February 23, 2007 minutes
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MEMBERS PRESENT: |
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Jim Sparkes, Bryan Wyatt, Kevin Chaney, Gary Mohr |
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MEMBERS ABSENT: |
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Mark Jarboe |
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GUEST PRESENT: |
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None |
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STAFF PRESENT:
EX-OFFICIO: |
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Barry Walthall, Building Safety Manager
Patrick O’Brien, Mechanical Inspector |
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Meeting called to order at 11:40 a.m.
After review, Wyatt made a motion to approve the minutes as written. Seconded by Mohr, pass 4-0.
Review and approve minutes from January 17, 2007 meeting
After review, Mohr made a motion to approve the minutes as written. Seconded by Wyatt, pass 4-0.
Discuss with staff about ICC concerns
Walthall was asked by Chaney to begin the discussion about an ICC representative visiting a board meeting. Walthall stated that Jay Woodward from the Lenexa ICC office has agreed to meet with the Mechanical and Plumbing Boards for a joint meeting on March 22nd at 1:00 p.m. Walthall requested that the Mechanical Board host the meeting.
Wyatt stated that Jay Woodward was previously from ICBO and would have extensive knowledge of the issues and has dealt with him in the past.
Walthall stated that Woodward would attend for a question and answer session. He stated that he was collecting information from the boards to see what kind of questions they have. The two main concerns that he had collected from the Mechanical Board were: what were the provisions for getting interpretations from ICC, and the code development process. He stated that the research that he had conducted were that interpretations were provided to members and there were several different membership categories including the governmental category which is the voting category. The other non-voting membership categories were Educational, Associate, Cooperating, and Temporary memberships. Fees ranged from $50 to $300. Any ICC member would have access to interpretations. The difference between ICC and IAPMO on interpretations is that IAPMO will provide interpretations to anyone at no charge, ICC requires membership for interpretations.
Wyatt stated that the two organizations were close and that he had had two occasions where he had gotten interpretations.
Walthall stated that the City would work with any contractor on interpretations that didn’t want to get a membership. Jay Woodward could expand on those issues more when he was here.
Chaney asked if an ICC representative would be willing to attend meetings on a regular basis if the City were to adopt the international codes.
Walthall responded that that would be a great question for Jay Woodward and that he had attended Building Board meetings in the past.
Sparkes stated that the interpretation of the code is his main concern and mentioned that gypsum products are allowed in plenums and that he didn’t want somebody to interpret that they could make ductwork out of sheetrock. He would like to have things a little more black and white to limit the amount of leeway an interpretation can have.
Walthall stated that he plans to invite all the boards to attend the meeting with Jay.
Wyatt reported that the Matrix report recommended adopting all the International Codes and that the Mechanical Board had some questions for ICC about the International Codes.
It was discovered that the meeting with Jay Woodward was going to cause conflict with some of the board members schedules and may need to be rescheduled. The board agreed to try to have the meeting on March 19, 2007 at 6:30.
Update concerning make up of Contractor Licensing Board
Walthall stated that the City has corrected the error in the appointments to the board and that there will be a member from each trade board on the Contractor Licensing Board. There are still two openings on the board and that there is a meeting planned just to get the board established and then after that, the board would meet on an as needed basis.
Wyatt asked how the error was overlooked to the point that someone was appointed before the error was noticed. Wyatt stated that the copy of the ordinance that he received did not spell out that members from the trade boards would be appointed to the CLB.
Chaney stated that the copy he received from staff did have the trade board members and being part of the CLB.
Walthall stated that the copy that is published online and hard copy has the correct language that includes the trade board members as CLB members. There was a draft that went out before it went to the boards that contained previous language that did not specify the trade board members being included in the CLB.
Wyatt stated that the error should have been caught before someone was appointed to the CLB.
Walthall agreed.
Sparkes asked if the CLB will have the legal authority to take away a persons license just from mistakes when the City also makes mistakes.
Walthall responded that there will be a progressive element when the discipline is administered. There are several criteria in the Contractor Licensing ordinance that could trigger a review by the board.
Wyatt stated that his understanding of the ordinance is that blatant and repeated violations will be the types of issues that would go before the board and not small oversights and occasional violations.
Walthall also stated that intentional unsafe violation could also be brought to the board for discipline. If there were a person that was performing unsafe work that did not have a license could not be brought to the board since the ordinance was intended for licensed contractors. Issues with unlicensed contractors would need to be dealt with in a different way.
Sparkes would like to have a way that only licensed contractors would be able to purchase equipment.
Discuss having joint meeting with Plumbing Board to talk to ICC representative
Covered under first agenda item.
Update on scheduling representative from ICC
Covered under first agenda item.
Miscellaneous
Chaney stated that he had a concern about the Building Boards decision on requiring 90% furnaces instead of slab edge insulation on slab houses. The builders are not going to be happy about having to put in 90% furnaces.
Sparkes asked why they can’t use the termite shields over the insulation.
Walthall stated that they can, but they don’t want to because of logistics reasons.
Chaney stated that houses are not required to have insulation in very heavy termite infestation regions.
Walthall responded that Lawrence is not in a very heavy infestation region.
Chaney stated that he attended a class at the Johnson County Licensing Program and the four hour class that he took could have been an eight hour class. He also stated that the next training classed in the fall will not be issuing certificates, but will be available online.
Wyatt asked about the status of the flat rate permit fees and when those might be implemented.
Walthall responded that the City has shared the flat rate fee idea with the other trade boards and the building board proposing to implement the flat fees to all miscellaneous permits. The only concern with the other boards is that a uniform fee and based on the amount of average past fees gave the perception to the Plumbing and Electrical boards that they would be subsidizing the mechanical contractors. Mechanical equipment has a higher cost that made the average fees higher than the other trades. The next step is to draft an ordinance and show the board before it went to the commission for implementation.
Wyatt asked that if the mechanical fees could be implemented sooner and not wait for the other trades.
Walthall replied that the other trades were not holding up the flat fee, the implementation just needs to get placed on the front burner and get implemented.
Sparkes brought up a concern that he would like further discussion on and that is return air grilles being placed in the kitchen or near the kitchen.
Wyatt stated that many times that is the only return in the whole house.
Walthall asked if a solution could be to require a minimum distance between the return air and the kitchen.
Wyatt suggested having some update training to let contractors know that a change has been considered and future installations will have to meet the new requirement.
Motion to adjourn made by Wyatt, seconded by Mohr, passed 4-0. Meeting adjourned at 12:49 p.m.