STATE BUILDING CODE FUNDING FAILS TO PASS LEGISLATURE

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1 Sept 17, 2012 Following is the report on 2012 legislature by Dan Chun. STATE BUILDING CODE FUNDING FAILS TO PASS LEGISLATURE House Bill 2358 would have amended the current process. Strongly opposed by many public agencies and design professional societies. Passed the House and crossed over to Senate. Senator Will Espero removed all of the offending language, but Senate Ways & Means committee declined to hear the bill perhaps because it was a money bill with no dollar value included. The bill died and the State Building Code Council (SBCC) is now left with no means of funding their important work of trying to unify and update building codes in the state. AIA expresses its thanks to those members who sent letters supporting funding for the SBCC. Especially notable was support from AIA Hawaii Island Section and AIA Maui members. To date the governor s office has opposed funding the SBCC. Governor Lingle never released the legislature s appropriation and Governor Abercrombie sent a bill to abolish the SBCC. Currently bills are being drafted for the 2013 legislative session to revise the more difficult procedures within the original SBCC adoption and to fund the SBCC. Funding options include set aside from state-funded construction, county building permit surcharges, set aside from design and construction DCCA licensing fees, portion of Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund or a combination from several sources. The AIA Hawaii State Council (HSC) will review any bills and adopt the official AIA position in the coming months. Other legislative activity included bills to use the Art in Public Places Funds for performing arts, opposed by AIA and not passed. Procurement exemption for the University of Hawaii expired. The University did not have an exemption from the architect-engineer procurement law because AIA and ACEC consistently opposed this, and UH says it supports QBS procedures. Bills to adopt provisions of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) also died. The state administration says that the State Building Code Council already has the authority to adopt IGCC in whole or in part. An early AIA and ACEC victory was achieved in opposing SB2075 / HB1769 whereby governmental agencies were only to be liable for the percentage share of the damages that they actually caused. AIA and ACEC were concerned that design professionals would be left jointly liable. Plaintiff lawyers also opposed. The following Acts passed the 2012 legislature and became law. To read the detailed text go to and click on 2012 Acts arranged in

2 numerical order with PDF files of the text. The text is in Ramseyer format with new language underlined and deleted language struck through. ACT 83 FIRE SPRINKLERING BAN Prohibits counties from requiring installation or retrofitting of automatic fire sprinklers in (1) new or existing one- or two-family dwelling units used only for residential purposes; and (2) non-residential agricultural and aquacultural buildings and structures located outside the urban area; provided that this does not apply to new homes that require a variance from access road or fire fighting water supply requirements. Effective July 1, (SB2397 HD3) AIA took no position. Opposed by the fire departments. Supported by BIA Hawaii and other homebuilders opposed to this requirement in updated International Building Code. ACT 89 ELECTRIC VEHICLE PARKING Clarifies the electric vehicle parking requirement. Allows an electric vehicle parking space with a charging system to be located anywhere in the parking lot or structure. Prohibits parking spaces designated for electric vehicles from displacing or reducing accessible stalls required by the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines. Effective January 1, 2013, imposes a warning on any person who parks an unauthorized vehicle in a space designated for electric vehicles. (SB2747 HD2) AIA took no position. Applies to public gathering places with more than 100 parking spaces. ACT 103 ELEVATOR FEES Establishes the boiler and elevator special fund to collect and deposit fees for inspections, permits, and examinations of boilers, pressure systems, elevators, kindred equipment, and amusement rides; provides for sufficient operating costs to carry out the purpose of the boiler and elevator safety law. Appropriates funds for start up costs. (CD1) ACT 114 AGRICULTURAL BUILDING PERMITS Requires each county to establish a list of agricultural buildings and structures that are exempt from existing building permit requirements no later than January 1, Beginning January 1, 2013, exempts specified nonresidential agricultural and aquacultural buildings and structures, and their appurtenances, located outside of the urban district from certain building permit requirements, under certain conditions, in the absence of a county exemption. Requires the department of the attorney general to establish a task force to examine conflicts between state statutes, county codes, and the interests of the agricultural and aquacultural industries and report potential solutions to the governor. (CD1)

3 AIA monitored past versions of this bill, but took no position. Last year s bill passed by legislature, but vetoed by the Governor. ACT 150 HISTORIC PRESERVATION FEES Limits department of land and natural resources fees for its comprehensive historic preservation program to amounts that are proportional to the nature and complexity of the projects or services provided, and adjusted from time to time to ensure that the proceeds, together with all other fines, income, and penalties collected under this chapter, do not surpass the annual operating costs of the comprehensive historic preservation program; requires development and implementation of interpretive signage for historic or cultural properties owned by the State and the counties. Requires the Hawaii historic places review board to develop policies on signage in historic districts. Effective July 1, (HB1972 CD1) ACT 159 CIVIL SERVICE EXEMPTION Exempts temporarily from state civil service, persons hired or contracted to repair and maintain vacant state housing units. Effective July 1, (HB2302 CD1) AIA and ACEC opposed original version of this bill that would have exempted Hawaii Housing Authority (HHA) from State Procurement Code including QBS architect-engineer selection law. AIA and ACEC met with the agency and HHA agreed to modify the bill to remove offending language, restricting the exemption to civil service law. ACT 173 PROCUREMENT Makes permanent the amendments made to section 103D-305, Hawaii Revised Statutes, by Act 175, Session Laws of Hawaii Amends section 103D-305, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to clarify procurement officer responsibilities; require procurements greater than $50,000 for construction to require performance and payment bonds; and require procurements of $25,000 to less than $250,000 to be made in accordance with small purchase procedures. Reenacts the amendments made to sections 103D-709, 103D-710(c), and 103D-710(e), Hawaii Revised Statutes, by Act 175, Session Laws of Hawaii (CD1) AIA took no position on this bill that deals with bid protest procedures. Difficulty in dealing with bid protests are one of the chief reasons for agencies requesting broad exemption from the State Procurement Code. ACT 174 QBS EXEMPTION / Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL) Exempts expenditures less than $100,000 from the Hawaiian home operating fund, Hawaiian home receipts fund, Hawaiian home trust fund, native Hawaiian rehabilitation fund, and Hawaiian home administration account from the Hawaii

4 public procurement code. Requires the DHHL to submit an annual report to the legislature. Repeals on June 30, (SD1) AIA took no position on this bill. ACT 180 TAX CLEARANCES Imposes fees to obtain a tax clearance or a certified copy of a tax clearance. (SB2868 HD1) ACT 239 SPECIAL MANAGEMENT AREA (SMA) PERMITS Requires the counties to concurrently process subdivision and SMA use permits under certain conditions to ensure that a SMA use permit is processed before final subdivision approval. (CD1) ACT 244 UNLICENSED CONTRACTING Establishes unlicensed contracting activity as a misdemeanor offense; establishes habitual unlicensed contracting activity and unlicensed contractor fraud as felonies. Provides that each day of unlicensed contracting activity is a distinct and separate offense under certain circumstances. Exempts from the offense of unlicensed contracting activity an offense by a previously licensed licensee who inadvertently fails to renew an expired license. Effective 07/01/2012. (CD1) ACT 260 PROMPT PAYMENT Shortens the time by which subcontractors are to receive progress and final payments from contractors on private construction projects. Provides interest penalties for late payments. Effective July 1, (SB2412 HD2) AIA took no position. This act extends the current requirements of publicly funded construction to privately-funded construction. ACT 272 DISABILITY AND COMMUNICATION ACCESS BOARD (DCAB) SPECIAL FUND Clarifies that all moneys collected as application fees or fees for continuing education units shall be deposited into the disability and communication access board special fund and that moneys in the fund shall be used to defray costs of administering chapter 348F, HRS. (SB2831 CD1) ACT 277 DCAB SPECIAL FUND Requires the Disability and Communication Access Board (DCAB) to charge fees to defray expenses of reviewing construction plans to ensure compliance with state and federal law relating to accessibility. Establishes a fee schedule. Effective 1/1/2013. (SD2)

5 AIA took no position. Opposed by other sectors of the construction industry. It is noted that this sets a modest fee schedule for reviewing state-funded construction projects, with the money set aside for operating the agency. ACT 287 OUTDOOR LIGHT SHIELDING Requires new and replacement state outdoor light fixtures in counties with a population of at least 100,000 to be fully shielded and to have a correlated color temperature of 4,000 Kelvin or less beginning July 1, 2014, with certain exemptions. (CD1) AIA took no position. Required only of state agencies.