Zupkus Op-Ed: Legislative Update

As a state legislator, one of the roles that we may be tasked with by our leadership is to serve on one or several committees within the General Assembly. I serve on the Human Services and General Law committees. I also serve on the Public Safety and Security committee, and I am the highest ranking Republican on the committee, called the Ranking Member.

The Public Safety and Security committee has cognizance over all state matters pertaining to – you guessed it- the safety and well-being of the citizens of the state of Connecticut. Also under the purview of the committee is the oversight of regulations and safety standards, including state buildings, residential homes and buildings, fire safety, mechanical, plumbing, energy conservation, and electrical, to name a few.

As the Public Safety committee gathered during the 2016 legislative session, it had come to my attention that these safety standards had not been updated since 2005! It was greatly disturbing to me to find that more than 10 years had passed without any action by the legislature to bring them current.

In the last ten years, new technology has emerged and processes have continued to evolve and improve. With those improvements come standard recommendations on managing and maintaining safety. During conversations with committee leadership, I insisted that this was an issue of safety that should be immediately undertaken by the committee for action. It was imperative that our state codes be updated in order to carry out these recommendations of various safety standards. Following that conversation, I personally had taken on the charge of managing the legislative process and working with the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) and the Codes and Standards Committee to review and update all safety codes.

The challenge in working to update the codes was that Connecticut’s regulatory process is very cumbersome. In working with DAS during the 2016 legislative session, a process was crafted, and legislation was drafted and passed to reduce the time it takes to pass regulations or changes to regulations in order to update the codes in a more timely and efficient manner. As a result, the Public Safety and Security committee put forth legislation, which was voted on by the legislature and passed into law by the governor effective October 1, 2016, stating that the 2016 CT State Building Code will adopt the 2012 national model codes for building, residential, existing buildings, mechanical, plumbing, energy conservation, codes, in addition to the 2009 Accessible and Usable Buildings code, and the 2014 electrical code. The 2016 Connecticut Fire Safety Code was updated to consist of the 2012 International Fire and Life Safety codes.

In the upcoming 2017 legislative session, I look forward to continuing the good work that we began and building on this progress. When the Public Safety and Security committee convenes in January, the Codes and Standards committee will get to work on bringing the 2015 codes up to date, with the final goal of bringing all codes and standards current by the following year, 2018.

I am very proud of this accomplishment, in working with DAS and my fellow legislative colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I believe that a core function of state government is to provide for the safety and security of the citizens of Connecticut. It is my hope that the legislation passed this year will help to ensure an expedited process in adopting the next installment of code and standard updates, and ultimately, ensure the safety and well-being of the general public.

As always, please feel free to contact me about this or any legislative or local issue. I can be reached at 800-842-1423 or email Lezlye.Zupkus@cga.ct.gov.