Report to the 2007 General Assembly - Page 13 |
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Legislative Study Committee on State Construction Inspections 13 North Carolina's recent change to the International Building Code; and disagreement between designers and the Department of Insurance over code interpretation. The Department of Insurance, through guideline checklists and their website, is trying to communicate the Department's expectations to designers and owning agencies. The purpose of these initiatives is to reduce the amount conflict over interpretation of the building code. The stakeholders raised the concern that the Department of Insurance does not currently offer general code instruction for owning agency personnel and designers. The community colleges offer building code instruction for code officials, but owning agencies stated that code official classes delve deeper into the subject matter than is appropriate for their personnel. Owning agencies are interested in high level instruction on the State Building Code and also stated that designers might benefit from the continuing education opportunity. Recommendation # 19 – Owning agencies identify the training needs of their capital program administrators and connect them with training opportunities in the Department of Administration. Recommendation # 20 – Department of Insurance develop general training opportunities for owning agency personnel and designers on the State Building Code. Resource Needs in Review/ Inspection Agencies The Study Commission heard from owning agencies, designers, builders, and the review/ inspection agencies about various resource needs of the review/ inspection agencies. Through the course of its work, the Study Commission found: When the General Assembly authorizes capital projects, very little attention is paid to the impact of those capital projects on the general government agencies responsible for supporting and overseeing those projects. In discussing the impact of the 2000 Higher Education Bonds, the impact of the Bonds on the review/ inspection agencies was covered several times. The review/ inspection agencies raised the concern that they're workload and workflow is impacted by large capital authorizations by the Legislature, but these authorizations do not address anticipated impacts to the review agencies. The stakeholders agreed that impacts to the review agencies should be included in the State's Capital Improvement Program and in large capital authorizations by the General Assembly. Several ideas were discussed, such as indirect cost charges on capital projects, or administrative costs added to projects. The workgroup recognized the challenge of implementing such charges. Capital funds are non- recurring and any such charges would not provide the recurring funds necessary to establish permanent positions. Time- limited positions would be difficult to fill. Department of Insurance has code reviewers looking at both private and public facilities. The Department is considering establishing procedures for shifting reviewers between the private and public review operations to address workload surges. Private and public
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Title | Report to the 2007 General Assembly - Page 13 |
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Full Text | Legislative Study Committee on State Construction Inspections 13 North Carolina's recent change to the International Building Code; and disagreement between designers and the Department of Insurance over code interpretation. The Department of Insurance, through guideline checklists and their website, is trying to communicate the Department's expectations to designers and owning agencies. The purpose of these initiatives is to reduce the amount conflict over interpretation of the building code. The stakeholders raised the concern that the Department of Insurance does not currently offer general code instruction for owning agency personnel and designers. The community colleges offer building code instruction for code officials, but owning agencies stated that code official classes delve deeper into the subject matter than is appropriate for their personnel. Owning agencies are interested in high level instruction on the State Building Code and also stated that designers might benefit from the continuing education opportunity. Recommendation # 19 – Owning agencies identify the training needs of their capital program administrators and connect them with training opportunities in the Department of Administration. Recommendation # 20 – Department of Insurance develop general training opportunities for owning agency personnel and designers on the State Building Code. Resource Needs in Review/ Inspection Agencies The Study Commission heard from owning agencies, designers, builders, and the review/ inspection agencies about various resource needs of the review/ inspection agencies. Through the course of its work, the Study Commission found: When the General Assembly authorizes capital projects, very little attention is paid to the impact of those capital projects on the general government agencies responsible for supporting and overseeing those projects. In discussing the impact of the 2000 Higher Education Bonds, the impact of the Bonds on the review/ inspection agencies was covered several times. The review/ inspection agencies raised the concern that they're workload and workflow is impacted by large capital authorizations by the Legislature, but these authorizations do not address anticipated impacts to the review agencies. The stakeholders agreed that impacts to the review agencies should be included in the State's Capital Improvement Program and in large capital authorizations by the General Assembly. Several ideas were discussed, such as indirect cost charges on capital projects, or administrative costs added to projects. The workgroup recognized the challenge of implementing such charges. Capital funds are non- recurring and any such charges would not provide the recurring funds necessary to establish permanent positions. Time- limited positions would be difficult to fill. Department of Insurance has code reviewers looking at both private and public facilities. The Department is considering establishing procedures for shifting reviewers between the private and public review operations to address workload surges. Private and public |