Assessment of Your Own Leadership Skills. Then we will move on to Attitudes, Beliefs, and Convictions illustrated by three great examples. Lastly, we will learn a couple of skills from the ABC Formula of Leadership that you can take back to your business and apply. 3 Great Takeaways to start you on the path to improving your business.
RSVP required Contact Barney Kramer President, Strategic Management/Advanced Business Solutions, Inc., at 209-444-6549, or barney@smra1.com www.smra1.com.
California enacted many new laws that will affect the day-to-day operations, practices and policies of California businesses in 2015. This white paper identifies
Welcome to our 2015 Board of Directors Amelia Harrison Umpqua Bank President
Teri Brockmire
some of the noteworthy new laws from the California Legislature. REQUEST A COPY:
http://goo.gl/LZWOqz
Laura Ryan Black Oak Casino Resort Rep. Tuolumne City
Dayna Davis Sierra Pacific Industries Rep. Soulsbyville
Jamie Lloyd
Itty Bitty Balloon Shop Pres. Elect/Chair Ambassadors
Chicken Ranch Casino
Jeff Redoutey
Lauralee Whitman
Blue Mountain Minerals Vice President/Rep. Columbia
Margaret Davis
Rep. Jamestown
Runway Xchange Rep. Sonora
Justin Myers
The Junction Shopping Ctr. Treasurer/ GAC Chair
Caldwell Insurance Services Rep E. Sonora
Wendy Gast
TC Visitors Bureau Ex-Officio
The Union Democrat Marketing Chair/Past Pres.
Peggy Mosley The Groveland Hotel Rep. Groveland/Trans. Chair
Brad Menary Business First Rep. Twain Harte
Lisa Mayo Joe Pluim Plum Construction Rep. at Large
Hal Prock AutoTech & Tires Rep. at Large
FEBRUARY 2015 2 GAC: 11 a.m. – Chamber 4 Exec. Board: Noon – Chamber JANUARY 2015 5 GAC: 11 a.m. – Chamber 7 Exec. Board: Noon – Chamber 8 Ambassadors: Noon – Chamber
5 Ambassadors: Noon – Chamber 9 SCORE: 9 a.m.— Chamber 10 T/Harte Chamber Mixer: 5:30-7 p.m. 11 Transportation Committee: 9:30 a.m. – Chamber
12 SCORE: 9 a.m. – 11 Board of Dir. Chamber 11 a.m. – Chamber 14 Transportation 17 Sonora Chamber Committee: 9:30 a.m. Mixer: 5:30-7 p.m. – Chamber 19 Marketing/ 14 Board of Dir. Website Committee: 11 a.m. – Chamber Noon – Chamber 15 Marketing/ 19 T. C. Chamber Website Committee: Mixer: 5-7 p.m Noon – Chamber Birchwood 15 T. C. Chamber Mixer: 5-7 p.m McCurley’s National Flooring 22 LTC: Noon – Chamber
Cabinets 26 LTC: 12pm– Chamber 26 Hway 120 Chamber’s Network Night: 5:30-7 p.m.
Valley legislators make ADA reform top priority - Courtesy Modbee.com Two members of the Valley Delegation (we’re capitalizing those letters intentionally) unveiled their most important priority Monday, the first day of the new legislative session: halting abuse of a law meant to guarantee access for those with disabilities. Republican Kristin Olsen of Riverbank and Democrat Adam Gray of Merced introduced companion Assembly bills that challenge the Legislature to do something about a legal scourge extensively detailed by reporters Garth Stapley of The Modesto Bee and Ramona Giwargis of the Merced Sun-Star in a series of September stories. The Olsen and Gray bills are a frontal assault on unscrupulous lawyers who attack small businesses through lawsuits based on the Americans with Disabilities Act and a quirk of California law that allows for direct payment to lawyers and so-called victims. These lawsuits resemble legal blackmail.
neath the symbol for handicap access – rarely “AB 52 and 54 put the priority where it berepresent an actual barrier to the handilongs,” said Sen. Tom Berryhill of Twain capped. Harte, “improving access for the disabled.” The tiniest violations are identified and turned over to lawyers who then threaten to sue the business owners. The real intent is to extract a settlement. California law allows $4,000 per violation, so if the “victim” finds 10 technical violations, the lawyer offers to settle for $40,000. These unscrupulous lawyers and their accomplices swooped into the Valley this year, forcing several small businesses who could not afford the settlements to close.
A host of other legislators – including Democratic Sen. Cathleen Galgiani of Stockton and Republican Andy Vidak of Hanford – have co-signed.
Actual barriers to handicap access are indefensible. The changes that Gray and Olsen propose would neither excuse such violations nor lessen the incentives for fixing them.
Next, the bills are likely to go before the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, which is often dominated by urban legislators with legal backgrounds. Previous common-sense ADA reforms have died in this committee. We don’t want that to happen again. Instead, we expect the entire Legislature to embrace and pass these reforms.
Olsen’s AB 54 would give businesses 60 days to update facilities once a violation is spotted. Gray’s AB 52 would significantly Gray and Olsen have been joined by a host of reduce damages if violations are corrected Valley legislators whose districts have been within 180 days. Virtually all of the San infested by professional victims who visit Joaquin Valley’s representatives have emsmall businesses with the sole purpose of braced the legislation. finding technical violations of the ADA. Those often-miniscule violations – a sign “The recent string of frivolous ADA lawsuits posted a few inches too high, a parking space … is a blatant abuse of these well-intentioned an inch too narrow, or outdated wording be- laws,” said Sen. Anthony Cannella of Ceres.
That our legislators stand united, we hope, sends a clear signal to the rest of the Legislature. Aside from the obvious merits of the bills, this is the kind of cooperation we want in Sacramento – irrespective of party affiliation.
Anyone who cares about disabled access and the health of small businesses should pay close attention to the bills’ progress. But we should also pay attention to other priorities embraced by the Valley Delegation. This is a good start to the 2015-16 legislative session.
Some businesses use part-time to meet health law by Paul Davidson, USA TODAY Many businesses in low-wage industries have hired more part-time workers and cut the hours of full-timers recently to soften the impact of new health law requirements that take effect Thursday, some consultants say. The strategies have had only a modest impact on job growth, which has accelerated substantially this year, but could take a somewhat bigger toll next year as firms gear up for an expanded health care mandate in 2016. A majority of small businesses say the Affordable Care Act already has hurt their profits, forcing them to reduce or postpone investment, withhold raises or trim other types of benefits, according to a new survey by the top small-business trade group. Under the health care law, businesses that employ at least 100 full-time workers — or full-time equivalents, including part-time workers — must offer health benefits to at least 70% of those working at least 30 hours a week by Thursday, or pay a penalty. By Jan. 1, 2016, those companies must provide insurance to 95% of their workers, and firms with 50 to 99 employees must offer coverage as well. The health coverage mandate for individuals took effect last January, but the Obama administration pushed back the effective date for businesses in 2013. Ninety-four percent of businesses with at least 100 workers and 55% of all firms already offer health benefits to at least some employees, according to Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust.
Still, some firms are taking steps to avoid the mandate. Businesses in low-wage sectors, such as restaurants, retail and warehousing, are feeling bigger effects because health insurance represents an outsize share of their total employee costs, says Rob Wilson, head of Employco, a human resources outsourcing firm. Many of those with just fewer than 100 staffers have hired more part-timers in recent months, while those with at least 100 are reducing the hours of existing employees, he says. Michelle Neblett, senior director of labor and workforce policy for the National Restaurant Association, says many restaurants are being more cautious about boosting the workweek of part-timers to 30 hours or more, doling out such increases to reward top performers. Those strategies have not had a noticeable impact on the labor market. Monthly job growth has averaged 240,000 this year, up from 194,000 in 2013. And full-time employment has increased at about twice the rate of part-time payrolls, Labor Department figures show. Still, the number of part-time workers who say they'd prefer full-time jobs has remained stubbornly high. That can at least partly be traced to the inclination of the restaurant, retail and hotel industries to hire more part-time workers to sidestep the ACA mandate, Royal Bank of Scotland wrote in a recent report. Businesses with fewer than 100 employees also already have felt some impact from the health law, says a new survey by the National Federation of Independent Business, a small-
business trade group. Those that provide health insurance now must offer coverage for mental health and other services — unless they're grandfathered under existing plans — boosting premiums, says Kevin Kuhlman, NFIB director of federal policy. Forty-two percent of the 900 firms surveyed say their health plan costs have risen at least 10% this year. As a result, 37% are delaying or postponing investment, and 26% are freezing or reducing wages. Mike DeVoge, owner of a 12-employee marina in Conneaut Lake, Pa., says costs for the six workers who are eligible for insurance recently increased 40% and are set to rise another 60% in 2016. That, he says will likely force him to freeze wages and drop health benefits in a year. Dan Mendelson, CEO of consulting firm Avalere Health, downplayed the impact of the law on small businesses, saying many can reduce their costs by offering plans with high deductibles or co-payments.
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