|
Residency Mandate Removed From A Federally Fund Project
An OCA member recently made us aware of a residency mandate on a project being let by an Ohio municipality. This project was funded with federal funds provided through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency but was being let through the municipality. OCA sought the assistance of attorney Pat Devine with Ice Miller who contacted the city who, in turn, sought guidance from the U.S. EPA. The ruling that came back from the EPA concurred that the provision mandating a percentage of hiring of local and county resident is a violation of the “geographical preferences” prohibition of the federal procurement standards set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations. The city has indicated they will be removing the preference requirement by addendum.
Should you observe similar contract requirements in federally funded projects, please make OCA aware of those requirements so they may be further investigated.
Attention Professional Engineers & Surveyors: Change in Continuing Professional Development Credit
Recently OCA Staff was made aware that there had been a change in the requirements for continuing education for Professional Engineers & Surveyors. The change to section 4733.151 of the Ohio Revised Code requires Professional Engineers and Professional Surveyors to obtain at least two of the thirty hours required for continuing professional development to be on professional ethics or rules relevant to the practices of engineering or surveying. This requirement begins after this year. The language in the code is a bit confusing, but renewing your license at the end of this year will not require the two hours of ethics training. If you have received the training this year, you may carry it over for your renewal for the next biennium.
Employers, Check Your Old Mail!$10 Million In Rebate Checks Remain Uncashed
Checks will stale date in October, forcing delayed reimbursements Article Courtesy of, CareWorks Managed Care COLUMBUS — Somewhere in Ohio nearly $10 million in rebate checks from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) sit ready for cashing by more than 5,500 employers who might not even know it. The uncashed checks are among the more than 160,000 BWC issued in July as part of the agency’s Third Billion Back rebate initiative. Uncashed checks will expire, or stale date, 95 days after the check’s issuance date. That’s Tuesday for some employers and as late as Oct. 18 for others.
“These checks could help a company’s bottom line, create investment opportunities and help our economy,” said BWC Administrator/CEO Sarah Morrison. “But they can’t do any of that if they remain uncashed.”
As of Friday, 5,534 checks totaling $9.8 million had not cleared BWC’s system, including one check for nearly $203,000. In all, 152 checks are for amounts of $10,000 or more. BWC emailed notices Friday alerting employers who had not cashed their checks. The agency will reissue checks after the stale date following a brief lag time for processing, an unnecessary delay for employers who could use the cash infusion. BWC’s $1 billion rebate is the agency’s third since 2013. It was made possible by strong fiscal management and better-than-expected investment returns.
Employers participating in BWC’s Group Retrospective Rating Program should receive their checks later this month. “Businesses are free to spend their rebates as they see fit, but we encourage them to invest in workplace safety,” said Morrison. “Safe workplaces mean fewer injuries and fewer work comp claims, a stable workforce and a stronger bottom line for employers.” For more information, contact BWC directly at 1-800-OHIOBWC (644-6292).
|