Summary of Member Meeting on January 28, 2015

Alliance for Regulatory Coordination

Summary of Member Meeting

Meeting Date: January 28, 2015

Location: Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

The meeting was convened at 9:05 a.m. by Bob DuPont, of Regulatory Guidance and Design, LLC.

Concerning code development by the Department of Safety and Professional Services, Bob DuPont said that the DSPS calendar contains one building-related code council meeting; a meeting of the Dwelling Code Council on February 13, 2015. He recounted that for the last three years there had been an annual average of 12 advisory council meetings dealing with building and fire safety. The recent annual average of 12 meetings is less than half of what occurred during the eight years prior. DuPont recounted that it had been a number of years since several prominent code councils had last met.

DuPont introduced Keith Reopelle, Senior Policy Director for Clean Wisconsin. Keith provided a brief history of Clean Wisconsin: that it was originally formed in 1970 as Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade and renamed Clean Wisconsin in 2002; that they are interested in environmental and conservation issues and that they work in areas of both policy development and enforcement relative to those issues.

Keith explained that Clean Wisconsin shares ARC member’s concern about the low level of DSPS code development activity. He said they are especially concerned about the recent lack of updating Wisconsin’s energy conservation code for new commercial building construction. Keith recounted the strong legislative support many years ago for creating the state statute that requires DSPS to regularly review and benchmark off national model energy conservation codes and standards for commercial buildings.

Keith asked Alliance members to consider how they might work with Clean Wisconsin to encourage the DSPS to review and update the Wisconsin Energy Conservation Code in compliance with state law.

DuPont suggested consideration be given to petitioning for rule development under the provisions of Chapter 227, Wisconsin Statutes. Reopelle agreed that such a petition could be an appropriate action. He then politely excused himself in order to testify at a legislative hearing on another matter.

Joe Jameson suggested that DuPont send information to all Alliance members about the law and process for petitioning a state agency for code development; for now, leaving it up to each member organization to consider submitting a petition as they see fit. There was no objection raised to this idea.

DuPont said he would send the petition information to all ARC members as requested. He recounted that ARC members had considered such a petition several years ago. At the time a petition was drafted but unanimous consent was not reached among ARC classic members so the petition was never sent.

Concerning the Governor’s proposal to merge the DSPS with the Department of Financial Institutions, it was agreed that ARC discussion of the proposal should take place after ARC members have had a chance to review the details in the Governor’s Budget Proposal which is slated for February 3, 2015. Jeff Beiriger explained how state budget documents will be made available on the web site of the Department of Administration.

The next meeting of Alliance Members was scheduled for February 12, 2015, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the office of ABC, Wisconsin.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 a.m.

This summary was prepared by Bob DuPont, Regulatory Guidance and Design, LLC.

It was issued on February 9, 2015.