BOAT Board of Directors

 

President Jeffrey Widmer, CBO Chief Building Official City of Rockwall 385 South Goliad Rockwall, TX 75087 Work Phone: 972-772-6453 Email: jwidmer@rockwall.com	Vice President Brett King, CBO Chief Building Official City of Carrollton 1945 East Jackson Road Carrollton, TX 75006-1737 Work Phone: 972-466-3157 Email: brett.king@cityofcarrollton.com.com	Immediate Past President Mike Olson, CFM Director of Community Development City of McGregor PO Box 192, McGregor, TX 76657-0192 Work Phone: 254-840-2806 x-5 Email: molson@mcgregor-texas.com
Second Past President Selso A. Mata, AIA, CBO Director of Building Inspections City of Plano PO Box 860358, Plano TX 75086-0358 Work Phone: 972-941-7212 Email: selsom@plano.gov	Secretary (Acting) Mike Olson, CFM Director of Community Development City of McGregor PO Box 192, McGregor, TX 76657-0192 Work Phone: 254-840-2806 x-5 Email: molson@mcgregor-texas.com	TML Board Representative Kurt Kasson, CBO Assistant Building Official City of Arlington Mail Stop 01-0241 101 W. Abram St. Arlington, TX 76010 Work Phone: 817-459-6657 Email: kurt.kasson@arlingtontx.gov
Director at Large Michael Beard, CBO, CFM Building Official City of Harker Heights 305 Millers Crossing Harker Heights  TX 76548-0518 Work Phone: 254-953-5648 mbeard@harkerheights.gov	Director at Large Virgilio Gonzalez Planning Director/Operations Manager City of Hidalgo PO Box 8117 Hidalgo  TX 78557 Work Phone: 956-843-2286 vgonzalez@cityofhidalgo.net	Director at Large Ismael “Izzy” Rivera, Jr., CBO, CFM Chief Building Official City of Amarillo 808 S. Buchanan St. Ste. 104 PO Box 1971 Amarillo  TX 79105-1971 Work Phone:  806-378-6258 izzy.rivera@amarillo.gov
Director at Large Kevin Robinson Chief Building Official Town of Little Elm 100 W. Eldorado Parkway Little Elm  TX  75068 Work Phone:  214-975-0458 krobinson@littleelm.org	Associate Director at Large Paul Johnson, PE Director of Technical Services UFP San Antonio LLC 11900 Crownpoint Bldg B, Suite 105 San Antonio  TX  78233 Work Phone:  210-564-0955 pjohnson@ufpi.com

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BOAT Board of Director Bios

Jeffrey Widmer, CBO

Building Official
City of Rockwall

Jeffrey began his municipal career in 1990 and has served as chief building official for the City of Rockwall since 1998. Prior to that, he worked for the Town of Addison and the City of Rowlett.

Current responsibilities for the City of Rockwall include the Building Inspections, Neighborhood Improvement Services, and Health Departments. Past duties also included eight years of management responsibilities of the City’s Animal Services Department and Animal Adoption Center.

Jeffrey is a Certified Building Official, has earned a State of Texas Plumbing Inspector License, a State of Texas Code Enforcement Officer license, a State of Texas Animal Control certification, and holds several ICC certifications. In addition he is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service’s Leading, Educating and Developing (LEAD) Program and also Leadership Rockwall.

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Brett L. King, CBO

Building Official
City of Carrollton

Brett joined the City of Carrollton in 1993, and has served in several positions with the city prior to becoming the chief building official in 2012. Before working for Carrollton, Brett spent time as a home builder, highway inspector, and sports facility manager. He is a longtime instructor and moderator at the Building Professionals Institute and serves on the UTA Construction Research Advisory Committee.

Brett holds a number of ICC certifications including Certified Building Official, and is a past president of the North Texas Chapter of ICC. Brett contributed to Chapter 7 of Building Department Administration, 3^rd ed., and updated chapters 6-9 of the 4^th edition. He proudly holds a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University.

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Mike “Mo” Olson

Director of Community Development
City of McGregor
Mike began his work with the City of McGregor in 2009 as the Building Official. He was promoted to director of community development in early 2010. Previously, Mo worked in 2006 for the City of Copperas Cove as a building inspector and was promoted in 2007 to senior building inspector. Mike has been in multiple facets of the building industry since 1995. Heis married to his beautiful wife, Vicki. They have one son and a daughter.

Mr. Olson serves in the following organizations:

• Building Officials Association of Texas, Board of Directors–Director at Large, Secretary, Vice President, President
• ICC Bluebonnet Chapter, President
• McLennan County Health District, Board Member
• McLennan County MPO

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Selso A. Mata, A.I.A, C.B.O.

Chief Building Official
City of Plano

Selso joined the City of Plano in 1995, and has been Plano’s chief building official for the past ten years. Plano became an IAS Accredited Building Department in 2007 and was re-accredited in 2010 and 2014. Prior work experience includes eight years in the field of architecture working on various commercial projects including banks, government offices, multi-family housing, and numerous schools. From 1999 through 2002, Selso served on the legacy codes ICBO Evaluation Service Committee and more recently as an evaluator for the International Accreditation Service (IAS).

Selso served five years as an IAS Board of Director and is a past president of the North Texas Chapter of ICC and served on the 2009 ICC Nominations Committee.  He is the chair for the North Texas Council of Governments Building Advisory Committee and serves as the chair of the Board of Directors for the Construction Research Center at UTA. Selso holds a Bachelors of Architecture from Texas Tech University and a Certificate of Public Management from University of Texas Dallas. Selso is a Certified Building Official, a registered architect in the State of Texas, and holds several ICC certifications.

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Kurt E. Kasson, CBO

Building Official
City of Allen

An employee of the City of Allen with more than 18 years of municipal experience. Kurt also has more than 17 years experience in construction, including the window industry, post-tension cable industry, and remodeling. He holds ICC certification as a Certified Building Official and as a Combination Plumbing Inspector.

Kurt also holds Texas state licenses as a plumbing inspector, code enforcement officer, and fire inspector. Additionally, he has a certification as an air conditioning technician.

Professional Activities:

• Building Officials Association of Texas, Board of Directors – Member, Vice President, and President (current)
• North Texas Chapter of ICC, Secretary/Treasurer, Vice President, and President
• ICC Region X, Secretary/Treasurer, President, and Past President

Honors and Awards:

• Received the Jim Whatley Award for Building Official of the Year in 2005
• Served as Sergeant of Arms during the 2005 and 2006 ICC Code Conference
• Helped form the ICC Region X Chapter
• Was a member of the team that visited Capital Hill in Washington during Building Safety Week 2007 and lobbied for the CDBGA
• Served on the Nominating committee for the 2007 ICC elections in Reno.
• Served on the IRC Plumbing and Gas committee for the 2009 code changes in Palm Springs

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Michael Beard, CBO, CFM

Building Official
City of Harker Heights

Michael started his career in the inspections field in May of 2008 in Lampasas, Texas, as a code enforcement officer/building inspector. He was promoted to Building Official in early 2010 where he remained until November of 2012, when Michael was offered a position at the City of Harker Heights as the chief building inspector/assistant building official.  He is now the building official for the city.

Michael holds several ICC certifications, and is a Texas State Board plumbing inspector, registered code enforcement officer, and a registered certified floodplain manager (CFM). He is also a licensed real estate inspector.

Professional Activities:

• Bluebonnet ICC Chapter President and Past President
• 2016 recipient of BOAT’s 2016 Code Professional
• 2015 recipient of the Bluebonnet ICC Chapter member of the Year

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Paul Johnson, PE

Director of Technical Services
UFP San Antonio LLC

Paul began his career over 40 years ago in the wood construction industry and has spent the last 20 years working for UFP San Antonio LLC. After receiving his professional engineering license, he spent the better part of his career promoting wood construction and the use of components. He has traveled across the country providing code and proper construction installation classes for building and fire officials along with framers and design professionals.

Paul has served on several boards as an officer or chairperson for various committees both within the great State of Texas and nationally. He is currently active with BOAT, the Structural Building Component Association (SBCA) national chapter along with the Truss Manufacturers Association of Texas (TMAT) and recently served on the Board with the North Texas Chapter of ICC.

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Ismael “Izzy” Rivera, Jr., CBO, CFM

Chief Building Official
City of Amarillo

Izzy began his municipal career in 2005 after working in a private building department expediting practice in Brooklyn, New York City, for approximately 23 years. He recently became the Chief Building Official for the City of Amarillo in March 2019. Prior to that, he served as Chief Building Official for the City of Benbrook from 2012 – 2019 and the City of Snyder as its City Inspector/Code Enforcement Officer from 2005 – 2012. Current responsibilities for the City of Amarillo include the Building Safety and Code Enforcement Departments.

Izzy is a Certified Building Official, holds several ICC certifications, has earned a State of Texas Plumbing Inspector License, Registered Code Enforcement Officer license, Backflow Prevention Assembly Tester license, Certified Asbestos Supervisor and is a registered Certified Floodplain Manager.

Professional Activities:

• North Texas Chapter of ICC, Secretary, Vice President, President and current Past President
• International Association of Electrical Inspectors (IAEI) – Texas Chapter Board of Director Member as Treasurer and Southern Section Board of Director Member as Inspector Member
• NCTCOG Electrical Advisory Board Member & Energy & Green Advisory Board Member
• The South-Central Partnership for Energy Efficiency as a Resource (SPEER) Energy Code Ambassador
• Certified Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) Practitioner
• State of Texas Certified Basic Peace Officer

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