Per our conversation last week, please see the letter attached. I tried to detail what I see as the issue with the current "Association" - "Member" model that some companies are using to market their product without officially registering with either the state or local authorities... I hope the details I provided are clear enough; however, if you have any question feel free to contact me.

Mr. Joe Bigelow

Department of Community Affairs Building Codes and Standards

2555 Shumard Oak Blvd Tallahassee, FL 32399-2100 Dear, Mr. Bigelow, I am writing to your office as a follow up to the conversation we had on the telephone last Wednesday, October 17, 2006. Per your request, I detailing for you the subject of my enquire so that you can present it to the Florida State Commision.

Here is some background info: Under the Florida Product Approval System implemented on October 1, 2003, every manufacturer of a product that affects the structural integrity of buildings needs to receive a product approval for its product, and to implement a quality assurance program to guarantee that the product is being built as approved. The manufacturer then can either get a local product approval or register with the State of Florida to receive a State wide product approval.

For companies looking to register its product for a state wide product approval, the State of Florida has created a webpage where companies can register its approved products to use through out the State of Florida without any other document requirement.

A Quality Assurance Program is based on international standards established under ISO 9000. So, every manufacturer that implements a quality assurance program needs to meet these requirements, at least at the basic level.

The requirements are:

Main:

-Identification of the organization building the approved product

-Control of raw material

-Control of the manufacturing process

-Control of the product being built (engineering design) to meet the approved requirements

-Control of the finished product

-Control of packaging and product conservation

Support:

-Revision procedure for the quality assurance program

-Documentation of the quality assurance records and documents and record keeping procedures

-Procedures to guarantee continuous improvement (- Corrective Actions, - Preventive Actions)

-Procedure to control changes of design

-Procedure to control Non Conforming Products

-Procedures related to the customer (Response to the Field Complaints, Customer Services and attention to its requirements)

Issues:

Legal Issues (Violation of the Quality Assurance Requirements and overall product approval system

1) Some companies have created trade associations and have registered their approved product with the State of Florida under the trade association. These trade associations are not manufacturers. These trade associations then, allow other companies to build and market the association products using the association product approval (the members are not required to register the products under their individual companies). So, when the members do a job throught out Florida, the member companies sell their product using the association FL# approval.

To my understanding this practice is illegal because the members do not have any accountabilities to the approved products they build. Under the FL product approval system , a company that holds a product approval can only built its products under its direct supervision; so, by allowing other companies to build the same product using the association product approval, and outside the association direct supervision, the association could be considered to be aiding and abiding another company to do an illegal practice, and it is ultimatelly liable for the product built by its members.

2) A quality assurance program requires each company to be accountable to its customers and to the government regulations for the product they built. This requirement is also violated under the current association – member model for the State of Florida. Right now there is not an official way to track an association’s product to its actual manufacturer because the product is only registered under the association (again, no a manufacturer) who is the only company legally authorized to build the approved product. So if a customer where to try to find the manufacturer using the FL approval number it will only find the association, which could claim no reponsibility for the product.

Financial Issues:

Right now these same associations, as well as its members, are required to register with Miami Dade County (Certification Agency for the State of Florida). So, for the same association, members doing business in the Miami Dade area are paying the registration fee (which grants the right for automatic registration with the State of Florida for state wide approval) while other members using the current arrangement for the state of Florida are not required to do so. However, both companies could potentially do business in the area of Miami Dade. Therefore, the members in the area of Miami Dade are at a financial disadvantage.

Request Actions:

I would like the commission to do an investigation on these issues and to level the play field for all the manufacturers by either mandating the registration of all the manufacturers using a Florida Approved product or by striking down that requirement, which would create an exodus of companies from under the Miami Dade County system.

Please keep me informed on the development of your investigation, and if you need any further information or supporting evidences for your investigation, feel free to contact me.

Respectfully,

Jesus Gonzalez JG Business Consultants LLC

Under Florida law, email addresse s are public records. If you do not want your email address released in response to a publicrecords request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing.