WABO Annual Business Meeting

June 25-26, 2015

Vancouver, Washington

Happy WABO new year! We kicked off the year at the Annual Business Meeting at the Heathman Lodge in Vancouver at the end of June. Highlights of the meeting included the election of WABO officers and committee chairs, a review of recommended WABO bylaws changes, the annual banquet complete with awards and door prizes, and a visit by ICC President Guy Tomberlin. Congratulations, welcomes, and lots of thanks are in order.

Congratulations to award recipients Dave Spencer - Code Official of the Year, Willie Hill - Associate of the Year, and Gary Nordeen - Outstanding Educational Achievement Award. These awards were announced at the banquet and given in recognition of their service to WABO, to the profession, and to the industry—in Willie’s and Gary’s cases, over many years. Congratulations and thank you to outgoing Executive Board members, Gary Allsup and Mike Noot, for your service to the membership over the past few years.

Welcome to newly elected Committee chairs/Executive Board directors Todd Blevins (Walla Walla County, Outreach Committee) and Dave Spencer (North Bend, Government Relations Committee).  Thanks for making the commitment to be involved at this level of the organization.  We look forward to the new ideas and energy you’ll bring to WABO’s leadership team.

Thanks also to the other officers and committee chairs who re-upped their commitments to WABO and were re-elected: Tom Phillips (First Vice President), Ray Allshouse (Second Vice President), Pete Rambow (Certification and Registration), Doug Powell (Emergency Management), Lee Kranz (Technical Code Development), Tim Nordtvedt (Education), and Kurt Aldworth (Finance).  Special thanks to Immediate Past President Trace Justice, Past President Gary Schenk, and Apprenticeship Committee chair Andy Higgins for continuing to serve WABO with their knowledge and skills. 

Thank you to ICC President Guy Tomberlin for traveling out to the West Coast to attend the vast majority of the meeting.  He shared his thoughts and ideas on what’s going on in ICC leadership during lunch, and officiated in the installation ceremony of the new Executive Board at the annual banquet.  The Executive Board also had an opportunity to meet with President Tomberlin, and we very much appreciated the chance to have an open and frank discussion about issues that are facing WABO and ICC (mostly revolving around the code cycle), and how we can work together to address them.

Thank you to Immediate Past President Trace Justice for heading up a committee to review and update the WABO bylaws.  The proposed changes were posted on the WABO website. While most of them are minor, we thought it was important that our bylaws be updated reflect our current practices.  Thanks to those of you who took the time and returned your ballots—the bylaws amendments passed via the subsequent online voting and are now official.

The normal business of WABO continues through the all the committee work whose reports are posted below.  As has been (and will continue to be) my theme, your involvement in the work of WABO is crucial, so if you haven’t already been involved, I encourage you to find an area where you have a passion and join in the work.  The committee chairs cannot do it all by themselves and I thank those of you who have been and continue to be involved in our work. 

Speaking of being involved, as I said at the meeting in Vancouver, the time has come to “put up or shut up.”  Complaints that we don’t have the opportunity to be involved in the ICC code development process because our jurisdiction won’t let us travel no longer holds water.  Recalling a saying I once heard to the effect that those of us who are too busy, “don’t have a time management problem, but a priority-setting problem,” it is now only an issue of making code development a priority.  Through ICC’s cdpACCESS system, every one of us ICC Governmental Voting Representatives now has the opportunity to have a say in what goes into or stays out of the building codes from the comfort of our computers at work or at home.  I strongly encourage all of you who read this to talk to the person in your jurisdiction who determines your voting representatives (even if it’s yourself!), get registered as one of your jurisdiction’s voting representatives, and make sure you are utilizing your votes.  The hearings are in Long Beach, California at the beginning of October.  Toward the middle or end of October, there will be a two-week window during which you can cast your votes on line.  You’ll likely be receiving voting guides from several organizations, including our own WABO Technical Code Development Committee.  Take the time to read the guides, consider the topics, and vote your conscience (obviously, we hope you support the TCD recommendations), but cast your vote.  Now is the time to BE INVOLVED! 

Finally, thank you, the membership, for your support and work in this past year, and for your confidence in electing me to another term as your president.  Most of all, many, many thanks to Executive Director Julie Rogers and the rest of the WABO team who keep us all organized and in line, and without whom we would not be able to function!  With their help and your participation, WABO is a healthy and vibrant organization, and I am proud of what we all are able to accomplish together.  I look forward to serving you for another good, productive year.

Doug Powell		Gary Allsup

Committee Reports

Government Relations Committee - Chair Gary Allsup

Committee chair Gary Allsup introduced lobbyist Amy Brackenbury who gave a report on the still ongoing legislative session, which was in its second special session. She discussed the provision in the Capital Budget to form a task force to review the State Building Code Council.  Tim Nogler stated that the SBCC supports the task force.  John Darnall asked about who would be responsible for appointing members to the task force and Amy was unsure.  (Note: The Capital Bill eventually passed the legislature but the provision for the task force was removed from the final version of the bill.)

Amy reported on other bills of interest to WABO:  The WABO apprenticeship bill died in the House Appropriations Committee and all energy code related bills died. 

There was a discussion on the length of the code cycle and Trace Justice asked if the six year code cycle bill will come up in the future.  Amy responded that it might but there was no cohesion between sides on the bill.  ICC President Guy Tomberlin commented that some states legislate a three year code cycle, so ICC can’t stray from three years.  He also stated, “At some point in the future, (code) books won’t be published and that’s no secret.”

Gary Allsup suggested that the Government Relations Committee process needed improvement and suggested that telephone meetings may allow WABO to review and take positions on bills in a more timely manner.  He also suggested that it might be helpful if the Outreach and Governmental Relations Committees be merged .

Jon Siu, Mike Noot, and Gary Allsup		Jon Siu presenting award to David Spencer

Education Committee and Outreach (joint meeting) - Chair Mike Noot and Tim Nordtvedt

This well-attended joint committee began with a lengthy discussion on the location for the 2017 Annual Education Institute. The choices were to stay at the current Marriott hotel, move to the Hilton in SeaTac or hold it at the Tulalip Conference Center in Marysville. The committee could not reach agreement and decided to bring it to the full membership on Friday.

Andy Higgins provided an update on the Code Official Apprenticeship Program. The funding legislation did not pass again this year but work on curriculum development is continuing with South Seattle Community College. There was a motion to move toward a WABO accreditation program and away from apprenticeship. Motion passed. More discussion will be held by the Board on the future of the program.

The WABO Linked-In page is up and running and members are invited to join.

There was only a short time left for dialogue on future training classes. Simpson Strong-Tie has a training facility that is available for use if WABO is interested. 

  ICC President Guy Tomberlin

Certification & Registration Committee - Chair Pete Rambow

 There were 4 topics of discussion:

Fire-Resistant Penetrations and Joints (1705.16):  LG Nelson and Kelly Mayo drafted an outline of the program development which was presented to the committee.  Program development will be done by the SIRP Committee.   Brice Miller was brought up at the meeting as having a very good Firestop seminar.  OBOA attended his seminar and has already developed their FireStop program.  OBOA is giving until 2018 for Agencies to get their accreditation.  Special Inspectors will be implemented now after taking the FM or UL test. FM/UL is listed on the ICC site that is why OBOA has required those exams for FireStop Inspectors.  Brice Miller had contacted WABO regarding Firestop training and had mentioned that the International Firestop Council (IFC) has an exam for inspectors (firestop.org)  Mary Kate McGee has been tasked to find out more about the exam and report her findings to the SIRP Committee.  ICC FireStop exam development update – I was notified in January 2015 that the exam development meeting was put on hold.  I have not received another notification since.  Kraig Stevenson will send an e-mail to ICC with my consent for a program update and find out why the program is on hold.

OBOA written exams for non-ICC categories (reciprocity): Jay Ponce informed the committee that a proprietary statement is being drafted and Michelle Finley from the SW Chapter of ICC will release those to WABO.  The exam review committee is Gary Schenk, King Drake, Mary Kate McGee, and Jay Ponce.  Once the exams are released they will be sent to the committee members for review.

On-Site Weld Certifications: Michael Hayes from Aero Welding expressed interest in on-site Welder Qualifications.  The committee would like for him to draft a proposal to be reviewed by WABO Technical Consultants prior to being presented at the SIRP Committee.

IAPMO Uniform ES: The executive board asked the C & R Committee to review the program to see if the IAPMO accreditation can added to the Steel Fabricator Registration Standard 1702 as an acceptable national certification.  The committee felt the program has not been vetted or tested.  The committee wants to review the IAPMO program more in depth before making any recommendations. The C & R Committee would like an assessment summary to review as well as speak to a fabricator who has been audited by IAPMO.  The committee asked that IAPMO submit a proposal to WABO to be added to our Fabricator Standard to prove their equivalency.

Emergency Management Committee - Chair Doug Powell

• Call for Regional Emergency Response Coordinator & Coordinator Alternate Volunteers: An update was given to the EM group regarding the status of the “call for” Regional Emergency Response Coordinators & Coordinator Alternates. Currently six individuals have stepped up to take on this essential role as a Regional Emergency Response Coordinator. The call for volunteers went out again at the annual business meeting as there is a need for a total of nine coordinators and nine coordinator alternates to manage the nine emergency preparedness regions across Washington State.

• The EM Chair posed the following questions to the committee group; should we utilize the initial six Emergency Response Coordinator volunteers as a focus/work group to accelerate the creation of the deployment system processes, guidelines and coordinator/response training? And, should we have the EM Chair organize the initial six coordinator volunteers to perform outreach to other Building Officials in their area to personally invite/promote the Regional Emergency Response Volunteer Coordinator program? It was readily agreed to by the EM group to move forward in this direction making sure all discussions, decisions, and direction of the focus/work group is shared with the EM Committee group and WABO E-Board for consensus/approval prior to moving forward.

• Washington Safety Assessment Facilities Evaluation (WASAFE) Steering Committee: An update on the items currently being discussed and worked on by the WASAFE Committee was presented to the EM group on the following:

  • Credentialing of Response Volunteers –

    • Funding Sources – The WASAFE steering Committee is discussing ways to fund the credentialing process possibly through matching funds provided by each of the participating NGO’s.

    • Cost of Credentialing – The committee has been discussing the current cost of credentialing which is approximately $30.00/person in cases where WABO needs to verify qualification and certifications of the individuals. However, this cost would be significantly reduced (from $30.00 each to approximately $9.80 w/ lanyard and $6.05 w/o lanyard) in cases where the other participating NGO’s perform their own verification of qualifications and certifications of their volunteers and simply send this information to WABO to create the ID badges.

    • New Card Design – The committee is in discussion on information to be shown on ID badges; Kevin Scarlett, DOH is in the process of developing some ID badge examples for the groups review at their next meeting. Some of the items agreed upon by the group were to include the following on the ID badges:

      • Type (per WABO/WASAFE classification of skills)
      • Name
      • NGO (that certified them)
      • Expiration date
      • ID# (issued by WASAFE)
      • Enlarged Photo

• WAserv - https://www.waserv.org/ -Letter to Washington State Senators – Request for changes to RCW 38.52.180 – The group was made aware the letter with proposed changes to RCW 38.52.180 is in final draft with any additional comments due by July 15, 2015. These requested changes would address the current lack of liability protection for non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) maintaining registries of responding volunteers.

  • Creation of the WASAFE matrix of qualifications/training required for responder types for all participating NGO’s.
  • Configuration of all participating NGO section of the WAserv system for collecting responder volunteer information.

  • WAserv generated test message sent out on April 8 to all have taken training and are registered through Cal OES where it asks you to acknowledge by selecting one of two options: 1) I wish to remain on the Washington list of SAP Volunteer Disaster Service Workers or 2) Please remove my name from the Washington – CAL OES list.

• Washington Safety Assessment Program (SAP) Training – The EM group was made aware this evaluator training is currently being created through the efforts of Paul Brallier and the WASAFE Steering Committee. WA SAP training will mirror the CAL OES training program but will possibly incorporate the basic fundamentals of ICS IS-100.

• Emergency Response Coordinators/Alternates Training Program: The EM committee group was asked by the Chair if we should utilize the coordinator focus/work group to facilitate the creation of a training in conjunction with the work already being performed on training through the WASAFE Steering Committee? This was readily agreed upon by the EM group. The EM Chair will work with the volunteer Emergency Response Coordinators on a training program and will start by looking at the following:

  • Minimum ICS (NIMS) IS 100 & 700 – Should this be a requirement?
  • WAserv system Do’s & Don’ts (Currently being created by WAserv System Administrator Kevin Scarlett, DOH for WASAFE review)
  • Participation in the Cascadia Rising Event exercises or other exercises possibly created by WABO?
  • Washington Safety Assessment Program (SAP) Volunteer Training (Cal OES)
  • Call out / Deployment process (WABO Emergency Response Deployment Procedure and Guidelines)

  • WABO Emergency Response Deployment Procedures – Revisions Needed? The need to revise the current WABO Emergency Response Deployment Procedure preparatory steps was brought to the attention of the group. A decision was made to utilize the initial volunteer coordinator focus/work group to review the existing procedure and revise to accurately reflect the direction the EM and WASAFE Committees are moving in.

  • Mutual Aid – Public Reimbursement Program? At past EM Committee meetings the subject of eligibility requirements for reimbursement from the FEMA Public Assistance Program keeps coming up. As EM Chair I will reach out to Washington State Emergency Management Department (EMD) and FEMA Region X to verify if ICS command adoption, IS-100, 700, etc. courses are a prerequisite for local requesting jurisdictions and responding volunteers to receive reimbursement after an event.

Other EM Committee business:

Items of interest from the Washington State Emergency Management Council: Ray Cockerham, City of Puyallup was confirmed as the alternate by Washington State Emergency Management Council (EMC) for the Building Official Representative seat on the state EMC.

The State of Washington Mutual Aid System (WAMAS) Operations & Deployment Guide developed by the Intrastate Mutual Aid Committee, a subcommittee to the Emergency Management Council (EMC) has been approved by the Emergency Management Council and is awaiting signature by the Intrastate Mutual Aid Committee Chair and Emergency Management Council Chair, the effective date of this Operations & Deployment Guide is May 5, 2015.

Technical Code Development - Chair Lee Kranz

• We discussed WABO’s participation using cdpACCESS to vote for floor actions made in Memphis at the Group A Committee Action Hearings.  Several members present indicated that they had voted and used the TCD Voting Guide in their decision making.  If WABO members did not register to vote by March 20 they can still register to vote during the public comment phase.  The deadline to register with ICC is August 31, 2015. 

• We discussed several code change items to submit as public comments for State and ICC code development processes for the 2018 I Codes.
• Lee Kranz ran unopposed for the TCD Committee Chair position and was installed, along with other Committee Chairs, by ICC President Guy Tomberlin.

•  Public comments to the 2018 I Codes were due on July 17, 2015.  The TCD Committee submitted approximately 20 public comments to ICC. 
• Several TCD members will attend and participate in the ICC Public Comment Hearing in Long Beach, CA from September 30^th to October 7^th. 
• All ICC public comments are scheduled to be posted on August 28, 2015.  TCD will have 3 meetings in September to prepare for the upcoming Public Comment Hearings. 
• TCD scholarship applications may be submitted until August 15, 2015.  So far 6 have been submitted to Chairman Kranz.
• The on-line governmental consensus voting will take place on approximately October 14 – 28.  The Final Action code changes for the Group A cycle will be posted on approximately November 17, 2015. 

• WABO Technical Advisory Group (TAG) representatives have completed their work evaluating the 2015 I Codes and existing amendments.  They have also completed review of the proposed amendments to the 2015 Codes and made recommendations to the Council.  The next step in the State’s code development process is for the Council to accept, review and listen to testimony on various public comments related to the proposed amendments.  This will take place this fall.  WABO TCD submitted several State Building Code change proposals.  We will discuss these proposals with Council this fall, and we will submit other comments on the proposed rules. 

• Council will conclude their work on the adoption of statewide amendments by December 1, 2015.