Kurt Latimore leads WABO members in 2015 Strategic Planning Session

2014 WABO Fall Meeting

October 16-17, 2014 - Yakima, Washington

President's Report - Jon Siu, City of Seattle

Well, we’re off and running!  It’s been an eventful first few months representing you as WABO’s president. Working with others on the Executive Board, I’ve written letters to ICC regarding their Preferred Provider Program and expressing our views on the code development and adoption cycle.  Both letters are posted on the WABO webpage.  Thank you to those of you who voiced your support on the chat line!

WABO continues to be active at the national level, with representation at the ICC Annual Business Meeting and the Group C Public Comment Hearings in Fort Lauderdale, Florida that followed: 

• Gary Schenk, Trace Justice and I represented WABO at the ABM.  There, we participated in Region 2 and (informal) WPLBO meetings, talked to candidates for the ICC Board, and voted in the Board elections.  As they reported at the Fall Quarterly meeting in Yakima, Gary and Trace were also part of an invitation-only forum on the future of the code official profession.  Other WABO members in attendance included John Darnall and Mike Noot.

• WABO, as represented by Lee Kranz, Maureen Traxler, Mike Noot, and me, was only one of two visible chapters participating in the Group C Public Comment Hearings—the other being Colorado.  While this hearing was for the International Green Construction Code, in which we realize there is minimal interest among building officials, we hope this is not an indication that building officials will rely entirely on cdpACCESS for their participation in code development.

Thank you to members who took the time from your busy schedules to come to the quarterly meeting in Yakima; and especially, thank you to your bosses who gave you approval to go.  We filled nearly every seat in the room, and while it was it was a bit reminiscent of a sardine can, having so many of you willing to be involved keeps WABO strong and effective.  I also want to extend a special welcome to those first-timers who made it— Craig Burnell (Renton), John Cooper (Snoqualmie), Ryan Edwards (Simpson Strong-Tie), Jim Mattison (Simpson Strong-Tie), Craig Sedlacek (L&I Factory Assembled Structures), and Kym Williams (Sound Transit).

For those of you who were unable to attend, aside from normal WABO business (including the very important committee meetings), there were two special sessions. 

• For professional development, Lee Kranz, Tim Nogler, and Maureen Traxler showed the attendees how they can get involved in code development at the state and national levels as individual building officials, through the State Building Code Council process and ICC’s cdpACCESS—and, of course, the WABO Technical Code Development Committee.

• Kurt Lattimore led us through a strategic planning exercise, designed to help us plan for WABO’s future.  I have to admit that I usually don’t enjoy strategic planning, but Kurt’s session was very good, and helped us to think through and recognize all the activities and services WABO participates in and provides, and identified some areas to think about for the future.

Lastly, as a result of discussions at the meeting in Yakima, in the near future, you’ll have another opportunity to be involved in providing guidance to the WABO Executive Board.  We’ll be sending out a survey, asking for your thoughts on two issues—extending fire sprinklers to some (not all!) of the buildings regulated under the IRC, and support for the International Plumbing Code (IPC).  We’d very much appreciate it if you’d take some time to respond to the survey—we’ll try to make it as painless as possible!

So it’s been busy but rewarding, representing such a great organization as WABO.  Thanks for your support of me and of WABO.  If you’re not already involved, please continue to consider how you can get involved in this, your organization.  Find something you’re passionate about.  Whether it’s growing future building officials, code development, enhancing the building officials’ public image, providing education and training for building officials and staff, disaster response, or developing registration and certification programs for special inspections, there’s a place for you to Be Involved.  Your involvement is WABO’s strength.

See you at the next meeting in Lacey!

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Certification and Registration, Pete Rambow, Chair

The C & R meeting met at 10:30 and the first order of business was review of the Fire-Stop Certification program and where we were with the criteria development.  A subcommittee  of the SIRP Committee was formed with the following members:

They have met and started developing the list of tasks that need to be completed and what they entail.  More details yet to come.

The issue of creating a Fabrication program for Pre-cast/Pre-stressed Concrete was next on the agenda and was tabled until a later date.

We will be looking at OBOA’s written exams for the non-ICC categories to see if this is an acceptable equivalent to the WABO tests.  We will be getting a copy of their written test to make sure they are the same.

A new item was brought to our attention by Jay Ponce regarding adhesive anchors in concrete and the requirement that the concrete have a 21-day minimum age before installation.

The issue came up again on Grandfathered Inspectors (Reciprocal Inspectors) and it was decided to keep this on our radar, but not make any changes at this time.

Education Committee, Mike Noot, Chair

WSAPT President Cindi Somers joined the Education Committee at our meeting in Yakima to express a desire to partner with WABO in bringing more training opportunities to their membership. Expect to see courses at the Annual Education Institute that are in line with the training needs identified by WSAPT.

The committee further identified that jurisdictions have some basic needs that must be filled. We want to help develop line staff and supervisors and stay out of legal trouble while providing our service products; reviews, inspection, permits, interpretations. It is important to note that Certifications are important from a liability perspective; we all need to know what we are doing. ICC Certifications are one means of demonstrating knowledge of the codes.

To facilitate fulfilling the basic needs we identified some core training topics and potential instructors. Look for the Annual Education Institute brochure in the coming weeks.

Emergency Management, Doug Powell, Chair

It’s been a while since the last Emergency Management (EM) Committee meeting so we had several items to discuss. We started with welcoming Ray Cockerham for volunteering to assist the group as EM committee vice-chair.

The group discussed the current 01/2014 EM Response and Deployment Procedure to determine if the content had been vetted with the committee group and WABO members. General consensus was “yes it has been vetted” and that not much work, if any, has been started on the preparatory steps listed in the procedure, the committee will continue to work on the following preparatory steps:

• Develop deployment process and guidelines
• Establish regional coordinators and alternates to cover the nine regions of DOH/HLS Homeland Security emergency preparedness map
• conduct training of the coordinators and alternates on expectations, responder qualifications, responder classifications, deployment process and guidelines
• Partner with DOH to provide training of the coordinators and their alternates on the WASERV System

The group discussed the current credentialing criteria, how the criteria came about and whether or not it paralleled the National Incident Management System (NIMS) criteria to maintain “interoperability” between local, state and federal response teams; it was determined that yes it was considered in the development of the criteria.

The following items were also topics of discussion for the group:

• Look at identification card content and format to verify this is what the organization wants and to make room for a larger photo (send copy of the front and back of a current ID card to the committee group for review and comment)
• Centralized identification cards, should WABO administer and issue responder identification cards to others such as architects, engineers, etc.
• Each NGO will maintain credentialing and update information on the WASERV System

A motion was read that WABO should provide credentialing identification cards for other non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) provided revenue is adequate to support; card redesign to follow. Motion was approved by the members.

A general discussion was had regarding the EM web sites content, organization, categories and whether or not the group should look at making some changes. As most of the group was not familiar with what is actually on the EM site the committee group was tasked with reviewing the site for future discussion. We discussed whether or not the content on the EM web site had been vetted by the executive board and members; general consensus of the group was “yes it was vetted” with exception to the DOH Guidelines – Post Disaster SAP Evaluations. It was confirmed by a representative of DOH that this document is in draft form only and should be removed from the web site at this time.

A brief discussion on the Building Safety Mutual Aid (BSMA) Steering committee revealed that very little has happened since the creation of the Washington Building Safety Mutual Aid power point presentation was created. It was brought to the attention of the group that the governance section of the power point explains that the BSMA Steering committee was established under the WABO EM Committee therefore the committee is tasked with the following:

• the EM committee chair or their designee serves as the chair of the steering committee
• Committee represents building safety agencies and disciplines and political subdivisions
• Meets at least annually
• Develops and maintains a “Building Safety Mutual Aid” tool box containing:
  • Explanatory information and final bill verbiage
  • Checklists and forms for requesting and providing assistance
  • Templates for building safety proclamations
  • Recordkeeping guidance
  • Reimbursement guidance
  • Monitors the building safety mutual aid system, drafting necessary guidelines, policies, and procedures to address deficiencies in the system

The group was informed that Doug Powell was appointed to the Washington State Emergency Management Council and the Intrastate Mutual Aid Committee, a task force of the council. This task force is currently working on an Intrastate Mutual Aid System Operations and Deployment Guide for the Washington State Mutual Aid System (WAMAS); the 2014 final draft will be sent to the committee group for review.

Finally, the group was informed of the need for additional EM committee meetings other than just getting together at the WABO business meetings. It was determined that the EM Chair will call additional meetings approximately one month prior to the normal business meeting to aid in moving EM committee business forward.

Technical Code Development, Lee Kranz, Chair

The following are the activities and accomplishments for our TCD Committee.

ICC Code Development:

• The Group C Code Change (IGCC only) cycle will be complete on November 14, 2014 with the posting of the Final Action code changes on the ICC Website. 
• Several TCD members attended the Group C Committee Action Hearings in Memphis, TN and the Public Comment Hearings in Fort Lauderdale, Fl.  WABO was well represented at both hearings. 
• There were a total of 546 Group C code changes proposed, 20 floor actions; 5 were successful and only 1 was successful at the Public Comment Hearings.  200 Group C public comments were submitted to ICC.
• The TCD submitted 7 proposals to the IgCC, 7 were accepted as submitted (AS). 
• The TCD submitted 7 public comments to the IgCC, 4 of them were successful.
• The Group C code change cycle was the first time ICC used on-line voting via cdpACCESS.
• Our Group A Code Change cycle has begun and our meeting schedule for the rest of 2014 has been posted on the WABO website.  The first meeting is on November 10, 2014. 
• TCD is actively recruiting for new or return committee members to help spread out the work load for Group A code changes.   

Washington State Code Development:

• WSBCC TAG members representing WABO have been selected and are beginning to meet this month to review the 2015 I codes in relation to current and proposed amendments.

• The TCD Committee has several State amendments that will be considered for our support.  The deadline for submittal to the WSBCC is March 1, 2015.

WABO meeting in Yakima:

• Maureen, Tim and Lee gave a presentation on the new rules related to the ICC Code Development Process to the WABO members present.  We discussed ICC and Washington State rules, cdpACCESS for on-line voting and a “how to” presentation for submitting code changes and reason statements.  There was good participation by all present.

• The TCD meeting agenda included TAG Reports, IgCC Hearing report, a discussion of the TCDC voting guide, a discussion about a potential WSBCC Residential Sprinkler Initiative, the Group A code development meeting schedule, getting our mailing list updated and a reminder to apply for a scholarship if interested in attending the hearings.