Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education School Safety topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
House rejects bill creating school seismic safety committee
Summary
First Substitute House Bill 72, which would have established a Public School Seismic Safety Committee to survey and prioritize seismic retrofits, failed in the House 34–38 after debate over timing and process; the bill was reserved and referred to staff for filing.
A proposal to create a state-level committee to inventory seismic hazards in public schools failed on the House floor on third reading.
Representative Wiley, sponsor of first substitute House Bill 72, described the bill as creating a seven-member Public School Seismic Safety Committee that would compile a statewide survey of public schools and recommend retrofit priorities to the State Board of Education and the Legislature. The committee, Wiley said, would consist of engineers and representatives from small, medium and large school districts, and must receive structural or seismic evaluations and building data from districts and charter schools "on or before 10/01/2010." Wiley said the committee would perform rapid visual screenings supervised by licensed professional engineers in accordance with federal guidelines.
Lawmakers debated the scope, cost and timing of the proposal. After the vote, the clerk announced the bill had received 34 yes votes and 38 no votes; the bill failed to pass and was referred to staff for filing.
The transcript of sponsor remarks contains one garbled date for the committee reporting requirement (rendered in the record as "October 3132"). That date could not be verified in the transcript and is therefore treated here as not specified.
With the bill's failure, no committee or statutory data-submission timetable was enacted during this session.
