NOR CAL FIRE PREVENTION OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
www.norcal-fpo.org
Mike Stewart, President
April 25, 2003
Minutes - Monthly Membership Meeting

Novato, CA
Buck Institute

Click Here for meeting photos. Please be sure to check them out; you'll find a new look this month!

Web Master's Note: April was our annual Past President's meeting. The meeting was attended by the past presidents pictured below:

President Mike Stewart called the April meeting to order at 0930 hours at the Buck Institute in Novato, CA. This was the 2nd annual meeting of the organization to recognize Past Presidents of the Fire Prevention Officers' Section - Northern Division.

Bill Greene conducted the pledge of allegiance and Russ Blair was appointed the Sergeant at Arms.

President Stewart introduced Chief Forrest Craig of the Novato Fire District. Chief Craig welcomed the group to Novato.

Pastor Wendy Dreitcer greeted the group and delivered a blessing.

Chief Craig introduced Susan Jacobson, Chief Development Officer of the Buck Institute. She welcomed the group and explained that the Buck Institute was formed to do scientific laboratory research on aging. Chief Craig introduced Brad Beedle, President of the Board of Directors of the Novato Fire Protection District, who welcomed the FPO group to Novato. Chief Craig also introduced his staff.

Visiting Fire Chiefs and Building Officials and Past Presidents were recognized.

Self-introductions were made. At this time Forrest Craig, Past President, declared a quorum.

· A motion was made, and seconded, to approve the March minutes.

President Stewart presented Larry Thude with a proclamation recognizing his retirement after 30 years of excellent service in the fire service. Congratulations Larry on your retirement!

President Stewart presented all of the past presidents with a letter and a photograph from last year's meeting in Woodland.

State Fire Marshal Report - Chief Hugh Council gave an update on the statutes and regulations course conducted quarterly. Chief Council also described various upcoming classes and proposed regulations. See the attached report for more details. Chief Krippner gave an update on "Operation Code Analysis", the recent cooperative effort between the SFM and Cal Chiefs/FPO's. This task force completed a detailed technical comparison between the International Fire Code and the NFPA Fire Code. Chief Krippner also gave an update on several regulatory matters.

President Stewart reiterated the importance of providing input on the code comparison process and giving the co-chairs this information for consideration and processing.

Legislative Report - Gene Gantt - Benicia Fire Department, Legislative Committee Chair, gave this month's report. See the attached report for more details as well as the Nor Cal FPO's website at www.norcal-fpo.org.

President Stewart introduced Randy Metz from the Orange County Fire Authority who discussed AB731. See the attached legislative digest for more details.

President Stewart introduced Tonya Hoover who spoke about the comments received from the evaluations of this past year's workshop in Monterey and she also discussed the future workshop in Rancho Santa Barbara.

Exchange of ideas:

Steve Hart - Donated a Fire Laws book to the raffle. Steve announced that a sprinkler survey was mailed on April 4th to all the Fire Chiefs. Please take time to complete the survey when you receive it.

Sam Husoe - Stated the importance of filling out the blue sheets at the annual workshop. He announced that the speaker for the May meeting in San Francisco, would be Russ Fleming. Also he mentioned a bill was proposed in the House of Representatives that would allow a tax write off over a 5 year period for the installation of any sprinkler system in any occupancy.

Steve Jensen - Spoke about the Fire Advisory Committee of CALBO which is made up of both fire and building officials. They have quarterly meetings to discuss the new code development and selection process and are looking for more participation.

James McMullen, the former State Fire Marshal, was recognized by President Stewart.

Rick Rodewald - Asked for information to aid his neighboring jurisdictions with their new sprinkler ordinance dealing with the various issues of installation and the testing of sprinkler systems.

Elliot Gittleman - Mentioned that the next SFP meeting will have two presenters: one is Bay Alarm and the other is Scott McMillen who will make a presentation on the Santana row fire. He also mentioned that DSA requires sprinklers to be installed in new school campuses and not in existing school buildings that are being remodeled.

Gene Gantt - Stated that he is looking into proposing legislation to fill the loopholes in the existing regulations for sprinklering new and remodeled school campus buildings on existing campuses.

Doug Bridewell - Announced that a California Conference of Arson Investigators (CCAI) roundtable group was created. See the website for more information.

Hugh Council - Spoke about several issues regarding wall board standards and fire modeling issues.

Keith Schoenthal - Had a question about posting buildings that are dangerous for fire fighting and requested information on standard signage or other legal information regarding this issue.

Gini Krippner - Mentioned that the "Operation Code Comparison" document is available on the SFM's website.

Bill Greene - Commented on the new performing arts center in Davis which was sprinklered on campus.

Wes Arvin - Voiced his concern about doing thorough sprinkler inspections on new systems in schools.

Steve Hart - Proposed that a slide program showing what to look for when doing sprinkler inspections be presented at one of the monthly Nor Cal meetings.

Meeting was adjourned to Committees and Executive Board meeting at 1122 hours.

Detailed committee reports are in these minutes.

Thank you Novato Fire Protection District and the Buck Institute for an excellent meeting!

President Stewart adjourned the meeting at 1400 hours.

The next meeting will take place in San Francisco.

Respectfully submitted,

Angela Sullivan, Secretary