NOR CAL FIRE PREVENTION OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
www.norcal-fpo.org
Mike Stewart, President
November, 21 2003
Minutes - Monthly Membership Meeting
Burlingame, CA
Double Tree Hotel
President Stewart called the November meeting to order at 0933 hours at the Double Tree Hotel in Burlingame, CA.
Dan Najera conducted the pledge of allegiance and Keith Marshall was appointed the Sergeant at Arms.
President Stewart introduced Fire Marshal, Rocque Yballa. Fire Marshal Yballa welcomed the group to Burlingame, California. He mentioned that Hillsborough and Burlingame fire departments are in the process of merging and then introduced his Fire Chief, Bill Reilly. Chief Reilly welcomed the FPO’s to Burlingame and thanked the group for their efforts with the new code change process.
Visiting Fire Chiefs, Building Officials and Past Presidents were recognized.
Self-introductions were made. At this time, Forrest Craig, Past President declared a quorum.
President Stewart announced that John Haberek has been appointed the new Legislative Committee Co-Chair.
Forrest Craig a member of the Nominating committee along with Rick Terry and Danielle Stefani, announced the following members to be nominated for the following Board positions: Mike Stewart for Past President, Weston Arvin for President, Dennis Mathisen for 1st Vice President, Angela Giuliani for 2nd Vice President, Bruce Lecair for Secretary and Darren Drake for Treasurer. President Stewart then opened the nominations to the floor and asked three times if there were any more nominations. Voting will take place at the January meeting in Santa Clara.
President Stewart requested that the committee co-chairs give their annual reports to the Executive Board to be included in the Annual Report to the Chiefs. He mentioned that the committee co-chairs shall make a presentation of their part of the annual report at the January monthly meeting in Santa Clara.
President Stewart attended the NFPA Conference in Reno where he met with and presented the letter addressing the code issues to NFPA. Ray Bizal was appointed by NFPA to work with the FPO’s on these issues.
State Fire Marshal Report – Gini Krippner presented the State Fire Marshal report. She also spoke about the Executive Order issued by the Governor. See the attached report for more details and it is also available on the SFM and Nor Cal FPO’s websites.
Legislative Report – There was no legislative report. Gene mentioned that he would like to meet with the committees on any legislation they would like to propose for the new year.
Exchange of ideas:
Darrell Harguth – Correction from last month’s minutes - Darrell mentioned in Southern California there are some fire departments not fire extinguishing companies that are attaching a label to fire extinguishers saying that servicing is not required for six years. This procedure is not correct. A letter is being sent out for clarification of the new regulations to fire departments by the State Fire Marshal. See the attached letter from the SFM’s office and the flyer from Cal Safe.
Kent Miller – Mentioned an incident in Stockton in which a fire occurred and the investigation proved that the contractor had not submitted plans and permits were not obtained.
Angela Giuliani – Mentioned that pre-registration is required for the January Nor Cal meeting which will be held in Santa Clara.
Bill Greene –Asked a question about duct detectors and monitoring requirements. A discussion occurred answering his question.
Rick Rodewald – Was doing a study and asked if jurisdictions had information with regards to breaking down building construction costs, e.g. sprinkler costs for residential buildings.
Morgana Chan - Mentioned that a Hospital Inspection Class will be held on December 18th in Fremont and January 15th in Sacramento. See the attached flyer.
Forrest Craig – Stated the Charlie Gray Memorial Scholarship/Grants are available to be applied for until the end of December. The applications are on the Nor Cal website.
Tonya Hoover – Asked if other jurisdictions are doing background checks of their CERT, Community Emergency Response Team members.
Kent Miller – Requested if other jurisdictions neighboring Stockton would like to join the Consortium that is storing large amounts of foam as a central supply at the Port of Stockton.
Rocque Yballa – Asked if any other jurisdictions have experienced explosions at their coffee roasting businesses.
President Stewart introduced Ray Bizal from NFPA. Ray mentioned that NFPA opened a code resource center in Sacramento at 1107 9th, Suite 680, Sacramento, CA that will take calls for code interpretations. He also mentioned that this center will have a library with all the code books. NFPA has currently hired some consultants for example, Cheryl Domnitch as a fire protection consultant and they will be hiring more in the new year. He spoke about the conference in Reno and stated he will be working with the FPO’s on the list of issues with the new NFPA codes. Ray said that there are many certifications available with NFPA and that it is possible to transfer certifications by paying a small fee. He will be working with the FPO’s Fire Service Education Committee to set up classes where NFPA will provide the instructors and books for free. The deadline for NFPA 1 code changes is January 5th.
Meeting was adjourned to Committees and Executive Board meeting at 1034 hours.
Detailed committee reports are in these minutes.
Thank you Burlingame/Hillsborough Fire Department for an excellent meeting!
President Stewart adjourned the meeting at 1330 hours.
The next meeting will take place in Santa Clara on January 23rd, 2003. There will be no meeting in December. Happy Holidays!
Respectfully submitted,
Angela Giuliani, Secretary
The Nor Cal FPO’s would like to welcome the following new members!
Matt Flint - Woodland Fire Department
Jerry Clark - Vacaville Fire Department
Bret Gruben - Vacaville Fire Department
Michael Bond - El Cerrito Fire Department
David Sargenti - Salinas Rural Fire District