Legislative Focus
April 24, 2017
Volume XVI, Edition 15

I have always said it is good for the Legislature to adjourn during the daylight hours.  However, I should have probably stipulated that a daylight adjournment should not be preceded by an all-night session.

The 2017 Legislative Session came to a close at 7:17 a.m. Saturday morning.  This was after House and Senate leaders worked through the night to find resolution on water quality, medical marijuana and final budget bills. 

As many of you are aware, we launched a new website – www.BuildIowa.org – in August to bring more awareness to the great opportunities available within Iowa’s construction industry.  The site contains career options and path details on various construction-related occupations, which many people outside of our industry are not aware of.

For those of you that have not heard the news yet, we were able to present the first Master Builder Achievement Award during the Annual Winter Conference!  We are pleased to announce Lee Hollatz, Project Manager/Safety Director of The Hansen Company, Inc., Johnston, Iowa as a Master Builder Achievement Award recipient!  Lee was presented with the award during the Masters Award Luncheon on February 28, 2017 in front of a sold out crowd of industry professionals.

Legislative Focus
April 7, 2017
Volume XVI, Edition 13

Governor Signs Reduction of Statute of Repose and PLA Prohibition

Two of MBI’s top policy priorities came to fruition on Thursday with Governor Branstad signing into law SF 413 and SF 438.

As you may recall, SF 413 reduces Iowa’s statute of repose from 15 years to 8 years on commercial construction and 10 years on residential, and SF 438 is a prohibition of government-mandated Project Labor Agreements (PLAs).

MBI has been working to reduce the statute of repose on improvements to real property for the last seven years. We’ve had some success in each of those years, but invariably our efforts would stall due to the pressure that the Trial Lawyers and the Iowa State Bar Association would apply in the Iowa Senate.  However, with a new Republican majority in the Senate and a Republican House and Governor, our chances were greatly improved this year as we found that the House and Senate leadership was much more sympathetic to the plight of the constructor.

With the passage of SF 413 and the Governor’s signature, all contracts entered into on or after July 1, 2017, will have the newly reformed repose parameters.  It is important to note, contracts entered into prior to July 1, 2017, will in all likelihood remain under the 15 year repose period.

The following is a rundown of the bill:

In the construction business, job sites are full of problems that need to be solved and obstacles that need to be overcome.  But what about the problems facing your company that can’t be solved on the job site? How do you remedy those issues that can’t be dealt with in a day, week, or even a year? Tackling these issues requires an overall industry perspective and a collective industry effort.

In addition to the training programs outlined in the education section of the website, we offer training programs based on the requests of one, or several construction companies.  Training-on-Demand courses can be planned to fit the schedule of your company and can be offered either as a private in-house program, or a public course open to other companies.  Training-on-Demand has become a popular alternative to the traditional training schedules used throughout the industry.  Below is a list of training topics that we have hel

Legislative Focus
March 24, 2017
Volume XVI, Edition 11

Persistence eventually pays off!  With the passage of SF 413 by the Iowa House (by a vote of 57-39) and the impending signature of the Governor, Iowa’s statute of repose will no longer be the longest in the nation.  Instead, we will have brought the ability to mount a fair and reasonable defense on certain claims into a more manageable timeframe.