Executive Vice President's Message

Greg Lane Executive Vice President

This year has already provided numerous examples of how BIAW stands up to fight for the interests of our members and industry. This session, our advocacy efforts helped defeat another torrent of anti-housing legislation that threatened to drive up the cost of home construction even higher. Then, our legal team ensured a representative from our industry would remain on the state building code council. And finally, BIAW’s ROII program is delivering recordbreaking returns!

Legislative advocacy protects your bottom line

Advocating effectively in the Legislature takes a team effort. This session, when we asked BIAW members for your support, you rose to the occasion with 1,309 total sign-ins on bills and 787 emails to legislators. Couple that with the expertise of our government affairs and lobbying teams and we were able to kill numerous bills that would have added hundreds of thousands of dollars in added costs to builders. Check out this month’s government affairs update on page 8 for more details.

Legal victory brings long-awaited representation on SBCC

Last fall, BIAW sued Gov. Jay Inslee over his decision to appoint a representative of the housing industry to the Washington State Building Code Council (SBCC) who wasn’t nominated by BIAW. The SBCC makes critical decisions that impact not only our industry, but hundreds of thousands of homeowners and businesses.

Years ago, BIAW carefully negotiated changes in the law to require the governor to appoint people nominated by our industry. Then inexplicably, he chose to go outside the law in this latest round of appointments, despite the fact we provided a list of nominees as required. After months of litigation, including a second lawsuit regarding his handling of a public records case related to this situation, we finally won representation for BIAW on the SBCC.

It’s disappointing that it required legal action, but this is exactly the outcome we were seeking. Not only did BIAW receive $70,000 to settle the public records case, but the governor will also appoint from a list of our nominees and our industry will once again have representation on the council, as the law intends.

Record ROII refunds anticipated

Finally, the upcoming ROII refund check announcement is going to be historic! We’ll have more to share soon, but let’s leave it at this: Safety really does have its rewards! That’s thanks to all our ROII participants who continue to run safe and professional operations as well as to our outstanding and highly experienced ROII claim staff, field representatives, leadership and administrative staff.

These are just three examples of the hard work and leadership BIAW exhibits on your behalf.