HB 180: AHFC HOUSING INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS Number 164 DAVID HARDING, LEGISLATIVE AIDE TO REPRESENTATIVE EILEEN MACLEAN, PRIME SPONSOR of HB 180, began by saying, "Some problems occurred as a result of the merging of the Rural Housing Loan programs that were in DCRA (Department of Community and Regional Affairs) into AHFC (Alaska Housing Finance Corporation) last year (1992). The existing rural loan program was specifically exempted from the inspection requirements in the statute under consideration. So when this other rural loan program came over to AHFC it seems as though there would be an argument for a similar exemption. That is not what Representative MacLean is proposing here. She recognizes the value of a housing inspection program to insure good construction standards. What we've asked to do is broaden the pool of people eligible to make these inspections in rural areas..." MR. HARDING then addressed the concerns raised when HB 180 was last heard in the committee, "...Architects and engineers, whether or not they should be added specifically as a group of eligible inspectors or whether they ought to be approved on a case by case basis. The availability of architects and engineers would make a very small, very important difference. The likelihood is that when an architect, for example, was in a rural community inspecting some public works project...they might be asked by the community or someone in the community to do one of these inspections as long as they're there. It would be done as a professional courtesy, this is not going to be a cash cow for architects and I really believe it will be more of a headache for them than anything else. If they have to go to AHFC and get specific authorization, they just won't do it... Representative MacLean asks that you leave architects and engineers in there..." Number 198 MR. HARDING continued, "A couple of people asked last week that in any case inspectors be approved on a case-by-case basis. That is largely what this bill (HB 180) allows AHFC to do. They can approve someone to be an inspector for part of one inspection or an entire single inspection or they can just identify someone in the community that they feel is good enough to do any part of this inspection. There's a lot of flexibility there for them to provide a case-by-case review as they see fit... There has been an informal inspection process out there in the rural areas already. The banks who are loaning the money out there have had to in whatever ways available to them, provide some kind of inspection process so they can have some assurance that they're putting their money behind a good project. They've identified people in the communities over the years that they can trust..." Number 230 MR. HARDING then said, "There was a suggestion to allow a grace period of maybe a year or three years to allow time for people in remote areas to become ICBO certified... Our feeling is that really would not work because there's just not the volume of housing construction out there to make it work... There was the question on the definition of rural... The law already exempts from these inspection requirements, any municipality that has its own code and its own inspection program. In Southeast Alaska that includes Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Petersburg and Skagway..." MR. HARDING concluded, "On the matter of substandard housing, there was the concern that this might open the door to bad housing being built in rural Alaska. ...Again, I think the bankers who make the loans would tell you the quality of housing in rural Alaska, even without an inspection program has been steadily improving over the years...because of the cost of energy and the awareness of energy efficiency..." Number 283 REPRESENTATIVE JOHN DAVIES asked, "You said there was still the ability of AHFC to approve people, but as I read the bill (HB 180), a person by virtue of being an architect or engineer would automatically be approved." MR. HARDING said, "That's right." REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES said, "I would still raise that as an area of some concern to me. I don't know if it's fatal... It doesn't take much of a refresher course to understand certain basic principles that are important... I'm not so sure it would be an unreasonable requirement to ask AHFC to have a small checklist or one day refresher course..." MR. HARDING replied, "I would think AHFC certainly could make available the kind of checklist you're talking about..." REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES pointed out that often banks are involved only in the construction phase because mortgages are sold. Number 344 REPRESENTATIVE OLBERG said, "This says an architect and an engineer are eligible. It doesn't say they're automatically going to be hired by anybody. I'd be surprised if Alaska Housing didn't have a fairly stringent in-house training program or qualification scenario." REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE MOVED that HB 180 be passed out of committee with individual recommendations. Without objections, IT SO MOVED. Number 379