Meeting Minutes -February 6, 2008



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MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 6, 2008 

CALL TO ORDER

President Dennis Corbett called February 6, 2008 meeting of the Napa/Solano Chapter of ICC to order.  The meeting was held at the Paradise Valley Golf Club in Vacaville.  There were 55 in attendance.  

ROLL CALL OF OFFICERS

President Dennis Corbett-present; Vice President Darrell Mayes-present;
Secretary Dan Kavarian-present; Treasurer Gene Ashdown-present

INTRODUCTIONS: Self-introductions were made by attendees  

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES :
Minutes were deferred until March’s meeting.  

SPEAKER OF THE EVENING:

Dennis Richardson, Vice President of Construction Code Compliance-West; Bureau Veritas gave a power point presentation on the 2007 CBC: Basic Means of Egress for Assembly Occupancies.  Dennis has been very active with the code change process working with the Bay Area Tri-Chapter of ICC.  He explained how the A-occupancies have change and used the analogy of MACS bar and grill.  Dennis also talked about some specific changes that are in the CBC like section 1005 Egress Width’s.  In table 1005.1 there is a footnote that referred you to section 1025 which shows the requirements of .03 for stairs and .2 for doors.  Dave Frable, who works for the United States Government, has proposed a code change E19-07/08 that will be heard in Palm Springs, that would provide for a width of .3 for stairs and .2 for other egress components whether the building is sprinklered or not.  Another section of code that has changed is section 1014 Exit Access.  You can now ok to exit through intervening rooms if you meet the conditions in section 1014.2 of the code.  Many sections of chapter 10 have changed so be sure to review it prior to plan checks.    

John LaTorra, Building Official of Redwood City and ICC board member, spoke about the code hearings and ICC business.  First he apologized for not being at the installation dinner and thanked Steve Mitchell for taking over for him.  John presented Dennis with an ICC chapter President’s pin and gave Tom Garcia an ICC past President’s pin.  He then spoke about the code hearings in Palm Springs and asked how many people where planning to attend.  He was pleased to see that five members said they were going and he emphasized the need to have a good showing of delegates from California, in California, at the code hearings.  But he also said that the hearing will be provided on a webcast.  John said that there will be an ICC board meeting at the code hearings and one item John will present will be a grant program for chapters for code development.  He finished with saying that chapters need to take on code development by picking out some proposed code changes and researching them to come up with an opinion that can be shared by all of California.  

CORRESPONDENCE
Dennis told the chapter about a correspondence that he received from CALBO to participate in the Hospitality Suite in Palm Springs for the Code Hearings.  The request was for chapter sponsorship for the hospitality suite for the delegates coming into California from all over the country.  This was a time sensitive decision so the board met and agreed unanimously to provide $1000.00 to support CALBO in showing that California is serious about being part of the code process again.    

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dennis informed us that Carlos Baltodano, Building Official Contra Costa County, will be retiring and there will be an event on February 29, 2008 details unknown.  Contact the county if interested.  

Dennis introduced Brian Samuelson, energy consultant with the California Energy Commission as our new liaison to the Commission.

 COMMITTEE REPORTS

David Cliché announcement he will be stepping down has chairman after 5yrs.  He opened up the floor for nominations and explained the requirements of the position.  Nobody stepped forward for the position so we will continue the search to next month.  David talked about the last seminar and about the one that was canceled due to lack of participants but that a lot of people called after the class was cancelled.  So you need to plan on attending these classes early so there are not cancelled.  David did say that the seminar that was held was a success.
 

Checking- $6,798.33

Savings-        178.79

CD-            30,239.53

Total-          37,216.65  

Tom Garcia spoke about working with the energy commission along with Jay Salazar to get them to simplify the standards so they easier to use.  The Fourth Annual Leadership & Advocacy Day will be held in Sacramento on Tuesday, April 29 and it is a day that we can meet with the Legislature and explain to them why we need the codes written into the Building Standards Regulations and not in statutes.  He also asks people to get involved with CALBO and CTI.  

Steve Jensen said that they had met last month and had a presentation by the Seismic Safety Commission on their trip to Japan.  They talked about Japans’ seismic monitoring equipment and how they have an early warning system in place to shut down their high speed train transportation system which seemed to work very well.  So they are going to try to implement what they learned in California.  

Dan Kavarian said that they are working on two details for foundation systems and when they are ready they will be sent out the Building Official for comments.  Once the details are approved they will be put on the web site.  Dan also that it will be a long process but it will get done.  

OLD BUSINESS
None  

NEW BUSINESS
Dennis proposed subsidizing members who are going to the code hearings, in Palm Springs, as we did for Rochester, N.Y.  He requested a maximum of up to $4000.00 be a made available for members to represent the chapter at the hearings.  

A motion was made and seconded to provide up to $800.00 per person for a total of $4000.00 for hotel, air travel and food for members while at the hearings.

 Motion approved.  

Tom Garcia talked about code interpretation specifically the requirement in section 1802.2 for a soils report for projects in SDC D, E, or F. He has determined that a Building Official could use section 104.10 Modifications to accept plans without a soils report if it is demonstrated that it is not needed due to practical difficulties.  Tom said that Jay Salazar through his research came up with another way that he could make it work in his area.  Tom has purposed that anyone that has an interpretation of a code section to submit all the information to their Building Official who in turn will submit to the fifteen chapter Building Officials for review and comments.  When all is resolved the final interpretation will be posted on the chapter’s web site.  More to come on this item.  

Steve Jensen was approached by Kevin Scott, ICC, to be one of 10 Building Officials nationwide to attend the Congressional Fire Services Institute in Washington D.C.  They will tour ICC headquarters and meet with Congressional members where he will try to discuss a bill going through Congress, The Community Building Code Administration Grant Act of 2007, on providing grants to Building and Fire departments for education.  Steve went to the Redwood Empire Chapter for sponsorship of his trip because ICC did not provide airfare or lodging.  He priced out the trip and determined that it would be about $700.00.  So and they said they would sponsor the whole thing but would like a co-sponsorship from the Napa/Solano Chapter.

A motion was made to provide up to $700.00 for the trip to Washington and seconded.

Motion was approved.  

INSPECTORS TIME
None  

INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVES
Mike Williams, Simpson, talk about all of the training with contractors and engineers on the strong walls and other products.  He also talked about some changes in the industry that he will talk more about next meeting where he will try to bring one of their engineers.  

ADJOURNMENT

There was a motion to adjourn and President Corbett adjourned the meeting.  The next meeting will be March 5th at Paradise Valley Golf Club.

 

Respectfully submitted,  

Dan Kavarian
Secretary




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