By Ron Brown

In every successful business, employees make the difference. This requires an ongoing top-down commitment to making sure workers are respected, protected and valued.

That is especially true in the construction trades, where a diverse group of skilled subcontractors join with a general contractor to build projects of all sizes and specifications. Many of these projects include hundreds of workers that must join together seamlessly to execute a complex plan on a tight timeline. We care about these relationships and how that speaks to our integrity.

Brown Construction has been a part of this community since my father started the business in 1964. For nearly a half-century, we have been fortunate to work with some of America’s most skilled craftsmen and women to deliver quality projects on time and on budget.

We’ve been an important source of jobs, in good times and in bad. We’re known for our work building affordable housing in communities throughout the western United States as well as commercial projects, public works facilities and athletic facilities.

Additionally, as a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, we’ve incorporated the latest green building methods into our projects. We value quality, integrity and honesty, and we strive for perfection. But when we discover a mistake, our team is accountable, taking immediate action to make things right.

As a lifelong Davis resident and graduate of Davis High School, I’ve taken personal pride in building projects for my high school, UC Davis and the region. Among them is the Davis High School multi-use stadium and track facility, which is part of our company’s “Build it Forward” program.

“Build it Forward” projects are done at our cost, forgoing any profit and contributing our management time. The end result is that we’ve been able to save seven organizations more than $1.8 million.

Davis residents know our work. We built the UC Davis Aggie Stadium and the Schaal Aquatics Center. The Mathematical Sciences Building and Contained Research facility and lab complex also represent our craftsmanship, as does the award-winning Lexington Student Housing development and the recent AIA award winning Tercero II project.

Although these undertakings reflect our pride and professionalism, we did face challenges during the recent construction of the Tercero Student Housing Phase II project. The construction met our high standards, but we learned some very important lessons.

Despite what we thought was a solid system to make sure subcontractors paid workers accurately, we discovered deeper measures need to be taken to help ensure wage compliance. We identified a couple of subcontractors who did not pay workers properly, which is unacceptable.

Here’s what we did to fix the problem. First, we investigated the subcontractors’ records and interviewed their employees to learn how and where the errors in payment occurred.

Next, we scrutinized our internal audit processes and invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to strengthen our already professional contract compliance team by adding additional expert staff who monitor every subcontractor and ensure workers are paid according to their classification and for the appropriate number of hours.

Additionally, we have fostered our relationships with governing bodies who oversee all the labor compliance documentation. We believe that our reforms have created what is our industry’s most aggressive accountability program.

Finally, before we even bid on a project, subcontractors are required to file a prequalification questionnaire that they have the financial resources and systems in place to appropriately manage, support and pay their employees.

Our message is simple: We work only with subcontractors who share our values of respect for employees.

We’ve learned from the past, so we can lead now and in the future. Our success is based upon building trust along with our projects, and Brown Construction is committed to setting the highest standards for accountability, performance and employee protection.

From our perspective, and as a member of the Davis community, it’s just the right thing to do.

— Ron Brown is president and CEO of Brown Construction Inc.

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