TITLE
IMPACT ON MIAMI-DADE COUNTY OF THE PROPOSED FLORIDA BUILDING CODE AND THE STATE'S CONTRACTING BILLS

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TO: Honorable Chairperson and Members April 27, 1999
Board of County Commissioners

SUBJECT: Impact on Miami-Dade
FROM: M.R. Stierheim County of the Proposed
County Manager Florida Building Code
and the State's
Contracting Bills

STAFF RECOMMENDATION
The following is provided to inform you on the status of two issues at state level that can have a serious detrimental effect on the quality of construction and the safety of buildings in Miami-Dade County. This material supplements Item No. 7(C)2A on this agenda, a resolution on the same subject sponsored by Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla shown as

MANAGER'S BACKGROUND
PROPOSED FLORIDA BUILDING CODE

As you are probably already aware, the South Florida Building Code (SFBC) will be replaced by the Florida Building Code on January 1, 2001. On July 31, 1996, the Governor issued an Executive Order establishing the Governor's Building Codes Study Commission. The Commission was charged to "evaluate the current effectiveness of, and through general consensus among the Commission members, recommend any necessary steps to reform the Florida building code system." One of the Commission's charges was to "look at the overall inventory of building codes and standards controlling the quality of Florida's build environment, the administration of these codes and standards, and issues relating to code compliance." In December 1997 the Commission issued a report to the Governor recommending a statewide-unified building code.

Chapter 98-287, Laws of Florida authorizes the adoption and subsequent updates of a statewide-unified building code to be called the Florida Building Code. Upon initial adoption, the Florida Building Code is deemed adopted by all local jurisdictions. Local governments may adopt more stringent requirements to the code subject to restrictions including but not limited to the approval of the Florida Building Code Commission. A statewide product evaluation system shall be developed and administered by the Florida Building Commission.

The Florida Building Commission will submit to the Legislature, before the year 2000 regular session the Florida Building Code as adopted by that Commission. From November 1998 to April 1999 subcommittees drafted provisions of the Code. From May to August 1999 public workshops will be held to revise and draft the Code (the May workshop will be held in Hollywood). From September to December 1999 public hearings will be held to finalize and adopt the new Florida Building Code to be effective on January 1, 2001.

The Commission adopted the Standard Building Code (SBCCI) as the base code. The South Florida Building Code with stricter provisions was dismissed. At the subcommittee meetings held in Orlando on April 12 and 13, 1999, the Miami-Dade County recommendations and proposed code changes (appendixes) were not approved. Prior submittals by Miami-Dade County to incorporate into the body of the Code certain provisions of the South Florida Building Code were also disapproved.


The following are some of the provisions which will be weakened when the Florida Building Code is imposed on Miami-Dade County, replacing our SFBC:

1. Reduced mandatory building inspections. The new code does not provide for sheathing, drywall, roofing, insulation or soil preparation inspections, among others. This may cause roof failures on structures subjected to high winds and settlement of structures built on unsuitable or unstable soils.

2. Structural plans review by a structural engineer is not required in the Florida Building Code. This will seriously compromise the structural integrity of large buildings and homes if not designed properly.

3. The more stringent requirement for plans examiner and inspector certification by the County will be eliminated. Less qualified and experienced personnel will be reviewing and inspecting the construction work.

4. Inspections by the building department could be optional as the Building Official is authorized to accept inspection affidavits from an architect or engineer hired by the owner. We will regress to the 1980's and 1970's when inspection letters were accepted from any architect or engineer and inspections in many instances were never performed.

5. The County's Product Control Approval system will be eliminated. A watered down version of this system will be performed by private contractors working for the State. The State Product Evaluation would not approve products but only review them. The State is replacing a well known product approval system with an unproven product evaluation. The Miami-Dade County Product Approval System is recognized at the local, national and international levels as the best system for the review and approval of roofing and hurricane related products.

The State would create a rubber-stamping system to approve products without proper review of documentation submitted by the manufacturer. OSB (oriented strand board) sheathing as thin as 1/2" will be allowed in Miami-Dade County as a building envelope component. This use of the material and its failure during Hurricane Andrew was responsible for major damage during the storm.

6. Plans for homes (buildings under three stories in height) would not be required to be prepared, signed and sealed by an architect or engineer. This has never been allowed under the SFBC because of the necessity to design structures to withstand high wind pressures and to ensure life safety.

7. Special inspections under the SFBC for certain structural components and assemblies, in addition to the normal mandatory building inspections, will be eliminated. Important components of a structure essential to its integrity will not be inspected. These include reinforced masonry, pilings, fill compaction under slabs on grade, welding of high strength bolting and structural glazed panels.

8. Dual mandatory inspections by the design professional stipulated by the SFBC will be eliminated. Currently, the architect or engineer of record has to perform all structural/envelope inspections of a building and certify at the time of final inspection that he/she has made such inspections, and that the building was built according to his/her approved plans. This provision was added to the SFBC in response to a recommendation in the Grand Jury Report released after Hurricane Andrew. If deleted, the structural certification of the design professional could jeopardize the structural integrity of building.

9. The 40-year recerfication of buildings is eliminated. The SFBC requires such certification for electrical systems and structural components of all buildings except single family homes. This is to be performed by a licensed architect or engineer. Elimination of this provision will reduce the number of declared unsafe structures in the County (by lack of inspection) and compromise the safety of occupants of older buildings.

10. Impact resistance requirements for building envelope components such as doors and windows, will be eliminated. The mandatory use of shutters and other protection devices demonstrated by Hurricane Andrew to be essential to the structural integrity of a building under severe wind load will also be eliminated.

11. Wind pressure resistance requirements will be greatly reduced from our current standards due to changes in exposure criteria.

12. The SFBC roofing chapter, which was initially approved in principle by the Florida Building Code Commission, was later rejected as too stringent. This translates into the elimination of mandatory roofing inspections and going back to pre-1988 code requirements.

The Code Enforcement Technical Advisory Committees (TAC) charged with the responsibility to propose modifications to the Base Code for inclusion in the Florida Building Code has failed to approve any amendments proposed by Miami-Dade County. This will result in the decrease of the quality of Miami-Dade County's building environment when the new code is imposed. The Base Code is very loose and difficult to enforce, and much weaker than the 1988 edition of the South Florida Building Code.

One of our most recent endeavors was the unprecedented joint effort by Miami-Dade and Broward Counties to submit a unified administrative chapter to be incorporated in the Base Code as an appendix. This appendix would have served as a model for those jurisdictions wishing to adopt the more stringent requirements in the SFBC. The submittal was made at the request of the Code Enforcement TAC, since they did not wish to have the more stringent requirements imposed upon the rest of the State. The appendix, although approved in principle during the first hearing, was later disapproved. In order to protect the life and safety of the citizens of Miami-Dade County, it is imperative that the SFBC be allowed to remain our building code.

CONTRACTOR LICENSING BY THE STATE

Contractor licensing by the State is another issue of grave concern to Miami-Dade County. The concept of having one-tier uniform licenses is meritorious. Currently Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe and Palm Beach Counties have local licensing for contractors. A contractor has the choice of a county license (which allows him/her to work only in that county) or a State license (which allows him/her to work in the entire State). According to House Bill 2015 and Senate Bill 2268, major trades licensing will be the exclusive purview of the State of Florida. It appears at this time that only certain specialty local licensing will be retained by the counties. Contractors not desiring to have a State license may continue to renew their licenses with the County. However, the County will not be able to issue equivalent licenses of the trades issued by the State. The fees collected for licenses are used for enforcement of contractor performance and prevention of unlicensed activity. The State will collect and retain all fees, leaving the counties without the necessary funds to perform enforcement. Let it be noted that the State has historically been remiss in disciplining contractors.

The Contractor Section of the Miami-Dade Building Code Compliance Office will lose approximately $444,000 almost immediately upon implementation of the law and would have a recurring projected annual loss of $99,690 in new certifications and other contractor licensing related fees. The few Code Compliance Investigators who would remain would be responsible for addressing enforcement activities throughout Miami-Dade County, severely hampering our ability to monitor and effectively carry out county-wide enforcement activities.

The increase of unlicensed activity will also economically impact local industry. The unlicensed contractor does not incur the same costs of licensed contractors who abide by local and state regulations (ie: general liability insurance, worker's compensation, etc.). This creates a competitive advantage for the unlicensed contractor and does not encourage new contractors to abide by licensing laws, specially if there is minimal local enforcement. Hurricane Andrew taught us that the County needs to have an effective and continued level of contractor licensing and enforcement. The victimization suffered by our citizens as a result of unscrupulous and unlicensed contractors was comparable to the physical effects of the storm. The public must be able to depend on their county government to be able to assist them with contractor licensing and enforcement issues.