Approved Minutes — original pdf

Approved Minutes

REGULAR CALLED MEETING Electric Board APPROVED MINUTES The Electric Board convened in a Regular Called Board Meeting on August 18, 2021 via Web Ex Video Conference at 10:05 am. Board Members in Attendance: Gabe Flores, Delwin Goss, Rogelio Wallace, David Johnson, David Adamson, Michael King and Randy Pomikahl Members Not in Attendance: Nicole Stasek and Ben Brenneman Staff in Attendance: Rick Arzola (DSD), Mitchell Tolbert (DSD), Marty Starrett (DSD) and Jordan Word (DSD) August 18, 2021 1. CITIZEN COMMUNICATION: There was no registration of citizens to speak at this Electrical Board. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes from the May 19, 2020 regular called meeting was approved with modifications. Board member Johnson made a motion to approve the minutes as amended, Board member Goss second the motion, and the motion passed 7-0. 2 DISCUSSION a. Austin Criteria Manual Update- Commercial Electrical Supervisor Marty Starrett provide information to the board the topics of discussion: work in the flood plain, back feed into the network, change of ownership and edits and clearances to some tables in the criteria manual. Not much else was discussed and other topics of the meeting were shelved due to the metering department staff being absent. So not much else got discussed but are presently working on solar design criteria changes with AE and are discussing a new coalition agreement between AE and DSD involving solar. Chairman has put in the request for board members Johnson and himself to be involved at the next meeting due to many issues that he is hearing with scheduling of shutdowns and opening of meter and CT cans. b. Tentative Interim Agreement- Board member Johnson updated the board that the new TIA has passed panel 2 by a 12-1 vote and has pass the correlating committee by an l1-1 vote and awaits Standard council for the final vote. HBA are appealing to the standard council in the coming days to include their TIA that got voted down to include that all HVAC units not to be protected by GFCI until all details have been compromised. A ruling should be out by the end of the month which leaves the State of Texas free from protecting all HVAC units from GFCI. c. Legislature Update- Staff believes that this involves a house bill concerning contractor registration. DSD are in a process working out details for General Contractor registration. Vice Chair Johnson is requesting a representative from the law department to update the board on legislative changes that will affect Austin code amendments. d. Inspection Update on 2020 Code – DSD Commercial Electrical Supervisor Starrett indicated no issues on the commercial side. Jordan Word with Residential Electrical inspections also indicated that no issues have come up and that most are line with breaker requirements. Board member Johnson proposed the question on contractor registration violations- Jordan replied that they are doing their best in documenting violators and that Marty is keeping a log of contractors and following up with phone calls to those contractors and “scolding them” for their actions. e. DSD Permit Program-.Staff Mitchell Tolbert mentioned that the building is open for meetings however an appointment is highly encouraged for all visitors to schedule. Commercial express permit project are is being considered for a re-haul and has been conversation with the inspection department as the inspection office has assisted with express building permits for issuance, relieving much of the back log of permit requests. Currently trying retool the express trade permits at this time. f. Solar Systems for Apartments Staff member Tolbert provided an update that DSD met with and Austin Fire and other departments to re-address the solar coalition agreement that DSD has with AE and will be adding an addendum to residential design solar systems allowable certain places on multi-family commercial properties. g. COVID update: Staff updated board member that the next meeting will be in person at the Planning Development Center beginning on September 1. Mask wearing will be required. 4. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 1. Discussion- Criteria Manual update 2. Discussion- Tentative Interim Agreement update 3. Discussion- Legislature update. 4. Discussion- Inspection update on the 2020 Code 5. Discussion- DSD Permit Program 6. Discussion- Solar Systems for Apartments update 7. Discussion- IBC Code Changes affecting Electrical 8. Discussion- COVID update 5. ADJOURN: Board member Goss made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Vice Chair Johnson seconded the motion. Motion passed 7-0. Meeting was adjourned at 10:50 am.