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Construction and Public Contract Law Section
September 3, 2003 Meeting

The purpose of this e-mail is to document the meeting held at the Country Inn on September 3, 2003. The first order of business was to discuss the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act ("RUAA"). Bruce Block provided a summary of the meeting held at Metropolitan Builders Association. Our group has also seen a considerable amount of e-mail regarding the issue. On behalf of this Board, I want to thank those involved for the highly contested debate and the professionalism of very different views on the subject.

This Board unanimously reopened discussions and voted to oppose the RUAA. As currently drafted, the RUAA adds too many rules to the arbitration which can be very informal at times and has had an excellent effect on dispute resolution. A group such as the Metropolitan Builders Association and Wisconsin Builders Association as well as several other groups utilize this as an alternative to litigation. The current version attempted to address the gaps in the process, but added too many rules, including limiting arbitrators to lawyers only. In the construction area, many times engineers and architects can be more valuable arbitrators than lawyers. In addition, we see that no consensus among the various groups of the State Bar. We believe that it is important to continue to have two distinct systems - litigation and arbitration. The arbitration allows private parties to negotiate options of arbitration. Many construction arbitrations act very informally and limit the time for the arbitration due to the amount of the dispute. Buck Sweeney will be drafting a letter to the Board of Governors c/o George Brown, Executive Director, regarding the vote.

In summary, we salute the efforts of the parties and the work that was done. However, we think amending the existing regulations to types and some of the problems may be more appropriate than the current version.

The next order of business regarded modifications to lien law. The Board unanimously voted to support Kim Hurtado and her group's recommendations to the changes to lien law. The motion was approved to have additional details provided by Kim and conceptually the board unanimously supports the efforts. This effort is to clean up the difference between private and public lien rights and to eliminate some of the confusing provisions, including the 10,000 square foot size for commercial projects. It also addresses some of the service issues and brings them up to current standards.

Kim is to provide revised drafting language for changes to the lien law. Once we get the drafting language various individuals will contact WBA, WTBA, AGC, ASA, MBA to get comment on the language. This will be important to maximize the potential for the lien law changes.

The next order of business addressed the upcoming seminar. Salud Garcia will work with the State Bar to find out whether February 23, 2003 is achievable. Ken Voss is to work with our key note speaker and find dates around that time when both he and the State Bar facility is available.

Additional speakers will include Kim Hurtado and Ken Voss regarding lien law changes. They will also provide a short summary of the current lien law status. This should take between 1 1/2 to 2 hours. The key note speaker will talk on Technology in Construction for approximately 2 hours. Bruce Block will work with Linda Burke and Pat McDonell regarding talking about quasi government agencies and their effect on construction contracts. This will be interesting to the public sector and may also include privatization of services.

Buck Sweeney will contact Stu Mukamod of the Government Lawyers and Jeff Aiken to see if they will provide a point-counterpoint of the RUAA. This should clearly be entertaining and should last 45 minutes to an hour. Ken Voss will act as program chair for the event and will coordinate the program. I will make an introduction of Ken and turn the program over to him at the opening bell.

We then turned to the newsletter. It was suggested by Kim Hurtado that we have two deadlines for the newsletter. We are asking that Scott Minter provide us two deadlines. We have ordered coffee mugs with the State Bar and Section logo. Salud Garcia will come up with a creative picture on the cup. Those attending the seminar will receive a cup. In addition, you can get a cup early by submitting articles to Scott Minter for the newsletter. Scott is to put out an e-mail regarding what dates he will need articles by for the upcoming newsletter.

We then discussed the capability of the State Bar and its web site. In March, 2004 we will have better software which will allow an individual from each section to modify the section. The Board voted unanimously to appoint Jeff Aiken as the "webmaster" for the construction group. We are sure Jeff will undertake this with great zeal.

Finally, we determined that the next construction focus group meeting will be on the second Wednesday at noon at the Country Inn in January, April and June. Please mark your calendars appropriately for these dates. This concludes the minutes of the September 3, 2003 meeting.

Julie Bretl
Michael Best & Friedrich LLP
One South Pinckney Street, Suite 700
Madison, WI 53703
608-257-3501, ext. 7533
Assistant to Bill White and Buck Sweeney