Former Unshackle director takes over ABC’s Empire State chapter

The former director of an upstate New York business-advocacy group is settling into his new role as president of the Empire State Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. (ABC).

Brian Sampson left his role with Rochester–based Unshackle Upstate in October and started his new duties with the state’s ABC chapter on Oct. 13.

He had worked for Unshackle Upstate since 2009. 

Sampson assumed the role that Steve Lefebvre had vacated in December 2013 to move back to Delaware.

Sampson, who lives in Rochester, will work through all of [the] ABC Empire State Chapter’s offices and its members statewide. 

“It’s a position that tends to be a bit more mobile, while our headquarters are there in [DeWitt], I’ll be bouncing between all of the offices,” he notes.

Besides its main office in DeWitt, the ABC Empire State Chapter operates offices in Buffalo, Albany, and Ronkonkoma in Suffolk County, which serves the Long Island and metro New York City area, according to the ABC website.

ABC had also previously operated an office in Rochester, but due to some restructuring, closed it. But the organization plans to establish a new Rochester location “relatively soon,” says Sampson.

ABC is a national construction association devoted to merit contractors. 

“Merit shop contractors are typically non-union contractors,” says Sampson. He spoke with the Business Journal News Network on Nov. 4

The Empire State chapter serves nearly 400 members throughout New York state.

ABC had joined Unshackle Upstate as a member in 2011, Sampson says.

When asked what he found appealing about his new position, he indicated that ABC stands for the principles of free enterprise and open competition.

“We need to create an environment where contractors can be free to bid whatever work they choose to bid. We shouldn’t have laws and regulations that tilt the playing field in the favor of some groups at the detriment of others,” says Sampson.

He contends ABC needs to be “more aggressive” in how it pursues those beliefs in New York.

In his first few weeks as chapter president, Sampson has been focused on the proposed amphitheater on the western edge of Onondaga Lake in the town of Geddes. The Onondaga County Legislature on Nov. 3 voted to borrow more than $49 million for the project.

The county legislature and Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney have decided the amphitheater construction will include a project-labor agreement (PLA), says Sampson. 

A PLA sets the terms and conditions of employment on a construction project, including wages, hours, and work rules.

“PLAs tend to be [anti-competitive] because they restrict the willingness and the ability of merit-shop contractors to bid that work because of the work rules [involved],” Sampson contends.

He says a PLA typically stipulates that for every one employee a non-union contractor has assigned to the job, the contractor has to hire four people from a union-affiliated contractor.

“That’s just not fair to the contractor, nor is it fair to the people they employ, or their families,” he asserts.

In his time as director of Unshackle Upstate, Sampson points to the state's property-tax cap, which state lawmakers approved in 2011, as one of the accomplishments of his tenure.

It was part of the Unshackle legislative agenda in both 2009 and 2010, he says. Then Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo made it part of his campaign in 2010. Sampson contends the tax cap has helped both homeowners and the business community.

“From the business community’s standpoint, the largest tax a business pays is its property taxes. If we can make it more competitive and less costly, then our businesses will have a little bit of an advantage that they didn’t have before,” says Sampson.           

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com