This past Wednesday there was an ICC governance committee open forum conference call where the topic of discussion was the structure of their governing body.
Though there is much discussion about form, and term limits and such, there is no internal movement within ICC to change their code development process to enable ISO65/IEC structure, which is needed in order to have a real industry consensus standards development organizational structure (SDO).
Only regulatory delegates have a vote in the code development process (at ICC). They claim that industry has a vested financial interest in outcomes and because of that they should not be permitted to vote.
There are three fatal flaws to their logic when the goal is enhanced public health and safety, free of arbitrary trade restraints.
- Industry must demonstrate due diligence or they are separated from their assets. This is the counter-weight to the vested interest they mentioned, and it is heavy indeed. Meanwhile inspector opinions of code interpretation are protected by discretionary immunity…they have no accountability in court. (inspectors immunity).. If they make a bad call that leads to personal injury, death or property damage, nothing happens to them personally….they have immunity.
- The approved (ICC) SDO structure requires three groups to sit about the table, regulatory, industry and consumer advocacy. Their rationale for excluding industry does not apply to consumer advocacy groups, and as such is not valid.
- Regulatory officials are kidding themselves when they pretend they do not have personal financial interest in the code development process. Just who is it that prospers from the successes of code development and the publishing of their codes? Do all of the proceeds go to the community? To their respective governmental units? No, to them personally, all of which was treated as non-profit to begin with.
There will never be a better time to press ICC and IAPMO to follow ANSI mandates for SDO’s.
It is very important that every company that has felt the pain form denied approval on their products for arbitrary reasons speak up and let ICC know that ISO655/IEC formative structure is crucial for their code development committee.
Thomas Johnson, President
Johnson Diversified Products, Inc.
(Reproduced here by permission of the author) |
