Safety and Buildings Division Contractor Certification Meeting Summaries

Wednesday, December 6, 2006, 9:30 a.m., ThompsonBuilding, Rm 3C, 201 West Washington Ave., Madison, Wisconsin

Council Member Attendance: Craig Rakowski - Present; Jay Statz - Present; Joseph Welch - Present

Staff Attendance: Randy Baldwin, Director, Integrated Services Bureau; Robert DuPont, Director, Program Development Bureau; Tom Kasper, Section Chief; James Quast, Program Manager; Larry Swaziek, Program Manager

Visitors: Tim Semmann, Wisconsin Builders Assoc.

1.  Welcome, Introductions, Review of Agenda: Jim Quast opened the meeting and welcomed everyone.

2.  Review Council Member Responsibilities: There was a quick review of the Advisory Council Manual, which describes the roles, duties and responsibilities of the members and staff, as well as, relationships to other division councils.

3.  Review Working Draft of Proposed Rules: The council reviewed a draft of the proposed rules relating to dwelling contractor certification that interpret and implement 2005 Wis. Act 200.In light of the council’s discussions the following modifications are expected to be made to the draft:

- Section 5, Table 5.06; the term for the dwelling contractor qualifier is to be changed to one year. The council felt that a term of two years would be reasonable, but the law specifies a continuing education cycle of one year.

- Section 8, Comm 5.31 (1) (b); modify sentence to read “Holds or is an employee of a person who holds a certification issued by the department as a dwelling contractor qualifier.”

- Section 9, Comm 5.315 (2) (c); modify the language to require at least 12 hours of an approved course or courses. The council felt that, since dwelling contractors will have to be credentialed by January 1, 2008 to take out a building permit, the 12 hours would be appropriate. That rate may be, by a rule change, increased to 24 hours in a couple of years.

- Section 9, Comm 5.315 (2) (c) 1.; remove item d., Mechanical systems, from the pre-qualifier subject matter list. It was suggested that categories such as OSHA Safety and business/contractual related subject matters be added. It was decided that this level of detail may not be needed.< That information could be covered under category a., Governing laws and codes. Coursework details will be discussed further at a future council meeting.

- Section 9, Comm 5.315 (2) (c) 2.; Staff mentioned that, by policy, a business that had a dwelling contractor financial responsibility credential between April 11 and April 14, 2006 may be able to change the contact person listed between those dates when applying for the dwelling contractors qualifier credential.< That new person could then become a dwelling contractor qualifier without taking the pre-qualifier course and test. If that will be permitted, code language should be added to reflect this condition.

- Section 9, Comm 5.315 (3) (b) 1.; reduce the continuous education hours from 24 to 6. The dwelling contractor qualifier credential term was reduced from 4 years to one year and the statute specifies that the continuing education be at lease 6 hours per year.

- Section 11, Comm 20.09 (5) (c) 2.; modify language to read “Holds or is an employee of a person….” See Section 8 change above.

The council agreed that these proposed rules were generally ready to go to hearing as long as the above modifications were incorporated in the rule draft. The department will modify the draft taking into consideration the comments made at the meeting and forward a second draft to the members of the council for their review. If the council agrees with the modifications, that draft, or a slightly modified version, will go to hearing.

5.  Chair. Craig Rakowski was elected chair.

6.  Next Meeting. Another meeting was not scheduled at this time.  It is anticipated that the next meeting will be held after the public hearing for the rules relating to the credentialing of dwelling contractors and contractor qualifiers. An agenda item for discussion at the next meeting would be continuing education courses. It is estimated that the hearings will be held in January with the next council meeting being in February.

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