October 31, 2007
By
Dan Pilcher
CACI Senior Vice President
& Chief Operating Officer
dpilcher@COchamber.com
303.866.9600
Alan Poe
Elected CACI Board Chair; New Board Members and 2007-2008
Officers Approved
 The
CACI Board of Directors elected Alan Poe, a Partner with
Holland and Hart LLP, Board Chair for 2007-2008 last
Thursday at the Board’s Meeting at the Grand Hyatt Denver.
Poe, a long-time veteran of involvement in CACI, also serves
as CACI General Counsel. He is a past chair of the CACI Tax
Council, on which he served for many years. Poe was
spotlighted in the Oct. 19-25 edition of The Denver
Business Journal:
http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2007/10/22/story8.html
At the Annual
Membership Meeting, which preceded the Board Meeting, the
following new Board members were elected for initial
three-year terms expiring in October 2010:
Steve Blackwell,
Holme Roberts & Owen
Nathan Christian,
Wells Fargo
Robert K. Gray,
Eastman Kodak Company
Chris Harr, Pepsi
Bottling Group
Louis Hutchison,
Jr., HealthTrans
Richard P. Kludt,
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company
John Martie,
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield
Patrick O’Keefe,
CH2M Hill
Chris
Schmachtenberger, Carestream Health, Inc.
The following
current Board members were re-elected for consecutive
three-year terms also expiring in October 2010:
Len Kalm, HCA
HealthONE
Roy Palmer, Xcel
Energy
Jack Rigg, BP
America
Ron Schmitz,
Miller International
Bill Schroeder,
IREA
Rob Simon, Rocky
Mountain Steel Mills
Al Timothy, Coors
Brewing Company
The
following were elected for one-year Board terms expiring
October 2008:
Ray Johnson,
Manager, Community Relations and Public Affairs, IBM
Amy Sherman,
President and Chief Executive Officer, West Chamber Serving
Jefferson County
The Board
approved the following to serve as CACI Officers during
2007-2008:
Chair-Elect:
Peter V. O’Connor, Chief Administrative Officer & General
Counsel, AngloGold Ashanti North America, Inc.
President:
Chuck Berry, President, Colorado Association of Commerce and
Industry
Past Chair:
Lucille Mantelli, Director, Communications and Public
Affairs, Carestream Health, Inc.
Finance
Committee Chair: A. Marvin Strait, C.P.A.
Legal Counsel:
Alan Poe, Partner, Holland & Hart LLC
Secretary:
Dan Pilcher, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating
Officer, Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry
Colorado’s
Space Industry and the Future of Human Space Exploration
Highlighted at CACI Annual Meeting
CACI’s 42nd
Annual Meeting Luncheon at the Grand Hyatt Denver
spotlighted the role of the state’s aerospace industry in
general and the future of human spaceflight from the
perspective of Lockheed Martin. About 435 attended the CACI
Annual Meeting Luncheon.
A recent study
found that the state has 26,650 workers in the industry,
second only to California. Introducing the topic, Lt.
Governor Barbara O’Brien pointed out that Colorado, however,
faces a challenge in graduating more students who have taken
mathematics, science and technology courses. Because
Colorado does not produce enough students to take jobs in
this industry, the Lt. Governor said, out-of-state workers
are coming here to take the positions. The “pipeline” of
such workers needs to be increased in Colorado, she said.
Projections call for 232,000 workers in the sector by the
year 2010.
Delivering the
keynote address, John Karas, Vice President and General
Manager for Human Spaceflight for Lockheed Martin, provided
an overview of the Orion project. Orion will replace the
aging Space Shuttles, with the first manned Orion flights
taking place in 2015. Orion will journey not only to and
from the International Space Station, but it also will
travel to and from the Moon and, eventually, Mars.
Karas said Orion
should further the advancement of science and the U.S.
economy. In addition, the project should stimulate students
to choose technology careers, which is especially needed in
the aerospace industry as the Baby Boom generation retires.
Lockheed Martin, the Platinum Sponsor of the CACI Annual
Meeting Luncheon, employs 11,000 workers in Colorado.
CACI Board
Approves New Strategic Plan to “Champion a Healthy Business
Climate”
Last Thursday,
October 25th, the CACI Board of Directors gave the final nod
to a new strategic plan that it had given preliminary
approval to at its September Retreat in Vail. The plan
contains a revised mission statement, with four core
objectives for CACI to fulfill its mission:
“CACI’s mission
is to champion a healthy business climate.”
The four key
objectives are:
-
Maintain &
improve the cost of doing business;
-
Advocate a
pro-business state government;
-
Increase the
quantity of educated, skilled workers; and
-
Strengthen
Colorado’s critical infrastructure (roads, water,
telecommunications and energy).
Among other
things, the plan will
-
Strengthen
CACI’s lobbying capabilities;
-
Bolster and
expand CACI’s policy Councils, which study business
issues and submit recommendations to the Board;
-
Improve press
relations and communications;
-
Improve
CACI’s use of information technology;
-
Strengthen
relations with local chambers of commerce;
-
Expand
membership statewide;
-
Create new
opportunities for business leaders to connect with each
other and with public officials; and
-
Educate
companies across Colorado about business issues being
considered by the legislature and mobilize their active
involvement in the policy debate at the State Capitol.
Earlier in the
year, then-CACI Board Chair Lucille Mantelli appointed a
Board Strategic Planning Task Force co-chaired by Board
members Ann Brown of New Vista Image and Amy Sherman of the
West Chamber Serving Jefferson County. The Task Force
engaged a consultant and met several times in the late
spring and summer to develop the draft plan, which was then
submitted to the full Board at its September retreat.
Colorado
Department of Labor and Employment Tells CACI Chair’s
Roundtable that “Dialogue” Will be the Hallmark of Labor
Bills in 2008
Don Mares,
Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Labor and
Employment (CDLE) told a breakfast meeting of the CACI
Chair’s Roundtable on October 23rd that the
Ritter Administration sees “dialogue” with the business
community as the key to debate on any union-backed bills
that may arise during the 2008 legislative session. He said
the Administration is committed to not going off in the
“extreme” when discussing proposed legislation with either
business or organized labor.
Governor Bill
Ritter’s surprise veto of HB-1072 early in the 2007 session
was a turning point for the Colorado General Assembly and
the new Administration. Strongly pushed by organized labor,
the bill would have destroyed the long-standing Colorado
Labor Peace Act. CACI and other business organizations
worked hard first to defeat the bill and then to urge the
Governor’s veto after the legislature passed the bill.
After the veto, the Administration and majority-party
legislators were more willing to discuss bills that impact
CACI members and the business community.
A former state
legislator and Denver City Auditor, Mares said he had not
heard anything about a bill similar to HB-1072 being
introduced in the 2008 session. He predicted the “dialogue
mantra” will specifically exist between the Administration,
labor, state legislators, CACI and other business
organizations on any bills that deal with the workers’
compensation system. He said the CDLE is willing to work
with CACI on any proposed reforms to the workers’
compensation system.
Mares also
thanked CACI’s Donnah Moody, Vice President of Governmental
Affairs, for her participation in a task force that has been
working since last summer on pay-equity issues for women and
ethnic minorities.
On the workforce
development front, Mares said many employers are not aware
of the state’s workforce development centers, and he urged
CACI members to contact the centers when they are seeking to
hire new workers. A survey in the metro Denver area found
that 60 percent to 70 percent of employers were unaware of
the centers—yet they also thought that the centers would be
too bureaucratic and slow to use.
The centers
screen, test, train and advise job-hunting individuals,
Mares said. In 2007, there were 280,000 individuals
registered with the centers, he said, and the centers filled
46,000 “work orders,” which means job placements. The
Ritter Administration is in the process of consolidating its
workforce development center and will be moving the Colorado
Workforce Development Council from the Colorado Department
of Local Affairs to CDLE, Mares said.
http://www.coworkforce.com/emp/WFCs.asp
The workforce
centers and the CDLE Web site are also being used to educate
employers about changes to state law pertaining to hiring
prospective workers. Many employers do not understand the
changes in state law, he explained, especially HB-1017,
which was passed during the special session in the summer of
2006 and deals with how employers check the legal status of
job applicants. He said the CDLE will not fine employers
for mistakes, but it will for “reckless disregard” of the
new law. (During the special session, CACI worked to ensure
that HB-1017 was clear that only companies that were found
to have exhibited “reckless disregard” violations would be
fined.)
The CDLE also is
responsible for administering the unemployment insurance
system and the workers’ compensation system:
http://www.coworkforce.com/
Mares said
another workforce development initiative of the Governor
will be the creation of a “Jobs Cabinet” to improve the
alignment of the state’s economic development and education
systems with the present and future workforce needs of
business.
The Governor’s
Jobs Cabinet “planning group” presently consists of the
following: Don Mares, CDLE Executive Director; Don Elliman,
Director of the Office of Economic Development and
International Trade; David Skaggs, Executive Director of the
Department of Higher Education; and Susan Kirkpatrick,
Executive Director of the Department of Local Affairs.
Mares said that
the Jobs Cabinet also will work with the Governor’s P-20
Education Coordination Council, which has been charged with
a top-to-bottom analysis of the state’s public education
system.
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1187772339688&pagename=GovRitter%2FGOVRLayout
CACI’s Policy
on Climate Change Spotlighted in The Pueblo Chieftain
Op-Ed
The October 21st
edition of The Pueblo Chieftain carried an Op-Ed on
CACI’s climate change policy by Donnah Moody, CACI Vice
President for Governmental Affairs. The article can be
found at:
http://www.chieftain.com/editorial/1192946400/6
CACI’s policy on
climate change, approved by the CACI Board of Directors at
its September Retreat, can be found on CACI’s Web site:
www.COchamber.com
Finally, Governor
Bill Ritter is expected to announce his climate change
policy within a few days.
Business
Health Forum Remains Front and Center in Intensifying
Health-Care Reform Debate
The CACI
Educational Foundation’s Business Health Forum continues to
reach out to the business community statewide to educate
business leaders about the various proposals to reform the
state’s health-care system in 2008. Through a weekly
electronic newsletter and presentations to various local
chambers of commerce, Forum is working to educate the
business community about the proposals and to solicit
business views to convey to the so-called 208 Commission.
The Forum’s Web site is:
CACI Board Member
Ralph Pollock is the Director of the Forum, and he also
chairs the CACI HealthCare Council. The Associate Director
is Amy Fletcher.
The CACI
HealthCare Council and its Steering Committee will be the
forum for CACI’s involvement in the health-care reform
debate. The decision about CACI’s policy position on any
reforms that go before the General Assembly in 2008 or that
go onto the November 2008 ballot, however, rest ultimately
with the CACI Board of Directors.
Employers can
visit
www.bizhealthforum.org to indicate how they’d like to be
involved with the Forum.
The site contains more information about the Forum and news
about health-care reform efforts. For more information,
contact Amy at
afletcher@bizhealthforum.org or 303.866.9659. Please
indicate your interests (208 Commission, small-group reform,
the uninsured, wellness and prevention initiatives, etc.)
and how you would like to participate (attend meetings to
learn more about issues, write or meet with local officials
and/or state legislators, testify at the Colorado State
Capitol, receive the Forum’s newsletter, etc.)
The Forum is
funded by The Colorado Health Foundation:
http://www.coloradohealth.org/welcome/
The CACI
Educational Foundation, CACI’s research, education and
communication affiliate, is a non-profit, 501(c)(3)
organization.
CACI Regional
Meetings Held this Fall in Vail and Aurora
CACI has held
regional meetings in Vail and Aurora in September and
October, respectively, in cooperation with local chambers of
commerce. At the meetings, CACI has provided an overview of
such critical policy issues facing the statewide business
community as higher education funding, transportation
funding and possible reforms to the initiative process for
amending Colorado’s constitution. The Business Health
Forum’s Ralph Pollock and Amy Fletcher have discussed the
status of health-care reform and the role of the Forum.
CACI Regional Meetings have been held in Fort Collins,
Loveland, Grand Junction and Jefferson County in
coordination with the local chambers of commerce of those
communities.
Companies
Join CACI as New Members
The following
companies have recently joined CACI with the Partner Level
indicated after the company’s name:
Berg Hill
Greenleaf & Ruscitti LLP
Big Horn
Plastering of Colorado (Advocate)
Carestream
Health, Inc. (Silver)
Evergreen Area
Chamber of Commerce
ExxonMobil
(Advocate)
Foam Fabricators,
Inc.
Forerunner
Corporation (Advocate)
Global Sales
Advisors
Grace Davison
Group Insurance
Analysts (Advocate)
Hach Company
(Bronze)
JohnstonWells
Public Relations (Advocate)
Kacey Fine
Furniture (Partner)
Loveland Chamber
of Commerce and Visitor Center
Memorial Health
System (Silver)
Metro Taxi &
Taxis Fiesta
National
Hirschfeld Press (Advocate)
Porter
Industries, Inc. (Advocate)
Public Strategies
Robinson Waters &
O'Dorisio, P.C. (Advocate)
Rocky Mountain
Cancer Centers (Partner)
Sorin Group
(Partner)
Spectranetics
Corporation (Advocate)
Springs
Fabrication (Advocate)
St. Mary Land &
Exploration Company (Advocate)
Sundyne
Corporation (Partner)
The
Miller-Sherman Group
Village Homes
(Advocate)
Weaver Bros | 
