WABO Spring Business Meeting 
Zoom Conferencing
April 22, 2021

Our Spring Business Meeting, which was held virtually, was well attended and a great success. One of the highlights included our Awards ceremony which featured the President’s Award, which is given to recognize outstanding contributions to WABO’s mission accomplishments.  Joyce Lem and Paul Brallier from Structural Engineers Association of Washington (SEAW), were recognized for their extensive support of the WAsafe program through their efforts and leadership. Also, the Lifetime WABO Honorary Member Award was given to both Jon Siu and Gary Schenk in recognition to the many years of service to their profession and WABO. They have now joined the ranks of the ‘retired” class.

Please be sure to mark your calendars and plan to attend WABO’s Annual Business Meeting that is set to be held in-person at the Red Lion Hotel in Port Angeles July 15-16th.  As is customary, we will hold elections for officers and committee chairs, so please consider running for a committee chair or officer position.  Being active on the Board provides you an opportunity to get more involved while sharing your skills and abilities with the rest of the membership. It is also a great learning opportunity as you help guide our great organization’s mission. In addition to elections we will have our Awards ceremony.  Nominations are needed for the Jurisdictional Outreach, Outstanding Educational Achievement, Code Official of the Year and Associate of the Year awards. So, please be sure to fill out the nomination form which can be found on our website.

I also want to take this opportunity to again recognize the hard work that our TCD committee put in at the Code Action Hearings April 11-May 5th. WABO is well known nationally for our input on the code development process and we are very fortunate to have a great group of members that devote so much time to that effort. Our Education Committee did a stellar job preparing and putting into action our last Annual Education Institute which was held March 15-18^th. The trainings were well attended and we received great feedback and positive responses from those that attended.

It continues to be an honor to be your President and I am proud of what we have accomplished and excited to see what lies ahead for us as an organization. Your involvement in making WABO what it is today is always needed and appreciated. I look forward to seeing you all in Port Angeles in July!

-Kurt

Standing Committee Updates

Technical Code Development Committee - Chair Micah Chappell, MBA, CBO

The WABO TCD group has met nine times since the beginning of the year and many TCD members participated in the three and a half weeks of virtual ICC Committee Action Hearings for determining modifications to the 2024 ICC Codes. The TCD group submitted various proposals, presented, and testified on them, and actively engaged other proposals to help drive improvements to the Codes. Currently, the TCD group is meeting weekly to develop a series of proposals to submit to the State by May 31^st to modify the 2021 State Codes. We will be continuing weekly meetings through June as we develop various comments to submit to ICC for the fall Public Comment Hearings that will take place in Pittsburg in September.

WABO TCD is the path to fix those little Code issues that bother you, remove stuff that just does not work, or make an improvement that could impact millions of structures, so I am encouraging all WABO members to participate in our Technical Code Development Committee.

When meetings occur (check the WABO website), they will be on a Monday from 1-4, so even if all you can spare is 15 minutes, we would like to have your input on ways to improve our Codes.

Education Committee - Chair Todd Blevins, CBO

First, a big “Thank You” to the education committee members that participated in our meeting. We accomplished a lot and had some great discussions. During our meeting we recapped the 2021 virtual AEI, the classes presented, thoughts on the instructors, and surveys from the participants. Overall a great success, with minimal problems (thanks Tara!) We continued our discussion with classes for next year, based on the surveys received and input from the committee. We have tentatively filled most classes and are contacting instructors now. We are planning on an in-person AEI for the coming year, as this is still the most requested improvement to our classes per the surveys received. We are discussing a possible class in the fall, done virtually, for those who cannot attend the AEI.

If you would like to participate in the Education Committee please contact myself or Tara, we would love to hear from you!     

Government Relations - Chair Tim Woodard

Tim Woodard provided an overview of the 2021 legislative ‘virtual day on the hill’ and the bills WABO helped successfully defeat.  Amy Brackenbury requested member feedback regarding their experience on their virtual legislative meeting and reported legislators had very positive feedback with the meeting format.  Amy stated that some elements of the virtual session may remain as options in future legislative sessions. 

Outreach Services - Chair Stacy Criswell, CBO, ACO

As our Nation and our Communities continue to work through the challenges of this last year, we want to encourage you to stay focused on the positive aspects. Many of our elected officials have now seen firsthand our value and desire to keep construction moving and our businesses open. We have also learned to embrace technology to streamline our current processes like virtual inspections, online plan review, and zoom meetings just to name a few which shows that we are adaptable.

As we get closer to reopening our doors to the public, remember that we have an opportunity to educate and lead by example. This does not mean that we stop enforcing the minimum requirements to protect life and property; but rather that we actively search out ways of helping businesses and families who may have lost everything, rebuild the right way.

Lastly, please continue to reach out to WABO or other jurisdictions in your area for assistance. Sharing resources and bouncing ideas or difficult scenarios off each other is one of the best ways to learn and grow.

Certification & Registration - Chair Brian Smith, CBO, ACO

During the most recent Special Inspection Registration Program (SIRP) Board meeting it was suggested that at some point in the relatively near future we host a symposium of sorts between code officials and special inspection agencies to discuss how the SIRP program is going.

Discussion points that could be included but not limited to, what’s working well for both jurisdictions and agencies and are there any suggested areas where we could  improve the program. 

Prior to having this discussion with the agencies, the SIRP Board would like to hear from any interested jurisdictions who use the WABO SIRP to solicit their feedback so we could form a more unified approach from the code official perspective.

If you are interested in taking part in either portion of this discussion or have any feedback about the program in general please reach out to Tara Jenkins, [email protected] or Brian Smith, [email protected]

Accreditation - Chair James Tumelson, MCP, ME, CBO

The Accreditation Committee has had a very active year with many students in the first- and second-year courses of the Code Official Accreditation Program (COAP).  There has been multiple newly Accredited Code Official’s (ACO) and many of them were in attendance at the Spring Business Meeting.  Consider joining your peers as an Accredited Code Official and/or enroll in the Code Official Accreditation Program. Currently there are 15 students in the 103 & 7 in the 203.  The Accreditation Committee would urge any of you that would like to enroll in this Fall COAP to register now. Registration is currently open and the first day of class will be begin on September 13, 2021.  The COAP enrollment information is listed on the WABO homepage.

Emergency Management - Chair Ray Cockerham, CBO

Ray Cockerham informed the membership that the Emergency Management Council has a new chair, Jason Biermann, who will be developing a new report to submit to the Governor’s office. The WAsafe Operations Manual for coordinators is completed and a small table-top exercise is currently being planned.  Ray announced WAsafe is tied to Cascadia Rising 2022, but Paul Brallier is sworn to secrecy so we do not know if the system will be deployed in the next test.   

Finance Committee - Chair Angela Haupt, CBO

Angela provided the membership with an overview of WABO’s 2020/2021 third quarter financials.

ICC Commitee Action Hearings - TCD Scholarship Reports

Report provided by Angela Haupt,CBO - Senior Plans Examiner, City of Kirkland

I recently attended the 2021 ICC Committee Code hearings virtually. I was present 4/11/21-4/15/21 and 4/19/21-4/21/21. This was the first time the hearings were held virtually.  I think with all things considered, they went pretty smoothly. There were a few glitches along the way but nothing major.  The process did not move quite as quickly as I remember from in person hearings and determining if my input was required was a little harder because you couldn’t see what was happening on the fly with other participants. Our TCD members testified on a number of proposals, both in favor and against.  Won some and lost some.

Personally, I testified on two proposals. They were E22 and E140.  For E22, I was testifying in opposition to this proposal about egress from elevator lobbies. I was able to form my own testimony and then make adjustments based on committee input.  It made me realize just how fast 2 minutes can go by. This proposal was disapproved.  For E140, I was able to testify in support during the response phase. The proposal went down very solidly and some of the people testifying in opposition made us kind of rethink the proposal.  I am very much looking forward to attending the Public Comment Hearings in September.