PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION OF CODE OFFICIALS
Quarterly Meeting Minutes – December 11, 2003
Montgomery County Fire Academy

President Lee Milligan called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM with the Pledge of Allegiance.

ROLL CALL:

President:             Lee Milligan
Vice-President:      Jeff Gentile
Secretary:            Brian Gallagher
Treasurer:            Calvin Bonenberger, Jr (absent)

Board of Directors:

Glen Holt
Dan Kerr
Robert Loeper
Robert Neely
Kevin Pezzano (absent)

SECRETARY’S REPORT:

The minutes from the June 19, 2003 and October 8, 2003 minutes were available for all members in attendance.

Motion by: Mike Perrone, 2nd by Todd Meltsch to approve the minutes from the 2nd Quarter Meeting. Motion Passed. Motion by: Bob Duncan, 2nd by Brian Sakal to approve the minutes from the 3rd Quarter Meeting. Motion Passed.

PRESIDENTS REPORT:

At the State Level:

• Act 45 (UCC) will be published on January 15, 2004 in the Pennsylvania Register. This publication starts the 90 day acceptance process. The ‘Window’ for adoption runs from April 15, 2004 until July 15, 2004. After August 15, 2004 the Commonwealth will assume that you are not participating and will take over the commercial permit/inspection in your municipality.

• Municipalities do not have to adopt the ICC Code, all they need to do is the Ordinance adopting the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code. ‘Home Rule’ amendments can still be part of the code, if in existence prior to July 1, 1999 and approved by L&I.

• Sample ordinances are supposed to be coming out from PSATS and will assist in the design of one for your municipality. All municipalities are urged to adopt the UCC between 1/15 & 4/15/04.

• Effective 2/1/04 Labor & Industry will no longer allow walk-in reviews. This change in the process is expected to eliminate the ability of builders to phase large buildings and will cause confusion for an anticipated three years.

 At the Certification/Training/Registration Level:

• PCCA Update: a) the administrators of PCCA have heard the plight of PACO and the Southeastern Region of PA. There are a number of classes scheduled for the area from now through the first quarter of 2004. Don’t shoot ourselves in the foot, make sure we all try to attend some of these classes and show that we do appreciate their efforts. b) the primary focus of the PCCA is Residential Training. All PA Municipalities that adopt the UCC must have a Building Code Official on staff, PCCA is the agency that instructs and certifies this position.

• Accessibility Certification is still an open ended matter. If you municipality is going to do the inspections and include Accessibility they must have a certified person on staff.

Labor & Industry:

• As of 2/1/04 L&I will no longer allow ‘walk-in’ service. The discontinuing of this service is understood to cause an adverse impact on building phasing and is anticipated that it will take three years (3) to sort through the confusion.

PHRC:

• PACO sits on the PHRC Board of Directors and will be attending the semi-annual meeting in April 2004 in Williamsport.

• The Home Builders Association is pushing for the State to be the clearinghouse for Code Interpretations. The HBA has asked the State for a definitive Board of Appeals at their level, eliminating local jurisdictions for appeals.

• HB 1564 – Pennsylvania Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS) sees the bill moving forward to impose a $2.00 surcharge on all permits to be dedicated for training by the PCCA.

A general discussion was undertaken and the expressed concern was that the $2.00 from the permits be marked for PCCA and not put in the General Fund of the State to pay for some other program. With the discussions were comments from Mr. Perrone and Mr. Loeper regarding the need for PCCA to develop ICC qualified courses when they already exist. Lee Milligan will check with PHRC/PCCA to ascertain an answer.

New Members: (Brian Gallagher)

• William Donohue of Commonwealth Code Inspection Services (West Chester) was welcomed to the rolls of PACO as an Associate Member.

Education & Training: (Jeff Gentile)

• A discussion was held on the need for special inspections. The 2000/2003 Code require an increased number of specialized inspections. The training session today will be on Special Inspections, instructed by Christos Christakis, PE of CVM Engineers.

• The Spring Forum is scheduled for Sunday – April 25 through Wednesday – April 28, 2004 at the Fort Washington Holiday Inn. More information will be mailed out in February/March 2004.

• Fall Training for 2004: The committee will look at Mechanical Code and Fire Prevention Code classes.

• Delaware County Community College is working with ICC and doing paper/pencil tests every other month on the certification program. Contact DCCC direct for more information.

• Dan Jenkins spoke on the Building Code Officials (BCO) program from L&I. He advised it was a great program for all inspectors to take and also an excellent program for elected officials to attend.

• Lee Milligan is sponsoring a class in January for Builders and Code Officials, contact Upper Providence Township for additional information.

Code Review: (Cal Bonenberger, Jr)

• No report

Award Program & Election of Officers: (Bob Duncan)

• All members were asked to take an Award Application back with them and give some serious thought to submitting the name of a qualifying person.

• The annual election of officers and two of the five board members will occur at the March 2004 general meeting.

Incorporation of PACO: (Dan Kerr)

• An update of the §501.3c §501.6c status was provided. The project is 90% complete and well on its way to being 100% finished.

• The application has been filed for Tax Exempt status. There is no time line available for this part of the project

• The by-law change was presented for the necessary verbiage changes to allow the §501.3c § 501.6c criteria to be enforce.

Motion: Bob Neely, 2nd by Matt Light, to accent the by-law changes as outlined by Dan Kerr in his presentation. Motion passed.

Treasurers Report: (Cal Bonenberger, Jr)

• There was no report available. Calvin could not make the meeting.
• Dan Kerr presented the new laptop, printer & software program to PACO, which was purchased to assist the Treasurer in accounting and work hand-in-hand with the accountant to maintain our Non-Profit Status.

New Business:

• Bob Loeper (Radnor Township) briefed the group on the progress with the State-wide Coalition of Code Officials. PennBoc and associated groups were contacted and to-date there was no response. He plans a sit down with the PennBoc people in January 2004.
• Dan Jenkins (Warringtown Township) raised questions about the enacting ordinance requirements for the adoption of the UCC. There are a number of model/boiler plate ordinances available on the Web and at the PSATS website. Any regulation will have to be reviewed by the local solicitor and will be evaluated by L&I when sent for approval.

Motion to adjourn by Todd Meltsch and 2nd by Mike Perrone. The meeting was concluded at 12:05 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Brian M. Gallagher, CBI/CFI
Secretary 2003-2004