CASE STUDY: National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA)

Pac/West has been retained for 11 years by the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), Oregon Columbia and Oregon Pacific Cascade Chapters, to provide government affairs and assist with internal and external communications. NECA provides electrical contractors with the resources to directly influence their industry through cooperative labor relations, governmental affairs activities and progressive risk management/workplace safety programs.

In addition to developing a number of communication tools for NECA, such as a newsletter, website and media relations outreach, the Pac/West team provides government affairs/lobbying to NECA in the Oregon legislature, with state regulatory agencies, boards and commissions; and assists at the federal level.

In Oregon, for instance, the Pac/West team has made a significant impact on behalf of NECA through the Business Energy Tax Credit fight of 2010. Pac/West compiled a comprehensive list of project level information by project type and district in order to show each legislator all of the specific projects and recipients of the BETC in their constituent areas. This was a real game changer, responsible for ending the retroactivity component that would have stripped BETC recipients of their preliminary certification.

Instead of gutting the program to $40 million per biennium, which is what Democrats proposed, or gutting the program to $80 million, which was the Republican’s plan, Pac/West’s efforts saved the BETC as a $400 million per biennium program, which now benefits local governments, public libraries, and school districts.

The Pac/West lobby team also tracks and engages issues on behalf of NECA related to prompt payment, retainage, apprenticeship utilization, changing requirements in public contracting code and construction management/general contracting (CM/GC). As well, we work with NECA leadership to manage their Joint Legislative Committee, which sets policy goals and decides where to direct their campaign contributions. Additionally, we develop and distribute Session Reports for NECA and provide legislative presentations at their Chapter meetings.