California Fire Chiefs Association
Fire Prevention Officers Section
Southern Division
General Membership Meeting
Orange County Fire Authority, Irvine
Regional Fire Operations & Training Center
July 14, 2004
Minutes
BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESENT:
Laura Blaul - President
Ken Kraus - Secretary
Kevin Scott - 2nd Vice President
Phil Garcia - Liaison Chief
Penni Overstreet-Murphy -Judge Advocate
Hank Teran - Operations
Pledge of Allegiance: Led by Ray Bizal
Welcome: Fire Marshal Hugh Wood and Deputy Chief Pat Walker welcomed the group to the OCFA’s newRegional Fire Operations and Training Center. They expressed their genuine appreciation for the energy and dedication displayed by the FPO’s and thanked the group for their continuing effort to optimize public safety.
Recognition of Chiefs:
None PresentSargeant At Arms:
Brian HeymanRecognition of Past Presidents: Tom Oakes. Penni Overstreet-Murphy
Self-Introductions: Determination of Quorum : 57 attendees
Motion Passed
August 11– Torrance (Hoarding)
September 8 – Carlsbad
October – LAFD (NFPA 13)
Workshop – Buelton, March 14 –18, 2005 Program/Class
suggestions being accepted.
Ken Kraus/ Kevin Scott – Annual membership renewal invoices have been mailed. Please remit payment expeditiously. Corrected information on the returned renewal notices will be incorporated into the next publication of the roster.
Ken Quick, Kevin Scott and Ken Kraus will conduct an audit of the accounts by August.
Some members have met with the NorCal Devices over the past few months.
Colleen Balch - October 14-15 in San Diego/Orange County there will be an advanced Fire Alarm class by Bill Hopple of Simplex.
September 14-16 Codes and Regs taught by OSFM
October 12 & 14– High Piled Storage and Seismic Bracing by NFSA.
Penni Overstreet-Murphy – Committee met on July13 – presentation from Barbara Massey from Genesis
Riverside Office – High Schools
Junior Firesetter Coalition
OC Fire Friend and Chalk July 22 w/ Pat Mozalla
Committee is preparing presentation for CFCA
NorCal Comm has a Pub Ed Demo ($75 to purchase)
25 must be purchased to publish.
Christina Jamison – Announced that Gov. Schwarzenegger appointed Rueben Grijalva to the position of State Fire Marshal. Confirmation required by full Senate subsequent to recommendation from the Rules Comm.
State Agencies received Attorney Generals ruling on Copyright infringement issue. No infraction occurs during development of the code.
Committee worked on draft language for AB 2065 regs.
Discussed the elimination of semi and direct exit requirements to help offset the cost of sprinklers.
Preparing 2065 "Talking Points" paper to be circulated to Legislators.
Discussed our petition to SFM on delayed egress provisions of 1361, which was accepted.
Penni/Kevin – March 14-18 in Buelton. Keynote speaker
will open the Workshop on Monday.
Joint Meetings will be held on Friday:
Committee meetings – From 0800-1000
General Membership meeting – 1000 – 1200
A strong turnout is expected from SoCal.
Information received indicates that there is a high probability that the gavel with return to the South in ’05.
Tom Oakes has contacted about 10 of the identified 25(approx) Past Presidents. Most of the work will be conducted via e-mail.
Laura Blaul– Main goal is to capture historical perspectives, define and retain our organizational roots and avoid reinventing the wheel.
John Haberek – Details available on the website through the North/Comm section
AB2545 – "Walmart" Bill – locking employees in stores after normal business hours. Regs should be placed in Title-19.
AB1369 – New SFM certification track for fire safety planner (UWI) Fuel Mods extensively amended, will be reviewed next year.
2347 – Fixes Modernization loophole and other problems with 575. To Appropriations Comm on Aug. 2
2065 – Passed Health & Human Services – (7 votes required) 7-4.
John and Bob Gebel are coordinating the effort for So California Fire Marshal’s to contact their Senators and disseminate information, and phone follow up.
In the Assembly, Republicans did not get much attention from proponents. That needs to change in the full Senate.
Chief Phil Garcia – Many new updates on the CFCA website. The CFCA’s main issue recently has been working with Legislators to protect local funds. The current draft may allow the State to borrow from locals for only the next two years.
Chief Garcia will track this issue and report back with pertinent information.
Joe Garcia- OSFM – The SFM’s Monthly report will be posted on the website. Some highlights are:
Most significant budget issue is a change in the funding source for the OSFM. Since 1923 the office has been largely funded out of the General Fund. Most of the Code enforcement efforts will now be funded through reimbursements received from the State agency receiving the required service. This will effect every aspect of the OSFM ability to manage effective public safety programs.
Some Engineering issues and programs like Pipeline Safety are unaffected.
SFM Grijalva will review composition of advisory committees.. Need Fire Service participation for Automatic Extinguishing Comm.
John Donelan announced four job openings, with some of the positions involving fieldwork.
Gov. has initiated a review of all codes in an effort to eliminate all outdated or superfluous sections.
Upcoming conference is Sept. 16-17. Sate Agency and local agencies are welcome to attend on the 17th.
Ray Bizal – A code revision (5000) to require fire sprinklers fell just short of the super majority needed to pass. Support of all fire service concerns is necessary to push this over the top and into the code.
California’s local amendments to NFPA 25 have been submitted to the APA process and should appear in the next revision to Title 19.
NFPA offers over 40 Standards online at no cost. Recently Standards 54 and 58 have been added.
Ray spoke to concerns regarding an untested unlisted fire protection "system" called Hydro-shield, a water based fire protection coating that can be activated remotely via the internet. Discussions agreed that these systems should be closely scrutinized and should meet some standard.
Kevin Scott- Annual Conference in Salt Lake City from Sept. 26-29. This is also when the ICC will conduct their annual business meeting including election of officers.
Code changes to the I –Codes for the current (‘04/’05) cycle must be submitted by August 20, 2004.
The 18 member Board currently has only 2 Fire representatives. The election of an additional fire rep would not displace members currently representing the fire service.
E. NEW BUSINESS
FPO’s are committed to assist to the fullest extent with the new OSFM. Wes Arvin, Laura Blaul and Randy Roxson(SFM) have begun periodic conference calls to coordinate the myriad of joint issues.
Publication Comment on July 20.
Full Commission on July 21.
Coordinating Council on August 4 (Code adoption issue on the agenda)
Ken Kraus/Ray Bizal – Many Building Departments have been downgraded from (3-5) to a (7-9) due to the published date of their codes being over 5 years old. A large part of this downgrade is due to the lack of updated seismic provisions. Building Depts. can regain about 50% of the downgrade by adopting the LA Regional Uniform Code Program Seismic Amendments, or the structural provisions of the IBC or NFPA 5000.
To date, no fire department has been affected by the outdated code issue.
ICC is currently seeking input and participation to develop a low cost and reliable multipurpose plumbing and fire sprinkler systems in 1& 2 family dwellings.
Santa Monica Fire Department has developed a guideline for the use of outdoor propane space heaters. Handouts available.
Presented by John Bowden, P.E. (OCFA)
DATE: August 11,2004
LOCATION: Torrance Civic Center Library
3301 Torrance BL
SUBJECT: Hoarding
Respectfully Submitted
Ken Kraus, Secretary