BOMA Columbus Legislative Committee met with Norm Martin, Chief Elevator Inspector, State of Ohio
Norm is the Chief Elevator Inspector for the State of Ohio. He has a staff of 50 employees covering all 88 counties. His department is not responsible for the inspections in the cities of Cleveland or Cincinnati. He is the Chairman on the Quality Elevator Inspector's Board and is Vice Chair for the National Association of Elevator Safety Authorities.
Norm's department is responsible for regulating building owners - not elevator companies. One of the more interesting issues that he confronts in his day-to-day activities is pertaining to the Elevator Inspectors and the interaction with the building owners. He and his supervisors know that all parties must have a good working relationship.
He mentioned a new bill that is pending in the Ohio House of Representatives; it would require mechanics working on the vertical transportation systems to hold a license to do so.
"Green" Building initiative: an overview of the new equipment in the marketplace (pros and cons):
The committee had a brief discussion on the new wave of elevator systems and the impact on the building. New construction costs are reduced and energy savings are a result of the new equipment installations. The energy savings have been reduced by as much as 40% in some instances.
A17.7 was recently accepted in the State of Ohio. This will allow Norm and his department the authority to evaluate new technology and determine its safety in the marketplace.
Modernization - alternation impact on other building utilites (MEPs), brief overview of existing requirements and update on future code requirements:
There is a minor coordination effort amongst code authorities (fire, electrical, mechanical, etc.) to ensure that each other communicates a consistent message with one another. The fire code and elevator code would be one example. We discussed some possible scenarios pertaining to the fire requirements and what impact they have on the elevator system.
A17.1 and A17.3 are applicable to both existing and alterations. Single bottom cylinders as an example and older elevator systems are being driven to upgrade to new controls (new elevator system).
Code Requirements for existing elevator systems, common violations, update on future code requirements:
One of the future requirements for building owners will include the installation of new (consistent) firefighter service keyswitches. The new switch is consistent amongst all elevator manufacturers - leading to less confusion for firefighter personnel.
The escalator testing (both annual and semi-annual) are here to stay and have had a great reduction in the number of injuries to the public. The inspections are taking less time, and creating less of a disruption to the building owner, as a result of the regularity of the inspection.
The Legislative Committee has asked Norm Martin to be a keynot luncheon speaker in the near future. Watch for details.....
Having just returned from the BOMA International Winter Business Meetings, here are some important updates:
- TRIA--Extended through 2014.
- Carried Interest-Still debating. BOMA opposes from 15% to ordinary income taxed at 35%.
- Zero Carbon emissions by the year 2030. New Construction.
- 50% of commercial stock by 2024.
- All Buildings by 2050. Does not include code mandates.
- Tax Deduction Energy Policy Act in 2005, expiring 12/31/08.
- 30% Energy Reduction by 2012.
- Leasehold Improvements. Trying to get it implemented retroactive to 1/01/08. Not been approved by Congress.
- Roofing Tax Treatment.--Up in the air. Probably not going to happen.
- Employee Free Choice Act-2009.
- Nat. Catastrophic Insurance-Homeowners get relief, but not Commercial Office Buildings. BOMA working on.
State and Local Affairs-Grass Roots Advocacy. 3-Issues--
- Weakening of Economy
- Energy
- Environment
Codes & Standards-Multiple Victories:
- State & Local Model Code Adoption, California and New York
- Costly Code Changes Disappeared @ ICC Code Hearings (e.g. Lobby Requirements out;
- BOMA secured voting position on Green, IAQ, and Energy Standards Dev. Committee.
Other Issues:
- Balloting on office and Industrial floor measurements.--7 Standards planned.
- ANSI-Standards are in Development Process
- Accessibility updates: New ADAAG-Notice of Ruling Issued.
- ICC-ANSI-A117.1-2003 Edition--Work underway on new revision..committee meeting in spring of 2008.
- ICC-2007 Code Supplement Available 09/08; Final Hearings, In Minneapolis and comes out in 2009.
- Elevator wall thickness-Challenging this. Anything over 7 stories; (dedicated elevator). Heat issues. Elevator slows down.
- Green Building Code-California-Coming out in November
- 3rd Stairwell being discussed for buildings over 420 feet; BOMA fighting this.
- ArcFlash Requirements-Special Clothing adding cost; Labeling required in all electrical panels.
Construction answer: Build faster, better, safer, and less costly buildings.
Government Response; Stuck in red tape, 2% use electronics.
Inside Washington:
- Green energy Environmental Standards
- Emergency Preparedness
Energy & Environmental Committee:
- Recycling-California-A lot more will be expected.
- San Francisco-T.I.-Adoption of LEED-New Construction. Must be LEED Certified
- Pushing Benchmarking
- Energy Improvement Districts-Kansas now has this. Has cross easements
- Seattle Benchmarked--Called Kilowatt Killing
- Portland-Education Committee-Pushing BEEP
- T-5s now being introduced.
- Green Building Initiative - www.thegbi.org. Standards to become mainstream
- Green Globes-Coming out of Canada for new Construction
- Green Globes Ratings-Must pass 3rd party assessment-Cost will be $4000-$6000.
- Is there a competitive advantage to have Green Globes, vs. Energy Star, LEED, etc.
Industry Defense Fund (IDF):
- BOMA Denver attempt to preemptive access legislation and confirming little nationwide activity on this issue.
- Participated with San Francisco for $50,000 and local BOMA associations targeted at California PUC to address Time of Use pricing, Rate Parity for commercial real estate customers to rectify the current extraordinary burden, and sub metering rules that will permit building owners to sub-meter. Prior to this, they received $70,000 from the IDF. This motion was passed for the $50,000 last December.
- Watching for catastrophic Insurance in Florida. Outcry for what is going on. Allstate issue.
- Florida legislation--analysis of Energy Standards.
State Government Affairs Committee:
- Questionon how many locals not doing advocacy? If so, how effective is it?
- Florida-Phase 3 Water Restriction--5% surcharge if using more than allotted. Being challenged
- California-Have a safety Advisory Board who arbitrates.
- 1 bill that has passed. If tenant leaves more than $300 of value behind. Must go to auction.
- Liability issue-Defibrillators-If owner installs.
- California--Green Building Initiatives-Writing Green Building Codes--Should be done in a few weeks.
- Californiawants to mandate full evacuation on all buildings over 22 stories.
- Nashville-Trying to adopt ICC.
- New York reports--Insurance companies are flush with cash. Should negotiate hard and could get 20%-30% reduction. Rates went up 300% when Katrina hit.
- Get locals involved-7 point challenge--30% reduction in electricity by 2012.
Why Benchmark:
- 5 million existing commercial buildings
- 70 Billion sq. ft.
- 2-4% sq. feet added annually
- Better performance tracking
- Verify energy, financial and carbon outputs
- Discussion of Carbon Emissions Trading or CAP and Trade-Fee Market
- Buildings not utilizing or under utilizing can accrue carbon credits or offset.-Sell them or trade them.
- BOMA Emissions reduction strategies are coming. Revenue Sharing???
Government Affairs Committee:
- BOMA International Issue-Temporary Workers, e.g. landscaping, roofers, etc. What is BOMA doing? They do not want to get involved in hiring of people. This issue affects, housing, health care, auto industry, and is a National Issue. They have taken no position, but have agreed to look into it and get back to us at the Convention in Denver.
- BOMA wants their Energy Policy to state that by 2050 all buildings are functioning by alternative sources of energy.
- TREA-Extended 7 years until 01/01/16.
- BOMA is doing a study on Energy Policy and Climate Change. This was passed in 2007.
- Task force is being formed to better connect locals.
- Telecommunications--FCC trying to rule against exclusivity agreements. BOMA does not believe FCC has authority.
As a continuing service to our membership, the legislative committee wanted to update everyone on a few hot topics that may affect your organization. We have analyzed below these few topics that may be of interest to each of you. Any opinions expressed herein are in no way the opinions of BOMA Columbus or BOMA International and should be viewed as "informational purposes only".
Immigration:
"No match letters" and the H2-B program for non-skilled workers not involved in agriculture:
Basically, the "no match" letter issue affects employers who may have unknowingly hired illegal workers. The Social Security Administration (SSA) routinely mails a no match letter to employees when social security numbers listed by employers in earnings reports sent to the SSA do not match numbers in the SSA data base. A recent AFL-CIO complaint states that this earnings suspense file contains more than 255 million unmatched earnings records and continues to grow at 8 to 10 million per year.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) views "the failure to have a match with records is a good indicator that the employee has provided a phony Social Security number to the employer", and has now issued regulations that may make employers liable if they ignore "no match" problems by failing to take specified steps within 90 days of receiving the letter. The end result of the 90 day process to correct the social security number may lead to re-documenting by the employee with new ID's and a new social security number, or termination of employment. In the past, employers were only obligated to inform an employee that a "no match" letter was received and that he/she should contact the SSA to correct the problem.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration intended to begin sending no match letters to 140,000 employers between September 4, 2007 and November 9, 2007. Approximately 8.7 million employees would be affected by this initial wave of mailings.
On August 28th, 2007 the AFL-CIO filed a complaint in the United States District Court in Northern California, that challenged this DHS rule that uses the Social Security tax system for immigration enforcement purposes. On August 31, 2007 a Federal judge issued a temporary restraining order which has prohibited the mass mailing of the "no match" letters for now. So, after employers have spent a lot of time preparing to handle the receipt of the letter and the potential termination of some employees, everything is now ON HOLD.
The H2-B program is Federal program that allows up to 100,000 unskilled seasonal workers legal passage to the United States to perform seasonal non-agriculture work..........the perfect worker for our landscape members. Workers with a H2-B visa are allowed to legally work in the USA for 10 months, but must return to their home country for two months. In 2003 the cap was 66,000 workers. This was increased to 100,000 in 2005, 2006, and 2007 due to the extreme shortage of US workers to meet seasonal hiring needs. Congress must now vote on this act in September in order to extend the 100,000 cap for the next three years. Some of our members hire workers through this program and are very concerned if the extension is not passed and the foreign worker is not available for hire. The worst case scenario is that if there is a shortage of workers available, there will be a bidding war for those that are here and will result in higher prices.
With the combination of the "no match" letter issue and the possible non-passage of the higher H2-B cap, employers may find it difficult to hire good foreign employees. Stay tuned!!
Information regarding the "no-match" letters were extracted from current articles found in Business First. If you would like copies, please contact one of the Legislative Committee Members, or Cindy Smith.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) "Janitors":
We think everyone by now has some knowledge of the SEIU's move to gain a labor agreement with the Columbus Cleaning Contractors........so we won't bore you with the details. But, here is a quick update on negotiations. The Contractors Association (nine contractors) met with the SEIU in the first negotiation session on September 5th. The next negotiating session will be October 4th and 5th. Their initial non-economic demands pretty much resembled the initial demands in Cincinnati.
After the next meeting, we will highlight for you what transpired, and will follow this movement to its conclusion. Stay tuned as well!!
Having just returned from the BOMA Summer Convention in New York City, I wanted to highlight some of the things BOMA International is undertaking:
Federalization of Building Codes: BOMA International Position:
BOMA International supports the development of model building codes through a consensus process that encourages participation by all interested and affected parties within well-recognized and generally accepted and accredited organizations. BOMA International supports the adoption of model codes by federal, state and local authorities that have been fully vetted through this consensus process. BOMA International opposes federal legislation that would preempt this consensus process and "federalize" the model code development process by putting the federal legislation that would mandate adoption and enforcement of specific model codes at the state or local level.
Background: The purpose of this deliberative process is to reach consensus on necessary changes to model building codes that federal, state and local agencies can adopt and enforce for new building construction and renovation and remodeling of existing buildings. This process takes place under the auspices of the International Code Council )ICC), although other groups such as the NFPA develop codes as well. BOMA International is a regular participant in the development of commercial building model codes.
Recent Activity: There have been attempts through federal legislation to preempt the well established consensus model code development process by mandating the development of these codes by federal regulatory agencies or to make changes to the model codes produced by the well-recognized code development organizations and to mandate the adoption and enforcement of these codes by state and local agencies.
Carried Interest Tax Treatment: BOMA International Position:
BOMA International supports maintaining current law that taxes the "carried interest: of a general partner in a real estate partnership as a capital gain. BOMA International opposes altering the tax code to require carried interest by taxed as ordinary income.
Background: Real state is a long-term, risk-based investment which is regularly structured as a partnership and therefore, often involves a component known as "carried interest." When the general partner receives the "carry" it is taxed as a capital gain. It is paid only when, and if, the real estate investment actually is successful. Requiring that all returns from carried interests by taxed at ordinary income rates, no matter the nature of the investment nor the investment period, will disrupt the investment relationship between entrepreneurs and their capital finance partners. A change in the tax code requiring carried interest by taxed as ordinary income would also negatively impact the small entrepreneurs who may not have the same negotiating leverage larger firms do to pass on a carried interest tax increase to their investors or employ new investment structures to avoid the tax altogether.
Recent Activity: Members in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation in the 110th Congress that would require carried interest by taxed as ordinary income rather than at the capital gains tax rate. The initial Senate bill would only apply to public partnerships while the House bill would apply to both public and private partnerships. The Senate held a hearing in early July 2007 and the House may also hold a hearing before the August recess.
Energy Performance Metric: BOMA International Position:
BOMA International supports ENERGY STAR as the national industry standard energy performance metric for commercial buildings.
Background: There is a strong likelihood that different regulatory programs to reduce carbon emissions, such as "cap and trade" programs, will be seriously considered. Many BOMA members have been leaders in energy efficiency and sustainability and have been benchmarking and improving efficiencies for the past years. In addition, many BOMA members are already using ENERGY STAR as their performance metric. BOMA would push to have any measures of a given building or portfolios "improvement efforts" be measured not against "themselves" but against the average building in Energy Star-i.e. comparing against a building scoring a 50 on the Energy Star rating and the corresponding consumption measure to the 50 rating. This insures the top performing buildings and companies are not penalized, and further creates potential for greater "value creation" in a carbon trading model.
On the local level:
SEIU Activity: On the heels of recent high-profile contract victories Cincinnati janitors have won higher wages, more work hours, and health insurance in their first-ever city-wide union contract. The groundbreaking agreement will lift more than a 1000 janitors out of poverty, increasing the income of the majority of workers by 129% over the course of the contract--nearly doubling their income of workers at the lowest end of the spectrum within the first 18 months, according to the SEIU.
Columbus janitors are about to begin bargaining for what they hope will be a similar contract covering janitors here. Many Columbus janitors work for the same companies that were at the negotiating table in Cincinnati. |
