Events Calendar

March 9, Friday
Central Coast Chapter Board Meeting

Time: 10:00 to 11:30 pm
Location: Online, Zoom meeting
Contact Phil Dundas ‭(831) 750-0447 or phil@thelandscapecompany.com

March 24, Thursday
Supplier’s Night and Golf Fun Day

Times: 10am for Golf Event and 4:30pm for Suppliers Night
Location: DeLaveaga Golf Club
These are two separate events on the same day, with separate registration. Links here:
Golf Registration and Suppliers Night Registration
Contact Phil Dundas ‭(831) 750-0447 or phil@thelandscapecompany.com

March 31, Wednesday
Central Coast Water Management Summit

Time: 9:30 am to 5 pm
Location: Seascape Golf Club, 610 Clubhouse Dr., Aptos
Contact Justin White at ‭(831) ‭331-3476‬ or justin@kndlandscaping.com

April 6, Wednesday
Central Coast Chapter Board Meeting

Time: 12:00 to 1:30 pm
Location: Seascape Golf Club, 610 Clubhouse Dr., Aptos
Contact Phil Dundas ‭(831) 750-0447 or phil@thelandscapecompany.com

February 2022 Central Coast President’s Message

by Phil Dundas, Chapter President, The Landscape Company

Hello Landscape Community,

Spring has arrived and leaves are appearing to color the world. As Covid begins to take its place in our lives, war has broken out in Europe making Covid look less problematic every day. Let us be grateful for what we have, let us continue to connect people to nature, let us pray. Hope to see you all at the CLCA Supplier Night and Golf Tournament March 24th, 2022 at DeLaveaga Golf Course. We have a fun day planned and a number of vendors coming to display their latest and greatest. Come out and support our Landscape Community.

Greenly, Phil
Phil Dundas
President, The Landscape Company
phil@thelandscapecompany.com

C: ‭(831) 750-0447‬ │  O: ‭(831) 476-7070‬

2022 Central Coast Chapter Partners for Success Program

There has never been a better time to support Central Coast’s Partners for Success Program. Joining provides an opportunity to increase your visibility in the community, to be seen as a leader in the green industry by helping sustain the many educational and enrichment offerings of our association.

We would like to welcome GraniteCrete to the Central Coast Partners for Success!

For more information, contact Phil Dundas phil@thelandscapecompany.com

register now!

Or, better still, go directly to our online registration! Join us today!

WE love our partners!

PaRTNER’S CORNER

David “Dave” Ventura of GraniteCrete, Inc.

This month Dave Ventura is featured in our “Partner’s Corner.” Read more here.

Message from Henry Buder

15 CLCA Benefits As I See Them

Let’s go back to day one. I did not have a landscape contract; I had one from the office supply store. One day I received a letter from CLCA, inviting me to join, along with a copy of the CLCA landscape contract, tailored to landscaping, all legaled up. BENEFIT #1: LEGAL FORMS

Next I joined the Board of Directors, and started out as secretary. I learned how to take concise notes, and prepare minutes. Very valuable. BENEFIT #2: LEARN TO LISTEN AND RECORD MINUTES

Next I became Vice President in charge of programs. I learned how to set up our dinner meetings, including booking speakers, which taught me how to get things done beyond my every day business. BENEFIT #3: HOW TO TURN AN IDEA INTO REALITY

Then I became Chapter President, although I was scared to the bone. How could I lead all these landscape contractors that I looked up to, big businesses, long time members? But I learned to set an agenda, and run a meeting, delegate the work and oversee the work.  I learned to achieve goals that the Board set. BENEFIT #4: LEADERSHIP

Next I was Chairman of Certification Test Committee. Chairman is responsible for everything, including the applicants, the judges, the equipment, food, logistics, etc. It was a really big event, $50,000. annual budget. BENEFIT #5: ORGANIZATION

Along the way as CLT Chair, I had to give talks about the program to students and other interested parties. My greatest fear in life was speaking in public. But I conquered it, now I can talk with ease. BENEFIT #6: PUBLIC SPEAKING

Winning a landscape trophy for a project you built is valuable beyond belief. Not only can you brag on yourself to your customers and potential customers, but you get a confidence, knowing you are as good as the other guys, or better. BENEFIT #7: CONFIDENCE

Winning a State Sweepstakes Award is glory like birthing a child. Best Project in the whole state of California makes you so proud of yourself, your people, and your company. BENEFIT #8: RECOGNITION

Without CLCA, you probably will never be recognized as one of the best in the business, and you can live without it. But once you are voted to CLCA’s version of the Hall of Fame by your peers, the Allegiance Award, for an outstanding life time of making a difference in an Industry, I can’t even describe what benefit that is, but I’d say BENEFIT # 9: RAREFIED AIR

Before joining CLCA, my competitors were a mystery, and not someone reach out to and associate with. Since

joining CLCA, you realize your competitors are very much like you, not strange at all. And the more you associate with them, the friendlier they get. When you work side by side with a competitor, you may become friends. I will tell you right now, YOU CANNOT HAVE TOO MANY FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES. Maybe you have a parent, an in-law, or a friend to talk to about your business, but do they even know what you are talking about? BENEFIT #10: FRIENDSHIPS

CLCA has other stuff like the Landscape Book of Standards, and the Landscape Data Manual, and others. BENEFIT #11: REFERENCE LIBRARIES

CLCA give you an opportunity to travel. Been out of the neighborhood lately? Excluding Covid restrictions, there is a leadership conference, a trade show, and an annual convention, where you can write off some or all of your expenses. I would have never traveled as much as I did without CLCA. BENEFIT #12: TRAVEL

Finally there are other things like our own insurance provider, Insurance Solutions. BENEFIT #13: INSURANCE

You can call two hot lines, legal and HR. BENEFIT #14: HOTLINES

And if you like to volunteer, there are a number of things you can do, like become a State Director, or State President. BENEFIT #15: OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE

Without doubt, membership dues are nothing compared to what you get back. Some guys are members for years, never participate, and get nothing out of CLCA. Next time you are asked to help out, say yes and you won’t regret it.

Let CLCA give you the chance to be the great self you know you are.

Henry Buder, Henry Buder’s Landscape Restoration
Mill Valley, CA

Advertise in the Central Coast Seascape Newsletter!

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Culture Corner

Getting Your Team Aligned for Spring

Hello Friends, I thought it would be fun to share some insight on culture in the Central Coast newsletter this month. Here is my take on team alignment and why it's important for a successful season. We all know that finding and retaining top talent in our organizations has quickly become the number one problem facing landscape contractors today. An unexpected boom came to the construction industry during Covid, which led to a fight for talent and more work than workers. Here are a few ways you can do more with the team you have.

As we turn the corner into March and into our busy season, it's important to make sure your team is aligned towards a common vision. With fewer available employees to hire, we will all have to make the most with the team we have now. One of the best ways to align your team is to have a shared vision for the company and a shared theme for the year. When all of your team members are marching in sync to the same drum, the amount you are able to accomplish can increase substantially. I have been a part of poorly led teams and I have been a part of world-class led teams. The difference in output can be felt, measured, and seen from every angle. When you walk into a company with a great culture, you can feel the energy in the air, you can see it in how employees walk, talk and hold themselves. I would go as far as to say that a company with a strong culture will outperform a weak one at a rate of 2:1. If you are struggling to find more employees and the workload keeps rolling in, why not double down on culture and see if you can increase the capacity of workload without adding a single team member?

A shared vision is a key ingredient to a strong culture. Your employees want to know where you are going and how they can contribute to that goal. This goes for owners as well as any leader in a company. You don't have to own the business to make a difference, you can create a high-performing team and a shared vision at a crew level, at a branch level, or at a division level. Having a shared vision can be as simple as a ten-year target of hitting a certain growth goal or it can be to create 1,000 satisfied customers, or it can be something that is important to your team like donating back to the community. A shared vision can take many forms and each company will be different. The best way to find yours is to assemble all of your leaders in an off-site planning session for 2-4 hours and find out what is important to your team and then come up with a measurable outcome that will inspire everyone.

If landing on a vision sounds like too large of a task for how busy your company may be, then I challenge you to come up with a 2022 theme. A yearly theme is a short-term vision, think of it like one song in an album, there is a rhythm and everyone has a specific part to play in making the song come alive. It should be something your entire team can get behind. It usually revolves around something you want to accomplish such as "growth" or "efficiency" or "build culture". Use some creativity to come up with an industry-dominating theme that you can communicate constantly to your team.

My favorite part about what I do as CEO of K&D is creating and driving our long-range vision and our short term themes. I have been doing this every year since 2015. Our vision has not changed, but our theme changes every year. I enjoy sharing what we are doing at K&D in hopes it may inspire others. Our vision is to "Raise the Bar in the Landscape Industry". This means different things to different people within the company, but to me it means improving our reputation in the community, giving back to those in need and setting a new standard for professionalism for the next generation. Our theme for 2022 is "Grow Smart", and this is because we want to continue our growth but not at the expense of profit, culture, or cash.

When there is a lack of good people to hire, you must double down on culture and retention. As important as culture is, we all know that you have to back it up with industry leading wages. Don't miss this opportunity to pay your employees what they deserve. With inflation out of control, many landscape team members are finding it harder and harder to pay their bills. With fuel, material and other costs skyrocketing, take advantage of this unique window to increase the price of your services so you can pass on those dollars to your employees.

To your success,
Justin White, Central Coast CLCA’s Immediate Past President
CEO, K&D Landscaping Inc

C: (831) 331-3476 │ O: (831) 728-4018

Article from CLCA State

New Bills Emerge Impacting How We Do Business

Our bill introduction deadline has come and gone and 2022 has 2,130 legislative bills pending in the State Assembly and State Senate. Of those, 128 are currently being tracked for CLCA.

While it is tempting to think the bill introduction deadline means no more new bills, CLCA stays ever vigilant due to the Legislature’s use of “spot bills.” Spot bills are legislative bills that are introduced but still need the detail language inserted. Essentially, they are introduced to meet the deadline and are holding a spot for the real legislative language to be added at a later date. CLCA continues to monitor these spot bills to see if they materialize into legislation we need to take advocacy action on.

In the time since my last update to you, the Governor and Legislature reached agreement on a package of bills including supplemental paid COVID sick leave of up to 80 hours per employee. CLCA just held a webinar on these COVID changes, including sick leave. If you missed it, it is in the members section of the CLCA website and you can view it on demand.

In reviewing the scores of new legislation, here are a few bills of interest:

SB 1162 (Limon-D): Employment: salaries and wages.
Places new and burdensome reporting requirements on all employers of 100 or more employees or sub-contractors by requiring detailed information on pay rates, demographics, and related characteristics.

It requires the pay data report to include the median and mean hourly rate for each combination of race, ethnicity, and sex within each job category. It requires employers with multiple establishments to submit a report covering each establishment and establishes civil penalties of up to $200 per employee for failure to comply. It requires the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) to publish each private employers pay data report on an internet website available to the public.

AB 2182 (Wicks-D): Discrimination: family responsibilities.
This bill would further expand the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and is practically identical to AB 1119 which CLCA has already opposed. It would expand the FEHA to protect characteristics that include “family responsibilities,” defined to mean the obligations of an employee to provide direct and ongoing care for a minor child, other family member or anyone else the employee has a close caring relationship. This greatly expands the FEHA and would create a bonanza in discrimination litigation opportunities.

AB 1872 (Low-D): Election day holiday.
This bill adds the day on which a statewide general election is held, which is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of any even-numbered year, to these lists of state holidays. It requires public schools, community colleges, CSU and U.C. to close campuses on a day on which a statewide general election is held. It requires state employees be given time off with pay among other provisions.

AB 1874 (Smith-R): Contractors: unlicensed work.
This bill would authorize a person who is not licensed as a contractor to advertise for construction work, or a work of improvement covered by existing law if the aggregate contract price for labor is less than $500, and the person states in the advertisement that they are not a licensed contractor. Current law sets the threshold at $500 but includes labor, materials, and other items.

AB 1949 (Low-D): Employees: bereavement leave.
This bill would make it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to grant a request by an employee to take up to 5 days of bereavement leave upon the death of a family member. The bill would require that leave be completed within 3 months of the date of death and that it be taken pursuant to any existing bereavement leave policy of the employer if one exists.

AB 1993 (Wicks-D): Employment: COVID-19 vaccination requirements.
This bill would require an employer to require each person who is an employee or independent contractor, and who is eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, to show proof to the employer that the person has been vaccinated against COVID-19. This bill would establish an exception from this vaccination requirement for a person who is ineligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine due to a medical condition or disability or because of a sincerely held religious belief and would require compliance with various other state and federal laws.

It repeals these provisions when the federal Centers for Disease Control determines that COVID-19 vaccinations are no longer necessary for the health and safety of individuals.

AB 2188 (Quirk-D): Discrimination in employment: use of cannabis.
This bill would make it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person in hiring, termination, or any term or condition of employment, or otherwise penalize a person, if the discrimination is based upon the person’s use of cannabis off the job and away from the workplace or upon an employer-required drug screening test that has found the person to have non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites in their urine, hair, or bodily fluids.

SB 1458 (Limon-D): Workers’ compensation: disability benefits: gender disparity.
This bill increases disability payments to claimants by the percentage of disparity in earnings between genders as reported by the applicant’s employer in its pay data report to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The bill would apply prospectively to injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2023.

You can see all the bills CLCA is monitoring plus any advocacy positions taken by visiting the CLCA website at: https://www.clca.org/advocacy/clca-legislation-center/

Event with Discount for CLCA Members

K&D’s Water Management Summit

When: March 31, 2022, 9:30 am- 5 pm
Where: Seascape Golf Club, 610 Clubhouse Dr., Aptos

K&D, lead by Justin White has organized with local water districts, industry-leading manufacturers, and compiled a great lineup of speakers for this event.

There are a number of seats and created a special pricing level for CLCA members. This will be a great event for everyone from owners to account managers to suppliers and anyone else who wants to learn about water management

Please help me spread the word with your networks, Find the event flyer below, which includes additional info. Here is the link to register as well:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/central-coast-water-management-summit-tickets-246793956367