A construction business owner appeared in court last week to face several felony charges which could land him up to 63 years in prison if he is found guilty. One of the crimes he is charged with committing is reporting less than one quarter of his payroll to his workers’ compensation insurance carrier so that over a 5-year period he failed to pay over $814,000 in premiums owed.According to the office of Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, George Osumi II of Irvine, California reported maintaining a total payroll of just over one million dollars from 2001 to 2006, when his actual payroll was closer to $4.5 million. In a May 1st press release, the district attorney’s office listed Osumi’s charges:
Last month I attended “Built To Last”, SER’s 47th Anniversary Gala at the historic Rice Lofts in downtown Houston. Video excerpts from the evening are posted below. The event served to honor some of the leaders who have supported SER – Jobs for Progress, to provide allies of SER the chance to meet each other, and to raise money for SER’s programs. SER, which stands for “Service, Employment, and Redevelopment”, offers training and employment services to people in low-income, at-risk communities. The evening included a gathering hour where business and community leaders networked and mingled over drinks and hors d’oeuvres, opportunities to bid on items in a silent auction, an elegant dinner served in the Crystal Ballroom, an inspiring program about the organization, and dancing to live music.
May 03, 2012
One World Trade Center became the tallest building in New York this afternoon, surpassing the Empire State Building, when ironworkers installed one of the steel columns of the tower, which will rise 104 stories high after the last 4 floors are completed. Several news journalists were invited up to the 100th floor of the tower yesterday and today to talk to some of the construction workers, many of whom witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers at the site on 9/11, and all of whom consider working on this project an honor and a privilege.ABC News journalists George Stephanopoulos and Bob Woodruff visited the 100th floor of the One World Trade Center today, which they explained must be achieved first with elevators and then with ladders for the last ten floors.
April 30, 2012
Satterfield & Pontikes Construction is currently renovating the historic Building 427 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas with a new method of strengthening the load-bearing brick walls without changing the appearance of the building which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in the 1920s to house military families, the building will now provide office space for the Army post.According to the San Antonio Business Journal, the contractor is adding stainless steel post-tensioning rods inside the brick walls to meet the Department of Defense requirements for progressive collapse protection from blasts. While improving the building to meet a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, they are making the renovations in keeping with historic preservation guidelines. A press release from Satterfield & Pontikes states:
April 24, 2012
Saied Alavi, operations manager at Marek Brothers Systems Houston, recently visited Guadalupe “Lupe” Ramos at a job site where Marek is installing drywall in medical office space for Baylor Clinic & Hospital. Lupe came through Marek’s workforce development program, and is currently an employee with the rank of “Helper” on the Marek Career Path. In the video below, Saied talks with Lupe and his Marek “Coach”, Kevin Mathews, about how Lupe came to work for Marek and the difference his job has made in his life.Lupe was familiar with the construction industry growing up because some of his uncles install ceilings for companies in California and Texas. A few weeks after graduating high school, he filled out an application at Marek in Houston after hearing about the company from one of his uncles. He was initially planning to apply to be an acoustical ceiling trainee, but while he was at the office applying for work, someone pointed out Buddy Britt, training coordinator at Marek,
April 18, 2012
Join SER's 47th Anniversary Gala in Houston on April 20, 2012.A few months ago the Construction Citizen team toured the offices and training facilities of SER – Jobs for Progress and wrote about this Houston organization which helps people from low-income neighborhoods turn their lives around by finding careers in a variety of fields including construction. In the video below, Executive Director Nory Angel walks through the facility explaining room by room many of the services SER offers.She talks about the variety of clients who come to SER and the steps a client takes when coming to SER for help getting a job. These include evaluation, working with a “career coach”, and “business etiquette training”, which goes beyond job-readiness skills such as resume writing and includes tips for building rapport with interviewers. Client/students also take different training courses, depending on their interest. These courses include classroom training as well as “hands on” training. Some of the products which have been produced such as traditional rustic wooden ice chests and Adirondack chairs may be available for purchase online next year.
April 04, 2012
Workers who helped build the new international terminal at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta were finally paid thousands of dollars which they were owed in overtime pay. In the television report, investigative reporter Richard Belcher of Channel 2 News in Atlanta, Georgia explained that the workers were misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees, and were given a “ten ninety nine” form instead of a W-2 by their employer, Colt’s Drywall Inc.The injustice came to light when some of the employees informed Jimmy Gibbs, a troubleshooter for the carpenters’ union, that they were not being paid as employees. Gibbs alerted the US Department of Labor who then discovered that not only were the workers not having taxes withheld from their pay, but they were also working more
March 29, 2012
Armstrong World Industries Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of floors, ceilings and cabinets, has a unique and interesting vehicle that they use to educate customers about their products. Recently the Armstrong Ceiling and Wall Systems Mobile Training Solutions Center stopped at Kirksey Architecture for a day of demonstrations and education.The Armstrong Ceiling and Wall Systems Mobile Training Solutions Center is a customized trailer for a semi-trailer truck which has been converted into a travelling product showroom and classroom. Armstrong representatives bring the trailer to the office parking lots of construction companies and offer training and demonstrations to employees of those companies.
March 22, 2012
The view from Interstate 45 is changing as the new ExxonMobil campus aka Project Delta and the nearby future retail and residential development Springwoods Village take shape.Up until last fall, the intersections where Spring Crossing Blvd led away to the east from the freeway’s northbound and southbound frontage roads were controlled with stop signs. Now that Springwoods Village Pkwy leads west from that point, and appears to be one of the main entrance routes to the future ExxonMobil complex, four-way traffic lights are already operating.
March 15, 2012
Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs, was the celebrity contestant on the television game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire today. He will continue to play on tomorrow’s episode.Like many game shows, from time to time Millionaire invites celebrities to come on the show and play for charities of their choice. Rowe is playing for the non-profit he set up, the mikeroweWORKS Foundation. The mission of the foundation is “to promote the skilled trades in areas of public awareness, reducing stigmas, education, career planning and job opportunities”. Here is what Rowe says on his website about the reasons he started the foundation:“I established this foundation to give something back, and challenge the prevailing definition of a ‘good job’. For decades, we have put a premium on a four-year degree, and told an entire generation that Trade Schools and skilled labor are ‘alternatives’ to ‘higher education’. That attitude is warping expectations, wrecking opportunity, and destroying our country.”
February 27, 2012
