Broward County Board of Rules & Appeals Meeting

Broward County Board of Rules & Appeals

955 S. Federal Highway, Suite 401, Fort Lauderdale Florida, 33316 Phone 954-765-4500 Fax: 954-765-4504 www.broward.org/codeappeals

BOARD OF RULES AND APPEALS

September 6, 2007

MEETING MINUTES Call Meeting to Order. A published meeting of the Board of Rules and Appeals was called to order by its Chair Mr. Phil London, at 7:02 p.m.

Roll Call P. London J. Smith S. Giles M. Synalovski A. Kozich J. Shechter W. Flett A. Korelishn J. Sims H. Zibman D. Rice D. Zimmer

The presence of a quorum was announced.

Approval of Minutes. The minutes of the August 9, 2007 Board meeting were unanimously approved by motion.

CONSENT AGENDA

1. Certifications.

A motion was proposed, seconded, and unanimously passed.

1. a Broward County request to certify Mr. Roger Colleto as a Structural Building Inspector.

Mr. Carroll presented this item. He stated that Mr. Colleto is lacking in approximately six months experience to qualify for the position of Structural Building Inspector. Mr. Colleto has a degree from University of Venezuela which could qualify for three years experience. The degree, however, is not from an accredited university and Section 104.5.3.3 requires the university to be accredited. In addition, Mr. Carroll stated that

Board of Rules and Appeals Minutes September 6, 2007 - 1 - he has not verified his experience and stated that if the Board approves his application tonight, Staff will verify such experience prior to issuing his certification.

Mr. Zimmer stated that based on the documents submitted Mr. Colleto was not lacking in any technical courses, but in the humanities, which the applicant will complete by December 2007. In addition, Mr. Zimmer noted that the code credits an individual that has an Associates degree, one year of the five years experience.

His technical expertise has been proven here stated Mr. Zibman, who suggested we approve Mr. Colleto subject to verifying his references.

A Motion was proposed by Mr. Kozich to approve the application with the caveat that the applicant submits to the Board two letters of reference from former employers. The motion was seconded by Mr. Korelishn and passed unanimously

2. Appeal # 07-06. Project Location: 1097 N.W. 82nd Terrace, Coral Springs, FL 33071

Mr. Carroll addressed the Board and informed them that the subsequent item on the agenda addresses the same subject matter as the appeal. Mr. Carroll went on to say that the appeal involves any expired permit and the issue of Section 106.10.3.5 which would require the addition to be brought up to current code. The applicant purchased the home in 2003 at which time the addition had been completed with the exception of the final structural and final zoning inspection. The abstract company that handled the closing at that time did not discover the open permit. The owner subsequently, on July 26, 2007 as part of a closing process discovered the open permit and contacted Mr. Tom Schubert, Building Official for the City of Coral Springs who informed them that the permit had expired and that they were required to apply for a new permit which would be required to comply with all current code and current regulations. In addition, Mr. Carroll informed the Board that the applicant had applied to the BO and requested an alternate method of construction utilizing Section 104.23.1.

Mr. Kozich proposed a Motion to deny without prejudice, pending appeal to the Florida Building Commission. The Motion was seconded by Mr. Synalovski and passed unanimously.

3. Proposed change to FBC Chapter I Administrative provisions Section 106.1.3.5.

Bob Hannah, Chief Structural Inspector of Coral Springs was sworn in. Mr. Hannah proposed that an exception be made to Section 106.10.3.5 that would read “when in the opinion of the Building Official all work that has been inspected and approved and any work that has been installed but has not gone past a mandatory inspection may remain in place unless deemed unsafe by the Building Official.”

Regarding the existing work, to make somebody go back and change all the work done would not be practical.

Mr. James Trimble was sworn in, representing his company, Screen Builders, to speak on expired permits. He stated that there are quite a few outstanding permits in Coral Springs. Willing to go to every job and bring it up to code of that day, but I cannot bring it up to today’s code. The code has changed so drastically in the last year or so, that it’s unaffordable for me to do this. I would have to shut my doors.

Curtis Craig, Building Official for the city of Fort Lauderdale was sworn in. He wanted to make a point regarding a question raised by Board Member Allan Kozich pertaining to Miami-Dade County and their program on expired permits. It’s in their county ordinance and they dated that ordinance to include all permits or work done without a permit prior to 2001, when the state code came into effect. Their thinking that under

Board of Rules and Appeals Minutes September 6, 2007 - 2 - the South Florida Building Code, this work and the permits pulled that’s the code that it should be under, that covers everything prior to 2001.

If you want to adopt it with that date, it’s something to consider.

Mr. Smith proposed a Motion to withdraw until after review by the Florida Building Commission. The Motion passed 11 – 1, with Mr. Synalovski casting the descending vote.

4. Proposed Resolution #07-01 regarding the state legislature to postpone the effective date of 553.844 from October 1, 2007 to October 1, 2008.

Mr. Flett noted that the legislature is not yet scheduled to have its special session. On reroofing homes we have to take off the sheathing, and somebody has to inspect it and the homeowner has to pay up to 15% of the reproofing price to upgrade - who is responsible. As a roofing contractor I don’t want to tear your roof off and have a rainstorm hit, I want to cover it. We need to do so much They have already spent $5000 for the inspector. The engineer said you have to do the corners. We cannot strap your roof down. A general contractor has to come and do it, he puts the straps on, it rains and the house gets wet. For the state to say we have to do this as of October 1st, three weeks from now, it’s going to be a nightmare. Everybody has a different opinion on what they want to do. We need a resolution sent to the Governor and Legislature to postpone this thing for one year. There’s the issue of Peel and Stick and secondary water barrier.

A Motion was proposed by Mr. Kozich that we pass the resolution and forward it to the legislature, and was seconded by Ms. Giles. The Motion was passed unanimously.

5. Establishment of Pay Ranges for Fiscal Year 2008.

Director James DiPietro addressed the issue and recommended that we increase the pay ranges ½ to 3%. Four of our employees who have seventy (70) combined years of experience with the Board of Rules and Appeals, are currently at top pay, and therefore, cannot get a raise unless we amend the pay range. Bureau of Labor Statistics are showing about a 2.7 % cost of living increase for the prior one year. Most ranges recommended for 3%. Last year we were equal with Dade County for the first time in code compliance pay ranges, they increased theirs by 3% as of July 1, 2007. For the clerical positions, he is trying to match it up more closely with the county. The county was out of sync for a couple of years, because they had some labor contracts that were not settled. That would be the basics for the recommendations. He also pointed out that the Board has a policy that in addition to the top of the ranges, long-term employees are eligible for 2% longevity/merit cash bonuses.

A Motion to approve was proposed by Mr. Kozich and was seconded by Mr. Korelishn. The Motion passed unanimously.

6. Merit Increase for Administrative Director to be effective October 1, 2007

A Motion to approve was proposed by Mr. Kozich and seconded by Ms. Giles. The Motion passed unanimously.

7. Donation of 2004 Florida Building Codes to Broward County Fire Departments

This item was addressed by the Director. Mr. DiPietro briefly stated that this is an extension of last month’s program of giving away some excess code books. A number of fire departments have asked for Building

Board of Rules and Appeals Minutes September 6, 2007 - 3 - Code sets. We came up with a possible twenty and we want to add two more in for a city, not a fire department, but a building department that didn’t get the books last time. The current request is that you authorize by motion that I can give out no more than twenty-two (22) more sets to public agencies, meaning primarily fire departments, but also one building department.

Mr. Kozich added that the Board should supply the fire departments with a copy of the Florida Building Code as well as the Fire Prevention Code when the new code comes out. There was some discussion regarding the cost of the CD versus the hard copy. Mr. DiPietro noted that our cost is about $192 for the CD and $211 for the paper version.

A Motion to approve was proposed by Mr. Kozich, and seconded by Mr. Smith. The Motion passed unanimously.