A push to allow local fire and building officials to inspect school buildings died in a Senate committee Wednesday.
One school group opposed the legislation.
The Senate state affairs committee voted 5-2 to kill the bill. Democratic Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald said she voted against it because there were too many concerns that had not been worked out.
Currently, there is one state employee responsible for approving and inspecting many school construction and renovation projects throughout Colorado. The legislation would have let more local officials help do the job.
Kevin Klein of the Colorado State Fire Chiefs’ Association had backed the legislation. Roofs have collapsed, incorrectly hung doors have opened to block fire exits and malfunctioning fire alarms have gone unnoticed for more than a year and half, Klein said, noting the consequences of a state unable to keep up with inspections.
“We’ve just been lucky we haven’t had a major disaster,” he said.
Numbers from the state labor department, which oversees the inspector, bear out the problem.
In the 2002-03 fiscal year, 224 school plans were reviewed and seven school buildings were inspected by the department. The following year, five of the 246 school plans reviewed were inspected. The state labor department has delegated building-plan review and inspections to local officials in Denver, Aurora and Mesa County, said Bill Thoennes, department spokesman.
But two school groups – the Colorado Association of School Boards and the Colorado Association of School Executives – raised concerns about the legislation.
George Latuda, an adviser to CASE, said he opposed the bill because it was about politics, not safety.
“This bill comes around every two or three years,” Latuda said. “The cities and counties want to have control over school buildings. It’s not a safety issue.”
The answer, Latuda said, is more state inspectors.
Jerry Stricker, president of the Fire Marshals’ Association of Colorado, said the bill meant contractors would have had to get their work inspected, “what they were supposed to be doing all along.”
Jane Urschel of CASB said her group was concerned that the bill was introduced toward the end of the legislative session. “It’s too bad it’s been kept behind a smoke screen until the last few days of the session,” she said.
But the bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Tom Wiens of Castle Rock, said: “This is no surprise to CASB. They’ve known of this issue for years, not weeks.”
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at cfrates@denverpost.com or 303-820-1633.
