Alliance for Regulatory Coordination Summary of Member Meeting Meeting Date: July 19, 2013 Location: Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin The meeting was convened at 9:00 a.m. by Bob DuPont, of Regulatory Guidance and Design, LLC. Attendees introduced themselves and identified the organization they were representing. DuPont provided a brief update concerning two code development projects of the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS). On June 29th there is a department public hearing on proposed rules that are intended to make it easier for municipalities to become agents for plumbing plan review. And the DSPS recently withdrew from legislative review the proposed rules concerning electrical inspections. Regarding the possible merger of the Department of Safety and Professional Services and the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, DuPont said the State Budget Act requires the Department of Administration to complete a study of such a merger by January 1, 2014. If the DOA recommends the merger, the DOA must also develop a plan for such a merger with an effective date of July 2015. DuPont asked attendees if they had concerns or recommendations concerning such a merger. Some members expressed the following concerns:
Attention next turned to consideration of the International Residential Code. Scott Satula reviewed several hand-out documents he had provided to attendees:
Scott said that from the beginning, there was agreement to continue to use the state electrical code and state plumbing code in Wisconsin. He also said that the topic of fire sprinklers was place on the table – to be dealt with after the rest of the UDC/IRC comparison and consideration was completed. Scott said ultimately the two builders associations decided against use of the IRC in Wisconsin, with loss of control over the code change process being a major concern. Bob Neale, Ed Ruckriegel and Scott Satula described the process used by the ICC in its development of national model codes such as the IRC. They said that national experts from across the country are involved in the process; with experts from industry heavily involved throughout the entire process. They all stressed that interpretation and application of the IRC is left to the adopting regulatory authority. Scott said that adoption of the IRC reflects the high level ARC commitment to encourage use of contemporary codes in Wisconsin. It was reported that a municipality recently had their score lowered from the Insurance Services Office (ISO) Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS) program because the municipality does not enforce the IRC. DuPont asked if there was interest among Alliance members for a presentation from the ISO regarding their BCEGS program. There was general agreement that such a presentation would be helpful and should be pursued. Misha Lee said he would contact ISO and ask them to get in touch with DuPont to discuss the possibility of an ISO representative making a presentation at the next ARC member meeting. Next, Jeff Beiriger addressed the idea to create more statutory code councils and a standard update cycle. Jeff said the Plumbing Advisory Code Council has been dormant for several years. He encouraged ARC members to support creation of statutory code councils and a statutorily required three year code review cycle. Code councils suggested for statutory creation were:
It was decided that DuPont should work with Alliance members on possible code council makeup. Those ARC members most involved in the topic of each council would be most involved in developing the recommended council makeup to the full Alliance membership. The next meeting of Alliance Members was tentatively scheduled for October 18, 2013, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m., with hopes that the next member meeting will include a presentation by the ISO regarding their BCEGS program. The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 a.m.
It was issued on August 20, 2013. |