California Surveyors Forums

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Fish can't get COVID. Just don't use snakes or bats as live bait and you'll be fine.

Musings......

Out of curiosity, how many government employed surveyors are getting paid for this government mandated shutdown versus private sector surveyors who are probably not getting paid? How many private companies are paying their employees to stay home? How many can afford to? Perspective is important.

As an aside, a lot of surveyors work with robotics and often in remote areas. As such, there is little, if any possibility for close exposure to others. One could argue that in these times, surveying could be considered one of the safest of all occupations.

PS, I hope everyone is safe and sound and well sheltered. My wife and I have you all in our thoughts. Every day is a blessing.

As a government employee, I am being compensated for my time regardless of if it's spent in the office or telecommuting, but I do not get compensated if I'm not working. The same applies to our field staff, who have been out performing field work every day since this has begun. The main change we're seeing is that we don't allow the office and field staff to "mix" since that increases transmission vectors, so the crews are kept working in the field without reporting to the office at all, and office staff are telecommuting with the exception of myself who gets to be in the office the majority of the time in order to set up projects and research our non-digitized records.

If a private organization has people still working, I'm assuming they're also compensating their people in a similar fashion.

Well stated, Mr. Higgins. Whether private or public, we don't get paid for not working unless we are using some form of leave time. To infer that government employees got sent home and are getting paid without producing is simply incorrect and somewhat offensive. I do know that if employees have tested positive and are quarantined, they have been granted some administrative time off. That is different than being healthy and working from home in accordance with the statewide mandate. Those who can't work from home and can't be reassigned to a job that can be performed from home are either going to a controlled work place or using leave time.

As a government employee as well, we've had both of our crews running full steam, and actually can get more stuff done now that no one else is around. Two days last week, the field crews did get sent home with everyone else, except for us supervisors that had to ensure the safe shut down of our projects. However, by Thursday I told all survey staff to report as usual. We've tried to shift hours & adopted additional safety measures to minimize exposure, but no one is getting a free ride.

Heck, if I didn't show up, I could cause half a dozen or more craft workers, to not have work. Up here in the SF Bay area we realize that if government workers keep working, private workers are getting paid.

It sounds like your perception of government workers may be reflective of your own community's work ethic, but it should not be indicative of all government workers in general.

I have to echo the statements above. As a government worker, I too am working from home using my personal computer, printer, etc. with no complaints. In addition, I have instituted fully electronic submittal of all mapping products to better serve our clients during this pandemic. Our entire team has shifted to working from home without a disruption of service to our clients. I don't know of a single government employee that is getting paid without working. Some of the views expressed on this message board regarding government are massively ill-informed.

Thanks for the feedback. It is helpful.

Brad, your comments are great!

To my knowledge, most field surveyors in the private sector are not working and not being compensated. As I mentioned, I think a two-person crew or someone using a drone or robotics would be very safe. I think surveyors should have some kind of exemption.

I am waiting to see what happens when the second shoe drops and all these sub-contract field crews are found to be in violation of AB-5. That is far from over.

In any event, I use another firm for my field work as I no longer employ field staff. They were out on a job this week, working on a disputed boundary line that eventually required that we contact the police. The neighbor is a licensed civil engineer. He handed the police a notice telling them that the surveyors were violating federal law as they were non-essential, suggesting that the surveyors should be arrested for doing their job. And yes, we had given him a dozen notices verbally, in email, and writing.

To all, be safe!

mpallamary wrote: In any event, I use another firm for my field work as I no longer employ field staff. They were out on a job this week, working on a disputed boundary line that eventually required that we contact the police. The neighbor is a licensed civil engineer. He handed the police a notice telling them that the surveyors were violating federal law as they were non-essential, suggesting that the surveyors should be arrested for doing their job. And yes, we had given him a dozen notices verbally, in email, and writing.

To all, be safe!

I would say that working on a disputed boundary line is not essential work and should be halted.

Being I have robotics and a majority of my projects are associated with design and construction of an ADU, I have been performing some field work.
I interpret the essential work designated as "construction on affordable housing" as a google search lists ADU's as "affordable housing", thus I am safe.
I seldom see any police on the residential streets I'm involved with, so if they show up I will plead my case and show them paperwork.
If they do not accept documentation, then I will tell them I am simply out for a walk, but just so happen to be carrying this tripod and case for extra weight with my exercise.

Additionally I do have a job next week that requires my Basis of Bearing to be the centerline of a usually busy two lane road. I have no issues tackling that project because traffic will be so light, I'm looking forward to it. If PD shows up, I'm using the safety card on that one!

Hi dedkad,

I hope you are well. This is a tough one as the neighbor has started construction illegally and my client is an 84 year old widow. The neighbor plans to destroy and remove my client's sewer lines which run through his property. He did some illegal grading and we have had recent rains down here and she (the 84 year old widow) is experiencing runoff. We are trying to protect her property and we feel she should not have her sewer lines cut off. The neighbor is extremely difficult and appears to be taking advantage of this situation.

It is very sad.

We are working very closely with her attorney.

What would you do?

One of the unique things I remember from a business law class I took is that water from a neighbor is a classic form of trespass and triple damages are in order. I would bet a nice letter from her lawyer to that effect would get the neighbor's attention.

Hi Dave,

We did all that half a dozen times. He blew everything off. The police department determined that their involvement was a legitimate emergency as they had to "keep the peace." As you may know, the courts are shut down, making it difficult to get a TRO.

In spite of our objections, the city issued him permits to start work, destroying the sewer lines. The problems exist because he did not show the sewer easements/lines on his grading plans. Not good.

Lots of surveyors are working:

“In San Diego, largely all of our construction sites are still open,” said Carol Kim, who is the political director for the San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council. The council represents 22 unions and more than 30,000 workers in the region. “We had a couple of shutdowns early on, but after the guidance came out saying that construction is allowed to continue, most of those have reopened.”


https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/bu ... go-for-now

I know that the employer pays all the insurance premiums, but what about the check that is sent out to a laid off employee?

If a government program, the government sends it. As I recall, the earliest will be about three weeks,

Hang in there!

I'm asking as an owner, just curious how it works.

Never had to deal with it before.

Well my client called this morning, in a panic. Her neighbor is grading over her sewer line, all without permits. The city code compliance staff is chasing him around. I had to go out to document the activity and encroachments onto my client's property. She is an 84 year old widow who lives alone and is worried about the neighbor tearing her sewer lateral out.

I submit my work is essential.

Yes, that would be a health and safety concern.

Yes, thanks. My client is very anxious for obvious reasons.

March 28.

Monterey County has announced that they will start fining contractors on construction sites that are NOT public works or affordable housing. They will also fine owners of the construction sites. They are also talking about citing for "unfair competition". In other words for those NOT playing by the rules and working normal residential projects; there could be a substantial fine.

Due Process?