Summary of Member Meeting on July 26, 2017

Post date: Aug 18, 2017 1:42:46 PM

Alliance for Regulatory Coordination

Summary of Member Meeting

Meeting Date: July 26, 2017

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 organizations they were representing.

Regarding staffing at the Department of Safety and Professional Services, DuPont reported two recent hires as follows.

• • Chris Joch has joined the DSPS as Administrator of the Division of Industry Services. His phone number is 608-267-9152. His email address is Christopher.Joch@Wisconsin.gov.

  • Branden Piper has joined the Division of Industry Services as the Bureau Director of Field Services, covering POWTS, Mining, Elevators, Boiler and Gas Systems, Public Sector Safety and Commercial Building Inspection. His phone number is 608-267-9420. His email address is Branden.Piper@Wisconsin.gov.

Also regarding staffing, DuPont reported changes to the DSPS plumbing/pool consultants map. The map now shows seven districts instead of four as on the previous map. He said it appears that the duties of plan review and field consultation may now be assigned to each plumbing program staff member. DuPont said he would contact Tom Braun, the plumbing program supervisor, for information on the apparent recent changes and would pass information along to ARC members as soon as possible.

Joe Hertel asked whether Jim Boullion was still with the DSPS as Administrator of their Policy Development Division. Nobody knew of any change in that regard. DuPont said he would look into that topic and request an updated organizational chart from the DSPS to share with ARC members.

Regarding DSPS code development activities, it was reported that DSPS is now targeting January 1, 2018 as the effective date for updates to the Wisconsin Commercial Building Code and Wisconsin Electrical Code. Marty King and Richard Paur provided information about how that planned effective date could negatively affect insurance rates for owners of buildings now under construction due to Wisconsin being more than five years behind in adoption of the International Building Code. Marty also indicated that the ISO Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS) may now be integrated with the ISO rating program for fire departments; meaning that a lower BCEGS score could affect not only affect insurance rates for new buildings; but could also affect insurance rates for all buildings in Wisconsin. DuPont said he would research the matter and report to ARC members.

Regarding possible carbon monoxide update legislation, DuPont reported that on July 24th, he and Chief Dave Bloom met with Kirsten Reader, DSPS Assistant Deputy Secretary, and Nate Yahn, DSPS Legislative Advisor, to brief them on the ARC idea for remedial legislation dealing with carbon monoxide detection in residential commercial buildings. The group reviewed supporting materials along with the preliminary bill draft developed in cooperation with Representative Samantha Kerkman. Ms. Reader thanked the ARC for bringing the matter to the attention of the department. She said the department would consider including the statute changes in one of their planned statute update packages now under development for possible introduction during the current legislative session. Nate Yahn said DuPont could continue having dialogue with other interested parties while DSPS considers their next step. Ms. Reader said the DSPS would try to complete their review of the preliminary bill draft within the next two weeks.

Regarding DuPont’s weekly report on legislation related to safety and buildings programs, DuPont said he received a suggestion to consider adding information to the report concerning the position of the ARC relative to each bill. He asked for input from ARC members. After a brief discussion, it was decided that the report format should remain unchanged since the ARC, as a group, is not focused on most of the reported legislative matters.

Regarding progress on ARC priorities during the past year, the group reviewed and accepted the July 2017 status report from DuPont.

Regarding ARC priorities for the next year, the group reviewed and generally agreed with the proposed update developed by DuPont. Under the proposal, three past priorities would be dropped from the current list of ten priorities, one current priority would be expanded to contain more detail; and one new priority would be added, resulting in eight proposed priorities.

The priorities proposed to be dropped are:

• • Stop the lapsing of funds from the Safety and Buildings Appropriation;

  • Encourage legislation that would allow a building owner the choice of having newer national model codes and standards apply to their building construction project; and

  • Monitor the activities and recommendations of the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform, Efficiency and Performance as they relate to safety and buildings.

The expanded priority would be as follows, with new text underlined:

3) Improve coordination of state and municipal regulatory efforts for safety and buildings, with an emphasis on:

• • Wedding barn legislation; 2017 Assembly Bill 187 and Senate Bill 137

  • DSPS Proposal to Limit Certified Muni Review of < 100,000 Cu. Ft. Alterations

  • Reducing redundant plan review between municipalities and the DSPS

  • Improving DSPS audits relative to DSPS certified municipalities and appointed agents

The proposed new priority would be as follows:

8) Monitor legislation related to discontinuing State programs and credentials, specifically:

• 2017 Assembly Bill 384 and Senate Bill 295 (Sunset of State Administrative Rules)

• 2017 Assembly Bill 330 and Senate Bill 278 (Limiting authority of credentialing boards)

• 2017 Assembly Bill 370 and Senate Bill 296 (Establishing self-certification in DSPS)

Regarding the topic of lapsing funds from the Safety and Buildings Appropriation, it was agreed that should lapsing be added to the current budget bill, the topic of stopping such lapsing would remain as a priority.

Regarding the topic of owner’s choice, it was agreed that the ARC should focus on what the DSPS proposes in the Commercial Building Code update package, and see how implementation of the owner’s choice concept works under administrative rule provisions instead of a statute change. In light of the fact that the last DSPS rule change proposal did not include provisions for local input into the owner’s choice approval by the DSPS, it was mentioned that certified and agent municipalities could opt out of plan review and inspection if they were not prepared to administer a national model code or standard newer than what the DSPS had adopted by reference in administrative rules.

Regarding the topic of monitoring the activities and recommendations of the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform, Efficiency and Performance as they relate to safety and buildings, it was agreed, that since the commission issued its report in December, 2016, this topic should be removed from the list of priorities.

Regarding the proposed new priority of legislation related to discontinuing State programs and credentials, it was agreed that the ARC should stay informed concerning such legislative initiatives currently underway. DuPont noted that some of the legislation listed relates to recommendations from the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform, Efficiency and Performance.

Regarding proposed priority number five; Encourage code update activity…, it was agreed that updating the entire electrical code should be emphasized in addition to the past focus on implementing statewide electrical inspections for commercial buildings. It was also agreed that consideration should be given to update this priority to mention review of the 2015 and 2018 editions of NFPA 1 for adoption into the State Fire Prevention Code.

During discussion of proposed priority six; Participate in Wisconsin Emergency Management (WEM) efforts to create Building Safety Evaluation Strike Teams to help respond to disasters, Ed Ruckriegel suggested that the ARC encourage more communication between WEM and DSPS during code development, in light of the fact that properly constructed buildings are an important disaster mitigation strategy. There was agreement that the ARC should reach out to WEM and DSPS to encourage more communication between them; including the possibility of having WEM staff attend meetings of the Commercial Building Code Council. DuPont said he would start by contacting WEM.

DuPont said he would send the proposed new priorities to all ARC members for their review and approval, since not all members were in attendance at the meeting today. If no opposition is heard from any ARC Classic Member, the new priorities will be posted on the ARC web site.

The next meeting of Alliance Members was scheduled for October 11, 2017, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. The meeting will be held at the offices of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:45 a.m.

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

It was issued on August 18, 2017.