Dear HGCAA Membership and Friends,
Today was the Houston City Council meeting which provided for public comment on many issues in particular the premise wiring and POE ordinances we have been very concerned about.
The simple truth is our industry was exceptionally well represented and both Mayor Turner and the entire City Council received our message loud and clear even before today. It was great to hear from Mayor Turner (no relation…at least I don’t think) today right out of the gate that the verbiage was going to be reversed. We clearly had a good number of letters, emails and phone calls for the council to consider rolling back the changes before the meeting even started today. We had hoped that a huge wave of letters, emails and phone calls would get their attention…it worked!
I think the Mayor thought his announcement would have us all log out or go home. Many fine low voltage folks still took their allotted 1, 2 or 3 minute window to share their thoughts and to take this issue a step further. Our message was consistent requesting the reversal of the proposed language and restoring the low voltage exemption. They also heard repeatedly and now clearly understand our suggested language to mirror the language taken directly from the Texas Electrical Safety and Licensing Act noting the NEC code to nip this in the bud.
it was an amazing to witness our consistent message from not only our membership but other low voltage industries. These messages were truly music to many of our ears but at the same time I expect some of the electricians (high voltage folks) were not happy about today.
The simple truth is this was truly a team effort of the alarm industry and many other industries with common interests. I want to thank several folks in particular Chris Heaton with ESA, Kelly Ryan (TBFAA President, Van Mayorga TBFAA Vice President, Brian McKinney and each and every one of you countless others that helped spread the message, and for taking the time to do something about it. It’s not over yet, but I for one think we had a huge win today and we have their attention and interest!
Yours in Safety & Security,
Brian K. Turner
President