On the morning of Jan. 6, Don Burns convinced California’s Orange County Board of Supervisors to repeal a law mandating four-sided fences around pools and spas. The law had been in place for a year, but the board voted 4 to 0 against it.
By mid-afternoon, Burns left Southern California. The CEO of the
California Spa and Pool Education Council (better known as SPEC) headed back to Northern California from whence he came earlier that day to attend Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s State of the State Address at 5 p.m. Burns ended the day by sharing a glass of wine with the governor in his private offices.
At an age when most men spend their time enjoying retirement, 75-year-old Burns protects one of the largest pool industry groups in the country. “He’s quite educated in both the system of government and in the facts of a case,” says Cecil Fraser, owner of
Swan Pools of Southern California in Lake Forest, Calif. “I think from a legislative standpoint, he has no peer.”
Indeed, Burns has spent 47 years learning the ins and outs of the California state and local governments. For almost 30 of those years, he has tirelessly campaigned on behalf of the pool and spa industry as a powerful lobbyist. However, Burns is finally preparing to leave his post to explore a more peaceful existence. Though his departure won’t be immediate, the SPEC board recently voted to implement a five-year plan, with Burns’ exit as its goal.
At press time, he was in the process of hiring someone to train and eventually replace him. But Burns’ shoes will be hard to fill. A look at some of his major accomplishments just within the past year provides a glimpse into his impact and influence:
• He helped enact legislation that will require 90 days’ jail time for repeat offenders convicted of working without contractor’s licenses.
• Working with the
Landscape Contractors’ Association, he secured legislation requiring landscape contractors to subcontract the pool/spa construction portion of larger projects.
• He helped prevent a state sales tax on all services, which would have driven up costs — particularly for pool and spa service technicians.
This is why many are reluctant to see Burns go. There is a valid fear that once he is gone, the industry will lose the power that it has gained over the past 30 years. “I’m worried,” Fraser says. “Replacing him is going to be difficult because of his tenure and relationships in government. He is our voice in Sacramento. We don’t have any other mechanism or medium.”
Others, however, would welcome a change.
“I’m looking forward to working with someone with a different perspective,” says Maureen Williams, a member of the
California Drowning Prevention Network and co-founder of the advocacy group’s Orange County branch. “I think Don has done a lot of good for the swimming pool industry, but it’s known that any effort to pass safety barrier legislation is going to have strong opposition from SPEC. It’s time for a new attitude.”
Making his mark
Burns’ foray into the pool and spa industry in the 1960s began with a request for help from an old friend at the
American Societies of Association Executives. His friend happened to be president of the
National Spa & Pool Institute. At the time, the industry association had just reorganized and needed someone to be in charge of its Northern California chapter.
Burns, who was anxious to start his own lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., but wasn’t quite sure he wanted to leave California, took the post. As with his previous jobs, he went above and beyond his duty, and gained a reputation for quickly and effectively solving industry problems.
Then came the Arab oil crisis in 1973. It triggered the
California Public Utilities Commission to propose an emergency regulation to prohibit the use of natural gas to heat pools. A dozen industry members met at an airport to discuss the problem. They only had two weeks to file a petition with the commission’s board before the law would go into effect.
Someone suggested that Burns be brought into the meeting at the airport. The group then formed SPEC, a temporary organization that would have authority to combat the natural gas dilemma on the industry’s behalf.
Due to Burns’ political experience, he was chosen to lead the new organization. The group would include the head of every other industry organization in the state. “All would have a voice in what we did,” Burns recalls.
He expected his position at SPEC to retire in six months. “But every time we turned around, there was another problem,” he says.
Immediately after stalling the CPUC’s natural gas ban, manufacturers of solar heaters went to the state legislature. They tried to mandate the replacement of natural gas heaters with solar ones. However, Burns’ efforts killed those bills.
Then seven builders in Orange County went bankrupt. Their pool customers were left with approximately 100 holes in the ground and huge monetary losses. Burns stepped in and worked out a compromise solution with the county government so that builders in the area were not penalized.
The California pool and spa industry eventually grew from a $200 million to $225 million industry in 1976 to a more than $1 billion industry today. Part of the credit can be given to Burns.
“From a political and regulation perspective, he’s singularly the most important person that the pool industry has allowed to represent them,” says Bruce Dunn, owner of
Mission Pools in Escondido, Calif.
SPEC shines
Over the years, Burns no longer just reacted to industry problems. He began proactively searching out ways to improve the business environment for the industry.
His influence helped pass legislation that increased punishment for pool builders who work without a license or receive numerous consumer complaints. He also spends much of his time working with coalitions of industries searching for ways to reduce workman’s compensation and health care costs.
Despite these advances, there are those who question Burns’ approach to pool safety issues. Critics say that his lack of support for some safety legislation perpetuates a fear that talking about pool dangers will discourage consumers from building pools. It’s an assumption that historically has been the stance of industry groups such as NSPI — until recent times.
Be that as it may, Burns’ impact on the state is tangible. Consumers count on SPEC to address their concerns and Burns has significantly lightened the load of the
California Contractors State License Board. He has also gained key friends for the industry in politically influential positions.
“I don’t know that other industries have a representative such as Don, who is able to go out and eliminate problems before they occur,” says David Fogot, the CSLB’s chief of enforcement. “I think it’s beneficial what he’s doing. I think he realizes that a few bad builders can shrink the marketplace for all of the others.”
Part of what makes Burns’ impact so widespread is that he operates under the notion that knowledge is power. He was the first to request an economic review of the pool and spa industry in the 1960s. “I said I couldn’t help the industry without being able to prove the impact of the swimming pool industry on the state economy,” he says.
As a result, a two-year socioeconomic study was commissioned. Burns says that even though he knew it would be useful, he didn’t realize just how valuable a document it would become. In representing the industry after the failed outlaw attempt of natural gas heaters, Burns invoked the study in all of his following “battles.” A tattered, obviously thumbed-through original copy of the report now is displayed prominently on Burns’ bookcase.
“Don is a real statesman,” says Dunn, the builder in Escondido, Calif. “He does his homework. He doesn’t work on suppositions or assumptions. He works on facts. And he’s an articulate speaker, organized and coordinated.”
Another characteristic of Burns that has been invaluable to the industry is his frankness — whether he’s talking to state or local legislators, consumers or pool builders.
“Don can be tough with them, telling them that they have a business practice that needs to be corrected,” Fogot says. “But he’s fair in his approach. I think he’s got a lot of credibility with the builders.”
Burning bright
Ironically, the man who has been the vanguard for the pool and spa industry for decades has never built a pool or sold a spa.
Born in 1929, Burns was a product of the Depression era. He was taught the value of hard work by his father, who was a true pioneer. As a gold miner in Grass Valley, Calif., his father often returned late at night from his job with work to do for a young Burns and his siblings.
“We had to do our share with the gasoline and wire brushes, and get equipment from the mines all cleaned up,” Burns says.
When he entered high school, World War II started and it became too costly to continue mining the gold. Burns’ father opened a manufacturing plant that produced submarine doors; again, he enlisted Don’s help. After the war, his father went into agricultural real estate. He had high hopes that Burns would take over the business.
“I wasn’t cut out for it,” Burns says
.
Instead, he discovered a love for working with people and helping them solve problems. He had joined student government, and worked his way up to class president. In what he remembers as his most glorious moment, Burns started an amateur band, called the Storytellers, to play at school dances. “I was always good at getting things done,” he says.
After high school, he attended the University of Santa Clara in California and studied journalism. He spent time working at several newspapers, and eventually returned to his father’s business and became director of public relations.
Then, after serving in the Korean War, 27-year-old Burns went to work for the insurance agents of the state. His job was to provide a firewall between the government and the industry. He vividly recalls his first day on the job.
“Bold as hell, I walked right into the capitol building,” he says with a chuckle. “And I didn’t know what I was going to do next.”
But apparently he made an impression. Though on opposite sides of the issues, he caught the attention of the dean at San Francisco Law School. Burns says he was so tenacious in his defense of the insurers that the dean “finally said, ‘Well, if you’re going to be up here, you oughta know what you’re doing.’ So he sent me to night law school.”
That kind of mentoring would prove invaluable to Burns’ career. And he never forgets it. On the wall in his Sacramento-based office, Burns showcases framed portraits of his mentors, including the dean of the law school.
Help wanted: Must be a powerful force
While SPEC has had a lot of lobbying success in California, Burns doesn’t expect the organization to ever grow beyond its current borders. Unlike other areas, the California pool and spa industry is tightly regulated and, he says, “we have plenty of work to do.”
That doesn’t mean SPEC’s influence isn’t felt in other regions. Many industry leaders in other big pool states — particularly in the Southwest and Southeast — call upon Burns for advice and resources. It’s especially true when it comes to legislation restricting pools in support of energy conservation and drowning-prevention initiatives.
Burns’ replacement definitely faces a challenge and may well have to overcome skepticism from his opponents. “No one single individual is the only one who can make something happen,” Dunn says. “But we want to be sure we can get as close to a Don Burns as possible.”
