The League of California Cities, in conjunction with national organizations, state municipal leagues, and individual local governments, has appealed to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standards Council for relief from NFPA 1710, Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments, and NFPA 1720, Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Volunteer Fire Departments. Testimony was presented at a meeting of the NFPA Standards Council on July 10 in San Francisco. The multi-page appeal was submitted by Bernard A. Burk, Counsel for the League of California Cities, of the Law Offices of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, A Professional Corporation.
Parties to the “Appeal of the League of California Cities to the NFPA Standards Council regarding Proposed Standards 1710 and 1720” include the National League of Cities; the United States Conference of Mayors; the National Association of Counties; the International City/County Management Association; the Public Risk Management Association; the National Public Employer Labor Relations Association; the International Personnel Management Association; 40 other state municipal leagues, representing the interests of a total of more than 15,000 cities nationwide; the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association; and numerous individual cities, towns, and fire districts.
Among the “grounds for the appeal” cited in the document, posted on the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Web site (www.icma.org/go.cfm?cid=2&gid=8&sid=15&did=1145&FPF=Y). were the following:
· “Repeated and widespread violations of numerous protections in the Association’s regulations and Conduct Guide prevented NFPA 1710 from becoming anything remotely resembling a ‘consensus’ standard.”
· “The Technical Committee did not rely on, and did not seriously investigate, any substantial scientific basis for its proposed standard.”
The complete document is available at the above Web site.
The NFPA Standards Committee is expected to render a decision on the appeals next week, according to a spokesperson for the NFPA Codes and Standards Administration.
