Building department staff look to building officials for support and to address complex technical issues. Upper agency management and elected city officials look to building officials to be subject matter experts on building and construction related matters. Finally, members of the public, like permit applicants and developers, seek building official’s guidance to resolve building permitting issues. To effectively accomplish all of the above, a building official must be a good sport! Officials must make intelligent and responsible decisions, while always maintaining a positive attitude.

In today’s environment, a building official should have a good understanding of their team and the field/agency they serve. One shall set goals, prioritize, and act quickly to address development related issues and be ready for consistent challenges. One shall be motivated and be able to inspire others to be a team player through building consensus. A building official’s commitment, hard work, values, ethics, and compassion for their work and team is critical to the success of any building department.

As we enter into a busy summer quarter, I am encouraged with the progress achieved by CALBO this year. The CALBO Board of Directors convened in early June, and after a day and half of deliberations and brainstorming, the Board unanimously agreed to the following set of goals for the next three years:

1. Promote and elevate the profile of the Building Official profession
2. Support legislation in favor of CALBO’s objectives
3. Promote both technology and innovation in the building and safety departments
4. Develop and foster the next generation of Building Officials  

The three-year term is necessary to plan and implement the above goals to reach higher levels of success and resiliency for CALBO.

In addition, the CALBO Board of Directors attended joint ICC Chapter meetings in Southern and Northern California in May and early June. The leadership of these different chapters exert an enormous effort to keep their members up-to-date and connected with the latest information. CALBO’s three-year goals were presented at these meetings and the input received will be incorporated as we work toward implementing each. The CALBO Board of Directors was very grateful for the invitation to these positive gatherings.   

Additionally, those who expressed interest to serve on the CALBO Policy Committees should have heard from the committee chairs and most committees have started their conference calls in either May or June. I wanted to highlight several major achievements by the committees below.  

CALBO’s California Energy Commission (CEC) Advisory Committee members recently attended a CEC workshop and took the opportunity to re-introduce the concepts of including an index for the Energy Code and re-formatting the Energy Code to be more consistent with the other California Building Codes. After some discussion, the California Energy Commission staff agreed to include an index in the Energy Code that makes it more user-friendly. This was a great improvement and win-win situation for everyone. The committee is also evaluating the Installation Forms to further reduce the paperwork required to demonstrate compliance with the Energy Code.  

CALBO Training Institute’s (CTI) Education Weeks are finalized and the program brochure with details about the San Ramon and Ontario events has been released.  

CALBO’s newly founded Innovation and Technology Committee is also off to a great start. The committee is working on a questionnaire that will gather and identify information about how technology is used in our industry throughout California. The questionnaire was vetted by committee experts and by responding to it, you will evaluate your department’s use of various technologies. The committee intends to share the results with the CALBO membership.  

At the beginning of this article, I tried to draw a parallel between a team sport and building and safety operations. Let me conclude by stating, it is a known fact that one only plays a game right when thoroughly enjoying the game. I will leave the pen here and hope to take a bit more of your time within the next newsletter discussing how you as a building official, can serve your agencies better while enjoy the journey as a building official.  

Best regards,

The CALBO Training Institute (CTI) strives to be your primary source of training by offering topical, current, and relevant educational opportunities throughout the entire Golden State. 

This year, CTI focused on current topic and initiate "NEW" course development. This year, over half of the CTI curriculum is new - providing new practical applications and interpretations, benefiting seasoned staff members as well as building a foundation for the newly arrived industry members. 

We hope to see you at the upcoming Education Weeks being held in San Ramon, Ontario, and Anaheim! 

2017 CALBO Education Week: San Ramon

Monday, September 18 - Thursday, September 21, 2017

Registration Deadline: Tuesday, September 5, 2017

2017 CALBO Education Week: Ontario

Monday, October 16 - Thursday, October 19, 2017

Registration Deadline: Tuesday, October 3, 2017

2018 CALBO Education Week: Anaheim

There are a few new tools that are being rolled out to aid code officials, contractors, designers, and building owners to comply with the energy code.

In response to a request made by the CALBO Energy Commission Advisory Committee, the Energy Commission has agreed to include an index in the 2019 Energy Code.  The index will be consistent with the other parts of Title-24 and will reference sections in order to aid the code user when navigating the Energy Code.

Over the last year, the CALBO Energy Committee has worked with Energy Commission staff to improve some of the required compliance forms. Energy Commission staff has created five dynamic compliance documents for some of the most common residential addition and alteration projects that do not require HERS verification. Contractors and homeowners may use these new CF1Rs and CF2Rs to demonstrate compliance with the 2016 Energy Standards. Many projects will need only three printed pages because they contain only project-specific information. The dynamic features include:

• Embedded instructions – hover over the cells or blue question mark icons to view them.
  
• Only the necessary tables are generated based on selections made in Table A.
  
• The ability to add or delete table rows as needed.
  

These dynamic compliance documents are available for download on the CEC website.

The Energy Commission has developed the “Project Status Report” for residential compliance documents. This report summarizes the status of all compliance documents for a given project, including the Certificates of Compliance (CF1R), Installation (CF2R), and Verification (CF3R). The Project Status Report is available for any project that is registered with an approved HERS Provider.
Enforcement agencies can still access the Project Status Report directly through the HERS registries. This provides enforcement agencies the opportunity, at their discretion, to verify the completion of the CF1R, CF2R, and CF3R documents via the web. To determine if a project is ready for a final inspection, both the “Overall” and “HERS Compliance Documents’” status should be marked “complete.” If the project is marked complete, this indicates that all of the compliance documents have been completed and signed. Currently, CalCERTS and CHEERS registries have this report available.

The CALBO Exam Development Committee (EDC) is a little known committee that gets together every three years to review and update the ICC/CALBO California certification exams. There are currently 11 California specific ICC certification exams for Building, Plumbing, Mechanical, Electrical, and Green; these exams help meet the intent of Assembly Bill No. 717 – California Certification Program. The committee meets in-person every three years during each California code cycle to review previous versions of each exam; we update and verify that each exam question is relevant for the new code cycle.  We also meet occasionally on conference calls to discuss any appealed questions that candidates may have on certain exam questions. 

The committee is run by Doug Hatch, ICC Test Developers and Program Manager, and Renee Meriaux, Committee Chair, who divide the exams and appoint committee members to cover each exam based on their expertise. Each committee member will review every question assigned to them and validate that the question is still relevant. We then have a group discussion to modify any questions, verify the referenced code section, or remove any questions that cannot be used based on the new code edition.  We also get to develop new exam questions based on the new code updates or changes.

I first got involved with this committee during the 2013 code cycle; we met in Ontario during the CALBO Education Week: South. I have to say I was a bit overwhelmed with the task at hand; you have to do actual work on this committee! This year we met at the “new” ICC office in Brea - what a nice office! ICC staff was great and accommodating; we definitely didn’t go hungry during the meetings. I was able to attend two of the three meetings this year for a total of five days. Other committee members got together earlier in the year to update the J1-Residential Inspector exam in order to have it available for a group of students in Merced to take the exam prior to the August start date. 
 

During the May and June meetings we were able to validate all the other exams in order for them to match the 2016 California codes and be available for the August 2017 launch date. It’s good to note that when the 2016 exams are ready, the 2013 versions of the exams will not be available.  

This has been a very rewarding experience being involved with this process. There’s no doubt that when you leave for the day, your brain has had a workout. I definitely have learned a lot being part of the committee and interacting with all the talented committee members.  It’s pretty exciting for a “code nerd” like me to be able to develop new exam questions for the next generation of silent heroes. 

Thank you to the following ICC/CALBO Members for their work on the Exam Development Committee! 

As code officials, the decision or path to compliance is ultimately made by the Authority Having Jurisdiction. However, it is extremely helpful to get some insight or perspective on how others have stepped through similar issues. For any questions regarding all things access, please contact the CALBO Access Committee.

Click below for a brief message by the CALBO Access Committee Chair, Gary Layman.

Each year, groups of local ICC chapters meet regionally in the north and south to discuss collaborative efforts and to share industry interests. 

The ICC Los Angeles Basin, Orange Empire, and Ventura Chapters met on May 11 in Downey with a large audience of building department personnel, state agency representatives, and industry leaders. The lunch meeting was well-attended with CALBO President David Khorram and CALBO’s Executive Director Matt Wheeler serving as the main speakers. 

The ICC East Bay, Monterey Bay, and Peninsula Chapters met on June 2 in Santa Cruz.  CALBO along with state agencies and other associations attended to provide reports over the course of the full day meeting. Members of the CALBO Board of Directors provided a CALBO organizational report about programs, committees, legislation, and events of the upcoming year.  

As a fellow ICC California Chapter, CALBO remains committed to providing up-to-date information through its Board of Director Chapter Liaisons and publishing CALBO Chapter Reports on a quarterly basis.

CALBO continued the tradition of reaching the next generation of building safety professionals by hosting the second Job Fair and Career Development Day at its 2017 Annual Business Meeting in Newport Beach. Below is a Job Fair success story. Thank you to Interwest Consulting Group for sharing with the CALBO community about their participation and experience with this event. Each year, we will continue to bring forth success stories of students aspiring to enter a career and the opportunities fostered by the Job Fair.

For the 2018 CALBO Annual Business Meeting, CALBO is expanding the Job Fair outreach efforts to reach more of the next generation of building safety professionals. Mark your calendars and save the date! The 3rd Annual CALBO Job Fair and Career Development Day will be held on Thursday, March 29, 2018, at the 2018 Annual Business Meeting in Burlingame. Updates will continue to be posted on the CALBO Annual Business Meeting website. Check back soon for ways to register and be part of the next CALBO career development initiative. 

Interwest Consulting Group is committed to the development of future code officials and excited to have a recent success story from participating in CALBO’s 2nd Job Fair and Career Development Day on Thursday, March 23, 2017.

Through internship opportunities and partnerships with local ICC Chapters, we are assisting jurisdictions in training and employing the next generations of code officials.

At the CALBO Job Fair, Interwest Consulting Group staff talked with Michael Duncan, a former Norco College student, with an ICC Residential Building Inspector Certification. Despite his certification and college attendance, he was still in need of the valuable experience, as so many prospective employees are. Michael was invited to our Huntington Beach Office for an interview. We were very impressed with his positive attitude and willingness to learn, thus we hired him in April 2017 to work at the City of Pomona as a Permit Technician/Building Inspector Intern. Michael is catching on fast and doing a great job at the City of Pomona. Michael is also the Treasurer for the ICC Citrus Belt Chapter. Interwest Consulting Group appreciates the efforts of the CALBO Job Fair and Career Development Day to recruit and mentor the next generation of building safety professionals.

Has your building department or community development services organization set up a Yelp page? Yelp is a social media website that helps people find local businesses and services. Individuals can sign up for a Yelp account and become a member of the Yelp community. Yelpers can then enter reviews of their local business, public services, and government agencies, like their neighborhood building department. Visitors to the Yelp website and mobile app can read reviews of building departments from Yelpers, even if they do not have an account. Yelp has had over 73 million visitors to their mobile website in the first quarter for 2017.

Has your organization received ratings and reviews on Yelp? Does your Yelp page have good and/or bad reviews with inappropriate language and comments?  Did you know that there are Yelp guidelines for inappropriate content and that reviews with inappropriate content can be removed?

If you are unsure of the answer to any of the questions above, then try a Google search using the name of your organization, e.g. City or County of Hometown Building Department. Check the search results for Yelp reviews, then select and open the website link to your organization on Yelp.  One may or may not be aware and/or surprised by the reviews and ratings that they have received on Yelp.

The user reviews on Yelp should be objective, whether good or bad, and not subjective. It is essential to read through all the reviews and find any reviews with inappropriate comments, such as derogatory remarks, or personal attacks that may fall outside of the review guidelines.  These comments can be flagged for review by Yelp staff for removal.

To find the content guidelines, go to the bottom of the Yelp webpage and under “about” section select the “About Yelp” web link. This will open the “About Yelp” page. Then select the “Content Guidelines” link at the bottom of the left-hand subject column.  Under these guidelines, inappropriate content is defined as “Colorful language and imagery is fine, but there's no need for threats, harassment, lewdness, hate speech, and other displays of bigotry”. Use these guidelines to determine if you have received any reviews that fall under this definition.  

To report inappropriate content go to bottom of the webpage and under the “about” section select the “About Yelp” web link. On the “About Yelp” page select “Contact Yelp” at the bottom of the left-side subject column. This will take one to the “Support Center” page, and under the “Reporting Questionable Content” topic select “reporting content in question”. This will take one to the page on how to report a review on your yelp page.

Yelp uses automated software to recommend reviews to businesses, public services, and government agencies on Yelp. Users need to closely monitor their Yelp page and reviews for inappropriate content and report them to Yelp immediately to avoid damage to their public standing. It is important to know that inflammatory and inappropriate comments have no place on Yelp and that one can take action to have them removed.  If your organization works hard to provide good customer service, then any inappropriate reviews can ruin all your efforts.    

How long should the wait for a plan check be? Is it taking too long to issue a permit? How can we determine if the wait time is reasonable or not?

Those are some of the questions often asked in a typical building department. Whether it's contractors walking in to obtain a permit or an architect submitting for plan review, there is often an expected wait time.

This paper prepared by Issam Shahrouri, Building Official for City of Costa Mesa, explains the basic process behind the arrival of customers and serving their needs, demonstrates the wait analysis with two examples, determines the ideal wait time, analyzes the factors that affect wait times, and finally suggests methods of decreasing wait times.  

The new 2017-2018 California Building Officials membership year is officially here. If you have not renewed, please take the opportunity to renew now!

PLEASE NOTE: Each 2017-2018 CALBO Member was sent a membership renewal notification explaining their membership category and changes. If you did not receive such notification, please contact the CALBO Office.

*Population size is based on the  2015 City Population Rankings by the California Department of Finance Demographic Research Unit.

Join CALBO for its 56th Annual Business Meeting - A Celebration by the Bay!

CALBO is excited to host its 56th Annual Business Meeting from Sunday, March 25 - Thursday, March 29, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport. 

We look forward to meeting and playing by the Bay at this newly-renovated venue that has professional and accommodating meeting space, CALBO group overnight rate availability, and close proximity to the San Francisco International Airport and freeways. CALBO will again offer an array of programs, events, and training for the professional development of its members. We hope to see you there!

MOST RECENT JOB SUBMISSIONS 

Building Plans Examiner, County of Marin

Application Deadline: Open until Filled

Building Inspection Supervisor - Multi Family Inspection Program,

City of Concord

Application Deadline: Open until Filled