By the start of the 1970s, CLCA found itself facing a completely new world from what it had known before.

The first two decades had seen massive growth from a handful of members to nearly 700 by 1970. Ken Jenner, CLCA's founng executive secretary (the title was later changed to executive director) and a landscape contractor himself, had piloted the association from his home office for many years and was getting ready to retire.

As CLCA grew, so did the responsibilities of those running it, and the demand finally exceeded the capacity to supply within the structure that had served the association up to that point.

As Bob Weiland, CLCA president in 1971, recalls, "CLCA was growing, and some of the bigger contractors were breakinoff, feeling the association wasn't serving their needs. That's how Chapter 13, and later CLIC (the union-based California Landscape & Irrigation Council), got started."

The controversy boiled down to dues contributions. Some of the larger member companies felt that since they contributed the majority of dollars, they should have a greater say in the direction of the association. But the vast majority of members were small and medium-sized companies.

According to Weiland, "The unions were still pretty stng. When Chapter 13 broke completely free of CLCA [several years later], it created a huge drop in revenue. We covered it with necessary dues increases, membership growth, and the increased income from small contractors whose companies got bigger - a growth that was due in part to the programs provided by the association. "We had a lot of turmoil losing the large contractors, but the team really pulled the association together. Even though I was a big contractor, I feel it was best that CLCA didn't allow the big contractors dictate policy." Also during Weiland's term, landscape architects came under fire from the building architects and civil engineers - groups that were attempting to lay waste the C-27.

"CLCA helped the American Society of Landscape Architects to retain their license. It was charged that [landscaping was not] a matter of public safety, which is the purpose of licensing. We lobbied the legislature and thwarted the attempt," remembers Weiland.

Growing Pains

Withhe advent of executive director Jenner's pending retirement, CLCA leaders found themselves facing not only the question of who would take the association forward, but how to prepare for the ever-increasing demands of the blossoming industry.

Two schools of thought were prevalent at the time. The first was that CLCA could be best served with enhanced public relations efforts, but basically retain much of the same structure of management it had enjoyed to that point. The second was that CLCA was "coming of age" and quired the leadership of someone with a strong background in professional association management. The first choice, Richard Harris, served for three and a half months before leaving CLCA. Then, a young man named Michael Leeson was invited to apply for the position.

Leeson had been the assistant executive director of the California Dental Association for several years, and before that had handled public relations for the California Trucking Association. To give themselves time to study the future direction of this asciation, CLCA leaders initially installed an interim director, who stayed only a few months, and then brought Leeson on board in 1972.

As 1972 president Bert CeDillos remembers, Jenner stayed on as liaison to the Northern California chapters while Leeson operated from Los Angeles as the new executive director.

"It was very important for CLCA to keep [Jenner] involved, as the majority of us wanted to gradually transition," CeDillos recalls. "At that time we were all working to bring the association into the entieth century." (A bit of humor echoed by others who were interviewed for this history project.) It turned out to be a successful choice. Leeson would remain in his position for the next 14 years.

Location, Location, Location

CLCA moved to various locations in Southern California during the '70s, each one an attempt to meet the organization's growing needs. But Leeson soon found himself spending increasingly more time in Sacramento, attending meetings with regulatorsnd lawmakers. According to 1978 president Joe Tanouye, CLCA leaders realized that the next logical move for headquarters was to the capital.

"There was a lot of debate about it," Tanouye recalls. "The majority of members were in Southern California and felt the headquarters should remain local. But 99 percent of them never went to the executive office. Some were worried that the move would be too expensive, but the travel costs [for the executive director's duties in Sacramento] were huge."

Tanouye saithat in the long run the move turned out to be cheaper than anyone expected.

"Rent was lower per square foot, and the move itself only cost the association $6,000."

The Changing Political Landscape

"Between the association leadership and the management, we changed the view of CLCA to that of a well-run organization," recalls Walter Bray, CLCA's only two-term president (73-74).

"Before CLCA, there were no rules, or anyone in power, to protect the landspe industry. Whenever municipalities or other trade groups tried to single out landscape contractors for special rules, CLCA fought back."

The rules were different in the '70s, according to then-executive director Leeson. "We didn't have term limits for elected officials back then. The definition of a 'long-term relationship' was different. One thing that helped us was when Congress changed the laws to allow associations to form political action committees. Up until then the unions had them; now management had thsame opportunity for political access."

The result was LandPAC. "You can't be all things to all legislators," Leeson notes, emphasizing the need to target the association's objectives. "We chose to work with the ones who some of the members personally knew, and some because they were on specific committees and came from areas where members could help them out."

From Black-Tie Affairs To Practical Jokes

Long before LandPAC, CLCA members were working at a grass roots lel with legislators and regulators, as well as various business entities, to promote the industry. There are few more shining examples of these efforts than the Daisy Awards.

Bert CeDillos and CLCA member Eric Moore founded the program in the late '60s, "for the purpose of breaking bread with the people who made the budgets and decisions that affected the industry," according to CeDillos.

The Daisy Awards were black-tie affairs, initially held at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles. "These were landscape beautification awards for clients - worthy public and private projects - with movie star presenters," recalls Mike Leeson. "Lady Bird Johnson started the idea at the national level."

Guests of honor included such famous personalities as Jane Wyatt, Greer Gars, Walter Matthau, and Richard Crenna, the latter appearing at the final awards show in 1975. CLCA members hosted numerous lawmakers as part of a large guest ensemble, and the event was covered in newspapers throughout the state. Due to the high cost and complex logistics involved, the program ended to make way for what was still to come on the association's agenda.

Although the Daisy Awards were somewhat of a high-falutin' affair, CLCA was also well known for its family oriented conventions. Many contractors simp didn't have time or couldn't afford both a vacation and the convention, so CLCA arranged the convention to serve both purposes.

"We had a lot of fun back then," recalls 1975 president Harold Jones. "We were all the time pulling pranks on one another." Jones himself was the target of one of the more outlandish episodes, coming on the day he was to be installed as state president. He went outside to discover his new Buick missing and reported it to the sheriff's department.

But it wasn't stolen. The practal jokers had parked it in the middle of the tennis court.

Standing on New Conventions

During the '70s, CLCA took its annual convention across state lines for the first time in a move designed to encourage more participation, according to Leeson.

"More people attended the Las Vegas convention than ever before. By takinghe convention to other locations, because of commitments people stayed longer. It made for more cohesion and was better for building relationships. When we held them closer to home, members tended to drift in and out. But if they had to make the effort to be there, they tended to stay."

"CLCA was probably more than half of my total social life," says Joe Tanouye. "I enjoyed every minute of it." His peers reflect Tanouye's sentiments. "Promoting membership and recognition were the bigssues at the time," remembers 1976 president Walter Barrows, a.k.a. "Dr. Dirt," a handle he uses in the media (including a three-times weekly radio gardening show in Southern California). The "doctor" title is genuine: he earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in landscape architecture from Somerset University in 1984. In fact, many of his presidential peers in the '70s held master's degrees - which undoubtedly played a role in CLCA's effective business direction during the challenging decade.

It was during the first month of Barrows' term (January 1976) that CLCA's magazine made its debut, with an introduction by Earl Butz, then-Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture: "On behalf of President Ford, I extend congratulations to the California Landscape Contractors Association on the publication of its new magazine, California Landscape Management."

The cover featured the most recent Trophy Awards Sweepstakes winner's job, beginning a tradition of cover art that has sustained througut the association's 26-year magazine run.

As the association matured, it adjusted to accommodate the times. In 1977 CLCA announced its first Honorary Memberships, given to retired executive director Kenneth Jenner and California Secretary of State March Fong Eu. The first Sustaining Member was named the following year: John Moulder, who served as the association's state president in 1955. Another milestone was reached at the end of the decade when the association produced its first-ever Landscape Industry Show i1980, following a year of planning at twice-monthly meetings. Today the annual event is the largest trade show of its kind on the West Coast.

A New Direction

"The issue, then and now, is educating and helping people to succeed," says 1978 president Tanouye. "We made a lot of headway by helping people to get their licenses and join the association. By doing so they got exposed to bigger and better work, and ended up making more money."p>

Mike Leeson feels that CLCA came through the decade with flying colors. "The members [back then] seemed to me to be excited about the direction we were going, the challenges we faced. And they weren't naive. But they were enthusiastic.

"It wasn't a hard sell," the former executive director remembers. "Things were changing and there were a few who wanted to keep the status quo. But the majority wanted to take chances and move forward. There wasn't any real opposition to the programs wemplemented. There were little 'speed bumps' along the way, but we got past them and were able to make some great progress." "Anytime you look back at something you've worked hard to create and see it do well," says 1973-74 president Walter Bray, "you can take pride in it."

Members of The Year Regular

• 1979 Martin Rippens
• 1978 Don Napolitano
• 1977 Jas Keener
• 1976 Efraim Donitz
• 1975 Frank Peccorini
• 1974 Frank Hirata
• 1973 Harold Jones
• 1972 Walter Bray
• 1971 Bert CeDillos
• 1970 Harry Broderick

Members of The Year Associates

• 1979 Archie Humphrys
• 1978 Werner Gramckow
• 1977 Robb Swearingin i>1976 Greg Meyer
• 1975 John Culbertson
• 1974 Joe Ventura
• 1973 Ray Jones
• 1972 Paul Albright
• 1971 Dean Johnson
• 1970 Ed Mutoza