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OBOA Report from Phil Seyboldt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 14, 2008
Ladies and Gentlemen; The following are my notes from the OBOA meeting held in the ICC
Field Office in Westerville on April 14th, 2008:
1.
BOCONEO Vice President Ray Sack was appointed to the OBOA Board of Directors from a group of three interested individuals to serve out the unexpired term of Bill Desvari, who recently resigned from the Board. We all wish Ray the best of luck during his term, and I hope that he will agree to run for the full two-year term when nominations are accepted later this year for election at our Conference.
2.
The OBOA Board discussed the proposal by Mike Billmaier, who is a Mechanical Inspector from the Columbus area, regarding the establishment of a Residential Mechanical Inspector certification. An email was sent out by President Bruce Wholf asking for opinions on the matter. He reported that the results of the survey were split 50-50 between supporters of the idea and those who believe that the certification is unnecessary. Steve Regoli offered further explanation and background on the matter. He reported that the Residential Code Advisory Committee (RCAC) is mainly interested in keeping the system simple and inexpensive for municipalities and allowing the Residential Building Inspector (RBI) to perform that duty, thereby keeping the number of required inspectors at a minimum. After extensive discussion, the consensus of the Board was that our opinion, as would be presented to the RCAC by President Wholf, would be as follows: The Commercial Mechanical Inspector should be grandfathered (insofar as experience and testing modules are concerned) to be able to do the residential inspections upon applying for the certification and paying the fee; residential building inspectors would continue to be authorized to perform the mechanical inspections; individuals wishing to become certified as residential mechanical inspectors would be required to have 3-years of experience in that field and pass the residential mechanical test module. The position of residential mechanical inspector would be an optional position.
3.
Mike Spry reported that he is setting up another meeting with ODNR people to discuss the Disaster Response Program further. He has an unofficial response on insurance coverage and related topics from an attorney that is associated with FEMA which he will be sharing with us soon. A 3-hour update class is still in the making for possible presentation to BOCONEO this fall if it can be prepared in time or later at the conference... ICC is updating a technical manual on Disaster Response which Mike reported seems to be a valuable tool.
4.
Past President of OBOA Rick Helsinger reported that efforts to contact Rochelle Wakefield of the State of Indiana (current President of the Region V Chapter) regarding a meeting were unsuccessful. Bruce Wholf asked Board members and Chapter Presidents to send him a letter asking that a Region V meeting be set up by the Chapter Vice President so that Chapter business can be conducted and that applications for ICC Board of Directors can be discussed. Rick Helsinger is interested in running for a seat on the ICC Board of Directors, and OBOA and Ohio will wholeheartedly support his candidacy. There reportedly is no interest from either Indiana or Kentucky for the position. We have not heard anything from Michigan reps yet.
5.
Craig Best of the South West Ohio Fire Safety Council reported that he had some preliminary information on the recent house fire in Colerain Township, Ohio (Cincinnati Area) that claimed the lives of two firefighters, Captain Robin Zang and Firefighter Brian Schira on April 4th. He stated that the deaths were NOT caused by lightweight floor trusses as erroneously reported by the press shortly after the fire. Craig reported that complications from a flashover possibly caused by cedar lumber and other building contents while three firefighters were in the house reportedly caused the deaths. A third firefighter escaped the inferno. Craig talked briefly about the continuing education that is now required of firefighters. He suggested that Building Officials have a golden opportunity to cooperate with their fire departments to help furnish the needed training for their firefighters. He stated that practically any applicable building code-related subjects have been approved for continuing education hours by the Fire Marshal. Why not invite your fire Chief or Inspector to a BOCONEO meeting? If they enjoy the lunch and the class we would be happy to have them as members.
6.
Billy Phillips began the BBS report by introducing Steve Regoli and Debbie Ratliff to the Board and to COCOA guests that were present at the meeting. Former BBS Executive Secretary John Brant was present as a guest also. Billy reminded everyone that the Code Academy begins on Monday, April 21st. There is still space available if anybody needs continuing education hours. Billy also announced that they are now permitting individuals to attend the academy that have not received their Interim Approval for their certification yet. They will, however, have to get their interim approval during the same code cycle under which they attend the academy. For purposes of continuing education, individuals can either attend the entire session of the academy or only selected classes. Billy announced several new members of the Board of Building Standards that were recently appointed by the Governor. Joe Denk (Mechanical Engineer Member), Steve Kasarnich (Building Code and Construction Materials Member), and Jerry Bird (Architect Member) were newly appointed, while Jennifer Coleman (Architect Member) was reappointed to another 4-year term. All of these members are highly qualified and the BBS is pleased with these new appointments. Billy reported that the BBS staff is still short-handed, but that they are managing with the duties. It is unlikely that the vacant positions will be filled any time soon, even though there is technically no hiring freeze. Billy stated that they would continue to watch for a window of opportunity to get a couple of new people on staff. Billy talked about the money earmarked for support of the conferences, particularly the Joint Conference. He stated that they are working on an application that will permit the Regional Chapters to take advantage of the entire $24,500 that is available. The Building Safety Week proclamation is in the Governor’s office for action. Finally, Debbie Ohler reported that Building Officials should be cautioned that they cannot insist on a ResCheck worksheet for Energy Code compliance with the Residential Code of Ohio. There are three options for Energy Code Compliance, and submittal of any of these three methods should constitute compliance with the requirements of the Code.
7.
Corey Roblee was introduced by Diana Westfall of the ICC Staff in Westerville as John Payne’s replacement and in charge of ICC Government Relations for Ohio and surrounding states. He has a degree from OSU with background in government relations and not in code-related work. He is interested in getting OBOA representatives down to the Capitol for Building Safety Week, which is slated for May 5th through the 11th, so that he can make some introductions with State Reps. Finally, he asked for cooperation in getting Chapters to respond to the call for petitions/resolutions for the Federal Grant program. He stated that he is looking forward to working with OBOA in the coming months. His email address is Croblee@iccsafe.org.
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