Thank you, Inland Empire Section, for your vote of confidence in me to be your representative in our professional organization, Professional Engineers in California Government. I look forward to working with the new PECG Corporate Officers and PECG staff in reminding them of our members’ needs and concerns.

As you know, we have a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for us that has been overwhelmingly approved by the PECG membership, with 93.4% voting yes and 6.6% voting no.

The Legislature must now adopt this MOU and the vehicle for doing so is Senate Bill 151, which also includes the MOUs for the other five Bargaining Units. This Bill will require a two-thirds approval in each House of the Legislature befor it goes before the Governor's desk for him to sign. We believe that this new MOU is appropriate, given the current economic situation of the State.


Every person under the Unit 9 umbrella should become a member. In contract negotiations it is difficult for DPA to think that PECG truly represents the majority of unit 9 employees if our membership numbers are weak. This fact can be seen by PECG’s Meet & Confer team in its attempt to negotiate with DPA for benefits and salary increases for non represented seniors, has been quite difficult, not just because of the economic impact but because senior membership is very low. It’s quite possible that if senior membership was higher the pay increase would have already occurred. Also when senior pay goes up then DPA is more obligated to increase managers pay as well.

Fee payers are NOT members, but for a few dollars more you can become one and have full membership status.

It is important for our members be involved in activities that PECG corporate helps to coordinate. As an organization of state employees PECG is always struggling to convey the creditability and need for public service. By participating in our outreach activities such as being involved in local science and engineering fairs and mentoring programs helps us to fight off the negative stigma that the media and politicians have set against public service employees.

My goals for this year, Oct 2010 - Oct 2011, is to increase our senior & managerial membership and to increase the Inland Empires role in outreach activities whether they are political or community oriented.

Your participation in our section’s outreach activities and meeting attendance under the direction of your elected officers has brought a great deal of recognition to this section. Of all the sections (17) PECG awarded the Inland Empire Section the prestigious “Section of the Year Award”, and this section now has two of its own in PECG’s Corporate Office, Shabbir Ahmed-President and Joya Gilster-Nova Secretary. Tim Sharp is an alternate co-chair of PECG-Pac and co-chair of the Members Benefits Committee.

Congratulations PECG, INLAND EMPIRE Section. May we have another successful year!

Ferdinand Delacruz