The June meeting will be held at the UC Davis Campus on June 25, 1999 at 0930 hours. Registration and continental breakfast will begin at 0900 hours.

The meeting was called to order by President Larry Monette at 0945 hours at the Palo Alto Elks Club.

The pledge of allegiance was led by Past President Jim McLaughlin of Lund – Pearson - McLaughlin.

Assistant Fire Chief Reinhard Hanselka, Palo Alto Fire Dept. and Co-Chair of Building Standards Committee was appointed Sergeant at arms.

Dan Hieser host Fire Marshal, Palo Alto Fire Dept. welcomed members to the City of Palo Alto. Dan introduced and thanked Fire Chief Ruben Grijalva, his staff and the Palo Alto Elks Club for being able to host the meeting. Fire Marshal Heiser introduced Dan Wallace and Jack Jackson of his staff who assisted with set-up and the morning registration. After paying a fine for the flammable decorations and lack of appropriate exit signage Dan discussed breakout rooms, the luncheon and afternoon program.

Fire Chief Ruben Grijalva of Palo Alto welcomed the members and guests to the City Palo Alto. Chief Grijalva was very active as a Nor-Cal member, Haz Mat Committee Chair, Western Fire Chiefs representative and one of the leaders in the Article 80 Code development. Chief Grijalva declared Palo Alto a fantastic city with the finest Fire Prevention Bureau in the world and extremely dedicated. The Palo Alto Fire Department has 127 personnel and 7 fire stations. The City has a population of 58,000, incorporates large industrial parks and is home to many biotech companies, Stanford University, and HP Corporate office. Palo Alto also encompasses a large wildland interface area.

Fire Chief Dave Milanese of Hillsborough Fire Department - Cal Chief Liaison, Host Fire Chief Ruben Grijalva of Palo Alto Fire Department, were recognized.

Rick Rodewald, Monterey Fire Dept. Past President and Judge Advocate counted to 20 and declared a quorum. All in attendance applauded. Self-introductions were made at this time.

A Motion/s was made to approve the April minutes as mailed.

Exchange of ideas:
Vern Brown Sacramento County Fire Dept. and Director of Operations stated that he represented the organization at the IFCI Code 2000 meetings for the past several months. On Wednesday, May 20th, the Committee approved the IBC to go forward to the SBSC in June. June 4th is the last day to get any comments in to the Commission. The adoption cycle for the code to be written and adopted by the Commission is July 1, 2001 and must be adopted 180 days there after.

Weston Arvin, UC Davis Fire Dept. and Co-Chair Fire Protection Devices Committee submitted a final report and recommendations pertaining to the Omega Fire Sprinklers from the Ad-Hoc Committee to the Nor-Cal Executive Board for consideration. There are several recommendations in the report, which has all of the record of information. Weston also thanked Ed Saiz, Daly City Fire Dept. and Past President for his hard work and effort on this committee. A summary of the report is included in these minutes.

Fort Hartsfield, Retired, Nor-Cal Web Master and Past President, announced that Nor-Cal will be offering industry and associate members an opportunity to banner advertise on the Nor-Cal web site and what rates are. The banners will appear on the top of the committee pages. It is hoped that associate and industry members will take advantage of this opportunity to get their name out and support the organization at the same time. See the Ad in these minutes.

Rick Rodewald, Monterey Fire Dept. Past President and Judge Advocate, asked if any one had information regarding the federal government extending their investigation to all sprinkler heads. James DiGrazia, US Consumer Product Safety Commission stated, "yes it is true that there are other heads that are suspect and their effectiveness is being investigated. The CPSC also has a special study focusing on sprinklers involved in fires that have activated. They are looking for information on all fires are making this "request" asking for fire service support. They are also looking at information related to flammability of wall coverings in or near the area of sprinkler activation. When possible, CPSC is requesting 12x12 inch samples of fabric near or adjacent to the fire area.

Gale Bate, Code Resource made a follow-up observation to the 2000 IBC issue. Gale suggested that fire officials would now start to experience problems and a number of issues because of the trade-off particularly with sprinkler/ fire resistive construction/corridor trade off. Gale suggested that we need to be following this closely. On the web page, Gale noted a provision in the elevator regulations that there needs to be a disconnect of power supply to the elevator prior to the fire sprinkler activating and that it cannot be done with smoke detectors. Gale spoke with the State elevator group and they apparently did not realize that here would be any obvious problems or concerns with this issue. He suggesting to look to the web for more information on this issue.

Vern Brown, Sacramento County Fire Dept. and Director of Operations responded to the elevator recall issue. Vern has had numerous new buildings that have elevator recall that the smoke detector will recall the car and stop them at the appropriate location (floor) although, pressurized elevator shafts may have a delay in the smoke detector activating. Sac County Fire philosophically looks at removing sprinklers from the shaft because of this problem.

John Gillilan, CAFFA the electric disconnect is required to have a heat detector to activate this in addition to the smoke detector. The second zone are the smoke detectors in the lobbies. A good reference is to look at NFPA Std. 72.

Gale Bate, Code Resource interjected additional comments regarding regulatory conflict with heat vs. smoke detection in elevator equipment rooms. These new standards were being enforced as of 1998.

Paul Olkowski, San Mateo Fire Dept. recently came across the elevator issue. When the owner asked why this was being required, the elevator company stated that is was because of the fire department. It was actually the elevator company that required this which cost the business over $50,000.

Dennis Mathisen, Roseville Fire Dept. and Co-Chair Fire Service Education Committee announced two one-day seminars on June 14th and 15th. The classes are ICBO 335, 336 means of egress. The course will discuss 1997 UBC requirements for exiting. Send registration directly to Dennis.

Ed Saiz, Daly City Fire Dept. and Past President distributed an important notice regarding CPSC and Interstate Engineering recall of Heat Detectors. See notice in these minutes. Gale Bate announced the Kmart recall of gas grills that can separate during use and cause flame outside grill.

Reinhard Hanselka, Palo Alto Fire Dept. and Co-Chair Building Standards Committee made an important point that the fire service lost one-hour corridor construction in lieu of fire sprinklers. This organization and put up a huge but unsuccessful argument to keep this in the code. Amend!

Fort Hartsfield Retired, Nor-Cal Web Master and Past President, pointed out that discussion such as elevator information can be found on the web page on the "Exchange of Ideas" area. This is a great place to obtain or exchange information. With permission from President Monette, Fort asked "how many are members of CCAI?" Fort was retained about a month ago to help the organization (www.arson.org) and encouraged group to take a look at it.

Executive Board: President Larry Monette, Santa Clara Fire Dept. distributed copies of the proposed 1999-2000 Budget. Membership will vote next month to approve or disapprove.

Joe Garcia CDF/SFM Report
No report this month.

Daniel Najera CDF/SFM Legislative Report
No report this month.

Rick Rodewlad asked if there was a Bill that would abolish the SBSC. Dan will look into this but is currently not aware of any. It may be associated with AB1826.

Breakout for committee meetings at1035 hours.

Afternoon Presentation:
KTVU-TV News Consumer Editor and Attorney Tom Vacar, presented methods of Communicating with the Media. An excellent program and handout on "What is your organizations media policy?" Mr. Vacar discussed considerations of medium; audiences; terminology; talking to the media; knowing the system; the players; and how to let the media know what is important to report on. For a copy of the program notes or to comment contact Tom Vacar, Consumer Editor, KNX Newsradio & KTVU TV, 2 Jack London Square, Oakland, CA 94607 (510) 874-0393 Fax (510) 874-0218 / tvacar@aol.com.

Committee Reports in Minutes.

Outstanding raffle and prizes! Many thanks to: Lund-Pearson- McLaughlin Fire Protection Systems, Blue Chalk Café, Left at Albuquerque, Hobee's California Restaurants, Palo Alto Professional Firefighters Local 1319, Ace Fire Equipment, Gale Bate-Code Resource, Reinhard Hanselka, Gordon Simpkinson family and Hammond Plating. Thank you Palo Alto Fire Department!

Adjourn 1430 hours.
Respectfully,
Forrest M. Craig, Secretary