NEII is pleased to welcome Chelsea Chaney to the team. Chelsea joins the staff on September 8 as the association’s new director of government affairs. Chelsea will help the team develop industry strategy, communicate to policymakers, drive adoption of the national model codes and standards, and serve as a liaison to NEII members and industry stakeholders.
Chelsea has held several key positions on the staff of retiring Senator Pat Roberts (KS) and was most recently the Senator’s district director. In this role, Chelsea managed community outreach and constituent services, communicated complex legislative policy issues to Kansas constituents, and represented the
Senator on a variety of legislative topics and community issues. She holds a BA from Washburn University in Topeka, KS and a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Kansas.
Chelsea is an active volunteer in her community and serves on the Board of Directors for the Jr. League of Kansas City and Starlight Theatre. Chelsea currently lives in Leawood, Kansas a suburb of Kansas City, and enjoys traveling, baking, golfing, sailing and spending time with family including her dogs, Gipper & Reba.
Please help us to welcome Chelsea to NEII and to the industry. She can be reached at cchaney@neii.org.
Coronavirus Updates
Several states and jurisdictions have paused their reopening efforts and/or imposed travel restrictions. Vermont has extended its state of emergency until September 15. Washington’s reopening efforts are on
pause along with Virginia, Texas, Oregon, Nevada, Mississippi, Kentucky, Indiana, Delaware, California, and Arizona. In addition, the City of Chicago has scaled back its reopening efforts.
States or jurisdictions that are currently enforcing 14-day travel quarantines include: Connecticut, D.C., Hawaii, Maine (for travelers from certain states), Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Vermont. Several other states have quarantine recommendations or requirements for travelers coming from states with specific COVID-19 rates.
In addition, states that have recently started requiring face coverings include Mississippi, Oklahoma City and New Hampshire (in large gatherings), South Carolina and Utah.
CISA Guidance 4.0 Includes Building Transportation Industry References as Essential
In the recently released edition of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Guidance on Essential Critical Infrastructure (version 4.0), NEII’s recommendations are included. In this version, elevator technicians are listed as essential critical infrastructure workers (page 17) and building transportation equipment is included as an essential function (page 19). Read the complete memo.
International Code Council Researches Impact of Coronavirus
The International Code Council has been conducting surveys of building and fire departments to determine how they are coping with the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 Pandemic. The results of their April survey are available here. Another survey is currently open and can be found here.
Overall, what they’ve found is that the majority of departments are still performing inspections either remotely or in person. 65 percent of respondents indicated that employees who conduct plan review or inspections are working remotely. And that a large percentage of jurisdictions use a combination of electronic and hard copy versions of building safety codes; only 7 percent use only electronic versions of the codes. The entire report is available here.