NOR CAL FIRE PREVENTION OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
Mike Stewart, President
January 23, 2004
Minutes - Monthly Membership Meeting
Santa Clara, CA
Santa Clara Convention Center
President Stewart called the November meeting to order at 0934 hours at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Larry Monette conducted the pledge of allegiance and George Barnes was appointed the Sergeant at Arms.
President Stewart introduced Fire Marshal, Martin Von Raesfeld. Fire Marshal Von Raesfeld welcomed the group to Santa Clara, California. He then introduced his staff and the Fire Chief Phil Kleinheinz. Chief Kleinheinz welcomed the group to Santa Clara and thanked them for their hard work in the fire prevention arena. The Fire Marshal then introduced Sheila Lee, the Building Official for the City of Santa Clara.
Visiting Fire Chiefs, Building Officials and Past Presidents were recognized.
Self-introductions were made. At this time, Rick Rodewald, Past President declared a quorum.
President Stewart introduced Rick Terry, a member of the Nominating committee, who presented the recommendations for the Nor Cal FPO Board Officers for the year 2004 as follows: President – Weston Arvin, 1st Vice President – Dennis Mathisen, 2nd Vice President – Angela Giuliani, Secretary – Bruce Lecair, and Treasurer – Darren Drake. A vote was taken and all present were in favor of the new Board Members’ appointments.
Wes Arvin announced that Rick Terry has been appointed the new Building Standards Committee Co-Chair.
President Stewart attended a Fire Advisory Board meeting where our section Chief, Doug Williams, was voted in as chairman of the committee. At that meeting they discussed the new code adoption and the involvement of CalBo in the review of the codes. An email was sent to the FPO members asking for volunteers to help review the new NFPA codes and 38 names were submitted to the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
President Stewart also attended the Building Standards Committee meeting on January 7th. The new time line was discussed for the adoption of the code and it was stretched out until November 2004. At this meeting he also met with the President of CalBo to discuss how the FPO’s could share our resources in reviewing the new codes together with CalBo.
President Stewart attended the annual Cal Chiefs meeting where he presented the first Joint FPO’s Annual Report for the year 2003. The annual report will be made available at the next meeting in Dublin. President Stewart thanked the Committee Co-Chairs and Danielle Stefani for their help in preparing the annual report.
We received a request from Cal Chiefs to participate on the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Committee and Tonya Hoover, Kate Dargan and Forrest Craig volunteered to provide input into that process.
Next week President Stewart, Weston Arvin, Laura Blaul and Penni Overstreet-Murphy will meet in Sacramento with NFPA to discuss the issues brought up by the FPO’s with the new NFPA codes and processes.
State Fire Marshal Report – Gini Krippner presented the State Fire Marshal report. See the attached report for more details and it is also available on the SFM and Nor Cal FPO’s websites.
Legislative Report - Gene Gantt gave the Legislative report. See the attached legislative report.
Exchange of ideas:
Sheila Lee – the Building Official of the City of Santa Clara welcomed the FPO group to Santa Clara. She stated that she was on the Board of CalBo and that she looks forward to working with the fire department representatives to provide a united front with the adoption and review of the new codes.
Rick Rodewald – of the Workshop Committee stated that hotel rooms for the FPO Workshop will be available until March 15th. If you have any difficulty booking the room call Rick Rodewald for assistance. He also stated that a flyer will be coming out stating the classes to be offered during the workshop.
Bill Greene – stated the SFM’s Statutes and Regulation Class in Apple Valley was a success and one will also be offered at the FPO Workshop in Buellton, CA. The next class will be offered in El Dorado County.
Sam Husoe – of the Workshop Committee stated that as of January 16th, 49 rooms were sold for the workshop.
Dan Najera – mentioned that in the past the SFM’s office posted code interpretations when asked to on the entire model code on the SFM’s website. A few weeks ago the SFM’s office announced that they will only post interpretations on the sections of the code that they amended. The SFM’s office received a letter from the So Cal Board asking them to continue posting interpretations on the entire model code not just the sections that they have amended. He asked Nor Cal FPO’s what their preference would be and to funnel their ideas to the Nor Cal Board members.
Fort Hartsfield – stated that you can download the registration form for the March workshop from the Nor Cal website. There is also a link on the Nor Cal website to the NFPA site where the new codes are available free for review. He mentioned that he is also working on a joint website for Nor Cal and So Cal FPO’s.
Steve Hart – stated that the new California Fire Law Book is at the printer for the year 2004. It includes the updated Building Standards sections and a CD.
Clare Frank – wrote a position paper and was successful at getting a local Urban Wildland Interface ordinance adopted. Contact her if you are interested in copies which she can email to you because the whole package is available online.
Dave Dewey – San Mateo County FPO’s will be sponsoring two classes. One deals with Fire Pattern Recognition, Identification & Proper Analysis of Fire Patterns on March 10,11 & 12 in Millbrae, CA and one in Los Angeles on June 28, 29 & 30. The second class offered is "Interviews and Interrogations for Arson Investigators" on May 10-12 in Half Moon Bay. See the attached flyers.
Elliot Gittleman – mentioned a title act which will cause registered engineers to lose their title and cause them to become practice engineers. For more information contact Elliot Gittleman.
John Haberek – reported on a haz mat incident in his jurisdiction at a university in which a chemical reaction occurred under a fume hood and a vapor cloud rolled out under the hood sash and activated a smoke alarm that shut down the exhaust for the hood and the building HVAC system.
Kent Miller – asked if an alcohol based hand sanitizer could be stored in hospital patient rooms.
Dan Najera – mentioned that DSH was contacted about this issue and they do not allow this sanitizer in hospital patient rooms. He also mentioned a study that was being conducted and stated that the SFM’s Office will not disagree with DSH’s viewpoint.
Greg Granados – reported on a recall of a power supply on a notifier system, PS24. Contact Greg for more information on this recall.
Theresa Johnson – experienced 2 gas dryer fires in an apartment complex. They were the stackable unit types. They also experienced a fire in a microwave/ventilation hood over the stove that caught on fire after being repaired.
Gene Gantt – mentioned fireworks disposal legislation that should be reviewed since DTSC is calling fireworks hazardous wastes if they have perchlorates.
Danielle Stefani – stated that CUPA agencies are concerned about the above legislation since it deals with all perclorates even those in fireworks, flares, etc. and treats them as hazardous wastes.
Greg Granados – also mentioned that now tests can be conducted to detect low levels of perchlorates in water.
Meeting was adjourned to Committees and Executive Board meeting at 1049 hours.
Detailed committee reports are in these minutes.
Thank you Santa Clara Fire Department for an excellent meeting!
President Stewart adjourned the meeting at 1330 hours.
The next meeting will take place in Dublin on February 27, 2004.
Respectfully submitted,
Angela Giuliani, Secretary
The Nor Cal FPO’s would like to welcome the following new members!
Jim Galli Kentfield Fire District
Kevin Hrebich Sebastopol Fire Department
John Haberek Los Angeles County Fire Department
William Tweedy Vallejo Fire Department
Shelly Engleman City of Napa
Robert Casey Simplex Grinnell
Greg Lake Sac Metro Fire District
Steve Broderick Sac Metro Fire District
Robert Bastianon Santa Rosa J. C.
Robert Erickson Burlingame Fire Department
Tony Santana Sprinkler Fitters, UA Local 483