Review and Advisory Council
Time to Disband
June 2015
By
John R. Waters, CFPS, EFO, MA, MS
Larry Christie
Chief Fire Marshal
Fire Marshal
Director of Safety and Codes Enforcement
Butler Township
Upper Merion Township
Co-Chairs
Pennsylvania Residential Fire Sprinkler Coalition
Dysfunctional: not able to accomplish a function or mission. Not the term you want to hear
about a state-appointed review panel whose job is to review changes to the various codes that
safeguard our citizens’ health and safety. Yet is the perfect word to describe the Uniform
Construction Code’s Review and Advisory Council and, interestingly enough, they admit it!
Back in 1999, the Commonwealth passed legislation creating a state-wide building code, which
is regularly updated to match the standards of the International Code Council’s International
Building Code and International Residential Code. The International Code Council also
publishes various other codes, such as a plumbing code, a mechanical code and an electrical
code that were adopted to create the Uniform Construction Code. It established coordination
between these code disciplines such that conflicts were eliminated.
Changes to these codes are ongoing and based on extensive research. Anyone can propose
changes to the International Code Council and changes are vetted and voted upon by code
officials with no financial interest in the outcome. This is meant to protect those who occupy
these buildings: You and your family, and I and mine. These changes result in fully updated
editions every three years.
Yet, here we are in 2015 and we’re still enforcing the 2009 editions of the code because the
Review and Advisory Council is dysfunctional; they were not able to agree on adopting the 2012
or 2015 editions. In fact, a lawsuit has just been filed challenging their rejection of the 2015
codes and the constitutionality of their voting process.
So, what does that mean to you? Question: Have any of your software packages been updated
in the last 6 years? Are you still using a 2009-era cell phone? Ongoing research has vastly
improved technology and the same is true for the various construction regulations that apply to
buildings. Research has resulted in better building codes, adopted at the national level to
preclude special-interest – except public safety – influence, yet communities in Pennsylvania
can’t enforce them. The Review and Advisory Council is stuck, due to some individuals who
have no background in public safety and unfortunately are looking out for the interests of the
building industry above our citizens.
Here are some specific issues that will affect you:
ISO Building Code Effectiveness Schedule
Each community is examined, periodically, as to their codes enforcement efforts. The
results of these studies can influence insurance premium rates. In order to get full
credit for the adopted codes, they can’t be more than six years old. Yet, here we are,
using a six-year-old code and about to be penalized for the RAC’s failure to recommend
adoption of the 2015 edition of the codes.
Referenced Standards
Each of the codes reference various standards to ensure public safety, such as
Consumer Product Safety Commission Standards, the American Society for the Testing
of Materials Standards, the National Fire Protection Association Standards including
the National Electric Code, the American National Standards Institute, the universallyknown Underwriter’s Laboratories Standards and many others. Each of these
standards is also subjected to a rigorous review of proposed changes, and updates are
published often. Our old codes reference hundreds of outdated standards due to the
RAC’s failure to recommend adoption of the 2015 editions of the code.
Local Government is the level that responds to emergencies
Each of the various codes provides for public safety; it is not the state or the RAC who
respond when that safety is compromised, it’s local government - our local police, fire
and emergency medical services entities. Yet is the state, through their Uniform
Construction Code’s Review and Advisory Council, who is ensuring that updated codes
are not adopted in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
As previously mentioned, the RAC fully admits their dysfunctional status. In a February 25,
2015 letter to the Honorable Members of the General Assembly, the RAC’s Legislative Working
Group stated “…the RAC is unable to effectively fulfill its obligation to review and update the
Uniform Construction Code without legislative change.”
They went on to observe “We have concluded that if the RAC reviews and adopts the provisions
of the code with the current interpretation of Act 1, it will result in a construction code which is
impossible to promulgate, to understand, to comply with or enforce.”
What’s wrong with this picture and when will action be taken to correct it? Previous actions
only created the current problem, so proposed actions should be closely monitored. We don’t
want the solution to be worse than the problem.