The Florida Building Commission meeting in Naples was cancelled due to the weather. At this time it appears that the 2008 NEC issue will be brought up at the October meeting in Tampa.
Some individuals may not know Building Officials Association of Florida agreed to support adoption of the 2008 NEC if it is delayed until either June or July of 2009 so as to allow time for proper training of the new code, to be conducted within the state of Florida.

Proper training???? What have we been doing for over a year since the 08 debuted?

Everyone south be safe!

Maybe you and few others have had the training but I believe you would be surprised at how many inspectors and contractors have not even purchased the 2008 NEC much less cracked it open and study it. Budgets are tight and quite a few departments have not tried to justify the purchase since it is still up in the air if it will even be adopt by FL.
It appears from a review of BCAIB course approvals about the only training approved is from Palm Bch County and that only was approved in April 2008.

Mr. Fuchs,
The Suncoast IAEI had an 8 hour 2008 NEC change seminar by Mr. Minick and Mr. Ode in March 2008 with over 150 inspectors and contractors in attendance. I have personally instructed 6 hour 2008 NEC CEU classes in Sarasota, Lakeland, Ft Meyers, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Invernes, Jupiter Beach, and Tampa, reaching over 200 electrical contractors. I feel that the inspectors and contractors that care about the trade are informed, have the Code books and are ready for the new Code to be adopted. We were first told 10/08, then 12/08, now we are hearing 6/09 for the adoption. Why is the State not adopting the 2007 Building and the 2008 NEC on 12/31/08 as planned? Please let us know the time and date of the Tampa Building Officials Association of Florida meeting so we can attend.
Thank you
Neal Burdick
City of Tampa Inspector
IAEI and ECF instructor

Well first the 2008 NEC never on the agenda to be adopted until 2011. Reason: FS 553.73 Florida Building Code (3) The commission shall select from available national or international model building codes, or other available building codes and standards currently recognized by the laws of this state, to form the foundation for the Florida Building Code.The 2008 NEC was not available prior to the 2007 Florida codes being discussed, processed and adopted in October 2007. Then on 6/17/08 the governor signed House Bill 697 which states Adoption of an updated edition of the National Electrical Code if the commission finds that delay of implementing the updated edition causes undue hardship to stakeholders or otherwise threatens the public health, safety, and welfare.With the signing of HB 697 it began the argument/discussion of adopting the 2008 sooner then originally planned. The two sides involved, discussed whether or not it was a glitch or should go though the code development process as does the International set of codes.
A glitch is considered a tweaking or fixing of a problem of the adopted codes. The code devolvement process would require public hearings, etc and would hold up adoption until around January 2010. Some parties have tried to use cost involved as the reason for undue hardship to stakeholder not to adopted, others have used public health, safety, and welfare as the reason to adopted.
A somewhat compromised was reach that the 2008 NEC would not have to go though the code change process if it was delayed for 6 months for “training”. If it went though the code change process it ran a good chance of being tweaked in many ways for Florida such as adopting the 2008 NEC without the 2008 arc faults requirements. With this compromised we can get the 2008 NEC hopefully adopted without Florida amendments.

Second, the Florida Building codes were originally required to go into effect October 1 2008 but again because of the Governor mandate of new energy requirement it was delayed. The thought process was rather then start enforcing the 2007 energy requirement in October then making a big change again in December 2008 the commission delayed the effective date of the 2007 codes until December 31, 2008. Now with the commission meeting cancelled this week because of Fay it up in the air if this can be accomplished with the required public hearing before December 31, 2008.

Suncoast Chapter of Building Officials Association of Florida does not list their meeting dates on their web site. However I suggest you contact their President Patrick Murphy here is the link to their web site with the contact information http://www.suncoastboaf.com/index.php

We too had a 2008 code change seminar back in February here at the Gulf Coast Division and the North Florida Division hosted the 2008 changes course at the state meeting back in May.

The problem is that MOST have only paid much attention to the real big issues like tamper-resistant receptacles and afci expansion.

There are literally 100's of changes. While many have not much significance, many do.

While I feel the delay in adopting the 2008 NEC is going to cause a bit of confusion and likely some frustration, DOn has clearly pointed out what the law says and what the limitations are of the Florida Building Commission.

There is no elegant solution to the code adoption process that I can foresee, based on converstations with the commission and discussions over at the Building Officials Association of Florida website.

Not to be argumentative, it appears the training indicated thus far on the 2008 NEC is less then 20% of the licensees within Florida. According to DBPR 2006 annual report there are 10,378 active electrical contractors’ licenses and 1,317 inactive electrical contractors’ licenses. These numbers are not including electrical inspectors or the in the field trade personnel.

Oh, I agree. We haven't even begun to scratch the surface when it comes to training and education on the 2008 NEC. It seems that most will only attend a seminar on a code change if it happens to end up on a license renewal year, is needed because the exam they need to pass is under the newest code, or the course is cheap or free.

You must also consider that other organizations such as the ECF, Mike Holt, and the NFPA have been holding seminars in the state of Florida or will be at some point.

There is however, no such thing as providing too many training and educational opportunities, especially when it comes to code change.

Has ICC or the other exam providers like Thomson Prometric indicated when they will change their exams to the 2008 NEC? 2009 is also the renewal year for BCAIB licensee's so seminars offered during the first 6 months of next year should be pretty successful...