Last week, Congress approved a measure to fund the government into early December, staving off a shutdown. The funding stopgap includes $22 million for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct a technical investigation into the June 24 partial collapse of the Champlain Tower South condominium in Surfside, Fla.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, serving the Surfside district, pushed for the funding. “We have years in front of us to determine just exactly how this building collapse occurred and to adopt policies to make sure that it never happens anywhere in the country again,” she says.
The Champlain Tower South investigation will be the fifth investigation NIST has conducted using authorities granted by the 2002 National Construction Safety Team Act. The act gives NIST and its teams primary authority to investigate the site of a building disaster, access key pieces of evidence such as records and documents, and collect and preserve evidence from the site of a failure or disaster. It also calls for NIST to issue reports and make recommendations to improve building codes and standards.
“In response to the tragic events at Champlain Tower South, an accomplished team of experts has answered the call to help us determine the likely cause or causes of the partial collapse,” says James Olthoff, who is currently performing the duties of the undersecretary of commerce for standards and technology and NIST director. “I’m confident this team will work tirelessly to understand what happened in Surfside, and to make recommendations that will improve the safety of buildings across the United States to ensure a tragedy like this does not happen again.”
To learn more about the NIST investigation and to receive updates on the progress during the investigation, visit the NIST Champlain Towers South investigation webpages.
NIST invites members of the public to submit any information, including videos, photos or other documentation that might help the investigation via the NIST Disaster Data Portal.
CAI provides information and resources to help concerned residents and board members understand structural integrity, maintenance, and reserves.
One of the worst piece of legislation in Hawaii is:
§514B-123 Association meetings; voting; proxies(C) To the board as a whole and that the vote is to be made on the basis of the preference of the majority of the directors present at the meeting;
I am a part of a group of owners who have been advocating in legislation to abolish this added proxy option because it aides the board members to manipulate the majority board members to be in control and in my community deferred maintenance or short cuts in repairs. My building mirrors Champagne Towers South in the respect of clearly the absence of preventative maintenance programs in lieu of “run to failure.” Prime example is Champagne Towers South. The management companies enable the majority board members keep a director like myself from staying on the board by using the proxies as a whole to distribute the votes to the veteran director who votes for their agendas instead of putting the building infrastructure first. Like cosmetic projects and useless amenities like a barbecue grill. This board tried to by-pass fire safety codes and install the grill at the swimming pool. Without me being on the board the grill would have been installed. I was voted out by proxies to the board as a whole in November 2020 and in the next meeting 2021 the grill was back on the agenda.
Its the silent adoption of “run to failure” instead of preventative maintenance to keep the maintenance fees artificially low.
I’m hope you give some attention to this piece of legislation that is unfair and manipulates elections.
Thank-you Lourdes Scheibert
Link to Civil Beat – Open letter to Hawaii Condo Owners about proxies
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj6957ywujzAhVFDDQIHRmcBegQFnoECAQQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.civilbeat.org%2F2019%2F02%2Fan-open-letter-to-hawaii-condo-owners-about-proxies%2F&usg=AOvVaw1zmZ9cn2WFXHj1c5lswOJk