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Building Code Bingo
So far, however, post-Andrew efforts to adopt a simpler and stricter state code are running into a brick wall of opposition. Local officials are proving reluctant to give up their power to adopt special rules to suit their own needs. As a result, a new recommendation for a statewide building code may never get off the drawing board.
The recommendation is contained in a report by researchers at the Florida A&M University (FAMU) Institute for Building Sciences. The report, prepared for the Florida Housing Finance Agency, echoes what many design professionals and builders have been saying for years: At a time when construction is an increasingly mobile business, unique local building rules are incongruous.
But local governments, acting mainly through the Florida League of Cities, are making it a political priority to resist a uniform statewide building code.
League officials say their members only want to be able to adopt stricter local controls. "'What if someone in Palm Beach County or a municipality in Dade determines that there are standards based on local circumstances that need to be more stringent?" asks Kraig Conn, assistant general counsel of the Florida League of Cities. "'That is a significant concern in the eyes of local government."
Supporters of uniform codes say the opposition has other motives. For one, many local governments want to keep their own codes in order to accommodate their hometown construction industries. "'Codes have long survived as protectionism for local building contractors, engineers, architects and other construction-related trades and professionals," argues Marvin J. Cantor, an architect who participated in the FAMU study.
Uniform code backers note that model codes such as the Standard Building Code of the Southern Building Code Congress International include maps that delineate areas where conditions require tougher requirements - for salty soil conditions, say, or heavy rainfall. Local amendments simply aren't necessary anymore to ensure building integrity, they say.
Researchers for the FAMU study repeatedly got an earful from builders and building officials about the way Florida could be treated in model-code windstorm maps. According to notes from one meeting last summer: "'A participant noted he could live with [the Standard Building Code] but the wind maps must change - they are not acceptable. Look at Orlando and what the map says about wind there. Orlando should not be penalized for Dade or Broward conditions."
In fact, Florida builders led a charge against stricter wind standards for the Standard Building Code just last October. On the day before Hurricane Opal roared ashore in the Panhandle, building officials at the Southern Building Code Congress International voted down a proposal to require stronger doors and windows for new buildings across Florida and in coastal areas of other Southern states.
Faced with widespread resistance to change, state officials are taking a go-slow attitude, focusing on the possibility of a task force to look at ways of implementing the FAMU study's findings. "'With a separate state energy code, a separate [handicapped] accessibility code, with different building codes, with local variations and interpretations, I don't think what we have right now is necessarily satisfactory," says Douglas Buck of the state Department of Community Affairs. "'One option is a more uniform code. But how do you get to that?"
Florida builders already suffer from a bad image because of shoddy construction practices. In addition, the industry could see its costs climb as a result of complying with a wide array of local codes.
"'From a personal standpoint I look at the situation as one that will be germane to the survival of the Florida construction industry," says principal investigator Tom Martineau, an FAMU architecture professor. "'I just think a uniform statewide code is an idea whose time has come."
Unskilled Workers
A new study confirms one big reason for Florida's large number of unskilled workers: the often-poor performance of the state's $1.5 billion vocational education and adult job training programs.
The study by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, a legislative research group, shows weakness in both arms of the state's effort - namely, vocational education run by local school boards and community colleges on the one hand, and a batch of job-training programs run by the Florida Department of Labor and Employment Security (DLES) on the other.
As a recent position paper from Gov. Chiles' office describes the problem: "'The system we have is not a system at all. It's a rag-tag collection of programs - a hodge podge of initiatives, some which work, many that don't."
For example, the legislative study showed that high school vocational programs had a student completion rate of only 20% in 1993-94. Of those, only 60% became employed, and just 19% of them in full-time jobs. Vocational programs for adults had slightly better completion rates, but none higher than 55%.
Among DLES job-training programs, the study focused on job placement. It found placement rates ranging from a dismal 22% for Project Independence, an experimental welfare-to-work program, up to 71% for a federal displaced-worker retraining program. Unfortunately, Project Independence was by far the largest of the four DLES programs, with 51,274 participants exiting in 1993-94.
The legislative study concludes that poor program performance "'may be a consequence of current funding mechanisms" that have encouraged educators to grab as many students as possible, without worrying about later availability of jobs in those fields. The study recommends refocusing on long-term outcomes. That includes cutting back on training in fields such as cosmetology (hairdressing and nail polishing) that rarely give students access to high-demand, high-wage occupations.
A companion study of postsecondary vocational programs concluded that 37% of all adult vocational educational programs in 1992-93 were poor performers, costing the state $13 million and producing few successful job-seekers.
The statistics suggest that some of the governor's ambitious welfare-to-work ideas might be over-optimistic. But at least Chiles and Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay are trying to solve the problems. In December the governor announced a series of reforms aimed at making trainers more accountable for on-the-job success. The reforms, part of the governor's Workforce Development Strategy, include financial incentives for job placement.
Tallahassee Briefs
Red Tape Woes
About 27% of businesses responding to a recent survey say they spend more than ten person-days a year filling out state government forms. It's a big chunk of time for most of these businesses: Fully 86% have 25 employees or fewer.
Not surprisingly, most respondents say the exercise doesn't help them in their business. The survey was conducted for the Governor's Task Force on Paperwork Reduction, a product of Chiles' newfound fascination with red-tape relief.
In their recently released report, task force members conclude that state agencies don't share information well. They suggest that state officials start doing a better job of communicating with each other - instead of demanding the same information over and over from businesses and other regulated entities.
Dipping Into State Pensions
A lot of corporate raiders made money in the 1980s by milking employee pension plans. Now Gov. Chiles proposes to enrich state and local government coffers by squeezing an extra $200 million or so from the long-troubled Florida Retirement System (FRS).
The key to the governor's plan: postponing some payoffs of the system's unfunded actuarial liability, which now stands at about $12.4 billion. "'It's not a particularly radical thing to do," budget director Robert Bradley says of the proposals.
The proposals have set off a stir in the Capitol, however. Some analysts say the changes could result in new unfunded liabilities after 2008. Republicans gripe that Chiles is proposing the changes to avoid the spending cuts being advocated by Senate leaders.
