United in the Trenches
By Jason Morgan
“Get involved — the industry is only as good as we are willing to make it. If we expect little, we will get little. If we expect it to be great, it will become great. Networking is a huge part that of success. To understand and know your industry is to see it through the eyes of many. Never walk this path alone — the industry needs you as much as you need the industry. And always look in the rear-view mirror. Never forget the people who have or will help you along the way, they are truly priceless.”
— 2008 Ditchdigger of the Year Jim Giannelli, RMCI Inc. |
Under the glitz and glamour of NUCA’s Starry Night President’s Banquet at the EXPO ‘09, tension was mounting. The red carpet had brought out NUCA members dressed to the nines to welcome the new officers and find out who is 2008’s Ditchdigger of the Year. Anticipation swelled when 2007 Ditchdigger Larry Fortin took the stage. A quick tease, the drum roll and NUCA presents this year’s Ditchdigger — Jim Giannelli, RMCI Inc., Albuquerque, N.M.
 Though only Jim and his wife Deborah accepted the award onstage, it was clear that his two sons, NUCA friends and RMCI crew were behind him every step of the way to his Ditchdigger achievement.
“This award is not only about me and my accomplishments, but also a tribute to several mentors who have given me direction through out the years and helped me understand the business I have chose to pursue and love,” Jim told the room of his peers. “This award truly goes to the many individuals I have had the opportunity to work with, past and present at RMCI, Inc. in pursuit of my dream. The individuals in the trenches working with the shovel are as valuable to our organization as I am. Without these people, I would not be afforded the opportunity to do what it is I do for the company and our industry.”
You might not notice it from its southwest service offering — covering New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Texas — but today’s $64-million-plus RMCI Inc. couldn’t have had more humble beginnings. On Nov. 30, 1990, Giannelli quit the construction company he was working for and went into business for himself.
 “RMCI Inc. was started out of a spare bedroom in our home in Albuquerque, N.M.,” recalls Jim. “Due to the lack of space, our copier was at the foot of our bed and I would have to collate on Deborah as she slept, hoping should would not wake. The hours were unbelievable — 16, 18, 20 hours in a day seven days a week were not uncommon.
“Our first large project — $1,100,000 — was with the Los Alamos National Laboratories. It was a hard bid project, which bid in September 1991. The project involved taking a 12-in. water line down a 700-ft cliff, and it had to have 4 ft of cover. The final negotiations for this project were held at our kitchen table.”
Before reeling in the big one, RMCI Inc. had its difficulties. As soon as the company was started in November of 1990, Jim bid two to three projects a week. He didn’t land his first job until August 1991 — a $10,800 Hazardous Waste Containment Structure for the New Mexico National Guard.
“On a family vacation when I was 14 years old, we stopped by Arizona State University where the Performing Arts Building was in its final stages of construction — I told myself I wanted to build structures for a living.
“I went to Iowa State University in Construction Engineering and obtained my degree in 1979. At age twenty-three just before graduating from college, I was talking to a fellow student about where we were headed when school was out — I told him at age 35, I am going to start my own construction company. Twelve years later, at age 35, I started RMCI Inc.” |
Those were the lean years for the Giannellis. Jim and Deborah couldn’t obtain a line of credit or bonding through agents in New Mexico due to the economic conditions in the late 1980s and early 1990s. So they were forced to go to Denver to obtain their first line of credit and bonding. Even though these were trying times, Jim was never alone in his dream.
 Of the many individuals that have guided Jim through the years, there is one who, without his trust, guidance and encouragement, RMCI Inc. would not be where it is today.
“Paul Moltz started mentoring me when I first went to work for him at the Mount Elbert Power Plant when I graduated from high school and has been there for me every step of the way,” Jim says fondly. “Paul is the man who encouraged me to study Construction Engineering at Iowa State University, he provided direction when I was straying off course and he was one of the first investors in my dream, RMCI Inc. No matter where I am, what is happening in the company, when I look in my rear-view mirror, I see my dear friend, the father of my professional career, Paul Moltz.”
There were others who helped RMCI Inc: Paul Parker, Owner of Paul Parker Construction, a subcontractor on the Los Alamos project; Bill High, Owner of Concrete Supply Co. a supply company in Albuquerque, N.M.; and Larry Brazil , then the Owner of New Mexico Metals, specialty metals supply company in Albuquerque, N.M. They would not accept any payments until Jim could assure them that RMCI Inc. was on its feet and it was going to be okay with its cash flow.
 RMCI continued to grow and secure four more projects and performed more than $500,000 in its first year of business. There were four key employees — Rex Davis, who started as a Superintendent and is now Vice President of Equipment; Brent Bower, Superintendent; his wife Deborah, Accountant (and now retired); and Jim, who performed all the estimating, project management and surveying, while working as a superintendent and even the entire crew during the first year.
“Hiring Rex and Brent was the hardest thing for me to do when I started out in this business,” Jim admits. “They were good friends, they were leaving good jobs and now this plan had to work for their sake.”
The gamble paid off. Back in ‘91, Jim, Deborah, Rex Davis, Paul Moltz and Tom Barnard were the only shareholders; today, the company is “key employee” owned. There are 27 shareholders, with Deborah and Jim only owning 48 percent at this time, and their goal is to bring more individuals into ownership to the point where he and Deborah are the minority shareholders. RMCI Inc. has also grown in its jobs. Today the company performs primarily water, wastewater and storm sewer work — utilities, plants, tanks, lift stations, horizontal boring, micro-tunneling and co-generation facilities. RMCI Inc. also preforms some heavy engineering work.
“When we first started the business, we had good friends, but none were walking the same trail as Deborah and I. We did not know many owners of construction companies. There was no one to compare notes with or to discuss how in the hell we were going to get through this one.” |
Jim joined NUCA in the early 1990s when he was looking for an association that best represented RMCI Inc.’s line of work. Believing that any company, in any industry, needs to take care of and give back to its industry, Jim found the National Utility Contractor Association (NUCA).
 “I am not sure of my first event...It was when Spunky Thaxton was President,” Jim remembers. “I wanted to get involved with the Safety and Education Committees, so I would sit in and listen to try to learn. It wasn’t until Terry Dillon took me under his wing in the Education Committee that I started getting involved. This would have been in 1997 and 1998.”
It was in an Education Committee in the spring of 1997 that Jim first felt comfortable enough to speak up and ask a few questions. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind rise to leadership within the association. Among his numerous NUCA services, Jim has most notably served as:
- An active member of the Safety Ambassadors’ Club
- A member of the Presidents Club off and on
- Co-Chair of the Insurance and Documents Committee
- Chair of the Insurance and Documents Committee
- Co-Chair of the Documents and Specifications Committee
- Sat on the Executive Committee and was a strong voice for Mandatory Membership in NUCA
- NUCA’s representative on the American Arbitration Association’s National Construction Dispute Resolution Committee since 2000
- NUCA’s representative on the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee since 2007
- Board Member of NUCA’s Foundation for Education and Research
“When I first joined NUCA, I was involved with the day-to-day business of just about everything in our company,” Jim says. “As the company grew and more and more of the duties were delegated, I started having more of the RMCI Inc. people get involved with the NUCA Committees.
Now RMCI Inc. has three or four individuals attending the meetings and has upwards of 16 to 20 employees in attendance at some events.”
“My role has changed more than I could have ever imagined. I am a coach, a mentor, a teacher and a measurer. I have not really looked at a set of plans in years. This business is not so much about putting pipe in the ground or placing concrete, as it is about people — the people who we are constructing the project for, the people that have worked tirelessly on a design, the people that are inconvenienced during the performance of the work and the people in the company performing the work. You better understand people to succeed in this business because anyone can buy materials or rent equipment. It takes good people to perform the work safely and maintain production and quality.” |
RMCI Inc. is a strong advocate of NUCA and encourages the participation of its employees at both the state and national level. And the company has not gone unnoticed by the association. In addition to Jim’s Ditchdigger of the Year award, RMCI Inc. has won the NUCA William H. Feather Award for safety four times, including being the Overall Winner in 2007. Outside of NUCA, RMCI has received awards from the Southwest Contractor Best Of… in 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2008; the New Mexico National Quality Initiative — 2002 Highway Quality Award; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Safety Achievement Award; and Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. Platinum Safety Awards (2007, 2008). Jim views each accolade as a collective victory.
 “We must all continue to look in our rear-view mirrors to see where we have been and who in life has helped us get where we are today,” Jim said in his acceptance speech. “We, as a collective group, must do whatever we can to contribute and promote the utility construction industry. “RMCI Inc.’s strength is its people. As a mentor of mine use to tell me, ‘people are power,’” Jim states with conviction. “RMCI Inc. has very defined and strong core values. We do not waiver from these core values and if you are going to work for RMCI Inc., you will live by them or you need to work someplace else. We do not teach these core values. They are who we are. There will be no short cuts.”
Jason Morgan is Associate Editor of Utility Contractor.
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