Page 63 - Green Builder May-June 2020 Issue

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CODE ARENA

The Latest Rules, Regulations and Codes Impacting Sustainable Construction

CREDIT: ERHUI1979/ISTOCK

Onward With Online Voting

Is e-voting helpful or harmful to code development?
Eight ICC shareholders offer their views.

BY MIKE COLLIGNON
N OUR LAST ARTICLE, we detailed the 2021 IECC preliminary Group B code changes. The Code Council will then issue a public
voting results. The outcome certainly generated a lot of pas- report on the proceedings.” (Editor’s note: Final results were released
sionate response. Starting in mid-January, the letters started on April 10, 2020.)
pouring in to the International Code Council (ICC) from stake- Regardless of when the process is completed, there is still a philo-
I holders such as the Leading Builders of America, AIA, NAHB, sophical discussion taking place about the electronic voting process.
NASEO, NEMA and state and local code officials. Has it been unfairly coerced? Does it provide a benefit to those
As of press time, the ICC had received 19 letters voicing their governmental voting members who cannot attend the hearings in-
opinions on the outcome and process. Some of the letters disputed person? Is increased engagement from governmental voting mem-
the eligibility of the registered voters and alleged voting irregulari- bers a positive or negative thing?
ties. After a third-party independent audit, the ICC announced there The ICC will grapple with this discussion in the months ahead. We
were no discrepancies foundand the results were forwarded to the thought it might be helpful to survey various participants in the code

Validation Committee for their review. development process. Each respondent received the following two
The ICC details the next steps as: “Once that committee makes questions, and were given a target of 200 words to reply. If responses
a determination, their recommendations will go before the Code were edited, it was only for length or typos and edits received the
Council Board of Directors, which will issue a final ruling on the consent of the respondent.

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