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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I am excited to serve as your 2019 President. The Greater San Antonio Builders Association
(GSABA) is celebrating our 75th anniversary and we have a year packed full of incredible
events.
Over the past few years, we have made great strides in our advocacy efforts on the local,
state and national levels. We’ve established City Teams in San Antonio and nine surrounding
cities ensuring your government affairs leadership team continues to make a difference.
Members of the Cibolo City Team recently met with Rudy Klein, Director of Planning and
Engineering for the City of Cibolo, to discuss ways our members can help with the back log of
Jeff Buell plan reviews, permits and inspections. These face to face meetings are truly invaluable.
President We will kick off the 86th Legislative Session on January 8th. I want to urge each of you to
attend Rally Day in Austin, TX on Wednesday, March 20th. There is additional information
in this January issue of the Builder Brief on Rally Day. The Texas Association of Builders (TAB) with local association support passed
several pro-housing bills in 2017 to include a bill to outlaw linkage fees, help with tree mitigation and a county code enforcement bill
that benefitted our members.
We will travel to Washington, DC in June for the NAHB Legislative Conference. It is crucial that we connect with our elected officials in
DC. There are a few new faces in our Congressional delegation and we will work diligently to foster strong relationships with each of
them.
Just last month, the Trump administration released its proposed new definition for “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) that will
resolve years of uncertainty over where jurisdiction begins and ends. We are grateful to the National Association of Home Builders
(NAHB) Leadership Team and Staff that worked to bring clarity to which waters fall under federal oversight. This change will help
accelerate the permitting process while protecting our nation’s waterways. This is a major win for our industry as the previous rule
was very far reaching regulating man-made ditches and isolated ponds on private property. This definition change to WOTUS will
save members tens of thousands of dollars on engineering and legal professionals.
When you pay your dues to GSABA, a portion of your dues is sent to the TAB and NAHB). As you can see, your dues are put to very
good use as we fight to protect the residential construction industry and promote homeownership together.
Membership Recruitment and Retention is at the top of my list this year along with raising money for SABPAC, our local San
Antonio Builder’s Political Action Committee. HOMEPAC, which is TAB’s PAC, endorsed pro-housing candidates with a 91%-win rate in
November which is very impressive. BUILDPAC is our national PAC that needs our continued support as well. Stay tuned for our 3PAC
fundraising event that will be held on Thursday, March 7th.
Please check the calendar on the last page of this month’s Builder Brief. We have some dynamite education coming up in January
and February and a few key events you will not want to miss.
It is an honor and a privilege to serve as your President. Feel free to reach out to me at any time or send me an email to
jbuell@sitterlehomes.com .
Sincerely,

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